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Gio watched the front door open, Leah’s face unexpectedly serious as taut first words were exchanged and then she started crying and literally hurled herself into Stefanos’ waiting arms. Gio wanted to get out and kill both of them stone dead where they stood. The sick sense of betrayal almost ate him alive. He hadn’t felt like that since his marriage and bitterness almost consumed him. Why hadn’t Leah been honest with him? Was the child she carried the Greek’s? And if so, when had she first got together with him? The facts didn’t match his suspicions, he grasped dimly.
CHAPTER FIVE
ARIPUTUPwith Leah sobbing into his chest remarkably well and once she had recovered from her emotional reaction to his telling her that she reminded him very much of his little sister, who had died when he was a child, she told her employer that she would be back by midnight, before fetching her coat and bag and climbing into her brother’s limo with him to be taken back to his London home, where she would meet his wife, Cleo...and some other surprise he had yet to specify for her benefit.
‘So, satisfy my curiosity if you can,’ Ari urged. ‘How on earth did my father and your mother meet? I can’t discover any evidence that she ever worked for him—’
‘Oh, no, she didn’t work for him. They both joined a bereavement group and that’s how they met. He had lost your sister and Mum had lost her only sibling to cancer,’ Leah explained. ‘She told me the whole story shortly before she died. Mum believed that your father was separated from your mother when their affair began but I don’t think he was entirely honest with her. Mum conceived my brother and I very early on and their relationship continued. I don’t think it was the romance of the century. I think it was more lonely, unhappy people getting together when life was tough. I have vague memories of your father but he’s not on my birth certificate and he stopped visiting when I was still very young. To be honest I couldn’t even recall his name until the solicitor said it because it had been so long since I had heard it—’
‘I don’t know what possessed my father. He let you all down badly as a parent and yet—’
‘I think your parents’ marriage was in a bad way when he first met my mother but then the situation changed—’
‘My mother had a nervous breakdown—’
‘Did she? Well, anyway, Mum said he pretty much vanished for months and when he reappeared she broke things off with him for good and moved away to make a fresh start. By then she knew there was no future in the relationship, and she didn’t want ties with him,’ Leah told him wryly. ‘Unfortunately, she only then discovered that she was expecting my little sister, Eloise, and Eloise was a newborn when Mum died.’
‘Eloise was adopted. I’ve lodged a letter asking for contact with the agency involved, but she has to ask for contact first. She’s over eighteen now, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.’ Ari sighed. ‘I don’t have a lot of patience, unfortunately.’
‘Neither do I,’ Leah quipped. ‘Maybe it’s a family trait.’
She was chattering freely by the time they arrived at her brother’s imposing town house, and meeting her sister-in-law, Cleo, a warm, welcoming and noticeably pregnant young woman with guinea gold curls, only increased Leah’s level of comfort. She was stunned when Ari explained that her late brother and his girlfriend, who had died with him, had had a child together and that he and Cleo had adopted little Lucy. A stinging rush of tears glossed Leah’s eyes when Cleo brought a tiny girl into the room to join them for dinner. She was so cute and the knowledge that this child was her niece and her brother’s living legacy almost overwhelmed her. She was deeply touched that Ari had had a big enough heart to bring Lucy into his family, fully accepting the bond of blood that some men would have disdained as beneath their notice.
The warmth she sensed in her brother and his wife quickly won her trust, and, when Ari confessed that he had had to have her investigated thoroughly to find her and that he already knew that she was pregnant, she respected his honesty and was willing to give a frank account of what had happened with Gio. Ari invited her out to stay in his home in Greece while Cleo urged her to make an appointment to see the same obstetrician she used.
‘I’m giving notice that I’m leaving but I can’t leave Mrs Evans in the lurch,’ Leah declared apologetically.
Luckily for her, Ari had a solution for every problem. He told her that he would bring in a qualified carer to take her place and free her up from her job sooner. He was very set on taking her and his family out to his Greek island, Spinos, where they could relax and take the time to get to know each other. Leah, in turn, was curious to see the island that her father had once called home and learn more about her paternal background.
When she arrived home at midnight, her thoughts were in a spin and she climbed into bed and slept like a log. Her phone rang while she was bringing Mrs Evans her breakfast tea and toast.
‘Excuse me,’ she said, stepping out into the hallway to answer it.
‘Join me for lunch,’ Gio suggested. ‘I’ll send a car to pick you up—’
‘Lunch? I only take an hour,’ Leah said reluctantly, wanting to see him and yet not wanting to see him at one and the same time. Where Gio was concerned, she was in total conflict.
