Husband By Request

If she had jumped to conclusions over what Andreas had said about Theo finding them at the apartment together, she could just imagine how Theo had felt.

To see his wife in another man’s bed, especially when that man was a good friend, had to have shattered him. No wonder he’d felt completely betrayed.

“I don’t blame you for thinking the worst, Theo.”

“Thank you, Dominique. If you want to know, I’ve applauded you for your strength in staying away from Andreas. After what you’ve been through, with your illness, you’re too good a person to be taken for granted.”

“According to Olympia, you thought it was courageous of him to marry me in the first place.”

A look of unfeigned surprise broke out on his face. “Courageous?”

“That’s what Olympia told me you’d said.”

“Then she lied to you. She’s good at that.”

Dominique groaned.

Theo eyed her frankly. “The only comment I ever made was that I thought Andreas a luckier man than he knew to have met you.”

Somehow Dominique believed him. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“But you have to admit you thought I was a little mouse of a wife?”

The first smile she’d seen broke at the corner of his mouth. “More a lovely, endangered baby bird who needed protecting.”

It was an apt description.

She had been like a nervous little bird. Paranoid that Andreas’s interest would eventually wear off, uncertain of herself in his sophisticated world of friends and business contacts, frightened of Olympia’s place in Andreas’s life, worried her cancer would come back, fearful she might not be able to give him a child or live long enough to be a proper wife. The list went on and on.

“I’m sorry you were hurt so badly, Theo. Since you and Olympia share a child, it must be hard to work out visitation.”

He shook his head. “I gave up my parental rights to him.”

“What?”

“Don’t look so horrified. After the trial, she informed me that as soon as you and Andreas were divorced they were planning to be married and Andreas would be raising Ari.”

No wonder Olympia had paled when she’d caught Dominique in the stateroom holding Ari. If she and Andreas were on the verge of getting married, the last thing she would want was trouble from Dominique.

“For six months I lived with the assumption that the baby was Andreas’s child. By the time he was born and I received the DNA results learning he was my son, I decided it was best to leave it all alone.”

The room tilted for a moment. She clung to the armrests of her chair. “That’s tragic! You’re a wonderful person. I can’t bear it that your son won’t ever know you.”

He stared at her mournfully. “Andreas has been Ari’s father since the day he took Olympia and the baby home from the hospital. I’m not up to a lifetime of battles.”

“You could live to regret that decision, Theo,” she cried.

“Perhaps. But I hope to marry again. Next time I’ll choose a gentle creature like you, who will love only me and give me a son or a daughter.”

He studied her for a brief moment. “Andreas had it all and didn’t even know it. What a fool he is.”

Theo was still in a state of complete denial about his feelings for Olympia and the baby. Dominique sensed his pain. Something wasn’t right here.

If Dominique didn’t have that talk with Andreas soon, she was going to explode.

“Thank you for answering my questions, Theo. I wish you well. I really do.”