“The day Livvy was born, you disappeared!” The baby flinched a little in her arms at the rise in her voice. With a deep breath, Daisy carefully got to her feet, then lifted Livvy into her crib. Gently setting down the sleeping infant, she quietly backed away, motioning for Leonidas to follow, Sunny at his feet. Closing the nursery door silently behind them, Daisy turned to face him in the hallway.
The window at the end of the hallway slanted warm light into the hundred-year-old brownstone, gleaming against the marble floors. The big golden dog stood between them, her tongue lagging, looking hopefully first at one, then the other.
“I need you, Leonidas,” Daisy whispered. “Our baby needs you. Why won’t you even hold her?”
A tumble of feelings wrenched though him. He couldn’t let them burst through his heart, he couldn’t. He said stiffly, “I held her.”
“Just once, in the hospital. Since then, you’ve avoided her.” Her eyes lifted to his. “You’ve avoided me.”
His wife’s stricken expression burned through him like acid. He turned away.
“Work has been busy. You cannot be angry at me for trying to secure our daughter’s empire...” Then he remembered that Daisy didn’t care about his business empire. It wasn’t enough for her. And if that wasn’t, how could Leonidas ever be? “I haven’t been avoiding you.”
The lie was poison in his mouth.
“Please,” she said in a low voice. “I need you.”
“You don’t. You’re doing fine. And Livvy is better off with you than with me.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
How could he explain that his baby daughter already knew he was no good? And from the pain and hurt in his wife’s eyes, Daisy was rapidly learning the same thing, too. “It doesn’t matter.”
Reaching out, she put her hand on his arm. “You helped me love art again, after all my hope was lost. Drawing you on our honeymoon, I realized that people are my passion. Not random smudges or colors. People.” Blinking fast, she tried a smile. “You helped me find my voice.”
Daisy had never looked more beautiful to him than she did right now, her green eyes so luminous, her heart fully in her face.
And her love. He saw her love for him shining from her eyes. He didn’t deserve it. He couldn’t bear it. Because it wouldn’t last.
His fate was in her hands, as he waited for Daisy to finally realize he wasn’t worthy of her love. You’re wonderful, she’d told him. Wonderful and perfect.
He wasn’t. He knew his flaws; he could be cold and arrogant and selfish. But from the moment she’d decided to love him, she had become willfully blind. She had rose-colored glasses and was determined to see only the best of him.
But sooner or later she’d see the real him. Then her love would crumble to dust. To disgust.
Just the thought of that ripped him up.
And soon, the whole world would learn about his scandalous birth and not ev
en his wealth or power would protect him. He’d done everything he set out to do. He’d built an empire. He was rich and powerful beyond imagination. But it had changed nothing.
All his worst fears were about to come true. The world would learn that his very birth had been a deceit. His parents had despised him and wished he’d never been born.
Leonidas was unlovable. Unworthy. Empty.
And now he was dragging Daisy into it as well.
“I’m sorry, Leonidas,” she said quietly. “I never meant to hurt you. Can you ever forgive me?”
Shaking his head, he looked toward the window at the end of the hallway. If he had any decency, he would let both her and the baby go.
But just the thought of that made his soul howl with grief...
Daisy bit her lip. “Even if Aria publishes everything, why would anyone care? What does the way you were conceived have to do with you?”
He looked at her incredulously. “Everything.”
She shook her head. “You had an awful childhood and triumphed in spite of it all. That’s the real story, whoever your father was.”