“Vera.” The voice calling me turned the blood in my veins to ice. I looked over my shoulder and found Paisley staring back at me, her eyes shooting poison arrows. She stood with her arms crossed under her ample breasts, wearing platform espadrille Louboutin’s that made her look seven feet tall.
“What are you doing here?” I asked in a drone-like voice.
Her eyes assessed me shrewdly, then turned scalding with contempt. “I see he took you shopping.”
“What do you want, Paisley?”
The tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention. I turned and caught Bear craning his neck, watching us with pointed interest from the Mercedes. When I turned back around, Paisley stepped forward aggressively, forcing me to look up to meet her virulent gaze.
“This is what’s going to happen you gold digging whore. You’re going to leave Geneva. You’re going to go away and stay away. You won’t say a word about any of this to Sebastian. And you’ll do it by Sunday.”
A cruel smile tilted the corners of her mouth up. Blood rose up my neck and spread over my face. A thousand emotions took turns bubbling to the surface. I don’t know how I found the strength to measure my words.
“And if I don’t?”
“I was hoping you’d say that. In that case, I’ll go to the tabloids. Tell them about the dirty, illegal immigrant that got knocked up on purpose and manipulated her way into Sebastian’s heart. It’s leading him to make poor decisions that put the bank at risk. Investors will jump ship and you’ll be completely responsible for bankrupting one of Switzerland’s most prestigious privately owned banks…I’ll make sure there’s nothing left by the time I’m done.”
That was a sucker punch to the gut. She had struck with the precision of a heavy weight champ, right to the solar plexus. And I had walked right into it. She knew I would do anything to protect him.
“How did you find out?” For some reason, I needed to know.
“That dumb redhead that works for him, Ingrid, Irene…she overheard you talking on the phone with your doctor and couldn’t wait to tell his mother.”
That was the meaty left hook to the jaw that left me bleeding.
“His mother?”
“Were you under the impression that Diana approved of a filthy peasant like you shacking up with her precious son?”
…and the knock out punch.
“I’ll be gone by Sunday,” I said in a defeated voice.
“Good choice.” She smirked and slid her dark Tom Ford sunglasses back on. “Bon voyage,” she said, laughing as she walked away.
In the Mercedes, I sat in the back seat, arms crossed and chewing on my lower lip while Bear studied me in the rearview mirror. I was doing a lousy job masking the anxiety that gripped me by the throat with long, slender fingers. He didn’t buy my explanation that I had run into Paisley by accident, the suspicion conspicuous in his eyes.
On the drive back, the countryside sped by in a blur, time and objects having lost their shape and meaning. Wandering the labyrinthine alleys of my predicament, I searched frantically for a way out that would cause the least amount of damage, but everywhere I turned I walked into dead ends. Because one truth was absolute––Paisley was not bluffing. She would destroy him if she couldn’t have him.
I couldn’t blame Isabelle entirely, the mistake was mine in equal measure. I should have been more careful from the beginning. I should have…no, I wouldn’t let that bitch make me regret loving him. Nothing would ever make me regret that. He was the best thing that had ever happened to me. But I couldn’t dwell on Sebastian, or I would turn hysterical to the point of madness.
I won’t survive it. I won’t… His words kept echoing. And by the look in his eyes he had meant it, believed it with all his heart. After I reached Milan, I would write him, email him, explain what had happened––that I had to leave to protect him. I couldn’t let him believe that I would betray him in any way. I would’ve rather died than allow him to believe that.
Two nights. That’s all I had left. Two night to say goodbye forever to the man I loved, the only man I would ever love this way again. The father of my child. My best friend. I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood, trying to push back the tears glistening in my eyes. Tears, I suspected, that Bear had already noticed.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“The market slows down at the end of July. I’m planning a long vacation for us.”
“Sebastian––” His bed had become a small island the two of us were marooned on. I only wished it were true. We were both lying on our stomachs, facing each other. His fingers traced my shoulder blade and skated down the rungs of my spine, making me shiver and smile.