The Secret Wife

With enormous effort, Rosie straightened her slim shoulders and stood her ground but she was deathly pale. ‘I don’t know who you are or what you want—’

‘You know exactly who I am!’ Constantine slung at her, unimpressed, taking a frightening step closer.

‘Stay away from me!’ Rigid with tension, Rosie wondered frantically how he had found out about her and how much he knew.

‘I wish I could ... I really do wish that I could,’ Constantine bit out with clenched fists, the explosive anger that emanated from him screaming along her nerve-endings like a violent storm warning.

Rosie retreated until the backs of her knees hit the divan bed. ‘What do you w-want?’

‘I want to wipe you off the face of this earth but I cannot ... that is what inflames me! How did you persuade Anton to do something so insane?’

‘Do... what?’ she whispered blankly, too scared to be capable of rational thought.

‘How did you persuade one of the most decent men I ever knew to sacrifice all honour and family loyalty?’ Constantine seethed back at her.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about—’

‘Don’t you know what Anton did only days before his death?’ Constantine demanded rawly, scanning the suitcase on the bed with a contemptuously curled lip. ‘Have you any idea what his final words were before he died in my arms?’

Numbly, sickly, Rosie shook her head, a dense cloud of spiralling curls the colour of flames rippling round her rigid shoulders. She hadn’t known that Constantine had been with her father when he died. Ironically that new knowledge brought a lump to her throat and warmed that cold place inside her as she thought of that dreadful day. Anton had not been alone but for his secretary. Constantine had been there, Constantine had been with him, and whether she liked it or not she knew just how much that would have meant to her father.

Constantine gave a great shout of raucous laughter that chilled her. Eyes black as night dug into her with unhidden repulsion. ‘Every word which he struggled to speak related to you!’

‘Oh...’ Her stifled response barely broke the smouldering silence. And she heard his pain and didn’t want to recognise it for what it was because she did not wish to admit that she could share anything with Constantine Voulos.

‘He made me swear on my honour that I would protect you and respect his last wishes. But I didn’t even know of your existence! I didn’t understand who or even what he was referring to...nor did I know until last night what those last wishes were!’ Constantine vented on another surge of barely contained rage that visibly tremored through his long, muscular length. ‘He wrote a new will, and were it not for the fact that the publicity would destroy Thespina I would trail you through every court in Europe and crucify you for the greedy, calculating little vixen that you are before I would allow you to profit by a single drachma!’

‘A new will?’ Her teeth gritted as she withstood the lash of his insults. Hot, angry colour drove away her previous pallor. But at least she now understood what Constantine Voulos was doing here and why he was forcing such a confrontation. Evidently Anton had been foolish enough to leave her something in his will in spite of her fierce assurances that she wanted and needed nothing.

His nostrils flared as he surveyed her with dark fury. ‘Months ago, Thespina suspected that there was another woman in his life. Christos... I actually laughed when she shared her fears with me! I convinced her that it was only the excitement of a new business venture which was making Anton spend so much time in London. I was naive indeed. I underestimated the lure of youth and beauty on even the most honourable of men. Anton was obsessed with you... he died with your name on his lips!’

‘He loved me,’ Rosie mumbled helplessly, the acid sting of tears burning behind her stricken eyes as she turned defensively away.

‘And I would lay my life on the line before I would allow Thespina to endure that knowledge!’ Constantine growled rawly.

She understood then. Evidently Constantine Voulos did not know who she was. He assumed that she was the other woman, Anton’s mistress cosily set up in the proverbial love-nest. It was laughable but she couldn’t laugh. Her tremulous mouth compressed into a bloodless line. Anton had kept their secret to protect his wife. A twenty-one-year-old betrayal had gone to the grave with him. She owe

d it to her father to keep faith with him. The truth would only cause greater pain and distress and for what gain?

She didn’t need whatever Anton had left her. She had her own life to lead and she had no desire to take possession of anything which more rightfully belonged to her father’s widow. That would be wrong, morally wrong, she felt. The ring was different. It was her only tangible link to a heritage and a background she had lived all her life without.

‘As you can see... I’m leaving.’ Rosie lifted her bright head high and surveyed the intimidatingly tall, dark Greek with bitter antipathy ‘You have nothing to worry about. I wasn’t planning to hang around and embarrass anyone—’

‘If it were that simple, we would not be having this distasteful meeting,’ Constantine incised fiercely. ‘I would be forcibly ejecting you from this house!’

Rosie vented a scornful laugh, her own hot temper steadily rising. ‘Really?’ she challenged.

He glanced at the open suitcase, his hard mouth twisting. ‘You weren’t leaving. Possibly you were planning a brief trip somewhere but nothing will convince me that you were about to make a final departure.’

Rosie dealt him a withering glance. ‘My, aren’t we self-important? What gives you the idea that I would waste my breath trying to convince you of anything?’

A dark surge of blood accentuated the savage slant of his dramatic cheekbones. Naked derision fired his dark eyes. ‘I will not lower myself to the level of trading insults with a whore.’

Rosie had a sharp tongue which few attempted to match. She hadn’t expected a provocative response. Thwarted fury stormed through her. ‘Get out!’ she launched at him abruptly. ‘Just get out and leave me alone, you ignorant swine!’

‘Not before you answer one question,’ Constantine asserted in a sudden hiss as he stared broodingly back at her. ‘Are you pregnant?’

Rosie stilled in shock, glancing down at the flowing swing blouse she was wearing and then intercepting his narrowed glance travelling in exactly the same direction. Her cheeks crimsoned.