‘What brings you here?’ Her mother looked at her. ‘And your friend?’
‘This is Theo Savas,’ Leah began. ‘Theo, these are my parents, Jocelyn Franks and James Turner.’ Her nerves tightened.
Theo extended a hand. For a moment her father just stared at it before giving it a weak response. She should have told Theo her parents weren’t physically demonstrative people.
‘We’re here because...um...actually, you’re going to be grandparents.’ She just blurted it out.
‘Pardon?’ Anger—and that old impatience—built on her mother’s face, mottling her flawless skin.
‘I’m pregnant.’ Leah tried to stay calm but her brain was malfunctioning the way it always did when her mother was about to test her on one of her many impossible quizzes.
‘You’re responsible for this?’ Her mother turned to Theo. ‘Did you take advantage of her?’
Leah gaped. Couldn’t she be responsible? Was she invisible all over again? She refused to be that—not in front of Theo. Not when she now knew some people believed in her. People like Seth and Maeve. ‘Maybe I took advantage of him?’
‘Oh, Leah.’
That withering dismissal, that disappointment?
Leah pasted on her smile, determined not to let this happen in front of Theo. ‘We’re getting married in Greece next week—’
‘I should think so.’ Her father turned with low fury to Theo. ‘You’re going to take care of her?’
It was the same question Maeve had asked but it sprang from something so different. He wasn’t asking Theo this because he thought she was a treasure, worthy of only the best treatment. But because he thought she was the opposite—helpless and hopeless.
‘I knew it was a mistake to let you go to London on your own—’
‘I might not have your PhDs, but I’m not stupid—’
‘You’ve just told us you’re pregnant.’
‘And that makes me stupid?’ She gazed at her mother sadly. Because having a child was a bad thing? That was her mother’s attitude, wasn’t it? Or, at least, having a child who was an eternal disappointment was.
‘You’ve got no qualifications, Leah.’ Her mother shredded her. ‘We’ve been looking after you for years, since you dropped out. We got you that job in the lab—’
‘I’ve been looking after you,’ Leah pointed out in a choked voice. ‘Who cooked all the meals? Who arranged everything you were too busy for?’
‘That was to give you something to do.’ Her mother glared at her. ‘You think we can’t cook, Leah?’
‘You never did.’
‘You know it’s not the best use of our time,’ her father said.
Leah gaped. Because her parents’ time was more precious than hers? Their ‘real’ work—all those intellectual achievements—were too important to be interrupted with anything like parenting or maintaining a normal house? They’d paid for a cleaner and now it seemed they’d just ‘allowed’ Leah to do the cooking. How marvellously kind of them. Hadn’t they thought she might have plans and dreams of her own that she’d rather be fulfilling?
She’d realised how desperately she’d needed to start over and live her own life. And she’d been succeeding. And she’d continue to succeed without them.
‘Well.’ She cleared her throat. ‘Thanks for keeping an eye out for me all this time but you no longer need trouble yourselves. We’re leaving for Greece today.’
‘Leah.’ Her father frowned, his tone patronising. ‘You can’t just—’
‘I’m sorry if you can’t make it to the wedding, given it’s such short notice.’ Theo stepped forward. ‘But we can’t delay our happy occasion a day longer than necessary.’ He wrapped his arm around her and drew her too close. ‘Leah is so special to me. I’ll take care of her and our baby.’ He gazed into her eyes as if he were love-struck. ‘You don’t need to worry about her.’
She wanted to point out that she didn’t need any of them to ‘take care of her’. But there was a glimmer of something more than amusement in his expression and it hurt. She didn’t want his sympathy. But as he looked at her that expression deepened to devastatingly serious. ‘Anyway, you’ve never needed to worry about her. She can look after herself—’
‘Leah? I didn’t know you were here for a visit.’
She turned, pulling out of Theo’s hold as her brother, Oliver, walked into the office.
‘I’m just leaving.’ She braced because her emotions were almost beyond control and she’d not expected Oliver to be away from his lab. ‘I’m moving to Greece. Getting married. Having a baby. You should come to the wedding,’ she summarised as swiftly as she could. ‘No joke.’
‘What?’ Oliver pulled the beanie off and gaped at her. ‘When? I have my—’
‘Research, I know. It’s okay. I’ll send you a photo.’ She just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible because she loved her little brother. ‘We need to leave now.’
She walked, not even checking to see if Theo was with her. She knew he would be. Just as she knew her parents wouldn’t stop her. But as she crossed the threshold her brother called her name. She couldn’t not glance back.
‘You’ll phone?’ He was still gaping.
‘Of course.’ Because she knew he couldn’t say it as well, but he did care.
He saluted her and realised he held the beanie. He suddenly smiled. ‘Thanks for this. It’s the best one yet.’
She nodded and left. She was going to miss Oliver the most—she’d cared for her younger brother, even when he’d been too buried in books to realise he needed it.
She couldn’t trust herself to speak as they got back into the car. Theo apparently had a few things to digest too, because the first fifteen minutes of the drive back were in complete silence. But then she felt him turn towards her.
‘Your family are—’
‘Amazing, I know.’ She smiled brightly because it was that or burst into tears.
‘That wasn’t the word I was going to use.’
‘But they are,’ she argued lightly. ‘Bona fide geniuses, the three of them. With just a normal IQ, I’m the odd one out.’ She shook her head but was unable to stop the words tumbling. ‘You didn’t need to step in. You didn’t need to act as if...’
‘As if what?’ His eyes glinted. ‘I actually want to marry you?’
‘I don’t need you to say that to them. Or take care of me now.’ She couldn’t hold back. Her parents’ words had stung. Just because she didn’t have three degrees didn’t mean she was incapable of looking after herself. ‘I’m not incompetent. I could have made it work. Women do, you know, raise kids on their own.’
He reached out and covered her tight fist with his big hand. ‘I know you could handle this alone, Leah. You’re amazing. You just handled the hell out of them,’ he added. ‘But the point is you don’t have to be alone now. You’re not solely responsible for this situation.’
She desperately wished she could escape the emotion overwhelming her at his words.
‘Why does your brother wear a beanie in summer?’ he asked with a wry smile.
She shot him a sideways look, startled by the change in topic. ‘He gets cold in the lab. And he has sensitive ears and it’s better if they’re warm.’
‘So you gave it to him?’
‘Knitting is the new black, didn’t you know?’
‘You made it?’
‘Yes, I made it. You don’t think I’m capable of that?’
‘Easy, tiger.’ He laughed gently. ‘I’m not like them, Leah. I thought you’d bought it for him because, yes, it looked good enough quality to have been bought. You gave that little rug to that old lady at the home as well. But I get the impression your parents had very high standards.’
‘I was never going to get the grades they expected from me.’ She’d tried so very hard but they?
??d expected brilliance and perfection.
‘That’s why you stopped dancing?’
‘They said it interfered with my schoolwork too much.’ She shrugged in a helpless gesture. ‘They couldn’t understand why I wasn’t like them and they tried so hard to make me like them—honestly, the books, the tests, the tutoring... And you see what they think of me now.’ She looked at him. ‘Only good for the cooking and cleaning, right? They actually think you took advantage of me. I must be rescued. I can’t take care of myself. I must get walked all over...all because I don’t have the same skill set or dreams they do.’
‘It wasn’t your fault you couldn’t live up to their expectations,’ he said quietly. ‘But you gave up your dream.’
‘They wouldn’t pay for my classes any more and I couldn’t get my marks high enough to get them to resume them.’