She was shaking so much as she walked over to join Zac that he couldn't fail to notice, and as he finished his telephone call abruptly the thought did flash through Victoria's mind as to why he couldn't have used the phone in their suite.
'Tory?' It was his pet name for her and she welcomed the security of the intimacy for a moment. 'What's wrong?' He took her arm as he spoke, moving her into a quiet corner as he held her against his chest before moving her away slightly in order to look down into her face. 'Has someone upset you?'
'My…my mother.' Victoria breathed deeply, willing herself to remain strong. 'She said things, things about you
and…Gina.'
'What things?' His voice was expressionless and cairn, but Victoria had seen the impact in his eyes and her heart stopped before racing on like an express train. There was something in this.
'She said Gina was your mistress.' Victoria pulled away from him now, standing straight and stiff as she looked intently into his face. 'And that your business interests are forming a merger with my father's. She said it's all been arranged for ages.'
'And?' He continued to look at her with the poker face she had seen him adopt with other people in other situations. But not her. Never with her. With her he had been open and warm and tender… Black foreboding took all the colour from her face.
'Isn't that enough?' Victoria asked tightly. 'Is it true?'
'Tory, let's go somewhere more private to discuss this.'
'Where did you go when you left our room last night?' she asked with painful dignity, holding her slender body ramrod-straight 'Did you go to see Gina because she had taken an overdose?'
'Victoria, I'm not prepared to discuss this here.' The 'Tory' had gone, Victoria thought with grim discernment, and in that moment she knew whom he had been phoning too. Gina Rossellini.
'Why did she do that, Zac?' She ignored his furious frown with a regal composure her mother would have been proud of. 'Was it because she couldn't handle seeing you marry someone else? Because she'd thought she was going to be the one you took down the aisle, rather than becoming the one you kept on the side? And why did you marry me anyway? Were my connections better than hers? Have I swelled the Harding coffers?' she persisted stiffly.
'Is that what Coral told you?' he asked grimly.
But he hadn't denied it. He hadn't denied it She couldn't believe this was happening to her. 'Zac, are you, or are you not, dealing with the people who now run my father's business interests for my mother with a view to an alliance?' Victoria asked woodenly. 'A simple yes or no will do.' She stared at him desperately.
'Yes.' And he didn't bat an eyelid. Not an eyelid.
'And did you spend part of the night with Gina when she called you after taking an overdose?' she continued flatly, her heart thudding as the nightmare escalated at his grim.
'Yes, I did.'
'And she is your mistress.'
It was a statement, not a question, and now his cool control was absolute when he said evenly, 'We had a relationship once, Victoria. Past tense.'
She wanted to believe him. She couldn't believe how much she wanted to—but she didn't. 'Why didn't you tell me about her before, Zac? Especially knowing she would be here at the wedding?' Victoria asked numbly. And she had actually liked Gina when she had met her, she thought with a stab of fierce self-disgust at her own credulity. She'd thought the other woman charming.
'She wasn't relevant to you and me,' he said softly. 'That's why.' He went to take her arm again but she jerked away tightly.
'Wasn't relevant?' What planet was this man on? What planet were they all on? Victoria asked herself bitterly. And them she remembered something Zac had let slip a couple of weeks before, and she felt her heart crack and break into a hundred tiny pieces.
'You had lunch with her recently,' she stated slowly, searching her memory. 'You said you were helping her buy an apartment, putting her in touch with the right people.' And now she stepped back a pace, her violet eyes black with pain. 'You were setting up a love nest, weren't you? And tins morning, this morning—' She couldn't express how his withdrawal from her when she had first awoken was affecting her. 'I hate you,' she said bitterly.
'Victoria!' He caught her arm as she went to swing away from him, forcing her to remain where she was. 'Listen to me, for crying out loud. Listen, I can explain all this.'
'You left me on our wedding night to go to her,' Victoria said slowly, her voice fiat but her eyes expressing her shock and horror. 'You still care about her, don't you? You still love her. When she called you, you went to her and left me.'
'Victoria, I married you,' he said with savage restraint, his fingers bruising the soft flesh of her arm. 'I love you.'
'Tell me you feel nothing for her. Tell me,' she insisted hotly. 'Tell me you didn't buy her that apartment, that I'm wrong.'
And then his eyes flickered again and she knew he wouldn't say it Because he knew she would know he was lying.
'I'm going back to the room for a while; I want to be alone,' she said shakily. 'I'll join you and the others later.'
'I'm coming with you; this has gone far enough—'