Markos threw him a nasty look.
‘Don’t tell me you haven’t done the same in your time, because I won’t believe you. You know damn well how it goes. You tell them that you’re not going to marry them under any circumstances, and if there’s the slightest sign of them trying to get pregnant delib
erately they are O-U-T.’
He was silent a moment, his gaze turning inward. A memory stung at him. The expression on Vanessa’s face while he was spelling it out to her…
‘It was bad timing,’ he said abruptly, banishing the memory. ‘Just bad timing.’
His gaze did not meet his cousin’s.
‘That’s one way of putting it.’ Leo’s voice was dry.
The belligerent look was back in Markos’s face.
‘Look—I had no idea she was already pregnant. She’d just told me she wasn’t. So why in God’s name did she lie to me? It doesn’t make sense, Leo. She must have known I’d stand by her.’
‘Yeah, you’ve been a real tower of strength for her, haven’t you?’ said Leo.
Angrily, Markos jabbed his forefinger aggressively at his cousin.
‘Don’t give me that. I didn’t know she was pregnant, I didn’t know that she thought I was marrying Apollonia Dimistris—’
‘From what you’ve said she didn’t even know about Apollonia when you were doing your supportive spelling-it-out routine on her,’ contested Leo scathingly.
His cousin stared back grittily. ‘That was bad timing, too. That was the reason she walked out the same day—because that damn Constantia got to her before I had a chance to come back and make my peace with Vanessa.’ Markos’s face grew bitter. ‘Theos, if only I had stayed home that day, not gone into the office. But I had no idea—none—that Constantia Dimistris had turned up like a witch!’
‘How come you didn’t find out about that when you were looking for Vanessa?’ Leo challenged. ‘The concierge must have let her in—he’d have taken her name, so he should have told your security people she’d turned up that afternoon.’
An angry look darkened Markos’s eyes. ‘Vanessa wasn’t the only object of Constantia’s bribery. But with the concierge she found a more willing recipient. Since Vanessa told me what Constantia had done I had my people put the third degree on the entry hall staff—she’d handed out a massive bribe. Enough to shut mouths completely that she’d never been to the apartment. She didn’t want me tracing back to her that she’d paid Vanessa to clear out.’ He shut his eyes momentarily. ‘I wish to God I’d known.’ There was pain, as well as bitter anger in his voice. ‘I still wouldn’t have known where Vanessa had gone, but at least I would have had some kind of reason—I’d have got the truth from Constantia about what she’d done. I would have realised why Vanessa thought she had cause to hate me—’
‘You mean, on top of her having cause to hate you because you rejected your baby—’ Leo was merciless again.
Markos’s head flew up. ‘If I’d known Vanessa was already pregnant do you think I’d have said what I did to her that last morning? God Almighty, Leo, just how low do you think me?’
The look on his cousin’s face as he threw his challenge at him was not merciful. Markos’s response was defiantly belligerent.
‘Look, all I knew was that Vanessa had walked out on me, without a word. She just left. I had no idea why—or where she’d gone. She disappeared off the face of the earth. I was sick with worry for her!’ Breath dragged from him, and he went on, eyeballing his cousin. ‘How the hell do you imagine I felt when I saw those photos of her in that in-flight magazine? Finding out she was pregnant because she was modelling maternity clothes?’
‘Upon which, with unerring inaccuracy, you jumped to the wrong conclusion and stormed down to go ballistic on her,’ finished his cousin. ‘Great.’
Markos glared at him.
‘I just knew she was pregnant, that’s all. And of course I never thought it was mine—because I never dreamt that she’d lied to me in the first place! And why the hell didn’t she put me straight, and admit it was mine? Especially after I told her that Constantia Dimistris had done a number on her!’
‘I can’t imagine,’ said his cousin sarcastically. ‘After all, you’d only accused her of walking straight out of your bed into another man’s and getting herself pregnant by him. What woman could possibly take offence at that?’
‘Damn it, do you think I wanted that to be true? Do you think I wanted Vanessa to be pregnant by another man? Thee mou, it crucified me, thinking of her with someone else, carrying his child…’
He broke off, his face contorting.
For a moment there was silence. Then, with the same narrowed look in his eye, Leo spoke.
‘But this time, when you drove down again, you told her you’d been an offensive cretin to make such a foul accusation and it gutted you that she’d felt she’d had to leave you to bring your baby up on her own. You begged her to forgive you for being an insensitive swine, and you humbly asked would she please allow you to marry her and take care of her and the child you’d both created. That’s what you said, right?’
Markos’s jaw tightened.
‘I said we’d get married. That there was no question otherwise now. And she turned me down flat.’