‘When were you going to tell me? After you’d had the baby? When it was three months old? The way Nikos had to find out about his son?’
‘No. I don’t know. I was going to tell you soon... I just...’
How could she articulate what she’d been afraid of? First that he would reject his unborn child and now that he would reject her?
‘Maks, I’m sorry. I should have told you that day in London.’
He looked at her for a long moment, a slightly shell-shocked expression on his face, and then he said, ‘This changes everything.’
Zoe looked wary. ‘What do you mean?’
‘We’re a family now.’
Zoe was shaking her head. ‘No, we’re not. That’s a ridiculous thing to say.’
So why did it make treacherous hope bloom?
She thought of something and hope dissolved. ‘I saw those photos of you in Paris with your brothers. That’s why I held back from telling you even when you arrived here. I read the speculation in the papers that you’re all under pressure to settle down and prove that the Marchetti Group is stable. That’s why you’ve suddenly decided that maybe it wouldn’t be a bad thing if I was pregnant, isn’t it?’
* * *
Maks shook his head, as if that would make Zoe’s words make sense. He had no idea what she was talking about. And then he remembered. That drink in Paris with his brothers. Someone had taken surreptitious pictures with their phone and sold them to the tabloids.
‘No, Zoe. No. That’s not what happened.’
But she wasn’t listening. She was backing away again.
‘I won’t do it, Maks. I won’t pretend to be a happy family when we both know it would be a lie. You came here to rekindle an affair, not to make a family. I won’t let you use our baby like this.’
Maks was still reeling at the news that she was pregnant. Reeling and filled with something else—something that was spreading out to every cell in his body, filling him with resolve.
‘Zoe, I came here because I couldn’t stay away. You’ve haunted me for over a month. I can’t look at another woman.’
She shook her head. ‘That’s just lust. You don’t want a family. Stop pretending you’re okay with this.’
All the jagged edges that had rubbed inside Maks all his life were finally slotting into place. He just had to convince Zoe.
He thought of something and pointed out, ‘We didn’t use protection just now.’
* * *
Zoe looked confused, and then understanding sank in. She blushed.
Maks said, ‘If your cycle is regular, and if you weren’t already pregnant, then I think it’s safe to say we took a great risk today. It didn’t even occur to me to use protection, because when I’m with you I can’t think straight. I want you so badly that
all the things I thought I believed in and wanted suddenly don’t matter any more. You’re the only thing that matters.’
Zoe wasn’t sure what Maks was saying, but walls were collapsing and dissolving inside her. Walls she’d erected long ago to keep pain out. Walls that had also kept joy out.
Emotion rose before she could stem it. Emotion she’d been suppressing for years. For ever.
Brokenly, she said, ‘I can’t have a family, Maks. I won’t do it.’
He came close. Too close. ‘Then why didn’t you just get rid of the baby if you feel so strongly about it?’
The very thought made her feel sick. She put a hand on her belly. ‘I never even contemplated doing that.’
‘So you’re happy to have it be just you and the baby?’