He raked a hand through his hair and turned away on a rough sigh. ‘Yes…yes, I know, but I did not intend to pass on my flesh and blood…to anyone. I thought I had done everything possible to prevent it, but somehow…’
‘Why, Alessandro?’ Her voice came out as a hoarse whisper. ‘Why are you so determined about this?’
‘I do not want to inflict suffering on anyone, and least of all a child.’
‘But how will you do that?’ she asked, her brow wrinkled in bewilderment. ‘You have so much to offer a child.’
‘I have nothing but money,’ he said, turning to face her again. ‘Believe me, it is not nearly enough.’
Scarlett frowned as she looked at the flicker of pain come and go in his eyes. ‘Money isn’t important, it’s love that counts.’
His mouth slanted mockingly. ‘There you go using that four-letter word again.’
‘I don’t want to marry a man who isn’t capable of love,’ she said. ‘What sort of father will you be if you can’t even express love to your wife and child? It’s not normal.’
‘When we marry you will be my wife in every sense of the word, Scarlett, so that will make it very normal—very normal indeed.’
‘What if I don’t agree?’ she said, lifting her chin a fraction.
His jaw became even more rigid. ‘You know I have the power to do what I threatened to do.’
‘Yes, and the lack of morality to do it,’ she threw back. ‘I can’t bear the thought of being tied to you indefinitely. I can’t think of anything worse.’
There was a heartbeat or two of silence.
‘I do not recall saying we will remain married indefinitely,’ he said.
Scarlett felt the wind drop right out of her self-righteous sails. She stood for a moment, trying not to show how his statement had affected her. But even so she felt her teeth sink into her bottom lip again before she could stop them, and this time she tasted blood.
‘I want Matthew to legally bear my name,’ he said. ‘The best way he can do that is for you to marry me. The marriage will continue for as long as I feel it is necessary.’
‘Necessary for what?’ she asked, her heart skipping all over the place.
His eyes were unreadable as they held hers. ‘I will meet you tomorrow at the old Arlington Hotel building at ten a.m. to discuss the arrangements. In the meantime, I will deposit funds in your bank account which should see to your business loan and any other outstanding debts you might have.’
Scarlett watched as he opened the door to leave, the words of protest stuck—along with her tongue—to the roof of her mouth.
He turned back from the door to look at her. ‘Do not think of rejecting my offer of marriage, Scarlett,’ he added. ‘It would not be in Matthew’s interests if you did.’
‘And what about my interests?’ she asked. ‘Have those been factored in somewhere in your scheme of playing temporary happy-families?’
A shutter seemed to come down over his brown-green gaze. ‘I am doing my level best to make up for what you have suffered,’ he said in a deep, gravelly tone. ‘I made a mistake that I will probably regret for the rest of my life.’
‘You’re about to make another one,’ she said. ‘Marrying me is not going to solve anything—if anything it’s going to make things worse.’
‘You will be well rewarded for your efforts.’
She glared at him. ‘Don’t insult me by offering me disgusting amounts of money—or is that how you usually buy female affection these days?’
His expression barely changed, but Scarlett saw the way his knuckles turned to white beneath his tan as he gripped the door knob. ‘I will see you tomorrow,’ he said in a deceptively even tone. ‘If you do not turn up, then I will have no choice but to assume you are not only putting your business on the line but your son as well.’
Scarlett wanted the last word but he closed the door before she could even think of it, much less get it past the knot of tension in her throat. She whooshed out a breath and sagged against the nearest flat surface, and closed her eyes as she heard the rumble and roar of his car as it left.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘I CAN’T believe you lied to us for all these years,’ Scarlett’s sister Sophie said over the phone later that evening. ‘I don’t know what I’m going to say to Hugh when he gets home. I saw that article in the paper and immediately called Mum. What on earth were you thinking?’
Scarlett sent her eyes heavenwards. ‘This is not about you, Sophie.’
