‘When Sofia was dying, she had a letter sent to me in which she confessed her darkest secret. She didn’t have the nerve to tell her husband so she told me instead.’ Kreon drew a crumpled envelope from his pocket and passed it to her. ‘Give it to Jax, let him decide what to do with it now. In it Sofia confesses to having an affair and she admits that Jax’s brother wasn’t fathered by Heracles. I went to see Jax a couple of weeks ago and I threatened to take that letter to the newspapers.’
‘Good grief…why would you threaten to do something so horrible?’ Lucy demanded in total disbelief.
‘I wanted Jax to marry you and take care of you and Bella. I thought he owed you that security and I still believe that he does but coercing him into doing it was wrong and unjust. He was protecting his father from more heartache and I shouldn’t have put him in that position. He is not responsible for his father’s mistakes.’
Lucy had turned very pale and her stomach was curdling as if she had eaten something that disagreed with her. She studied her father in slowly dawning horror and comprehension. ‘Are you telling me that you blackmailed Jax into proposing to me?’
As Kreon gave a guilty nod of silent confirmation, Lucy felt as though the bottom had just dropped out of her world. She stared at the brand-new wedding ring on her finger and felt sick. Jax hadn’t wanted to marry her. No, he had been forced to marry her. It was ghastly. She looked at her father in stricken condemnation. ‘Were you insane? I mean, what on earth could persuade you that that was an acceptable way to behave towards Bella’s father?’
‘I was angry with him. I wanted to punish Jax for seducing and abandoning you. It’s not an excuse but at the time I honestly believed I was doing what was best for you and my granddaughter.’
‘Because Jax is rich and powerful,’ Lucy slotted in sickly. ‘And now you feel bad about it because you’ve realised that rich and powerful people like Heracles Antonakos make mistakes and suffer just like everyone else.’
Kreon sighed. ‘That’s probably it in a nutshell. When I listened to Heracles talking I felt my anger draining away. He was a workaholic who neglected all his wives. But he came to the wedding today even though he didn’t approve of you because he was making an effort to be supportive of Jax as a father should. That was the right kind of effort to make for a child, mine was wrong. What did I do today? I made a sarcastic comment and provoked that punch.’
‘I’m really upset,’ Lucy admitted, breathing in deep and slow to calm herself down. ‘You’d better go back down and join the guests before Iola starts wondering where you are.’
‘I’m sorry, Lucy. I’ve just felt so powerless since you came into my life. You had had such a rough time and I genuinely did want to make your life better,’ Kreon confessed before he walked away.
And she understood exactly where her father was coming from but he had blackmailed Jax. Nausea stirred in Lucy’s tummy. Jax, who would hold a grudge beyond the grave. Jax, who idolised the father who had ignored him for so many years, had been vulnerable. A deep sense of anguish flooded Lucy and an even deeper sense of shame. The father she had so easily come to love had let her down badly and shown her his feet of clay. That hurt as well. Was she always going to be a rotten judge of character?
But what did she do now? Well, the middle of a wedding didn’t seem the ideal venue in which to open a very difficult conversation with Jax. Oh, by the way, my father mentioned that he blackmailed you… Lucy cringed and winced and hurt all over again. She hurt for her father and for Jax and for Bella, for surely the chances of such a marriage working out looked very poor. But most of all, she was discovering that she hurt for herself. Jax’s apparent desire to marry her had filled her with hope and even unleashed a few dreams.
Only now it was obvious that Jax hadn’t actually experienced any desire to put a ring on her finger. Her father had used the nastiest form of persuasion available to get that wedding ring on her hand. Hadn’t it ever occurred to Kreon that it would be his daughter who had to deal with the aftermath of what he had done? Hadn’t he appreciated how angry and aggrieved Jax would feel? Lucy shivered, suddenly feeling very alone and without support. She couldn’t depend on her father and now it was equally obvious that she could not depend on her new husband either.
