The Diakos Baby Scandal

by Natalie Rivers

‘What is it?’ Kerry’s heart lurched with fear and her throat closed with panic.

  Oh, God—don’t let it be Lucas! Don’t let something bad have happened to Lucas!

  ‘Lucas has fallen,’ Theo said. ‘Down the stairs, I think. Your sister sounded pretty upset. I think it best if you go to her.’

  ‘Oh, my God!’ Kerry clamped her hand over her mouth and slumped back against the doorframe in an agony of distress.

  All coherent thought flew out of her mind. All she could do was imagine her poor, sweet baby boy falling down the stairs.

  Oh, God—she should never have left him. It was all her fault. Lucas had come to harm and she wasn’t there with him. She would never forgive herself—she should never have left him.

  Theo stared at her, momentarily shocked at the strength of her reaction to the news about her nephew. She had gone as white as a sheet, and she was shaking so violently that he could see it from across the room. He swore under his breath in Greek, cursing himself for not breaking the news to her gently.

  ‘I think it’s all right,’ he said, taking hold of her upper arms and shaking her slightly to get her to look at him. ‘They’ve taken him to the hospital—but they think he’s okay.’

  ‘He’s only six months old.’

  She stared up him, her eyes drowning in tears, and he wasn’t entirely sure she’d understood what he’d said. His chest contracted as he saw her distress, and he knew he had to find a way to comfort her.

  ‘A helicopter is on the way,’ he told her. ‘And my jet is waiting in Athens to take us to London.’

  ‘You’re taking me there?’ she asked, as if she was finally starting to come out of her state of shock.

  ‘Yes. I’ll come with you.’ Theo guided her across the room to a chair and gently pushed her down into it. He could tell it would be pointless to try to make her eat or drink anything—hopefully she’d be able to have something on the plane. He knew that travelling on an empty stomach was the worst thing possible for her. And she’d need to be in a fit state to help her sister when they reached London.

  He moved around the room swiftly, collecting up their belongings and packing them into small cases. It wouldn’t be long before the helicopter was here.

  Kerry sat in Theo’s private plane, staring out of the window at the inky black night. Lucas should be tucked up in his own cot by now, with her to watch over him, not waiting to be seen by a doctor in a strange accident and emergency department—if that was where he even was. She didn’t actually know for sure.

  She’d made a frantic phone call before they’d left Athens, but Steve, Bridget’s partner, hadn’t heard anything. Mobile phones weren’t allowed in hospital, and he was at home with their children, waiting for his mother to come and babysit. Then he would join Bridget at the hospital. When he knew anything—anything at all—he would call Kerry.

  ‘We’ll be there soon,’ Theo said, coming to sit beside her. He smelled freshly showered, and when she glanced at him she saw his black hair was still damp. ‘I have a car waiting for us at the airport.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Kerry said. ‘It would have been a nightmare trying to get home by regular transport.’

  ‘How are you feeling?’ Theo asked, glancing at the half-eaten sandwich on the table in front of her.

  ‘All right,’ she lied, feeling her stomach roll over with nausea—but whether it was travel sickness or fear for Lucas she couldn’t say.

  ‘I’ll get you some more iced water,’ Theo said, standing up and going to fetch it from the bar himself.

  Kerry watched him, realising that he’d done that for her a hundred times before when they were travelling. He’d always shown her little kindnesses—but in her distress over the brutal way he had ended their relationship she had blotted out so many of the good things.

  ‘Lucas will be all right,’ he said as he sat beside her once more. ‘If it was bad news I’m sure Steve would’ve heard something.’

  ‘Thank you for being so kind,’ Kerry said.

  ‘Family is everything,’ he replied, his voice full of genuine feeling. ‘You know how much my own nephew means to me. Of course you feel the same about yours.’

  Kerry drew her lower lip into her mouth and turned to look at him. She’d guessed he’d made the assumption that Lucas was Bridget’s baby. She didn’t know what her sister had told him—but from what Theo had said she’d been pretty upset. It would be natural for him to think that.

