‘Nik, we belong here. My family, my friends, Edbury Hall is here and there won’t be any volunteers unless I’m around to organise them.’
Nik was shaking his head. ‘It’s a job, Sybella. You can be replaced.’ And with those few words he broke her heart.
Because as he dismissed her ambitions and small but significant achievement with a few tossed-aside words and voiced her worst fear, she could be replaced, the enchantment fell away and Sybella saw she’d been seeing what she wanted to see, not what was there.
A ruthless, ambitious man who got what he wanted when he wanted it.
‘I worked hard to make a life here after Simon’s death,’ she said, finding it difficult to take a proper breath. ‘I want to see Edbury Hall flourish and—and I want Fleur to grow up here, and I’m not coming to St Petersburg with you.’
‘Then how does this even begin to work? You’ve seen how my schedule’s been. It’s just not practical, Sybella.’ He sounded so cold and hard and certain.
‘No, probably not, and above all let’s be practical.’ She couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice.
Nik shifted on his feet. His size no longer intimidated her, but she could see he was pressing his advantage as a big, tough guy who always got his own way.
‘Sybella,’ he said with finality, ‘I have thousands of people who rely on me keeping my business interests turning over. My working life is in Europe.’
If he hadn’t told her about his plans for Marla Mendez’s label, Sybella knew she wouldn’t be fighting him so hard at this point.
If she didn’t have Fleur to consider she probably would have given in. Gone with him. Hoped they could build something together.
But she knew now what he was capable of, and she wasn’t just planning a future for herself with him, she had her daughter to think of.
‘No one is asking you to change any of that. But you have to give something, Nik. That’s what a relationship is. Give and take.’
At last that hard shell cracked and she saw some of the old feeling in him.
‘Give? I gave Deda a house to live in when he asked for it. I have allowed you and on your behalf that lunatic historical society to keep the west wing of the Hall open to the public against my better judgement. I saw this damn apartment in St Petersburg and I thought of you. Of us. What don’t I give you?’
‘Well, you could start by showing some interest in something that matters to me,’ she said quietly.
He gave her a long, hard look. ‘This is what matters to you—a tourist centre at the Hall?’
‘What the Hall means to the people who live here, and future generations. It’s not about me, Nik, it’s about living in a community and being a part of something bigger than you.’
He laughed derisively. ‘When I came down here in January, I was convinced you had an agenda, that you were advancing some little cause of your own, and here we are, a few months down the track, and it turns out I was right.’
The unfairness of it barrelled into her.
‘What cause? To keep the history of my village front and centre, so Edbury has something to be proud of? At least I’m doing this for good reasons, unlike you who thinks he can play God with other people’s lives!’
‘I knew we’d get back to this eventually.’
‘Because it really doesn’t matter to you, does it?’ She broke down, tears filling her eyes. ‘Ruin some strangers financially, shunt Fleur and me halfway across the world from everyone we love so you’re not inconvenienced.’
‘This isn’t about my convenience, Sybella, it’s you holding on tight to that dead husband of yours,’ he shocked her by saying. ‘Only think about how long it’s taken you to get this far. Think about how hard you had to work to get it. Take it from me, your precious Simon wasn’t thinking about you when he set up practice in a town where the only outlet for your career ambitions is some old pile you don’t even have much interest in.’
‘How dare you? What exactly are you accusing Simon of?’
He gave her a long hard look and she found herself reliving every tender, sweet moment between them. How she’d come to believe he saw something special in her as she did in him.