‘I rearranged my whole life around that promise of a family. I designed the Casa de Leon track so I could train there, instead of going away to train at other tracks. My parents moved here. My mother was ecstatic at becoming a grandparent.’
The note of pain through his voice rocked her.
‘Angelique wasn’t satisfied?’
‘She wholeheartedly agreed with everything. Until I crashed.’
Her hand tightened around his. ‘I don’t understand. Your crash was serious, yes, but nothing you couldn’t come back from.’
‘I was in a coma for nine days. The team hired someone else to replace me when the doctors told my parents and Angelique it was unlikely I’d race again.’
‘They must have been devastated for you.’
‘My parents were.’
Sadness touched her soul. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what you must have gone through.’
He slid a finger under her chin and lifted her face to his, an echo of pain in his eyes. ‘Nor would I want you to. But this …’ he pulled her closer, his gaze softening a touch …’.this helps.’
With a smile, she lifted her mouth to his. ‘I’m glad.’
Their kiss was gentle, a soothing balm on his turbulent revelations.
When they parted, she glanced again at the trophies. ‘Is that why you don’t let anyone in here? Because it reminds you that your racing career is over?’
‘When I accepted that part of my life was over I locked them away.’ He pulled her away from the cabinet.
‘Wait. You said your parents were devastated? What about Angelique?’
He stiffened again, his gaze turning hooded as he thrust his hands into his pockets. ‘When it turned out I was destined for a job designing cars instead of racing them, she lost interest,’ he said simply, but his oblique tone told a different story.
‘That’s not all, is it?’
Pain washed over his face before he could mask it. ‘Before I crashed Angelique was almost three months pregnant. When I woke from my coma she was no longer pregnant.’
Sasha’s horrified gasp echoed through the room. ‘She had an abortion?’
His eyes turned almost black with pain. ‘Sí. Two months later she married my ex-team boss.’
A wave of horror washed over her. ‘Are you even sure she was pregnant in the first place?’ Considering how heartless the woman had been, Sasha wouldn’t be surprised if she’d faked the pregnancy.
Marco’s movements were uncharacteristically jerky as he reached for his wallet. Beneath the photo, a small grey square slid out. In the light of the trophy room Sasha saw the outline of a tiny body in a pre-natal scan.
Tears gathered in her eyes and fell before she could stop them. With shaking hands she took the picture from him, the memory of her own loss striking into her heart so sharply she couldn’t breathe.
‘I was there the day this was taken. The thing was, all along I suspected Angelique was capable of that. She was extremely ruthless—driven to the point of obsession. But since she channelled all that into being my manager I chose to see it as something else.’
‘Love?’ she suggested huskily.
His jaw tightened. ‘I blinded myself to her true colours. My mother tried to warn me, but I wouldn’t listen to her. I almost cut her out of my life because of Angelique.’ He sucked in a harsh breath. ‘I lost my child … she lost her grandchild … because I chose to bury my head in the sand. She was devastated, and I don’t think she really got over the damage I did to our family.’
Brushing a hand across her cheek, she asked, ‘Why do you keep this?’
Marco took the scan and placed it back in his wallet. ‘I failed to protect my daughter. This reminds me never to fail my family again.’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
MARCO left again the next day and didn’t return for another two. When he returned Sasha met him in the hallway. His dragged her into his study and proceeded to kiss her with brutal need.