The Millionaire's Marriage Revenge

by Amanda Browning

  ‘Big businessmen aren’t choirboys. On the contrary, they have to be single-minded and ruthless. Nothing is allowed to stand in the way of what they want. Nothing and nobody!’ Having expected to see anger at her attack on his moral fibre, it wasn’t surprising when his expression turned steely.

  ‘You’re going to have to explain that, caro,’ he commanded shortly, and she took a deep breath, knowing she had gone too far to back out now.

  ‘How did your company get to be so successful? How many men, like all those people that were in the papers, did your family ruin on their way to the top? How many did they drive to take their own lives?’ It was unjust to liken the Antonetti Corporation to the companies which had made headline news just recently, and she knew it, but what else could she do? He couldn’t stay up here. He had to be made to leave.

  Lucas stared down at her, his face grim and set. ‘That’s enough! We are nothing like those mongrels and you know it!’

  Of course she did, but that wasn’t the point right now. ‘Do I? What am I to think when you threaten me as you just did?’ she questioned, somehow managing to stare him in the eye without flinching.

  ‘Have I ever threatened you with physical harm?’ he almost snarled at her.

  Sofie raised her chin another notch. ‘There’s a first time for everything!’

  Lucas drew in a ragged breath. ‘I have never lifted my hand against a woman. Nor would I ever, no matter what the provocation. I would have sworn you knew that. It just goes to show how wrong I can be. I think I should take you home now.’

  Sofie let out a shaky breath as they turned to retrace their steps, this time going straight to the car without attempting to make conversation. She found his silence unnerving and it only added to her sense of unhappiness. If she had won, she had also lost, because she felt wretched inside.

  The journey home seemed to take no time at all and it was as they turned into the lane where her cottage was that she had to ask the all important question.

  ‘Will I be seeing you again?’

  Lucas glanced round at her. ‘There wouldn’t be much point, would there? Well done, caro. You’ve got your wish!’ he exclaimed sardonically.

  It was a bitter victory to Sofie and she climbed out of the car feeling very near to tears. They walked to her gate and she was just turning to Lucas to thank him for dinner when a small commotion down the lane drew their attention.

  ‘Mummy!’ a childish, much beloved voice cried out at the same time as a woman’s voice.

  ‘There she is, Tom. Didn’t I say she wouldn’t be long?’ Jenny exclaimed lightly and Sofie watched, transfixed, as Jenny hurried down her garden path and came along the lane towards her. ‘I’m sorry, Sofie, but Tom was sick and wanted you. The poor little mite has been nigh on inconsolable.’ She held the little boy out to his mother and Sofie took him in her arms, her heart turning over as tiny arms and legs fastened around her and a damp cheek pressed into her neck.

  ‘Its OK, darling, Mummy’s here,’ she reassured him, stroking her hand soothingly over his mop of dark hair. She turned to her neighbour, who had no idea what she had just done, and smiled. ‘Its OK, Jenny, I’ll take care of him now. Thanks for waiting up with him. I’ll see you in the morning.’

  She watched her neighbour walk back to her own house and go inside and braced herself to turn and face Lucas. To say he was surprised was an understatement. He was thunderstruck and, even as she watched, she could see the cogs turning in his mind and the truth about who Tom was striking home.

  ‘I’ll have to get Tom into bed,’ she declared hastily before he could say anything, and headed up the path, rummaging in her purse for her key. An instant later it was taken from her and Lucas quickly produced the key and opened the door. Pushing it wide, he found the light switch and flicked it on.

  Sofie spared him another glance and the suppressed emotion in his eyes turned her knees to water. All she could do was concentrate on her son. ‘Come on, sweetie, let’s get you into your lovely old bed, hmm,’ she cooed, mounting the stairs, very much aware of piercing eyes boring into her back.

  She had to be calm and comforting for Tom as she put him into bed and covered him up, but her heart was thundering like a mad thing as she realised the enormity of what had just happened. Lucas had seen Tom, and she knew the sky was about to fall in.

