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And here was Marco reassuring her and keeping her smiling even though the worst had actually happened. Making her believe that he would take care of everything.
Making me believe it too.
By the time we left Mom to watch one of her favourite TV programmes, I didn’t know whether to relax and enjoy that Mom was enjoying this brief period of peace and carefree-ness, or whether to be freaked out about the impending upset that lay ahead of us.
“Stop it,” said Marco to me as he opened the car door.
“Stop what?”
“Stop worrying about the world and his brother and his mother, as if you have to carry them all on your shoulders.”
I smirked. “The world is a she, I’ll have you know. And she doesn’t have a mother.”
“Everyone has a mother.”
“Including you. I don’t think she likes me very much.”
He paused in the middle of putting his seatbelt on. “My mother?”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed,” I said bitterly. “She thought you were engaged to Maya. Who the heck is Maya, anyway?”
I looked down at my ring, realising he must have bought it for Maya.
He grinned. “Jealous?”
“You wish!” I shot back, and turned to enjoy the London scenery whizzing by through the window. The best equivalent I had of turning my back on him.
The pang in my heart told me the truth. I was jealous. I knew there was no future for us, but seeing him with my mom, a tiny hope had sparked into life. And the existence of Maya told me the truth. To him, this was all a game.
Chapter 14
BETH
Whoever this Maya was, if she was someone that his mom approved of, then she must be nothing like me.
I scowled as I eyed up the selection of dresses that Marco had commandingly chosen for me. I was in a changing room cubicle in a high-end boutique trying them on.
Half of them were slinky and extremely revealing, perfect for the party we were going to later on tonight, he’d said. Half of them were demure and elegant. Maya probably dressed like the latter, which he’d said was for dinner with his mom before we went out.
The skimpy, trampy dresses for me, the formerly nameless barmaid who, apparently, was perfectly happy to go with men to their private apartments in secret, as far as he was aware. Clearly, that was what he thought of me.
I flushed with indignation. I didn’t think dresses like this were trampy. In fact, I admired the women like Dolly who could pull them off so effortlessly and with so much confidence. But he probably thought they were trampy, and no doubt his mom definitely did.
I sighed, as I pulled on a beautiful blush knee-length dress that scooped down to reveal a demure yet pleasing sweep of my back. Yep, that would do for dinner tonight. I couldn’t be bothered to try on the rest. And I certainly wasn’t going to show him what I had picked.
I shoved the dress down my knees rather angrily, and then made myself stop—the last thing I wanted was to tear it. He was paying for it, of course, and darn right that he should, since it was for his benefit. But if I tore it, I would most definitely insist on paying him back. And I couldn’t afford that.
As I hung it up, my body in the mirrors under the bright lighting caught my attention. I was completely naked, having removed my underwear in preparation for trying on the skimpy numbers.
My hands traced down my waist. I wasn’t in the habit of inspecting myself, but did my waist look a little thicker, or was I imagining it?
What would Marco say if I told him? Was he a family man who would want a baby? He certainly seemed to care a lot for his mother. Or would he insist on a termination, having no intention of raising a baby with someone like me?
I couldn’t even guess. I really didn’t know him at all.
What if he decided to take the baby away from me? I could never stop him. Not a man like him.
I gasped. I had been so busy obsessing about Maya and Mom and what would happen to her when Marco and I broke up—not that there would be any breaking up since this was a fake relationship—that I had completely forgotten to check if Toby had texted me.