‘My daughter’s coming this afternoon,’ Mrs Evans declared from the doorway. ‘Take as long as you like. You’ve already done all sorts of things for me that weren’t in your job description.’
Leah agreed to lunch, wondering what Gio wanted even while she wondered if she should have turned him down flat after his insinuation that the child she was carrying might not be his. Ari had counselled her to either take the DNA test or keep her distance from Gio until after she had had her child. It was sensible advice but taking that test would entail sacrificing what little remained of her pride. On her terms, it would mean a climbdown, an admission that possibly therecouldbe some doubt about the paternity of her child, and she wasn’t prepared to allow Gio Zanetti to believe that.
Why did that matter to her? Why did she care about his opinion? Particularly when she had had a one-night stand with him and flouted her own beliefs in not saving that first experience for a more meaningful relationship? Oliver had utterly destroyed her faith in meaningful relationships, she conceded ruefully, and even as Oliver’s indifference had wrecked her pride, Gio’s desire for her had finally made her feel like an attractive woman again. But how on earth could she have been such an idiot? So short-sighted? So careless of consequences? Why had she stopped taking the pill? But beating herself up for what could not be changed was pointless and what Gio thought of her was unimportant when she needed neither him nor his money in her life to survive.
But she didneedhim to be a father for her child, she acknowledged unhappily. She had grown up without a father and throughout her childhood she had longed to have a father the same as her friends. Little glimpses of other men with their daughters had made her envious and sad about what she had missed out on. Even so, would Gio even be willing to take on a paternal role? She supposed she wouldn’t know until after her child was born and she supposed that then she would have no choice but to take a DNA test to put his doubts to rest.
She had conceived a child with a distrustful guy, she conceded with regret. He was unwilling to take anything on trust, much like herself, she conceded in surprise at that acknowledgement. Just as she found it hard to trust men, Gio was challenged to trust women. That reality made her a tiny bit more forgiving of his suspicions. Someone or a variety of someones had made Gio reluctant to trust as well. Gio would need proof that her child was his child too and, if she wanted him to bond with their baby and take on a father’s role, she would have to provide him with that proof on paper.
And in the meantime, if she truly wanted Gio to be a father for their child’s benefit, she needed to make him feel involved in her pregnancy, didn’t she? She thought of the appointment with Cleo’s obstetrician, which Cleo had made for her for the next day. She would have an ultrasound, Cleo had assured her. Hopefully, she would see the very first picture of her child and find out the sex. Feeling guilty that she had waited so long to have a proper medical examination, she decided simultaneously that she would offer Gio the chance to accompany her and share in the experience. If he said no, well, at least she would have done her best to include him.
Leah changed for her lunch date. Clothes were already refusing to fit her changing shape and she bit her lip in dismay as her best jeans refused to fasten at the waist. Her leggings and her older jeans were shabby and she refused to wear them. Even worse, her once slender waist had disappeared without her really noticing. She hadn’t expected those changes to take place quite so quickly and she swallowed hard, knowing she had a shopping trip ahead of her and rustling back into her small wardrobe in search of something a little dressier. A floral maxi skirt with a stretchy waist was literally the only thing she owned that still fitted her. She teamed it with a rather loose white top that concealed the curve of her stomach and winced at her reflection. No make-up. She didn’t want him to think she was getting tarted up for his benefit.
A limousine arrived to collect her and her brows vanished into her hairline as it drew up, reeking of money and privilege. She had been taken aback by her brother’s limo and it hadn’t occurred to her that Gio might use one as well. Of course, they were both very wealthy men. Ari, however, had made a point of reminding her that she didn’t need Gio Zanetti foranythingnow, not for money or support, but she had privately thought that she didn’t want to take such a combative stance with her child’s father. Ari was offended on her behalf by Gio’s refusal to accept her word. Leah was offended as well, only rather more willing, having conceded her own flaws, to give Gio a second chance...
This time she entered his apartment block with a firmer, more confident step, straightening her slight shoulders as she stepped into his extravagant penthouse. She was shown straight into a spectacular dining room with fabulous views of the city skyline. As she crossed the threshold, Gio appeared through another door and stilled to stare at her.
‘I was keen to have a private meeting with you,’ Gio drawled softly. ‘Somewhere where we could talk without being overheard.’
His beautiful eyes shimmered and glittered like diamonds in his lean, hard-boned face and she stiffened, immediately recognising the unexpected leaping tension in the atmosphere.