For the first time she badly wanted to speak to the sisters she had never met. It was crazy but she wanted to reach out and see if she could connect with a sister as she so obviously had failed to connect with Jax or her father. Kreon had lied when he said that she could trust him. And Jax hadn’t meant all those fine things he had said about how they could be a couple creating a secure family in which to raise a child. He had been forced to talk like that to convince Lucy to agree to marry him and she groaned out loud, remembering how unusually understated Jax had been that evening. She had already put her sister’s phone number into her mobile for fear that she might mislay Polly’s letter and she dug her phone out of her small ornamental bag.
She got a bad case of cold feet while the phone was ringing and almost stopped the call before it connected. And then it was answered by this sunny, confidence-inducing female voice and Lucy froze.
‘It’s Lucy…er…your sister…if that’s you, Polly,’ she gabbled in an uneasy rush.
‘Lucy!’ Polly proclaimed warmly. ‘I’m so very happy to hear from you. Do you have any idea how long Ellie and I have been trying to trace you?’
‘Why were you trying?’ Lucy asked in genuine puzzlement.
‘Because you’re our sister and part of our family. Ellie and I always had each other but until recently I know you had no one. Of course, I appreciate that you have your father now—’
‘That hasn’t worked out so well,’ Lucy mumbled in some embarrassment.
‘I’m really sorry to hear that. Are you all right, Lucy?’ Polly prompted anxiously.
Lucy stared stonily at the wall, hot prickly tears stinging the backs of her aching eyes. ‘Well, not so great today…to be brutally honest,’ she framed chokily.
‘You sound upset,’ Polly remarked with care. ‘Naturally I don’t want to pry but—’
‘I’m not upset,’ Lucy insisted chokingly. ‘It’s my wedding day—’
‘My wedding day wasn’t great either,’ Polly told her ruefully. ‘I assume the ceremony has already taken place? Do you love the man you married?’
It was a simple question but it froze Lucy from head to toe. She started to shiver, feeling cold and clammy. ‘No, we’re not in love. We got married because we have a daughter…at least I thought that’s why we got married but seems I was wrong about that too,’ she mumbled shakily.
‘I can’t believe you’re already a mother at only twenty-one,’ Polly exclaimed. ‘Somehow our detective didn’t pick up on that. You sound so unhappy though. Please tell me what’s wrong…’
And Lucy compressed her lips, fighting the tears positively attracted by that soft, understanding sibling voice. ‘I can’t tell you—’
‘You can tell me anything,’ Polly assured her. ‘Ellie and I are here and ready and willing to help you if you need us.’
‘That’s good to know but I still can’t tell you,’ Lucy repeated doggedly.
‘Is your child’s father abusive?’ Polly demanded worriedly. ‘Are you at risk in any way?’
‘No…no!’ Lucy insisted, hastening to shut down that suspicion. ‘Look, I’ve just found out that my father blackmailed my bridegroom into marrying me! That’s why I’m upset.’
‘Right…’ Polly’s momentary hesitation spoke volumes and Lucy winced. ‘But you’re not responsible for what your father does. Lucy, you only have to say the word and, wherever you are and no matter what time of day it is, we’ll have you picked up.’
‘That’s a very generous offer,’ Lucy framed, deeply touched.
‘Please think about coming to stay with us for a while…you’d be very welcome and it would give you a breathing space in which to decide what you want to do next,’ her sister pointed out.
&nb
sp; ‘I’ll certainly think about it but I have to go now. I’m sorry. I’ll phone you again when I have more time to talk.’
Lucy thrust her phone guiltily back into her bag, wondering what had possessed her to say so much to a woman she had never met. Now Polly probably thought she was more than a little weird. She headed down to the powder room on the ground floor to repair her make-up. Her mascara had run and she asked herself why she had been reduced to tears. The shock of Kreon’s confession? The knowledge that Jax had only proposed to protect his cantankerous old father from the humiliation of having it known that his elder son had not been his? Whatever, it was her wedding day and she was on show and she had to get over her emotional reactions and behave normally.
‘Where the hell have you been?’ Jax demanded as he strode out of the function room to intercept her and closed his hands round her arms to hold her still. ‘Is Bella OK?’
‘She’s fine. I was talking to someone,’ Lucy told him, colliding with his stunning black-fringed green eyes and experiencing a jolt not unlike an electric shock.