  If she was ever going to confess her secret to him, then the moment was here.

  ‘Lucas is not my nephew.’ Her voice was quiet, but her heart was beating so loudly it almost deafened her. ‘He is my son.’

  ‘What?’

  Theo stared at her in shock—not sure he had heard her correctly.

  ‘Lucas is my son,’ Kerry repeated.

  She looked pale and sick, but she was meeting his gaze straight on—and he knew she was utterly serious. Then, almost as if his mind was working in slow motion, his thoughts pulled together to reach another obvious conclusion.

  Kerry had said that Lucas was six months old. That meant six months…plus nine months…

  ‘He is my son.’

  The words sliced through the air like a knife—like a giant blade slicing through the reality of Theo’s tightly disciplined and controlled world.

  He had a son.

  How could that be true? It didn’t seem possible that such a monumental fact could have been kept hidden from him. Kerry had kept his son—his own flesh and blood—a secret from him.

  Why hadn’t she told him? The question flashed through his mind, but then he pushed it aside. Why didn’t matter.

  ‘You will regret this.’

  ‘Having your son?’ Her voice was thin and tremulous, as if she could sense the anger that was starting to build within him after the initial shock had sunk in.

  ‘The fact that you kept him from me,’ he said.

  He stared at her pale face, feeling the violent thud of his heart beneath his ribs and the escalating fury surging around his body.

  He had a son. He was a father. And Kerry had tried to stop him from knowing about it.

  If it hadn’t been for Drakon Notara’s island Theo would never have gone looking for Kerry, and he would never have found out that he was a father. Even after they’d been together for more than a day it had taken this emergency for Kerry to confess to her deception. And that was probably because she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep up the pretence at the hospital.

  ‘You will not keep my son from me any longer.’

  His voice throbbed with dangerous intent and his dark eyes bored into her like a weapon. Then he turned and walked away.

  Kerry stared after him, shaking so hard that she had to grip on to the armrests. She knew trouble was coming.

  Theo did not speak to her again apart from to confirm the details of which hospital Lucas had been taken to. They sat in his limousine silently. Kerry was dimly aware of the tension simmering within him, but mostly she was overwhelmed with anxiety about Lucas.

  They arrived at the hospital and she spotted Bridget and Steve almost immediately. They were waiting for her in the hospital entrance hall with baby Lucas. The doctors had already discharged him.

  ‘Oh, my little one,’ Kerry said, holding her baby tightly to her. ‘Oh, my little angel.’

  Her lips were trembling and her throat felt tight—then suddenly she burst into tears. Bridget was there with her, her arms around both of them.

  ‘He’s all right,’ Bridget said, hugging her reassuringly. ‘They said he’s all right. I overreacted when he fell—but I just felt so terrible.’

  Kerry looked down at her baby through a film of tears. His bright blue eyes fixed on her just as sharply as ever, and then he broke out into one of his most engaging smiles, with dimples dancing in his cute little cheeks.

  Her eyes blurred once again as fresh tears formed, and all she could see was his thick black curly hair. Then she heard him giggle, and he
r relief and joy at their reunion was complete.

  She blinked away her tears and held him tight—determined never to let him out of her sight again.

  Theo stood to the side, watching events unfold through narrowed eyes. He understood that everything was all right. That Lucas was safe and sound. Lucas—his baby son—was safe and sound.

  Kerry was crying and hugging the baby, and suddenly Theo caught a glimpse of curly black hair as she turned slightly to the side. His son had curly black hair. Somehow that detail surprised him. In the couple of hours since he’d discovered he was a father he had never even wondered what his baby looked like. All babies looked alike, didn’t they?

  Suddenly he wanted to see his son properly, and he took a step closer. At that moment he heard a sound he couldn’t immediately recognise. Then he realised what it was—Lucas was giggling.

  It was a beautiful, pure sound—the sound of his baby son’s happiness at being back in his mother’s arms. Something inside Theo contracted. That was his baby. And no one was ever going to deprive him of even one more moment of his son’s life.

