Then she’d said it.
Just go away, and leave us alone.
Leonidas stared at her, still shocked that the tenderhearted girl who’d once claimed to love him could say anything so cruel. His whole body felt tight, his heart rate increasing as his hands clenched at his sides.
His voice was hoarse as he said, “You really believe I’m such a monster that you need to hide your pregnancy from me? You won’t even let me support my own child?”
Daisy’s expression filled with shadow in the twilight, as if even she realized she’d gone too far.
“We don’t need you,” she said finally, and turning, she hurried away, almost running with her dog following behind, disappearing into the apartment building.
You little monster. His mother’s enraged voice, when he was fourteen. I wish you’d never been born!
For a moment, the image of the
bleak bridge and water swam before Leonidas’s eyes, malevolent and dark against the red twilight. His heart hammered in his throat, his body tense.
Those had been his mother’s final words, the last time Leonidas saw her. He’d been fourteen, and had just come from the funeral of the man he’d always believed was his father, when his mother had told him the truth, and that she never intended to see Leonidas again. Heartsick, he’d hacked into her precious masterpiece with a pair of scissors. Ripping the broken Picasso from his hands, his mother had left him with those final words.
She’d died in the Turkish earthquake a week later, and the Picasso had disappeared. That day, Leonidas had lost his only blood relative in the world.
Until now.
Leonidas looked up at the co-op building, with its big windows overlooking the river. His eyes narrowed dangerously.
Daisy had kept her pregnancy a secret, because she didn’t want him to be a father to their baby.
Why would I want you near my baby, so you could wreck her life as well?
Her life. Leonidas suddenly realized the import of Daisy’s words. They were having a baby girl.
And whether Daisy liked it or not, Leonidas was going to be a father. He would soon have a daughter who’d need him to protect and provide for her. This baby was his family.
His only family.
Gripping his hands at his sides, Leonidas went toward the building. He gave a sharp shake of his head to his driver, waiting with the Rolls-Royce at the curb, and went forward alone into the apartment building. He opened the door, going into the contemporary glass-and-steel lobby, with modern, sparse furniture. He headed straight for the elevator, until he found his way blocked.
“Can I help you, sir?” the doorman demanded.
“Daisy Cassidy,” he barked in reply. “I know the apartment number.”
“You must wait,” the man replied. Going to the reception desk, the man picked up his phone. “Your name, sir?”
“Leonidas Niarxos.”
The doorman spoke quietly into the phone, then looked up. “I’m sorry, Miss Cassidy says she has nothing to say to you. She asks you to leave the building immediately.”
A curse went through his mind. “Tell her she can talk to me now or talk to an army of lawyers in an hour.”
The doorman raised his eyebrows, then again spoke quietly. With a sigh, he hung up the phone. “She says to go up, Mr. Niarxos.”
“Yes,” he bit out. He stalked to the elevator, feeling the doorman’s silently accusing eyes on his back. But Leonidas didn’t give a damn. His fury sustained him as he pushed the elevator button for the fifth floor.
He straightened, his jaw tight. He was no longer a helpless five-year-old. No longer a heartsick fourteen-year-old. He was a man now. A man with power and wealth. A man who could take what he wanted.
And he wasn’t going to let Daisy steal his child away.
The elevator gave a cheerful ding as the door slid open. He grimly stalked down the hall to apartment 502. Lifting his hand, he gave a single hard knock.