  Now that he was in his own bed, with his mother close by, Tom quickly fell asleep, leaving Sofie with nothing to do but softly leave the room and go back downstairs where she knew Lucas waited for her. Sure enough she found him in the sitting room, staring out of the window, but with so much tension in his back and shoulders it made her wince. He turned the instant he heard her and his expression was closed.

  ‘How’s the boy?’ he enquired solicitously, and she swallowed nervously.

  ‘Sleeping. I don’t think he’ll be sick again. He probably got too excited. You know how children are,’ she responded with a shaky little laugh, which faded away under the sternness of his gaze.

  ‘I’ve very little experience of my own child, as you very well know,’ he shot back harshly, and her stomach lurched so much at his choice of words she had to press a hand to it.

  Sofie took an unsteady step forward. ‘Lucas, I…’ She tried to formulate an answer but failed miserably. Not that it mattered, for Lucas had plenty to say.

  ‘Why did you hide him from me?’ he demanded, and she could feel his underlying anger.

  ‘I wasn’t…’ she began, only to be cut off by a hard laugh that made her flinch.

  ‘Don’t even try to lie to me, caro! What were you afraid of? I wonder. That I would recognise him? Of course you were! You knew the second I saw him I would know he was mine. He’s the spitting image of me!’ There was so much anger in him he had to pace away to get it under control, then he turned to her again. ‘Why did you do it?’ The bitterness in his voice brought a painful lump to her throat.

  ‘I didn’t know I was pregnant and, when I found out, I thought you wouldn’t want to know.’

  His jaw flexed as he gritted his teeth. ‘Wouldn’t want to know? My own child? How could you think I wouldn’t care? My own flesh and blood. Damn you, Sofie. How dared you deny him to me?’

  Tears burnt her eyes, turning the room into a kaleidoscope, and she brushed them away. ‘I thought it was for the best,’ she confessed thickly, knowing she had no defence for her actions.

  Blue eyes flashed ice at her. ‘Who’s best? Certainly not mine or the boy’s!’

  ‘Tom,’ she interposed gruffly. ‘His name is Tom. Thomas Luke, after my father and…his.’

  That gave Lucas a moment’s pause. ‘And his given name?’

  She licked her lips, her mouth unbelievably dry. ‘Officially it’s Antonetti. Here we’ve been using the name Talbot.’

  Lucas snorted disgustedly. ‘So you couldn’t be found. What a pity I happened to have business in the area, or who knows how long it would have been before I discovered the truth?’ he exclaimed in outrage.

  His anger alarmed her. Not because she feared a physical threat, but what she feared was what he might do now he knew about his son. She looked at him, her heart beating sickeningly fast, whilst her fingers tightened into knots to stop their shaking.

  ‘And now?’

  ‘Now you’re right to be afraid. I’ve only ever been this angry once before, and I came that close to losing it,’ he responded, making a tiny gap between thumb and forefinger. ‘Say nothing more or, so help me God, I won’t be responsible for my actions.’

  She had never seen anyone so terribly angry as Lucas was now and, though she wanted to beg and plead for an answer, she knew she had to say nothing. Meanwhile Lucas had paced back and forth from one side of her living room to the other until finally he stopped and dragged faintly trembling hands through his hair.

  ‘I have to get out of here,’ he declared abruptly. ‘I need to think, and I can’t do that here with you. But I’ll be back. Make no mistake about that,’ he added as he
walked to the door. There he paused and looked back at her. ‘And Sofie, don’t try and run this time. If you do I’ll move heaven and earth to find you and you really won’t like what will happen then!’

  With that warning echoing around the room, he left. Moments later she heard the car start up, then move away. Only then did she sink down on to the nearest chair and drop her head in her hands. Dear God, it was a nightmare! Lucas was so angry, so hurt, and she realised she had never really given any thought to his feelings. She just hadn’t wanted him to find out about Tom for fear he would take him from her.

  Of course, the instant she let that thought into her brain, panic set in. He was going to take Tom. She just knew it. It would be the perfect punishment for her crime!

  Sofie jumped to her feet, the instinctive need to run beating in her brain. Yet that was as far as she got, because she knew she couldn’t run. Not this time. There was no place she could hide, now that Lucas knew about Tom. She had to stay and face the music, and that made her feel so incredibly helpless.