  The next few minutes passed for Kerry in a daze of overwhelming relief while Bridget tried to explain everything that had happened. But all Kerry could focus on was the fact that Lucas was all right. Apart from a few bruises he had survived his fall intact. It wasn’t as bad as Bridget—in her state of guilty panic—had originally made it sound.

  Kerry had imagined him falling from top to bottom of a flight of stairs, when in fact he had just tumbled down the short flight of steps that led from Bridget’s kitchen to her utility room. Lucas wasn’t crawling yet, but he could roll, and she had only turned her back for a second.

  Theo had barely spoken. He had been perfectly polite to everyone at the hospital, but Kerry knew him well enough to know something was going on behind those dark, assessing eyes.

  ‘Thank you for bringing Kerry so quickly,’ Bridget suddenly gushed, throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly.

  ‘You are welcome,’ he said, standing as still and unyielding as a rock until she stepped back awkwardly. ‘Thank you for contacting us earlier this evening,’ Theo continued. ‘I want you to know that I appreciate all you have done for Lucas—but now you and Steve should leave us and return home to your own children.’

  ‘I…’ Bridget paused, and looked at Kerry in confusion.

  ‘He knows,’ Kerry managed to say.

  ‘Yes. I know that Lucas is my son,’ Theo said. ‘And now that I know I will take my responsibility as his father seriously.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Bridget asked, looking worriedly from Kerry to Theo to Lucas, who was now dozing peacefully in Kerry’s arms.

  ‘I mean that from this point onwards I will take charge of his care,’ Theo said.

  ‘Hang on a minute,’ Bridget said, rising to her sister’s defence. ‘You chucked Kerry out. You’re the one who finished it—you didn’t want to know her.’

  ‘That was before I knew about my son,’ Theo said. ‘Everything is different now.’

  ‘But you can’t just waltz in here and—’

  ‘It’s all right, Bridget,’ Kerry said. She knew Bridget was trying to protect her, and Kerry loved her sister dearly for it. Bridget was just a few years older than her—not old enough to have been involved in the conspiracy to keep Kerry in the dark about her mother. ‘You go home now. This is something Theo and I have to sort out.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘Come on, love. You heard her,’ said Steve, looking exhausted.

  Kerry tried to smile at her sister reassuringly as Steve led her away. Inside she was a horrible mess of churning emotions, but at least she had Lucas back in her arms again. She bent forward and brushed her cheek against his soft curls, feeling a wave of love for her baby son. Lucas was all that mattered. And as long as she had him everything would be all right.

  ‘We will go to a hotel for what remains of the night,’ Theo said. ‘Then tomorrow we will discuss the future.’

  They travelled in the limousine in silence once more. But this time Lucas was secured in his car seat next to Kerry. The atmosphere between them had changed somehow—and not for the better.

  Earlier she’d known Theo was furious with her, and she’d understood why. Even though his temper had been building, and sometimes he had seemed on the verge of exploding, she’d felt as if she’d known where she stood with him.

  Now everything seemed different. She had no idea what he was feeling or thinking, because his expression had become as cold and impenetrable as ice.

  She looked up and found him studying her. His eyes glinted in the dark. They bored into her like lucid black ice—freezing the blood in her veins and delivering a dreadful premonition of the storm that was brewing.

  She shivered and looked away. She knew the freezing-cold fury that Theo was holding battened down under tight control was just as lethal as anything he’d been feeling earlier.

  The limousine pulled up by the grand entrance of a top London hotel, and Kerry unfastened Lucas from his safety belt. She carried him inside and they were shown immediately up to a massive luxury suite. But if she’d expected separate rooms she’d been mistaken, because Theo insisted they all share one room.

  ‘We are a family now,’ he said, as he oversaw the arrival of a cot for Lucas. ‘Because of his fall we will have our son in our room with us for a few days. Then he will have his own room.’

  Theo’s words sent a prickle of warning running down Kerry’s spine—but she was totally exhausted and not entirely sure that she had heard him correctly when he’d said our room.