‘Of course it’s about me!’ her sister railed. ‘Hugh and I are high-profile people. I have told everyone for years that you are a grief-stricken single mother, and now I find out you’ve been lying about your child’s father. I feel so betrayed.’
Scarlett felt like grinding her teeth, but only stopped because her sister had acute hearing for that sort of thing, being married to a cosmetic dentist. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you, but I was trying to do what I thought was the best—’
‘When can we meet him?’ Sophie cut her off. ‘What about tomorrow night? I can get our housekeeper to make a special meal.’
‘Alessandro’s a very busy man,’ Scarlett said. ‘He won’t have time to traipse around meeting all my relatives.’
‘They will be his relatives once you are married,’ Sophie pointed out.
‘Ahem.’ Scarlett pointedly cleared her throat. ‘I haven’t exactly said I was going to marry him.’
‘For God’s sake, Scarlett, he’s your son’s father!’ Sophie cried. ‘You have to marry him. Or hasn’t he asked you?’
‘Yes, he has, but I don’t like the conditions.’
‘Listen, Scarlett, when you’re marrying a billionaire you don’t think about the conditions,’ Sophie said with typical older-sister pragmatism. ‘Even if the marriage only lasts a year or two you’ll be set for life.’
‘I don’t want to be set for life, I want to be happy.’
‘Do you feel anything for him?’ Sophie asked.
Scarlett rolled her lips together as she thought about it. ‘Yes, but I don’t think it’s the best way to start a marriage.’
‘What is that supposed to mean?’
‘It means I’m not sure what I feel about him,’ Scarlett answered. ‘He’s Matthew’s father, so I can’t exactly hate him, but I don’t want to feel what I felt for him before.’
‘You don’t have to love him to marry him,’ Sophie said. ‘Plenty of marriages survive on much less.’
Scarlett couldn’t help feeling her sister was talking from experience. Sophie had always been very determined about her life plan. She’d had a checklist from the age of fifteen, and any man who hadn’t got a tick in all the boxes had been summarily dismissed as potential husband-material.
Hugh Gallagher was the first one who’d come along who had met all her demands, but Scarlett often wondered if her sister had sold herself short. At the time of night when most secure couples would be cuddling up in bed, Sophie rang to chat about nothing and everything. And every time Scarlett asked where Hugh was, her sister would answer somewhat dismissively that he was operating on a private patient. Scarlett felt like asking just how many wisdom teeth there were in Sydney to be taken out at close to ten p.m.
‘What does Matthew think of him?’ Sophie asked.
‘I’m not sure he’s old enough to really understand what’s going on,’ Scarlett said. ‘But he seemed to really enjoy having him here this evening.’
‘When are you going to see Alessandro again?’
‘Tomorrow,’ Scarlett answered with another flutter of unease in her belly. ‘We’re meeting to go over the designs I’ve been working on.’
‘Wow, that’s going to be quite a feather in your cap,’ Sophie said. ‘I read about it in the weekend supplement. The new Marciano Palazzo hotel is going to be one of the most luxurious Sydney has ever seen.’
‘Yes, I know.’
‘Don’t blow this chance, Scarlett,’ Sophie said. ‘This is an opportunity of a l
ifetime. Think of what he could give Matthew.’
Scarlett tightened her mouth. ‘I just want him to love him, that’s all.’
‘What about you?’ Sophie asked. ‘Do you want him to love you too?’
Scarlett released a long sigh. ‘That’s every girl’s dream, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, but sometimes love is not enough.’
‘You’re starting to sound like Alessandro,’ Scarlett said. ‘He’s as cynical as they come, but I still don’t really know why.’
‘He’ll tell you when he’s ready,’ her sister said. ‘It’s a guy thing. They hate revealing their vulnerability.’
‘I have never seen Alessandro as someone who would allow himself to be vulnerable. He likes to be in control at all times and in all places.’
‘Then you’ll have to stick by him until he feels safe enough to do so,’ Sophie said. ‘This would have knocked him for six, I imagine, finding out he’d fathered a child he had no intention of ever fathering.’
