Anger had her spinning, her eyes pinning him, her breath burst through her in fits. “Oh, actually, I’m very pregnant.”
His eyes dropped to her stomach, a muscle jerking at the base of his jaw. “You can’t be.”
She laughed sharply.
“You just said it’s not true.”
“I said what you wanted me to say,” she snapped. “What you desperately wish was the case. But it’s not the truth. I’m pregnant.”
“You’re pregnant,” he repeated, dragging a hand through his dark hair, eyes sweeping closed, shielding his thoughts from her.
“Yes.”
“This is what you were calling to tell me?” His voice was heavy, devoid of emotion.
“Yes.”
He swore in his own tongue, a fierce word that rammed into her with its visceral strength.
“And I’m the father?”
She glared at him. “What do you think?”
“What I think is immaterial. Tell me.”
“Yes,” she hissed. “You’re the father. Ofcourseyou’re the father. Did you think I’d replace you so quickly, Samir?”
They stared at each other in a silence that sparked with electricity. All of Cora’s hopes and dreams lay tattered at her feet. The man opposite her was a stranger.
“I wasn’t going to tell you at first.”
His eyes narrowed.
“I know what a nightmare this is for you, how impossible it is for you to publicly acknowledge our child. I thought that by keeping this a secret, I could spare you from having to make that decision, from having to speak those words to another soul.”
He was silent and Cora had the feeling he was grappling with his thoughts before responding.
“And yet you called me.”
She bit down on her lower lip, the taste of tears filling her throat. “None of this is our baby’s fault,” she said with a grimace. “Our baby shouldn’t grow up thinking they’ve done anything wrong, that their father is ashamed of them, or that I am too ashamed to even have told him. I don’t want to lie to him or her about your identity. Don’t you see, Samir? Everything I do from now on has to be best for this child.” Her eyes sparkled with tears and determination. “That’s all that matters now.”
He was completely silent but she could practically see the wheels turning in his brain.
“So I called to tell you, but you wouldn’t speak to me. You handed me off to some…some…lackey, and expected me to inform them of my pregnancy?”
He had the decency to look regretful.
“I wanted you to know. With no pressure from me, no expectations for you to acknowledge our child. At least privately, you could then choose to have some kind of relationship.” She furrowed her brow. “With our baby, I mean.”
“Our baby,” he repeated the words with disbelief.
“But then, your lackey was perfectly clear that things with us were over, and by getting him to speak to me, I really saw how true that was for you. All things. Not just sleeping together, but any friendship we might have had, and…tenderness of feeling. You wouldn’t even talk to me.” She turned away from him, too upset to look at his face. “Our baby is better off without that kind of rejection.”
“What did you imagine I would say?”
She stared out at the vineyards, strewn with elegantly dressed guests enjoying the afternoon sunshine and excellent champagne.
“I didn’t know,” she said honestly.