‘You actually thought that I would be willing to give up all rights over my own children just to marry you?’
Alexei shook his dark head with wry amusement. ‘You know better than that. There are women in this world who would give their last pint of their blood to marry me.’
‘Possibly not if they’re sitting where I’m sitting,’ Billie tacked on helplessly. ‘Do you honestly think that something like that would stand up in court?’
‘I don’t want to take you to court. I don’t want to remove my son from your care. I don’t want a divorce either,’ he completed with measured emphasis.
Billie got up again on knees that felt shaky. ‘I wish I had never slept with you and never had your child. But my worst mistake was marrying you.’
‘I’m grateful that you did all those things. I don’t want to turn the clock back. I would very much like to remember the night our son was conceived—’ Alexei sent her a gleaming glance of rampant curiosity that made her bridle ‘—but in the absence of that, I am delighted and proud to have a son.’
And he didn’t want a divorce. Now she was beginning to wonder if she did either. In a divorce he might well exercise the legal right to take charge of their son and what would that do to her? Would he win if she fought him in a court? Was that a risk she was prepared to take? If she lost the right to be the primary carer of the child that she loved, what would her freedom be worth to her then? Her blood was already chilling in her veins at the very idea of such deprivation.
‘You’re blackmailing me,’ she condemned in disgust.
‘I want you to give our marriage a chance.’ Alexei held her angry gaze with level cool and considerable force of will. ‘That’s why I took Nicky and why I brought you out here to join us. I was playing for bigger stakes than making some stupid point!’
‘I don’t like being manipulated and intimidated into doing what you want. I don’t think the end justifies the means,’ Billie argued forcefully. ‘Do you want to know what you’ve really achieved? You’ve made me appreciate that I couldn’t bear to stay married to someone like you!’
As Billie attempted to walk past him Alexei closed a hand like a steel cuff to her arm and held her back. ‘I won’t let you go.’
‘I’m not giving you a choice!’ she blazed back up at him, wrenching her arm violently free of his hold.
‘What the hell has come over you?’ Alexei bit out, staring down at her with hard questioning eyes. ‘I’m willing to fight for you and our marriage. How is that blackmail? How is that something to be ashamed of? What’s right and what’s wrong doesn’t come into this. You and Nikolos are my family now and I’m not going to lose you!’
Family. It was a word with very deep and important connotations for Billie. She had had an unhappy childhood and a difficult adolescence with a mother who was incapable of putting her child’s needs before her own. She had grown up envying schoolmates with two parents, longing to be a part of family rituals like birthday parties and lunches when their whole families, young and old alike, would get together. She had always blithely assumed that some day she would create that family backdrop to nourish her own children’s need for love, support and security. Now as an adult she was learning that life was not so simple and that being part of a family demanded personal sacrifices. Did she stay married to a man who didn’t love her? Did she walk in eyes wide open and settle for that kind of marriage because it was the best she was likely to get and because she loved him?
Alexei surveyed her grimly as she settled back down on the bench, turning her face away from him and returning to studying the view.
‘I feel like the real you is locked up inside, somewhere I can’t reach you,’ he admitted in a roughened undertone.
‘It’s only because I’m not behaving like an employee any longer,’ Billie murmured ruefully. ‘I’m standing up to you and you don’t like it.’
‘You always stood up to me,’ Alexei contradicted.
Her mobile phone was buzzing like an angry wasp in her pocket and with a look of apology in Alexei’s direction she pulled it out and moved away a few steps to answer it. It was Hilary, but her aunt was so upset and talking so fast that Billie had to beg her to calm down and talk more clearly. ‘Mum’s…where?’ Billie pressed in dismay. ‘Doing what?’
‘It’s too late, Billie. I’m upset on your behalf but there’s nothing you can do. Lauren signed a contract, took the money and is now living it up in a London hotel. I don’t know when the article will be published. And I think Lauren handed over photos of Nicky as well,’ Hilary revealed unhappily. ‘I’m so sorry. If I had had the slightest idea of what your mother was planning to do, I would’ve tried to dissuade her, but the first I knew of what she was up to was when she called me from London to boast about how rich and famous she was going to be!’
‘What’s wrong?’ Alexei demanded, alerted by the consternation on Billie’s face and the growing anger.
‘This is not your problem, Hilary. Which hotel is she in?’ Finally, Billie finished the call and turned back to Alexei. ‘You’re not going to believe what Mum’s done—she’s talked about us to some British Sunday newspaper and they’ve paid her a fortune for it. She’s even given them private photographs of Nicky!’ she exclaimed furiously.
‘It was an accident waiting to happen.’ Alexei shrugged a broad shoulder. ‘I did conside
r paying her to keep quiet about us but I knew you would be annoyed if I intervened with that kind of an offer.’
‘Why on earth should she be bribed to keep quiet? How could my mother sell pictures of her own grandson?’ Billie gasped strickenly.
Alexei was a good deal less surprised by Lauren’s perfidy than Billie was. Over the years several lovers, acquaintances and even minor relatives of his own had profited from selling stories about him and his family to the tabloid press. He had long appreciated that Lauren Foster would be vulnerable to such an approach.
‘I’ll have to go back to London to see her!’ Billie announced, so angry with her scheming parent that she was trembling with the force of her feelings. Lauren’s efforts to prevent her sister from finding out what she was planning to do proved that Billie’s mother had known perfectly well that she was doing something very wrong.
‘It won’t change anything. If she signed a contract, what’s done is done,’ Alexei pronounced. ‘Leave Nicky here. The press could well be lying in wait for you to visit.’
‘Why aren’t you furious?’ Billie demanded with incomprehension.
‘I’ve always had to live with media intrusion. That’s why I like the privacy laws here in France. The paparazzi have to follow the rules here.’