‘I know,’ Scarlett said, looking at the photograph that had transfixed Alessandro so much while he had been there. ‘I realise how hard it is for him, but I have had close to four years of dealing with this alone. I’m not quite ready to forgive him.’
‘You don’t have to forgive him, just marry him, and let the rest take care of itself,’ Sophie advised. ‘It’s really the only thing you can do.’
‘He doesn’t want another child.’
‘Oh…Well, then, I guess you’ll have to accept that. Remember how hard it was for Mum? I swore I’d never let it happen to me, and I haven’t. You need to grab this chance while you’ve got it. If you keep him dangling too long he might withdraw the offer.’
‘Alessandro doesn’t offer,’ Scarlett said with a little scowl. ‘He demands.’
‘Marry him, Scarlett,’ Sophie said. ‘He deserves a chance to put things right. You never know, he might even fall in love with you this time around.’
‘Yeah, right, as if that’s going to happen,’ Scarlett said as she hung up the phone a minute or two later.
Scarlett caught sight of Alessandro’s striking figure as soon as the Arlington came into view. He was wearing a hard hat, standing beside a much shorter man who was similarly attired, and who she assumed was one of the engineers he had employed. They had their heads together over some plans, but Alessandro looked up as if he had felt her presence, his eyes locking with hers.
‘Good morning, cara,’ he said, removing his hat to bend down to brush a brief, hard kiss to her mouth before she could counteract it. ‘Barry, this is my fiancée, Scarlett Fitzpatrick. Scarlett, this is Barry Alder, my chief engineer.’
For the sake of politeness Scarlett had no choice but to shake the other man’s hand, although the glare she sent Alessandro’s way threatened to save the painters the job of stripping the old paint off the walls. ‘Pleased to meet you,’ she said, stretching her mouth into a stiff little smile.
Barry Alder took off his hard hat and smiled back. ‘I saw the announcement in the paper this morning. Alessandro is a lucky man. Congratulations on your engagement.’
Scarlett felt her stomach drop. ‘Umm…thank you.’
Alessandro handed the engineer his hat as he put an arm around Scarlett’s waist and drew her into his side. ‘We will leave you to it, Barry. I am taking Scarlett out to choose an engagement ring. Call me if there is anything you need.’
‘It all looks pretty straightforward,’ Barry said. ‘The foundations are fine. I’ll get back to you on those quotes about the footbridge. It shouldn’t take more than a day or so.’
‘No hurry,’ Alessandro said. ‘I have other things on my mind right now.’
Scarlett waited until the engineer had moved on before spinning out of Alessandro’s hold. ‘What the hell is going on?’ she asked with a glittering glare. ‘I don’t recall saying I was going to marry you.’
He captured one of her hands with his and tugged her closer. ‘You do not have any choice, cara. I thought you understood that.’
‘I have no intention of marrying you. I don’t care how many press releases you make to the contrary, I am not going to bow to your commands as if I have no mind of my own.’
‘You have a choice,’ he said smoothly. ‘You either marry me or you lose your business and your son.’
‘You can’t do that,’ she said, but she knew he could and would if pressed to do so.
His eyes hardened as they clashed with hers. ‘You think you can take me on in a legal battle, Scarlett? You do not have a chance. You are foolish to even consider taking me on in a battle of wills. I will always win.’
‘You have lost three years of your son’s life because of your arrogant confidence,’ she threw back. ‘How much else are you prepared to lose?’
He held her defiant look for a lengthy moment. ‘We will be working and living together in a matter of a week,’ he said. ‘It would be advisable to get any ill feeling out of the way now.’
‘It’s going to take me decades, much less weeks, to forgive you.’
‘I am not asking you to forgive me,’ he said. ‘In fact, I am not asking you to do anything. I am telling you what is going to happen and when it will happen. We will be married in a week’s time. I have organised a special licence. You and Matthew will move into my house in Double Bay tomorrow, and from that moment we will live as man and wife.’
‘I am not going to sleep with you.’
