She lifted her chin. “Better no father at all than someone who will let him down, and teach him all the wrong lessons about how to be a man. How to lie. How to make meaningless promises. How to be ruthless and selfish and care only about himself!”
Stavros hadn’t thought he had much of a heart left, but her words stabbed him deep. He thought of his own childhood, growing up without a father. Having to figure out for himself how to be a man.
Hardly aware of what he was saying, he insisted, “But what if I want to be in his life? What if I want to help raise him?”
Holly’s eyes widened.
Then her lips twisted scornfully. “I’ve heard that lie before.”
“This is different...”
“You might have lured me once into some romantic fantasy. Never again.” Crossing the cabin, she wrenched open the door. A blast of cold air flew inside, whipping the fire with its icy fingers. “Please go. Don’t come back. Have your lawyers send me the papers.” She looked at him coldly. “There’s no reason for us to ever meet again.”
“Holly, you’re not being fair—”
It was the wrong word to use.
“Fair?” Turning, she called out to the driver parked in front of the cabin. “Your boss is ready to leave.”
Stavros’s head was spinning. He needed time. He hadn’t even seen his baby, or held him in his arms. He wasn’t sure what he wanted anymore. But Holly was already making the decision for both of them.
She didn’t want any part of him. Not as a husband. Not as a father. Even his money wasn’t good enough.
Fine, he told himself coldly. He’d keep his money. He didn’t need her. Or their baby.
“Fine. You’ll have the papers by the end of the day,” he told her grimly.
“Good,” she said in the same tone.
Stavros set his jaw, glaring at her. Then he stalked out of the cabin without a word, his long dark coat flying behind him as he breathed a Greek curse that left a whisper of white smoke in the icy air. The frozen snow crackled beneath his Italian leather shoes as he passed his waiting driver and got into the back seat of the Rolls-Royce Cullinan.
“Let’s go,” he growled to his driver.
“Where to, Mr. Minos?”
“Back to the airport,” Stavros barked. He’d tried to take responsibility, but she didn’t want him in their baby’s life. Fine. He’d give her exactly what she wanted. He’d call his lawyers and have them draw up the new papers, severing his parental rights, and giving Holly absolutely nothing.
All my most impossible dreams are suddenly coming true.
The memory of her trembling voice came back to him, whispered into the silent, sweet night last Christmas Eve. Leaning his head back against the leather seat, Stavros closed his eyes, pushing away the memory. Along with how it had felt to have her body against his that sacred, holy night.
But as the Rolls-Royce wound its way back through the Swiss valley, his shoulders only grew more tense. He stared out at the picturesque valley, blanketed by white snow sparkling beneath the sun.
For the past year, he’d hidden his illness from everyone, driving himself harder at work, so no one would know his secret. When he’d gotten the shocking news that he was going to live, he’d been alone in the medical clinic, with no one to share the miracle except for doctors eagerly planning to document the case to medical journals and astonish their colleagues.
Was this how he would spend that miracle? Abandoning the woman he’d seduced last Christmas...and the child they’d conceived together? Leaving a son to grow up without a father, and would despise Stavros as a heartless stranger?
If he did, he truly was a Minos to the core.
His eyes flew open.
“Stop,” he said hoarsely
.
CHAPTER SIX
HOLLY PUSHED HER stroller through the festive Christmas market in Zedermatt’s tiny town square.