  She bent over the cot to lay Lucas carefully inside, and as she straightened up she felt every muscle in her aching body protest. The last couple of days had been tough—physically and emotionally. And the last few hours had been overwhelming. She’d known that telling Theo about Lucas would change things—but even so she wasn’t prepared for what happened next.

  ‘In our room with us?’ she repeated, feeling a shiver of anxiety as she straightened her shoulders and turned to face him. ‘I don’t understand what you are saying.’

  ‘We are a family now,’ Theo repeated.

  Kerry drew in a shaky breath and lifted her eyes to meet his gaze. It was as hard and impenetrable as ever—but Kerry knew he meant business. A frozen wedge of ice settled in her stomach, and suddenly she was dreading what he would say next.

  ‘Let me make myself clear,’ Theo said. ‘We will be married immediately.’

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘MARRIED? You want me to marry you?’ Kerry gasped.

  This time she knew what Theo had said—she just couldn’t believe it. After everything that had happened, how could he want to marry her? And why would he assume that she would accept?

  ‘No—it’s not what I want,’ Theo said. ‘But the situation has forced my hand.’

  ‘I’m not forcing you to marry me,’ Kerry said in shock, staring at him with wide eyes. He was making it sound as if she had done this deliberately—had his baby to coerce him in some way. ‘It’s not what I want either!’

  ‘That much is clear,’ Theo said flatly. ‘Considering you took my son and hid him from me.’

  ‘Then why are you telling me this?’ Kerry said, raking her hands through her hair in frustration as the long fringe kept falling in her eyes.

  ‘Because it is what’s best for my son,’ Theo said, walking across the room and looking down at the baby where he was lying in the cot. He was awake—looking sleepily at the lights moving across the ceiling from the city outside.

  ‘Our son,’ Kerry said automatically, feeling a shiver of foreboding as she saw just how intensely Theo was staring at Lucas. Already he seemed as possessively protective of him as he’d been of his nephew, Nicco. ‘How is it best for our son to be brought up in a loveless marriage?’

  ‘What do you think is best for him?’ Theo asked harshly. ‘To live in poverty in an inner-city studio flat, being looked after by st
rangers while his mother works?’

  ‘It’s not as bad as you make it sound,’ Kerry said defensively, not even wondering how Theo knew exactly what kind of flat she lived in. ‘I’m still getting myself back on my feet. Soon I’ll be able to move—then he can have his own room.’

  ‘Then he can have his own room?’ Theo bit out incredulously. ‘Stop being ridiculous. Now that I know I have a son he will never live like that—but that is not what’s important.’

  ‘You’re right—material things don’t matter,’ Kerry said, hating the way Theo was tying her up in knots. ‘I love him—that’s all that matters. That’s all he needs.’

  ‘He needs his father,’ Theo grated.

  Kerry bit her lip and looked up at him. His eyes were narrowed dangerously, and he was staring at her with an expression of pure dislike. It cut her to the core. She’d never meant any of this to happen the way it had—but when he’d thrown her out she hadn’t felt she had a choice. She’d been so scared that he would take her baby—just as he’d told his brother to take Nicco from Hallie.

  ‘I’ll move to Athens. Find a job.’ Her voice was quiet but she managed to keep it steady—to show him she was serious about meeting him halfway. ‘You can see him whenever you want. You can be part of his life.’

  ‘This isn’t a discussion,’ Theo said coldly. ‘We’re not doing a deal here. I have told you that we will be married. That is the only option open to you.’

  ‘I can’t marry you,’ Kerry said. ‘You don’t love me. It would be a sham. How would that be good for Lucas?’ Or for her, a little voice inside her wept.

  ‘Let me make it simple for you.’ Theo took a step closer, so that he was looming over her. ‘I realise I don’t know much about your background—about the way you were brought up. But obviously you are close to Bridget, so you understand something about the importance of family.’

  ‘Don’t patronise me,’ Kerry said, horrified that he was referring to her past. As far as she was aware he knew nothing about the awful truth of her upbringing. ‘My past isn’t relevant.’