Irate at finding himself in the position of being reproved for his behaviour, Atreus held up two hands to still the flood of condemnation flowing from her. ‘You’re not listening to me. I deeply regret any distress that has been caused, but this was not a mistake of my making.’
Lindy shook her head unimpressed. ‘You don’t think so? You’re a ruthless bastard, Atreus. You have a God-given belief in your right to put your wishes above everyone else’s, no matter how selfish or wrong you are in principle. Oh, yes, that’s one more thing you lack—principles…’
Atreus stared back at her with chilling intensity. ‘You are here to strike back at me because I walked out on you at the weekend?’
It was Lindy’s turn to get mad. ‘No, I am not!’ she protested, her eyes brightening with fury. ‘I just wanted you to know what I think of you, because I won’t agree to see you or speak to you again if you get down on your knees and beg!’
‘Message received, but the scenario you suggest is highly unlikely to happen,’ Atreus derided, soft as silk. ‘However, you may disregard this foolish document and make your own decision about where you live and do business without any fear of interference from me or from any of my employees.’
‘It’s too late for that. Ironically, you’re going to get what you want—I’m moving out just as soon as it can be arranged,’ Lindy admitted tightly. ‘I’m lucky that I have some real friends, who don’t feel the need to use the power of their wealth and position to persecute people who dare to annoy them!’
His lean, darkly handsome features set hard, Atreus strode round his desk. ‘What a drama queen you can be!’ he condemned. ‘How can you possibly accuse me of persecuting you?’
Lindy was recalling his pronounced air of detachment when she had first entered his office, and the turmoil of her teeming thoughts suddenly fixed on the recognition of one deeply unsettling and wounding fact. ‘I can see now that you were never comfortable with being involved with me. I didn’t fit, I didn’t match your high expectations, and I was never good enough in your eyes to be anything other than a mistress. I will never forgive you for the way you have treated me.’
An ebony brow quirked. ‘I’d like to get back to work now…if you’re finished?’
And all the way back home on the train his unemotional parting words haunted Lindy. How could she still be so in love with a man like that? And how could he be so horribly, hatefully indifferent to her? But she had no regrets about having paid him a visit. This time he knew how she felt, and she could only hope that something of what she had said stayed with him.
The following day Lindy went to see her doctor. She was sent to the nurse for tests and sat around afterwards in the waiting room, feeling dreadfully tired and nauseous again even though she had been sick earlier that morning.
When she was called back in the doctor had a shock in store for her.
‘You’re pregnant,’ she was told.
Her response to the doctor was that it was totally impossible! The doctor looked weary, as though he had heard that claim before, and asked to examine her while making enquiries as to her menstrual cycle. It was true that she’d felt her system was a little out of kilter, she acknowledged, but she argued that no risks at all had been taken. The doctor cheerfully pointed out that certain unmistakable changes were already taking place in her body, and informed her that it was possible to have an unusually light period in the early stages of conception, before the pregnancy hormones fully kicked in. By the time he had told her that condoms could have up to a twelve percent failure rate in the first year of use, she was beginning to sink into the shock of acceptance.
She drove home with care, struggling to adapt to the reality that she and Atreus had quarrelled bitterly and broken up while all the time a tiny new life was growing inside her womb. Her sense of wonder and warmth towards that little being was soon disrupted by less pleasant feelings. Atreus didn’t want her and he would certainly not want her baby. The knowledge chilled her, but Atreus had been brutally frank on the subject of children. He would only consider having a family when he was married—to a suitably rich Greek woman.
Alissa rang to chat at length about her plans for Lindy’s move, and midway through the conversation Lindy blurted out that she too was expecting a child.
‘My goodness! Have you told Atreus?’
Lindy explained in some detail why nothing would persuade her to organise such a ghastly confrontation. ‘I couldn’t face it—not knowing that he doesn’t want the baby or me.’