The Marriage Betrayal (The Volakis Vow 1)

Infuriatingly, for she would have loved to criticise, the dress was elegantly restrained in shape and length and it fitted as though it had been specially made for her. He handed her a jewel box and she extracted earrings fashioned as glittering stars with an emerald jewel at the centre.

‘They reminded me of your eyes …’

Knowing how starry-eyed she was around him, Tally laughed and put them on. The earrings were gorgeous, catching and reflecting the light like miniature chandeliers. Indeed the combined effect of the jewellery and the dress was impressive, she acknowledged grudgingly, wanting and needing him to be proud of her even if that meant swallowing her own pride and independence.

Sander took her to a swanky London nightclub, well known for attracting celebrities and the rich. On the way to their table, he was hailed from all sides with waves and calls and it was obvious he was a regular. He ordered champagne but Tally’s tummy was slightly dodgy again and she stuck to mineral water, rather than run the risk of worsening the nausea. Sander stood up to talk to friends and briefly introduced her to young women who were barely willing to acknowledge Tally’s existence at his side. She saw a girl push something into his pocket and when they were briefly alone insisted on knowing what it was.

Sander drew out a card bearing a phone number and a personal message and crushed it between his fingers before she could contrive to read what had been written. ‘It happens all the time,’ he said dismissively as Tally stared at the card in shock at such bold behaviour. ‘Some of these women would kill to land a rich man. I ignore such invitations.’

Tally was disturbed by the number of come-ons he received even with her actually sitting beside him. Girls in opulent micro-minis that revealed a great deal more than they concealed approached him throughout the evening and eventually, to get peace from the constant interruptions, Sander took Tally to another table in the VIP area, which was guarded by burly bouncers. There, ironically, however, he met up with the only female who actually bothered Tally. He brought a slender exquisite Greek girl back from the bar where she had been standing with companions.

‘Oleia Telis, an old friend of mine … Tally Spencer …’

Oleia, who was so petite in build she made Tally feel like an elephant, managed to keep on smiling brightly while withering Tally with a glacial look of hostility. The brunette talked exclusively to Sander in Greek and clearly amused him because he laughed quite a lot. Against the backdrop of the music Tally could not hear their conversation, and within minutes Oleia had slid her tiny figure between Sander and Tally and had spread a possessive hand on his lean muscular thigh.

When the flirtatious brunette dragged him off to dance, Tally headed for the cloakroom where she was stunned to turn away from the washbasins and find herself being confronted by three young women whom she recognised as Oleia’s friends from the VIP area.

‘Why don’t you go home?’ one of them demanded with a venomous appraisal. ‘Sander’s dancing with Oleia. They don’t need you hanging around them like a bad smell.’

‘Sander brought me here with him tonight,’ Tally responded, lifting her head high, determined not to be intimidated by their approach.

‘He’s known Oleia all his life. He’s slumming with you. Why can’t you take the hint and back off?’ another of the girls asked maliciously.

Her cheeks burning, Tally pushed past the unpleasant trio and returned to the VIP area, hovering at the edge of the dance floor only to see Oleia plastered up against Sander like a second skin with her arms linked tightly round his neck. Tally watched as the tiny beautiful brunette stretched up to kiss Sander and shamelessly rotated her pelvis against his. She watched and while she watched Sander didn’t push Oleia away. Her heart sinking down to her toes and her sensitive tummy churning, Tally turned hurriedly away from that distressing spectacle and pulled out her mobile phone to text Sander.

‘I won’t stand for you kissing another woman. We’re finished. I’m going home.’

A bouncer hailed a cab for her and she climbed in, caught up in a daze of sick disbelief, even while she took her time in the dim hope that he might immediately read the message and follow her. How could it be over just like that? Without any warning? Without him first demonstrating some evidence of his loss of interest in her?

