A Night, A Secret...A Child

Night was just falling when they emerged from the hall at eight-thirty, by which time Serina had her arguments all fixed firmly in her mind. She clung to the fact that Nicolas had no proof, just suspicion.

‘It’s still very hot out here,’ he complained straight away. ‘I hope your place has air-conditioning. If it doesn’t we’ll be going elsewhere.’

Serina kept her temper with difficulty. ‘It has air-conditioning. On a timer, which I set for eight. The house should be nice and cool by the time we get there. But even if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be going anywhere else with you, Nicolas Dupre.’

‘Is that so?’ came his cold reply. ‘That’s a matter to be seen. My wheels are over here.’ And he took a hold of her arm.

She would have wrenched her arm away if other people hadn’t been nearby. ‘I have my own wheels, thank you very much,’ she said and extracted herself carefully from his grasp. ‘It’s the white car over there. You can follow me home, it’s not far.’

‘How far?’

‘Less than a kilometre. I live up at the top end of Winter Street. Remember the old strawberry farm? Well, developers bought it, tore down the dump of a farmhouse and turned it into a very nice estate. Greg and I bought a block of land there not long after we got married.’

Nicolas really didn’t want to hear about Serina’s life with Greg Harmon. He was still finding it hard to believe what she’d done. The girl he’d known—and loved—wasn’t capable of such deception. There again, the girl who’d come to him that night at the Opera House hadn’t been that same girl. She’d been engaged to Greg Harmon by then. Madly in love with him, obviously, and ready to do anything for him.

But what she’d done had been downright wicked!

If that was what she did, another voice piped up in his head. One that wasn’t quite so ready to condemn. One that was still connected to reason. You might be wrong, Nicolas. Not about Felicity being your daughter, but about how and why she was conceived. Serina might not have planned anything. Maybe it just…happened.

But if that was the case, then why did she go through with marrying Harmon? Why didn’t she come to me? I would have married her. I loved her.

No, he was right the first time. She’d planned it all right.

He knew women could do such things. His own mother had.

His heart hardened once again towards Serina. She had to be made to tell him the truth. Okay, so he probably wouldn’t blackmail her back into his bed. Even he could not condone that kind of outrageous behaviour, much as his dark side relished the idea. That had just been his anger talking and a primal urge for vengeance.

By the time Serina pulled in to the driveway of a cream, cement-rendered, ranch-style home, Nicolas had himself come halfway to reason. But only halfway. He wasn’t in the mood for any bulldust from her.

‘I hope you’re not going to keep on denying it,’ were his first words on joining her on the neat front porch.

She ignored him and went on unlocking the front door.

‘Watch your feet,’ she finally said when she pushed the door open. ‘I have a cat who just loves to wind herself around your legs. Her name is Midnight.’

Nicolas wasn’t one for pets, but he didn’t mind cats. He quite liked their independence.

Not that Serina’s cat seemed to be displaying much of that. She almost tripped both of them up in her rush for attention. Serina eventually scooped the big black cat up into her arms and carried her down the cream-tiled hallway into an open-planned living area that combined the kitchen, dining and sitting rooms.

‘Yes, yes,’ she said soothingly, stroking the cat’s glossy black fur for a while before dropping her onto the kitchen floor. ‘Mummy’s home. I suppose you’re hungry.’ And she turned away to open the refrigerator door.

Nicolas could see that any hope of conversation was nil till the cat was attended to. So he sat down on one of the cane stools that fronted the breakfast bar and shut his mouth whilst he watched Serina fix her pet’s food.

Eventually, however, his eyes strayed to his immediate surroundings.

For a house that hadn’t looked all that large from the street, the inside was extremely spacious, especially this section where there was enough room for a couple of loungers, a huge television, lots of side tables and a large, oval-shaped dining table that would easily seat ten people. The floor was tiled in the same cream tiles as the hallway, but with well-placed rugs for warmth and comfort. The walls were cream, the furniture in various shades of brown and green. It was a well-designed area, perfect for family living and gatherings.