He had a driver on permanent call, but this time he would be taking a black cab. George was as perfect a driver as he could hope to find, which meant that he never asked questions and could be counted on for his discretion, but a secret child? That might have been taking temptation too far, and Riccardo needed to come to terms with the situation himself before opening the door to the inevitable furore of gossip.
On the way, staring out at the dark, bleak and cluttered city streets, he marshalled his wayward thoughts into coherent points. Point one would be elimination of the fiancé. He wasn’t going to share his child with another man and that was just something she would have to accept.
Since when, he wondered, had she become so damned mouthy?
He frowned and thought of her glowering in his office, laughing at his proposal and then refusing to budge! Indeed, walking out!
Well, the fiancé would be a thing of the past if he had to set up camp in her house and supervise her movements like a babysitter!
The taxi drew up outside the house and nerves ripped through him like a knife. He had bought a stuffed toy. A very large one. What else did one buy for a child with whom you were intimately connected and yet didn’t know you from Adam?
He felt utterly foolish and stupidly terrified as he pressed the doorbell and heard it reverberate inside the house.
Charlotte opened the door, and behind her was Gina.
‘What on earth is that?’ Charlotte smiled reluctantly at the sight of Riccardo clutching an oversized brown-and-white stuffed dog. It was a very floppy stuffed animal and its limbs drooped over his hands as though it had decided to fall into a deep sleep, leaving its owner slightly bewildered as to what he was doing with the thing in the first place.
‘It’s a dog.’
‘Gina, come and meet—’
‘I…I brought you this…’ Riccardo heard himself stumble over his words and he looked to Charlotte for help.
‘It’s gorgeous, isn’t it, Gina? Come in. Look at this dog! It’s the biggest stuffed animal I’ve ever seen! It’s almost as big as your room, honey. Where are you going to put it? You should thank your…your…’
‘Dad,’ Gina said, one eye on the dog, one eye on Riccardo. She smiled shyly and took the dog, and all at once Riccardo felt foolishly, ridiculously happy. Nothing like the sort of happy he felt when he closed a deal or staged a takeover. This was a feeling that penetrated through to parts of him he hadn’t known were there.
‘Why don’t you go upstairs and show…show your dad where you’re going to put that wonderful dog.’
It was as easy as that. The door closed behind him, he removed his coat and followed his daughter up to her room. Both threw Charlotte a look of hesitancy, but Charlotte ignored that. She had told Gina about her father, had glossed over the whys and wherefores, and had left so many threads dangling that it was a wonder she hadn’t become entangled in her own story. But Gina had not asked any awkward questions. Her childish eyes had lit up, and for the first time Charlotte had realised how much of a disservice she had done her daughter, although every decision made had been made in good faith.
She closed her eyes and sagged against the banister, then after a few minutes up she went, hearing their voices before she appeared in the doorway.
Gina was showing him her handheld games console, which had been her last birthday present, and explaining how it worked while Riccardo listened in what appeared to be fascinated silence.
For a few seconds Charlotte watched the scenario, then she cleared her throat and they both looked round at her.