Returning to Claim His Heir

‘Well, that makes your earlier reaction to my reappearance even more interesting.’

Something within her bristled at the superior tone in his voice and the evident suspicion in his gaze. The Duarte Avelar she had so briefly known had not had this hardness in him. But, then again, that version of him hadn’t been almost murdered as part of a blackmail plot involving the woman he claimed to have loved.

Still, she was a vulnerable woman with a newborn baby in a hospital bed and, as far as he knew they were perfect strangers.

Duarte stood up straight, his eyes sweeping over her and the small infant, something strange in his gaze. ‘You’ve been through a lot today. I still need to speak with you, but my questions will keep until you have recovered.’

‘Did you come back to Rio looking for answers...or for revenge?’ She asked the question, holding her breath as she waited for the answer that would determine their fate.

His brows knitted together, and when he spoke his voice held a mixture of surprise and keen interest, as though he were dissecting a puzzle. ‘You fear revenge from me, Nora?’

‘You haven’t answered my question.’

She spoke with steel, despite the frantic thrumming of her heartbeat. She was exhausted, and likely still in shock from the events of the past few hours, but she knew she needed to have this conversation for her son’s sake. For her own sake too.

She forced herself to hold his gaze, trying not to be entranced by the features that seemed like a mirror image of the tiny face on her chest.

He seemed to hesitate for a moment, his eyes shifting to take a sweeping look out over the city. When his eyes at last met hers, there was a haunted darkness to them.

‘I came here to find out what truly happened in that shipping yard. For now, that is enough to satisfy me.’

For now.

Nora felt the threat of those words as clear as day. He might not know it yet, but he was on a direct path to retribution. His memories might be missing but his heart was still the same. He would never let this go. He would never forgive her for the part she’d played, unwittingly or not.

The silence stretched between them like an icy lake and she felt whatever slim hope she’d clung to begin to fade to nothing.

She looked up to see him watching her, his brow furrowed with concentration. Time seemed to stop as he opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, taking a few steps towards the window. He braced his hands on the sill, one deep inhalation emphasising the impressive width of his shoulders.

He was leaner than he had been before, his muscular frame less bulky but somehow more defined. The long, angry scar stood out like a kind of tribal marking along the side of his skull. She breathed in the sight of him, knowing that it might be the last time she could. That it needed to be the last time.

‘I will leave you to rest for a few days.’ He spoke with quiet authority. ‘I am not so cruel as to interrogate you in your condition. But I will have my answers, Nora.’

She opened her mouth to order him to leave, fury rising within her at the barely concealed threat in his words, but she froze as she saw the unmistakable look of curiosity he sent towards the tiny baby she held in her arms.

‘Seeing as you don’t have a phone, would you like me to notify anyone about the birth?’ Duarte asked, taking a step closer and peering into Liam’s small sleeping face. ‘Who is his father?’

CHAPTER THREE

NAUSEA TIGHTENED NORA’S already tender body, emotion clogging her throat as she inhaled and prepared herself for another performance. Another cruel twist, cementing her own web of lies beyond repair.

Just as she’d opened her mouth to respond, like an angel of mercy the nurse returned. Nora smiled politely as her son was lifted from her chest and put gently into his cot before the young woman began efficiently taking vitals, asking about her pain and making notes on a detailed chart.

Nora’s vague realisation that she’d still been pregnant only hours ago was laughable, considering that her current sense of fear had completely overshadowed any of the strange sensations in her body from the Caesarean section.

She was painfully aware of his dark eyes watching her from the corner of the room. Her heartbeat skittered in her throat as the nurse widened her eyes at her blood pressure reading and then left the room, mumbling about getting a second opinion.

Nora fought the urge to call after the nurse and beg her to stay. Please, stay.

She wanted to delay the inevitable answer she had to give. The lies she needed to tell to keep her son safe. To keep them all safe.

In an ideal world she would celebrate finding out that the father of her child was alive and had returned to find her. In an ideal world this would be a reunion... But she had long ago learned that no happy endings lay in her future—only an endless fight for survival. The world she lived in was filled with nothing but danger and dire consequences if she took a single step wrong.

She had a tiny life relying on her now; it wasn’t just her own future at stake. She could not let her heart lead her—not again.

‘Who is the baby’s father?’ Duarte repeated.

She avoided his eyes as she folded and refolded the linen blanket on her lap. She bit her lip, trying to come up with a convincing lie, but found she simply couldn’t. So she just went with omission instead, forcing words from her throat. ‘I’m a single mother. I have no family here in Rio.’