That was something that she and Sev did have in common because, as a child growing up, Sev had also not enjoyed a parent’s love. His father might be a warm caring man who loved him now as an adult but Sev would still instinctively seek to gain his approval, Amy reasoned unhappily, because thinking of all the reasons why sheshouldn’tmarry Sev when truly shewantedto marry him lowered her spirits.
‘You’ve done wonders with this place,’ Sev told her as he strode into the drawing room and surveyed its stylish comfort appreciatively.
Amy winced. ‘Anyone could have done it. All I did was clear away the clutter,’ she pointed out, failing to mention the updated touches she had added, like cushions and throws.
His black straight brows pleated. ‘Why do you do that? Always refuse a compliment? Run yourself down?’
Amy shrugged a slight shoulder. ‘That’s just me.’
‘That’s just you not thinking enough of yourself,’ Sev contradicted, studying her troubled face with concealed concern. ‘We’ll eat out tonight, so you can put on one of those dresses you never wear.’
‘Dresses aren’t really practical with animals around,’ Amy told him gently, gazing back at him with violet eyes that were wide and soft. ‘It’s not because I don’t like them.’
Sev was so gorgeous that she still wanted to pinch herself to persuade herself that she was not living a dream. But there he stood, the living embodiment of her every fantasy: tall and dark and devastatingly handsome and sexy. She would treasure and cherish every moment she had with him, she told herself, while knowing that real life wasn’t like a dream or a fantasy, especially not for an ordinary girl like her.
She had finally learned how Sev spelt his name and had gone online to satisfy her curiosity. That had been a double-edged sword of discovery, she conceded ruefully. Seeing Sev with a wide and varied selection of sophisticated, really beautiful women had done nothing for her ego and had done even less to convince her that he would ever stay with her in the long term.
After lunch, Amy went out to the barn and the animals. To her delight, two of the dogs and one cat had been rehomed since their arrival, but the day before three puppies had been abandoned in a carboard box by the front gate. Word of the rescue shelter at Oaktree had spread and Amy had anxiously warned Sev that more animals would appear if it wasn’t made clear that the shelter as such was no longer open to expansion.
‘But itis. I thought that’s what you wanted?’ Sev had countered. ‘I told the vet we were open for business.’
‘Have you considered the running costs?’ Amy had pressed, but Sev had only laughed while contriving to get a lead attached to Kipper’s collar, who, with attention, was beginning to bite less often. Amy, however, reckoned that it was only Sev who didn’t get nipped because Kipper adored him...just as she did, Amy reflected ruefully. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she lifted it out.
‘You have a visitor. I put him in the drawing room,’ Martha told her cheerfully. ‘He didn’t want to give his name, said he wanted to surprise you.’
Amy trudged back towards the house, wondering who it was because she didn’t get visitors the way other people did and certainly not playful folk of the kind who might want to surprise her. Gemma had come to see her one weekend with her son in tow and had stayed for lunch, gobsmacked by Amy’s new lifestyle and silenced utterly by one appearance from Sev, but there had been nobody else because her long working hours had made it a challenge for Amy to make friends and keep them. Sev had invited close friends of his own to dinner one evening though, and that had gone surprisingly well. At least, Amy had thought it surprising that the guests were all so friendly towards her, but Sev hadn’t found it unexpected at all.
Briefly checking her appearance in a hall mirror to see that she was at least clean and presentable, she walked into the large drawing room with her ready smile pinned to her lips. The smile fell from her face entirely when she found herself confronted by Oliver Lawson’s frowning visage.
Amy was thrown off balance, her brows pleating, her triangular face losing colour. ‘Why are you here to see me?’ she asked, shocked into stillness.
‘I want you to sign an NDA and I’m prepared to pay you handsomely for doing so,’ he revealed with a stiff unconvincing smile, his cold dark blue eyes locked to her with unnerving force.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Amy murmured uneasily, although she knew that an NDA was a non-disclosure agreement that prevented someone from talking about what the other party did not want to be talked about in public.
‘I want your legal agreement that you will never disclose my identity as your father to anyone,’ Oliver extended in grim explanation.
Martha appeared and stood in the doorway offering coffee. In a numb voice, Amy dismissed her again. ‘I have no wish to tell anyone that you are my father,’ Amy told the older man truthfully as soon as the door closed on Martha’s exit.
‘Excellent,’ he responded with unabashed approval.
‘But I’mnotwilling to sign anything that guarantees my silence as I don’t think you have any right to ask me for that. It’s my business if I want to tell people or not,’ Amy completed with quiet assurance.
Oliver Lawson shot her a look of immediate anger, his thin features flushing and tightening, giving her the impression that he was a man with a very short fuse. ‘I paid your mother to keep her quiet for twenty years!’ he slung at her with withering distaste. ‘I met my obligations to both of you!’
‘I can’t comment on the money you gave her, only to say that legally you were bound to contribute to the cost of maintaining your child,’ Amy countered stiffly, while she wondered if it had even once occurred to Sev that her father might seek her out to confront her with his angry dissatisfaction at her very existence in the world. ‘If my mother chose to keep you a secret that was her choice, but it may not be mine, although to be frank again I have no current desire to mention you to anyone.’
‘I want a legal, binding agreement to keep you quiet!’ Oliver thundered back at her, moving closer to take up an intimidating stance. ‘Do you realise what that vulgar staged appearance of yours has done to my life? My wife is distraught! My marriage is in ruins! As for mycareer...’
Amy squared her shoulders. ‘The decisions you made at my birth are not my problem or my concern,’ she retorted with dignity. ‘I can only speak for myself and I don’t think I need to sign anything for your benefit.’
Deep down inside herself, Amy was cringing from the man, whom she so strongly resembled in colouring, while he strode up and down in front of her, angry and desperate.Her father.That truth felt surreal because he was so clearly a man to whom the designation of fatherhood meant nothing at all. He wasn’t interested in her in any way and was completely divorced from her as another human being related to him by blood. She had already surmised those facts by his reaction to her at the party but his second appearance in her life was needlessly upsetting, she conceded heavily. At the same time, she felt strong enough to stand her ground and honestly state her opinion to the older man, refusing to allow him to visibly upset her because she had her pride, and she had lived over twenty years without her father and knew she could continue doing so without harm.
‘Why not? Youneedmy money! And if you don’t need it now, you soon will.’ Oliver Lawson spat out a contemptuous laugh and looked her up and down with scorn. ‘Do you really think you’re so secure with Cantarelli? You won’t hold him more than a few weeks. He’ll get bored with you and then where will you be? Out on the street where you belong like every other little gold-digging slut!’
In the same instant as Amy backed away in dismay from that offensive verbal attack, someone pressed her carefully to one side and flashed in front of her. It was Sev, she registered incredulously as he planted a fist in her father’s face and sent him flying down onto the rug in a startled heap. ‘Don’t youdarecall Amy a slut!’ Sev seethed, hauling a groaning Oliver Lawson up by his jacket and evidently ready to hit him again.
Amy yanked at Sev’s arm as he raised it threateningly a second time, shaken by his intervention but grateful for it as well. ‘No,don’thit him again. Just get him out of the house,’ she urged shakily.