Of course possibly the fairy-like brunette had simply proved more temptation than Sander could withstand. Shell-shocked, Tally set her phone beside her bed and lay there wide awake waiting for Sander to respond to her text. But there was no reply, either then or by the following morning, when she wakened at dawn and succumbed to the realisation that Sander’s continuing silence confirmed that their relationship was over.

Her misery was evidently too much for her tender stomach. She endured her worst attack of nausea to date and then rushed into the bathroom where she was ingloriously sick. Her breasts were uncomfortably tender as well. Indeed everything felt wrong in her world. No matter what way she looked at what had happened she could not forgive Sander or excuse his behaviour with Oleia Telis. Still suffering from a sick headache, she went to class and made an appointment to see a doctor that afternoon because she reckoned it was past time that she had her digestive troubles checked out.

The appointment was brief. Once she had outlined her concerns, the doctor began to discuss alternative forms of contraception but, since her relationship with Sander was over, Tally saw no reason to continue the course of pills and said she would simply stop taking them. The doctor suggested that she have a blood test, which a nurse conducted, and then Tally returned to college. When she got home, Binkie told her that the medical practice had phoned to arrange a second appointment for her with the doctor the next day. Binkie also passed on the news that Tally’s mother was flying back from Spain later that evening.

Tally opened her eyes the following morning in a downbeat mood. Sander’s total silence was downright insulting, she decided angrily, refusing to acknowledge the painful sense of loss and disillusionment she was suppressing. The way Sander was treating her she might as well have been a one-night stand! Evidently she had never meant anything much to him and the bonds she had believed they were developing had existed more in her imagination than in reality. It was a lesson to her for falling in love with so little encouragement to do so!

Just the knowledge that she could no longer even text Sander gave Tally a hollow feeling inside. It was over, it was really over, she reflected painfully while she waited to see her doctor. The older man greeted her with a rather taut smile and she sat down rather anxiously.

‘I had the practice manager make this appointment because the blood test you had done yesterday revealed that you’re pregnant,’ the doctor explained.

Tally paled. ‘But that’s not possible … I mean, I was taking contraceptive pills—’

‘It’s a low-dose pill though. Were you careful to take other precautions during the first three weeks?’ the older man asked. ‘Did you miss taking any pills? Or were you sick at any stage? I notice you were taking antibiotics for an infection during the second week. Any of those things could have interfered with the effectiveness of your birth control.’

Tally opened her mouth and then closed it again just as quickly. She had missed taking one pill altogether and she was fairly sure that Sander had stopped using condoms before the end of the third week. As for the added risk of taking antibiotics, at the same time she had had no idea that the medication could interfere with her contraception. Reeling with shock, she submitted to an examination before asking in a small voice how pregnant she was.

‘I estimate about six weeks.’

Much of his advice about taking more rest and eating a healthy diet went over Tally’s head because she couldn’t think straight. She was having Sander’s baby and they had already broken up. The guy didn’t even care enough to have contacted her in the past forty-eight hours! She might have walked away but he had let her go. In desperate need of someone to talk to about her dilemma Tally skipped her afternoon class

and went home to confide in Binkie.

The older woman could not conceal her dismay and concern. ‘Oh, Tally,’ she sighed unhappily. ‘What will you do?’

Tally closed her hands together. ‘I’m going to have the baby. Mum had me in similar circumstances,’ she pointed out.

‘Your parents were engaged and your mother still hoped that there would be a marriage.’

‘Sander and I aren’t together anymore,’ Tally admitted reluctantly.

‘But you’ll have to tell him about the baby …’

‘What are you two whispering about?’ a third voice interposed from the kitchen doorway. ‘What baby?’

Tally glanced up in lively dismay to see her mother standing there clad in a floaty black negligee and matching nightdress.

‘Tally’s pregnant,’ Binkie explained very quietly as she rose from the table. ‘I’ll leave you to talk.’

‘Pregnant!’ Crystal exclaimed furiously. ‘By Sander Vola kis?’

Tally nodded. ‘I haven’t told him yet.’