How it happened she was never sure, whether by accident or design. But as she lifted her arm, Leon shifted his resting arm, catching her shawl so that the fine silk slithered from her shoulders and fell in a whisper to the floor.
An audible gasp shot around the garden, the necklace losing its impact as all eyes honed in on her obvious state of pregnancy. Someone knocked over a drink, the glass splintering noisily as it smashed against a wine bottle. Someone else giggled, a nervous sound that was cut off as acutely as it had begun. And Jemma stood, paralysed and feeling utterly exposed, as Leon’s father went perfectly white, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on her body.
Then Leon was saying in a tight commanding whisper, ‘Take her hand, Father. Welcome your new daughter into the family.’
Dimitri Stephanades jerked his eyes back to his son’s. There was definite shock written there and something else Jemma could not interpret but knew that, whatever it was, it went very deep. Then he swallowed, and said something hoarsely in Greek. Leon nodded. ‘Most definitely mine!’ he said with a fierce driving possessiveness. ‘My child. My son!’ he added triumphantly. ‘I have seen him living and moving with my own eyes!’
Shock hit her broadside, closing her eyes and draining her face of the last vestige of colour, sending her outstretched hand dropping to her side where it clenched into a tight, trembling fist. A son. Leon knew their child was a boy, and her mind flicked back to the day they had visited the doctor and Leon had slipped away to speak to him privately while Jemma got dressed again. The doctor had asked while they watched the scan of their child whether they wished to know its sex, and Jemma had said no, firmly, because she wanted to enjoy the element of surprise.
Now Leon had spoiled that forever, and in front of one hundred witnesses. Ruthless she knew him to be, or he would not be the formidable force he was to the business world. Angry with his father she had known. But this angry—this ruthless, that he would use her as some kind of weapon that was at this very moment causing some great chain reaction among the murmuring crowd, and that he had destroyed forever her trust in him?
She wanted to turn and run, get out of here and away from all these people and their little power games—because she was in no doubt that it was a struggle for power that was taking place right now—but her legs would not allow her to move. They were stiff and tingling with the imminent threat of completely collapsing beneath her and she knew the only thing that was holding her upright was Leon’s arm—treacherous though it was—clamped about her thickened waist.
Someone tried to say something, her voice sharp with shock. But Leon’s father waved her into silence. It was Leon’s stepmother, her black eyes glazed with horror as she sank heavily back into her chair. Then Dimitri Stephanades was looking pleadingly at his eldest son.
Leon did not move, neither physically nor emotionally. ‘You have an announcement to make,’ he reminded him. ‘I suggest you do it—then we talk, I think.’
It was so obviously the conditional terms of a victor to the defeated that it seemed decidedly odd, even to Jemma’s totally stunned mind, that his father’s eyes should suddenly look fire-bright with what she could only describe as elation.
‘Of course,’ he agreed, and almost dutifully turned to face the silenced party.
‘As you all no doubt know,’ he began smoothly enough, ‘today I reached my sixty-fifth year, and the doctors, wise men that they are, have advised me it is time to abdicate my throne and go tend my vines.’ A ripple of nervous laughter skittered around the garden. ‘Let no one think it is an easy thing to accept that I am getting too old to maintain control of what has been my life’s work, for it is not,’ he confessed. ‘But, for my own health’s sake—and the sake of the Leonadis Corporation—I have decided to hand over the reins of power into more—capable hands.’ His tone alone said he was doing so reluctantly. ‘I have two sons,’ he continued flatly, ‘both of whom I am undoubtedly proud of, both equally capable of reigning supreme in my place. I therefore had a choice,’ he explained. ‘To split the company into two and give them one half each, or do what any wise businessman should do and keep the company strong in unity. I chose unity,’ he informed the listening throng. ‘Consequently, several weeks ago I had drawn up a legal document, laying down the grounds on which either son could ascend into my place. It involved several points I considered necessary before I would hand my life’s work over to their care, the most important of these being, of course, the continuance of the Stephanades line. I therefore made this proviso...’ He paused and took in a breath of air. ‘The first of them to provide me with the grandson I so much desire will take my place as chairman of the Leonadis Corporation. This, of course, was to be the nucleus of my announcement tonight but—’ the twisted smile appeared again ‘—as you can all see, my son Leonadis has pre-empted me. So...’ he lifted his eyes, sending them on a cool scan of his rapt audience, then picked up the half-filled champagne glass standing in front of him ‘...please stand and raise your glasses to Leon and his wife—Jemma...’ The name fell stiltedly off his tongue. ‘And, because Leon informs me it is so and I have never had any reason to doubt his word, my as yet unborn grandson. I therefore announce Leon as my immediate successor. Yássas!’ he concluded, and drank.
Silence—it was both spectacular and nullifying. Then the place seemed to erupt as a hundred people came to their feet, and while Jemma stood, numbed through to the very core of her being by the depth of Leon’s usage of her, they raised their glasses and said, ‘Yássas!’ just as she sank into a deep, dark faint.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
JEMMA came around slowly, the sound of voices raised in anger and the blurred impression that she was not going to like what she was coming back to keeping her sunk in a semi-conscious haze. She vaguely recalled Leon carrying her inside the house and laying her gently on something smooth and soft, but other than that she did not remember—and did not want to.
‘But this is madness, Dimitri!’ a shrill voice suddenly cried, high-pitched and impossible to ignore. ‘We know nothing about this woman—or the child she carries! It could well not even be Leon’s child!’
‘Are you suggesting I am a fool, Anthia?’ From much, much closer, Leon’s voice was quiet but deadly grim.
‘No. But I am suggesting that you would sink to anything to grab full power!’
‘Including claiming another man’s child as my own, it seems.’
‘And why not?’ the cold voice challenged. ‘It is all a little too convenient, is it not? After all, who is she? What is she? Why is it that we knew nothing of her existence until tonight?’
‘She is my wife,’ Leon stated harshly. ‘The rest is none of your business!’
‘It is if this is just a deliberate ploy to disinherit your brother!’
‘Half-brother,’ Leon corrected. ‘There is a subtle but fundamental difference. The Leonadis Corporation belonged to my mother, not his.’
‘Enough,’ another deep voice commanded. ‘This has gone far enough! Leon, you will remember, please, that the Leonadis company is mine, regardless of its origin. And you, Anthia, will not imply that Leon is a cheat. He is my son, and his loyalty to me has always been unimpeachable.’
‘Until tonight,’ Dimitri’s wife could not resist adding.
God, thought Jemma, she could taste the bitterness and hostility. It sickened her, turned her stomach and made her wonder just what she had been thrust into here.
She moved, struggling to push herself into a sitting position, and brought an icy hand up to cover her clammy brow.
‘Jemma.’ Leon was beside her in an instant, squatting down to bring his face at a level with her own. He looked grim and anxious, his eyes raking over her colourless face. Behind him Jemma could see the small clutch of stiff and angry people eyeing her grimly from the other side of the room. ‘How do you feel?’ he murmured concernedly. ‘Any pain, discomfort? I grabbed you quite roughly when you fainted. And you have been out a long time.’ Frowning, he reached out to brush a stray lock of hair from her ice-cold cheek. ‘It concerned me enough to call the doctor,’ he informed her. ‘He will be here soon.’
‘Safeguarding your interests, Leon?’ she jeered, shrugging his hand away.
His mouth tightened, but he did not retaliate, studying her frowningly instead, calculating the extent of her physical distress, the emotional one already self-evident.