‘What?’ He grabbed at his hair, then grazed his fingers down his face. ‘How could you lie about such a thing?’
‘I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking of the consequences,’ she said, her voice muffled by her hair. ‘I...’
But he didn’t want to hear her excuses. There was only one thing he wanted from her, and that—he—was thousands of miles away.
‘Where is my son?’
‘At my brother’s house.’
‘Where?’
‘In Oxford.’
‘Where in Oxford?’
‘At...’ She stopped talking and raised her head to look at him. ‘Why?’
‘I’m going to send Nikos to collect him.’
She shook her head. ‘He hasn’t got a passport.’
‘That is not a problem. The address?’
‘You can’t conjure a passport out of thin air,’ she said with an air of desperation. ‘There’s a form that needs to be filled in, photos to be taken—it doesn’t happen overnight.’
‘I can make it happen overnight.’
‘He’s a British citizen. Only I can complete those forms because only my name is on his birth certificate.’
That cut him short.
Jo gave a hollow laugh. ‘Yes, Theseus, your son has my name. Because his father promised he would be in touch, then probably deleted my number before the ferry had lost sight of Illya. You can condemn me for lying about being on the pill, but if you’d kept your promise I would have told you the minute the pregnancy test came back positive. You could have had your name put on that birth certificate alongside mine. If you’d told me the truth about who you were you would already know your son.’
That her words were mostly true did nothing to placate him. Did she really expect him to believe she would have told him? He didn’t believe a word that came out of her pretty, lying mouth.
All he could think was that his son and heir had some sort of version of ‘father unknown’ on his birth certificate. It was like another iced dagger being pushed through his frozen heart.
‘Trust me,’ he said coldly, ‘I have ways of getting things done. My son will have my name and an Agon passport by morning.’
‘You can’t bring him here yet. He doesn’t know you...’
‘And it’s past time that he did. Now, for the last time, give me the address.’
‘I won’t.’ Jo refused to back down. However guilty she felt, and however understandably furious Theseus was, her first priority was her son. She would not have him frightened.
The pulse in his jaw throbbed. Her heart was beating to match it. He stalked over, crouched before her on his haunches and cupped her cheek.
‘I want to see my son and you will facilitate this.’
He spoke the words with such quiet menace that acrid bile surged up her throat. She had never seen such naked rage before.
‘Toby is not a toy,’ she said, with as much steely control as she could muster, refusing to quail under the weight of his power and loathing. Strangely, his hold on her cheek, although firm, was surprisingly soothing. ‘Your wish to see him does not trump his need to be and feel safe. I am not having a complete stranger whisk him away from everything he knows and loves. He’s a little boy.’
His thumb brushed her cheekbone. ‘A little boy who is my son. He belongs here in Agon.’
‘Right now he belongs in England. You’re a stranger to him—he needs time to get to know you before we even think about bringing him here.’
Was this really happening? Were they really having this discussion? She’d prepared herself for anger, or rejection, or if she was lucky faint promises of future contact—but not this.
‘I have a four-year-old son I have never met. He will be brought here.’
She clamped her jaw together and forced air into her lungs. All she succeeded in doing was filling herself with his scent. She almost wished he would shout or throw something. Anything had to be better than this cool yet venomous reasoning.
‘I’m his legal parent. I want you to be a part of his life, for Toby’s sake, but I will not allow you to rush things.’
‘How little you understand the workings of my country,’ he said, with what almost sounded like a purr—although there was nothing kitten-like about his tone. Its timbre and his stance were reminiscent of an alpha lion, getting ready to pounce. He stood up to his full height and headed to the apartment’s front door. ‘I have the means to bring him here and I will use them.’