  Defeated, she sank to her knees as tears ran slowly down her cheeks. Everything was such a mess. After all she had done to make a new life for herself, the cruel fates had decided to take a hand, turning her world upside down. As the tears finally began to slow, Sofie knew that all she could do was wait and pray that she wasn’t going to lose everything.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  IT WAS well into the following afternoon before Sofie finally heard a car come down the lane and stop outside her cottage. She hadn’t been to bed, as sleeping had been out of the question. Instead she had spent the night curled up in the corner of the couch, waiting for dawn to break. Then she had gone up to shower and change into cropped trousers and a strappy cotton top. The diamond necklace had been put back in its box and was locked away at the back of her dressing table drawer.

  Tom seemed to have recovered and had been his usual cheerful self in the morning and, when given the opportunity of taking the day off, he had insisted he wanted to go to school. Which had suited Sofie, because she hadn’t wanted him to overhear her next confrontation with Lucas. She had dropped him off at school, given him a bigger hug than usual, more for her own comfort than for his, which had made him look at her oddly, then she had driven home to await Lucas’s arrival.

  Having assumed he would turn up early, it did nothing for her nerves that he didn’t put in an appearance until the afternoon. Now that he was here, her anxieties were polarized and she went to open the door with a sickening feeling of dread in her stomach. All night she had been playing out scenes in her mind, where he declared his intention of taking Tom away from her and, now that the moment when that scene could well be played out for real was upon her, her bravado crumpled to nothing.

  Yet, even under stress, the sight of Lucas made her heart ache. He had dressed down today, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, reminding her so very much of the man she had met and fallen in love with. Apparently he had chosen to drive himself because there was nobody else in the vehicle this time.

  As she waited on the doorstep for him to walk up the path, Sofie realised she was twisting her hands into knots and hastily linked her fingers to stop the giveaway signs of her nervousness. The closer he got to her, it was easier to see his expression and, to her dismay, it was closed and tight. Not that she had expected anything else, but she had hoped for a little softness.

  ‘So you decided to heed my warning and stay,’ he remarked dryly as soon as he reached her, and Sofie drew in an audibly shaky breath.

  ‘There was no point in running now,’ she answered as steadily as she could, and a tight smile curved his lips.

  ‘Now I know about my son, no,’ he agreed grimly. ‘Where is he, by the way? Hiding out next door?’ he asked with a jerk of his head towards her neighbour’s house.

  Knowing his scorn was justified, Sofie didn’t rise to the bait. ‘Tom went to school. And, before you say anything, I wanted to keep him off, but he insisted. He’ll be home in a little while,’ she added with a glance at her wrist-watch. ‘Come through to the kitchen,’ she invited. ‘I’ll make us some coffee. Unless you would prefer tea?’ She threw that over her shoulder as she led the way through the cottage to her kitchen.

  ‘Coffee’s fine,’ Lucas said as followed her, taking up a strategic position, leaning his hips against a dresser from where he could watch her go about the task. Sofie filled up the coffee-maker and set it on to drip. Then, as there was nothing to do but wait, she turned to face the man who was still her husband.

  For a moment they stood watching each other like combatants waiting for the moment to strike the first blow. It was Lucas who spoke first.

  ‘Did you get any sleep last night?’ he asked curtly, and it was a reluctant caring, born out of good manners more than real concern for her well-being.

  ‘No,’ Sofie responded with a swift shake of her head. ‘You?’

  ‘Not a wink. After what you told me, my mind was going round like a tape stuck in a loop. I kept wondering how I could have been mistaken in you. Now I realise you never loved me. You couldn’t and do what you did. I really was just a means to an end, wasn’t I? You deserved an Oscar for the act you put on,’ he added with a humourless laugh.

  Sofie tensed immediately because her reasons for leaving paled into insignificance when faced with the situation now. ‘I don’t want to talk about that!’ she insisted in a choked voice.

  Lucas inclined his head in agreement. ‘Neither do I, as it happens, but one day we’re going to have a serious conversation about it, whether you like it or not. Right now, though, all I’m interested in is my son. You gave him my name, which I suppose I should be grateful for, but what else did you tell him about me? More lies, caro?’