A hint of a smile lurked at the edges of his mouth. ‘It took me three days to get you into bed four years ago, and less than that the second time around,’ he said. ‘Do not lock yourself into any tight corners, cara. You know you will have to back down eventually. It is the way things are between us.’
Scarlett felt her face heating with shame at how she had responded to him so unrestrainedly. There wasn’t a part of her that hadn’t been affected by him. Even now she could feel her pulse racing, and her breathing becoming shallow and uneven in his disturbing presence.
‘Where is Matthew?’ he asked.
‘He’s at crèche. I pick him up at five-thirty.’
He frowned. ‘Isn’t that rather a long day for a small child to be in care?’
‘I don’t have any other choice,’ she said with a stinging glare. ‘I can’t afford a nanny.’
‘I can arrange a nanny for you. Even a few hours a week would surely help? The rest of the time I would like to spend with him. I need to establish my relationship with him.’
‘You can’t rush things with a small child,’ she said. ‘He needs time to understand you are his father. It’s a big thing for him.’
‘It is a very big thing for me,’ he said and, raking a hand through his hair, added, ‘God knows I am still trying to come to terms with it.’
‘Well, bully for you,’ she said with a curl of her lip. ‘You’re the one who wouldn’t believe me when I told you I was expecting him.’
Alessandro looked down at her grey-blue gaze that was burning with resentment, wondering if he should tell her why he had so desperately avoided becoming a father. But then he recalled the devastation on his mother’s face the day Marco had been diagnosed. It wouldn’t be fair to dump that burden on Scarlett in the middle of a busy city-street with the noise of jackhammers and traffic going on in the background. He would have to prepare her carefully for the shock of her life. He wasn’t sure how he was going to do it, but it would have to be done, and sooner rather than later.
‘I cannot change how I reacted back then, Scarlett. If I could turn back the clock, I would, but we have to move on now for Matthew’s sake. I want to be a father to him, a real father in every sense of the word, and the only way I can do that is to be your husband.’
‘Even though you don’t love me?’ she asked with a sudden film of moisture shining in her eyes.
He reached out with the pad of his thumb, stalled the progress of the first tear that escaped and blotted it gently against her cheekbone. ‘I am willing to learn how to be a good fa
ther, cara, so who knows?’
Scarlett drew in a scratchy breath as he led her away from the dust and debris of the building site, the hard edges of her anger softening so much she felt as if she was melting from the inside out.
She wanted to be angry with him.
She needed to be angry with him to stop herself from…
She gave herself a brisk mental shake and strode along the uneven pavement alongside him, her head down in fierce concentration. She wasn’t even going to think about loving him again. He didn’t deserve it for not trusting her.
But even so, when his arm came out like a barrier to prevent her stepping in front of a turning car, Scarlett felt a tremor of awareness rumble through her being as his gaze briefly engaged hers. She looked up into the depths of his eyes and felt another layer of anger peel away until all she had left was her unprotected heart, aching for what might never come to pass….
Although it had not been her intention to simply go along with his plans, Scarlett found herself just minutes later sitting in an exclusive jeweller’s shop with an exquisite diamond on her finger.
‘Do you like it?’ Alessandro asked, his hand gentle and protective on her shoulder.
‘Yes, but—’
‘We will take it,’ he said to the jeweller. ‘And the wedding rings as well.’
Scarlett watched as he signed the credit-card slip with a quick, dark slash of his signature, her stomach caving in when she turned to see the media already gathered outside to have the first photograph and interview. TV cameras were being angled at her, big fluffy microphones poised for when she and Alessandro walked into the hot summer sunshine.
‘Do not worry, tesore mio,’ Alessandro said as he drew her to her feet, his arm going about her waist. ‘I will handle the press. Just smile and look happy.’
‘Mr Marciano.’ One of the three television interviewers got in first. ‘Congratulations on your engagement to Scarlett Fitzpatrick. Does this mean you will be staying longer in Sydney than you had originally planned?’
The Marciano Love-Child Page 12
