A Bride to Redeem Him

‘I am Chairman of the Delaroche Foundation and I won’t allow it,’ Jean-Baptiste growled. Rather like a child throwing a playground tantrum, Louis realised abruptly.

He shrugged and reached for the door handle.

‘As I said, there is a legal obligation. Neither of us can interfere with that.’

‘You’re threatening me.’

‘No.’ Louis shook his head. ‘I’m telling you the facts. I’m even offering you the opportunity to emerge with your reputation, not to mention your dignity, intact. Which, frankly, is more than you deserve.’

‘You’re blackmailing me into signing the Lefebvre Group over to you. You? Chairman? It’s laughable.’

‘No more laughable that letting you get away with snatching control of the group before my mother’s body was even cold.’ Louis didn’t know how he restrained himself. ‘And, for sake of clarity, I’ll say again that I am not blackmailing you, I am presenting you with the facts.’

‘If I sign the Lefebvre Group over to you then my reputation will be safe?’ Jean-Baptiste’s eyes glittered malevolently. ‘You seem to forget that the Delaroche board is my board. I own them, every single one of them, and I’ll destroy the Lefebvre Group before you even get there.’

‘You can try, I suppose.’ Louis felt unbreakable, totally in command, and he intended to hold onto that feeling for as long as he could. ‘But I don’t think you can. The Lefebvre Group is my mother’s legacy, and you already tried to destroy it once before and failed. Now I owe it to her to keep it alive.’

‘You think you owe anything to the woman who abandoned you?’ Jean-Baptiste was almost incandescent. ‘Do you forget that she took her own life rather than watch her only son, her only child, grow up? Is that what your little whore has taught you? To be weak and pathetic, and so desperate you’ll pretend your mother didn’t know what her choice would do to her kid?’

Not now. Not yet.

The madness that ravaged its way through him was destructive. Louis recognised that, and it was all he could not to let it cripple him at the knees. He bit back any response that might alert his father to the fact that he knew the truth. He needed those papers signed first.

‘I’m claiming it, as she always wanted me to.’

‘You’re that desperate that you, of all people, are getting married. Do you think I didn’t realise what it was all about, you making such a public spectacle of asking your nobody girlfriend to marry you?’

Something fired inside him. It was one thing for Jean-Baptiste to come after him, quite another to go after his sweet Alex. He wanted to lay his father out on the floor right now, but he couldn’t afford to let his fury show.

‘I asked Alex to marry me because I wanted to. Because I—’ Shock hit him. He took a deep breath, the realisation washing over him. ‘Because I love her.’

‘You?’ Jean-Baptise mocked. ‘You don’t know the first thing about love. You never had it, and, if your less than stellar history is anything to go by, you never gave it either.’

Because he hadn’t thought he deserved it. Because he’d been ashamed that his mother hadn’t loved him enough for it to stop her taking her own life. Because that’s what his father had told him, and he’d stupidly believed everything Jean-Baptiste had said back then.

‘Your mother never loved you enough. How could she? Look at you. But if she did, then maybe it was your inability to love her back that made her commit suicide.’

Louis steeled himself. But the pain never hit.

Not the way it once had.

Something inside him stood strong, true. Like a beacon of light. Something that Alex had put there.

‘I love Alex,’ Louis reiterated, barely recognising his own raw voice or the admission that he had tried to pretend wasn’t true for far too long.

It was there, and it was real. He loved her. He wasn’t sure when it had happened. Perhaps it had started from that first meeting, but now there was no denying it. No hiding.

‘There is no wedding tomorrow, we called it off. We won’t marry for you, or for a contract, or for Rainbow House. But one day we will marry. And it will be for love.’

‘Beautiful sentiment.’ The acidulous words were matched only by the unpleasant sneer and slow handclap. ‘Though I’m not sure the press will buy it. Not when I tell them exactly what kind of sham your engagement has been.’

Louis stood, his palms flat on the table, his body leaning over, and took in the vicious gleam in his father’s eyes as the old man waited for him to lose his temper.

Well, not today.

He could almost hear Alex’s soft voice in his head as he dredged up an icy smile, but a smile nonetheless. His voice was low and even.

‘Fine. Go ahead and tell the media whatever you want. You’re going to anyway. But don’t pretend it’s anything other than to destroy her reputation for your own revenge. And it won’t change anything. You’ve still lost. I will take control of the Lefebvre Group and Rainbow House, which my mother and my grandfather worked so tirelessly to support. I don’t need to marry Alex. I want to marry her.’