  Understanding his need to hit back at her didn’t make his words easier to take. Especially when she knew he wouldn’t like her answer. Feeling ultra-vulnerable, she rubbed her hands up and down her arms as if chilled. ‘I told him that you and I didn’t live together because…because we didn’t love each other any more. And…’ Catching a glimpse of the look in his eye, she cleared her throat nervously. ‘And that his daddy didn’t visit because he was busy going off around the world on business.’

  Lucas shook his head in disbelief. ‘Very clever. You covered all the bases.’

  The sense of guilt she had always carried with her swelled up inside her and made her eyes burn with unshed tears. ‘I know I should have told you about him, but I honestly didn’t think you would even look for me. Which is why I told Tom, when he was old enough to ask about his father, that maybe one day he would get to meet you,’ she added hastily.

  ‘Keeping your fingers crossed as you said it, and hoping the day would never come!’ he retorted cuttingly. ‘Unfortunately for you, that day has arrived and, I tell you now, I fully intend to get to know my son!’

  Which was what she had always known the man she loved would want to do. Licking dry lips, Sofie gave him the only answer she could. ‘I know. I’m not going to stand in your way,’ she told him huskily. Suddenly the tears threatened to overflow as her emotions see-sawed with her rising fear. She turned her back on him, making a performance out of checking the coffee and sorting out mugs, sugar and milk. However, her hands began to shake and in despair she pressed them down hard against the countertop, finally giving voice to her anxiety.

  ‘I know you hate me, Lucas, and you have every right to. I’m so sorry. I always knew I shouldn’t have done it. Of course you want to pay me back for that…Only…’ She faltered to a halt on a dry sob, biting down hard on her lip to stop her emotions getting away from her.

  ‘Only what, Sofie?’ Lucas prompted from across the room, but when she failed to answer he walked round the table, took her by the shoulders and turned her around to face him. ‘Only what, Sofie?’ he repeated tersely, his fingers tightening unconsciously as he saw the glitter of tears in her eyes.

  ‘Please don’t take Tom away from me. I’m begging you, Lucas. It would kill me if you d
id. I love him so much!’ she sobbed as the tears welled up and tracked rivers down her ashen cheeks.

  She didn’t see the shock that swept over his face, nor the grim look that followed it. ‘For God’s sake, Sofie! What kind of an unfeeling monster do you think I am?’ he charged, giving her a short sharp shake. ‘Do you really think I would tear a five-year-old child out of his mother’s arms out of sheer spite?’

  Sofie stared up at him blindly, her face crumpling into lines of pure anguish. ‘Some men would!’

  Lucas’s expression turned stony and he drew in a long breath. ‘Yes, some would, but I am not like them,’ he declared coldly. ‘If I decide to apply for sole custody of Tom, it will be because I believe he will be better off with me, not because his mother lied to me. As it happens, I haven’t made up my mind.’

  Sofie drew in a ragged breath, trying to control her fears. ‘You haven’t? But you’re thinking about it?’ she queried gruffly, still shaking like a leaf.

  ‘Of course I am. Surely you didn’t think I would give up my rights without a word?’ he challenged mockingly. ‘I want my son, and I intend to have him. One way or another.’

  She bit her lip at his words. ‘What about me?’ she prompted, and he made a scornful sound.

  ‘What about you? You’ve had five years already. Don’t you think it should be my turn?’

  Her heart quailed as she listened. ‘You can’t do that!’ she protested, and he smiled bleakly.

  ‘I can. The question you have to ask yourself is will I,’ he told her and pulled out a chair from the table. ‘Sit down. I’ll make us coffee.’

  Sofie sat because she didn’t have the strength to stand any longer. Her mind was whirling madly, so that she could barely think. ‘What can I do to persuade you not to take Tom?’ she asked anxiously, watching him nimbly set about pouring out two mugs of coffee.

  Lucas set a mug of coffee before her. ‘What, throwing yourself on my tender mercies, caro?’ he goaded, making her wince.