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Ironic really that her parents, who had never really believed in her five-year plan and her career, had suddenly been absolutely emphatic that she not give it up. Her father, they’d said, had already told everyone at the golf club about her success, and they were impressed—as if this clinched the argument. Except she wasn’t arguing, she was just letting them talk at her, feeling her heart freeze over as she listened to them in increasing horror.
‘So you want me to “get rid of it”?’ She remembered hearing her father’s hiss of exasperation as she sketched sarcastic inverted commas in the air and finished, ‘Just so that you can continue to have bragging rights at the golf club?’
‘Well, you’ve finally done something for us to be proud of.’
Ironically, once her parents’ pride in her would have mattered so much; it was what she’d been striving for all her life.
‘Gwen, dear, you must see your life will be ruined. All your plans will come to nothing—and what will people say?’
‘And that’s what really matters, isn’t it? What people think! The only thing that matters to you is appearances. There is no disgrace, no shame involved, in having a baby alone these days, Mam.’ Gwen’s glance flickered towards the towering presence of disapproval that was her father. ‘But there is plenty of shame in living a lie.’
Unable to meet her eyes, her mother looked away and whispered, ‘I only want what’s best for you,cariad.’
‘I know, Mam, but—’
‘How dare you talk to your mother like that? And don’t call her Mam—it’s common!’
As he planted a beefy arm around his wife’s shoulders Gwen found herself wondering when she’d last seen any display of physical affection between them.
‘If you keep it, we want nothing to do with you.’
Gwen looked at her mother, who just shook her head and looked away.
It was the exact point when Gwen knew she was totally on her own.
Her mum looked small, like someone who’d had the life sucked out of her. Gwen knew that at one time her mother would have been strong enough to resist her father’s demands that Gwen get rid of her baby...and her mother was probably paying a silent price ever since for not standing up to him, but she’d had no more fight left.
Gwen shook off the heavy empty feeling that came with the unhappy memories and forced a smile.
‘Do you want to sit down? Oh, not that one,’ she added quickly, gesturing at the overstuffed armchair he was standing next to. ‘The legs are a bit wobbly.’
He probably thought the whole place was abit wobbly. After all, he had just been escorted on a tour around the school, including state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, where no expense had been spared. Despite this, the employees lived in accommodation that could only be called basic.
He shook his head and walked across to the second armchair but, instead of sitting, stood behind it and placed his hands on the back rest. ‘I’m fine.’
Gwen assumed his dark brooding scowl was directed at his surroundings and lifted her chin. Ah, well, it would do him good to slum it, she decided, struggling to hold onto her angry contempt as an image of hiscottageon the Cape Cod island off Martha’s Vineyard flashed into her head. When he’d first asked her to dinner, she’d assumed he was staying in a hotel, but she had learnt that it was never a good idea toassumewith Rio.
His version of a cottage was the incredible sprawling seafront property set in the middle of lush, beautifully tended acres. The fact they had arrived in a private plane that he’d piloted himself should have been a clue to how ridiculously wealthy he was, but the sight of his house—or, more correctly, his estate—had brought it home to her for the first time that she was dealing with someone who lived in a completely different world.
A world wherewonkyhad no place, just as she’d had no place in his.
She absently smoothed a throw that she had positioned to hide the worn patch on the arm of a chair. This was her world, hers and Ellie’s, and she was not ashamed of it, she wasproudof what she had achieved with no help from anyone and she wouldn’t allow him to make her feel any different about it.
For years she’d watched her father blame her mother, or even sometimes her, every time he’d strayed—which had been often. But it had always been their fault for not understanding him, for not beingenoughfor him.
The moment Ellie was born Gwen had vowed that she’d be a good role model. That her daughter would never have to feel ashamed of her the way Gwen had eventually become ashamed of her mother, who had been unable to break free of the cycle of emotional abuse doled out by her father.
Ellie would never feel that she was notenough!
CHAPTER FIVE
RIOWATCHEDGWENSTRAIGHTEN, the cushion she had picked up still pressed to her chest protectively, her expression distant but wary as she focused on him. The idea that she felt she needed to protect herself from him made the muscles along his jaw quiver.
He admired the way she’d made this small house into a home, despite its worn appearance. He thought less of the school’s headmaster, not Gwen. The employer in him considered this bad working practice. Loyalty was a two-way street; you treated staff well and they in turn were willing to go the extra mile.
The newly discovered father in him found the idea of his child not enjoying the luxuries that he took for granted felt wrong on so many levels. His child, but except for today’s chance encounter he might have walked past her in the street and not known her!
‘Why didn’t you tell me, Gwen?’
