Zac’s face darkened with impatience. ‘It was either you or her, and to be quite frank it doesn’t really matter who initiated it. Look, if you’re not going to tell me something new—’
Emotion rose up inside Rose as she choked out, ‘It does matter. And I need to tell you why I said yes in the first place—’ She stopped abruptly and took a breath. ‘It was for my father.’
The words hung in the air between them.
Zac frowned. ‘What’s your father got to do with this?’
Rose’s legs were feeling shaky, so she sat down again on the nearest chair. She looked at Zac and said helplessly, ‘Everything.’
He stared at her, and she half expected him to walk out, but he didn’t.
He said grimly, ‘Go on.’
‘If I tell you what I’m going to tell you I need you to promise me something first.’
His mouth tightened. ‘You’re really not in a position to bargain.’
Rose stood up again. She had to be strong for this. ‘I want this baby to be a Valenti too, Zac. I don’t want any part in your grandmother’s scheme. But if I’m to go against her for you, and this baby, I need you to match what she was paying me.’
Zac got angry. ‘Now you’re willing to negotiate?’
He paced back and forth, energy crackling across the space between them.
‘It’s not a negotiation.’
Her voice rang out, harsher than she’d ever heard it. And it stopped Zac too.
She went on. ‘The reason I could never tell you the price she paid me is because this was never about money—’
‘Oh, please—’
‘It wasn’t,’ she said, in the face of his blatant disbelief.
‘If it wasn’t about money then what was it about?’
Rose felt numbness stealing over her, cushioning her slightly from Zac’s blistering impatience. ‘My father is ill. Very ill. He needs an operation on his heart and it’s one of the most expensive operations in the world. He was a driver for your family for years. You know him.’
Rose could see Zac trying to compute this information, and eventually he said incredulously, ‘Séamus O’Malley? He’s your father?’
Rose nodded, feeling emotional. ‘Yes. It started a few months ago. He wasn’t feeling well and we couldn’t figure out what was wrong. After tests the doctors realised that it was his heart. He
told me the results over the phone when I was at work in your grandmother’s house. Our insurance is basic, at best. It was devastating news, because we knew we could never afford the operation he needed.’
Rose continued.
‘But before I go any further I need your promise that you’ll take over the care of my father, protect him from any possible repercussions that come out of my telling you everything. He’s due to have the operation in two days. If he doesn’t have it he won’t last until the end of the year—’
Her voice had cracked on the last words, but Zac appeared unmoved.
‘Why should I do this?’
‘Because he’s an innocent party in this. He doesn’t deserve to suffer because of my mistakes.’
Zac prowled towards her, his face darkening. ‘Oh, so I’m a mistake now?’
Rose flushed. ‘I didn’t mean that. I meant the mistake of letting your grandmother use me as a pawn to get to you, and then everything getting out of control.’
Zac stopped. Even though feet still separated them, she could feel his physical pull on her.