Bond of Hatred

‘Your sister died!’ Alex shot at her furiously.

‘Because she chose to become pregnant, not because Damon went back to his wife!’ As she registered Alex’s amazement, Sarah grimaced and shrugged. ‘Damon did what he could. He sent her money. He didn’t just abandon her.’

‘Yes,’ Damon confirmed, shooting her a painfully grateful look for her intercession on his behalf.

Alex expelled his breath in a thwarted hiss. Sarah wondered if he made a habit of reducing his kid brother to a speechless basket case on the brink of tears, and no longer marvelled at the lies Damon had told to save his own skin at Callie’s expense. She herself had only one other question to ask Damon.

‘Why did you offer to take Nicky and bring him up?’

Damon stiffened and the silence stretched. ‘It was the only thing I could do to make up for her dying,’ he finally conceded. ‘And Andy agreed.’

‘Did you really want him?’ Sarah murmured tautly, skimming a silencing glance at Alex, who was visibly outraged at the turn of the conversation. ‘I want to know, Damon. And I’d appreciate the truth. It’ll never go beyond these walls.’

‘No, I didn’t want him,’ Damon muttered. ‘I’m really grateful that you and Alex have taken responsibility for him. It wouldn’t have done much for my marriage...’

‘He’s done a hell of a lot for mine,’ Alex murmured drily, his anger draining away as he regarded his younger brother’s utterly defeated and cowed aspect. ‘Luckily for you.’

‘Well, you and Sarah seem to be getting on great,’ Damon said uncomfortably.

‘Like a house on fire,’ Sarah told him gently, her bitterness completely laid to rest. He was a little boy who had never grown up and probably never would.

Damon stood up with speed, dashed a self-conscious hand across his damp eyes and headed for the door. ‘Do you s

till want us to come to the party?’ he asked.

‘Of course,’ Sarah said with determined cheer, since Alex was fuming at the speed of Damon’s exit.

Androula was in the hall. She came straight across to Sarah with eyes that unflinchingly met hers. ‘I went up to see Nicky. He’s beautiful,’ she said quietly. ‘I don’t mind. I really don’t mind, because I have Damon back, you see. Can you understand that?’

Sarah could, and was relieved to see that Vivien’s daughter was not hostile towards her. She watched them leave, Andy slipping her hand comfortingly into Damon’s. Damon hadn’t gone to see Nicky, had expressed no such desire, probably would be far happier to regard Nicky as her and Alex’s son rather than as anything to do with him. It was the easy way out for him, Sarah registered ruefully, and Damon undoubtedly made a practice of taking the easy way out.

‘So much for the fond father,’ Alex derided, sharing her thought. ‘I still had a great deal to say to him. Why did you interfere?’

‘Because he couldn’t take it and because I didn’t want him to hate me forever because you humiliated him in front of me,’ Sarah murmured quietly. ‘He’s weak, Alex, but he’s not wicked and I think he’s suffered enough. Callie’s death must have been the most appalling shock to him.’

Alex lifted his hands and rested them on her slight shoulders. ‘You’re a very generous and intelligent woman,’ he murmured tautly. ‘And I owe you a very big apology for some of the things I’ve said about—’

‘No apology required. Just as I believed Callie, you believed him.’ Sarah reached up to plant a kiss on his startled mouth. ‘Now make Henri feed us before I pass out,’ she teased.

‘I thought you were about to offer Nicky back to them,’ Alex confided darkly, over the meal that was swiftly provided for them.

‘I had to know how he really felt,’ Sarah explained. ‘Now I won’t ever have to feel that I deprived him of his son.’

‘Our son now,’ Alex countered possessively. ‘Andy will give Damon a son and they will both forget that he ever had another.’

Sarah smiled abstractedly. Not much more than a month ago, Alex had doused the candles on the table between them. He wasn’t doing that tonight, and full marks to Henri. Henri patently didn’t need Vivien around to read the writing on the wall.

‘We’ll go somewhere in the Caribbean,’ Alex was saying.

Propping her chin on her hand, Sarah smothered an enormous yawn, quite content to listen to Alex making plans for a honeymoon in the sun. Her eyelids drooped lower and lower.

‘I think it’s time you went to bed.’ She opened her eyes and found Alex grinning down at her.

‘At this hour?’

‘You’re exhausted and we have a very big day tomorrow,’ he reminded her, tugging her out of her seat.

‘You’re not planning on going out anywhere...are you?’ Sarah muttered anxiously.