The Vasquez Baby

‘Faith—’

‘Answer me honestly, Raul.’ Her voice trembled and shook with emotion. ‘Why did you propose to me? If you were truly so against marriage, why did you propose? If you remember, when I first discovered I was pregnant I told you that I did not expect you to marry me.’

‘Yes, that was clever.’

‘It wasn’t clever! It was how I felt.’ Increasingly agitated, Faith paced across the floor, her back to him as if she couldn’t bear to look him in the eye. ‘It was bad enough finding myself pregnant and knowing that you were going to blame me for that. Do you know how much courage it took to tell you I was pregnant? Do you know?’ She turned, her eyes flashing. ‘I could have vanished into the sunset and brought your baby up on my own, but I didn’t do that because I decided that it wasn’t right or honest. I decided that it wouldn’t be fair to you.’

Raul stilled, black clouds from his past rolling towards him like a deadly storm. ‘I would not have wanted you to do that,’ he said hoarsely, sliding a finger round the neck of his shirt in an attempt to ease his breathing. ‘I wouldn’t have allowed that.’ Never.

‘Why not? If you’re really so allergic to the thought of parenthood, then that would have been a perfectly reasonable option to consider.’

Not for him. Ruthlessly battling to rein in emotions that he hadn’t experienced for years, Raul rubbed his fingers over his temples in the hope that touch might erase the memories. Not now. He wasn’t going to think about this now. And not later, either. It was gone. Done. Finished.

‘I’m trying to understand you, Raul.’ Her eyes glittered like jade. ‘And you’re not helping.’

He inhaled deeply. ‘When you told me that you were pregnant, I did not react badly.’

‘You stood there, looking as though you’d been shot through the head at close range.’ She turned away from him and he saw her chest rise and fall under the soft fabric of his shirt. She looked traumatised, fragile and desperately upset. ‘What is going on here, Raul? Is this some sort of billionaire hang-up? Is that it? Woman gets pregnant so it must be because she wants your money?’

Raul watched her in tense silence. Their relationship was in shreds around them and he had no idea how to fix it because he’d never actually bothered fixing a relationship before. If it wasn’t right, it ended. Simple as that.

So why wasn’t he ending this one? ‘You need to calm down—’

‘Stop telling me to calm down! I don’t feel calm. I’m angry, Raul. Angry with you. And angry with myself for believing that we had something special. It was bad enough telling you that I was pregnant, but I reassured myself that our relationship was strong enough to take it. We loved each other, or so I thought. I really believed that we’d weather this and make it work.’ Her voice faltered and she gave a tiny intake of breath. ‘And then I lost it.’ That last statement was an anguished gasp and Raul felt his own tension rocket and every muscle in his body tensed in readiness for more female tears.

‘Why didn’t you tell me? I called you that night,’ he reminded her. ‘I called you every night I was away on business. You had ample opportunity.’

‘I just couldn’t do it over the phone…’ Her voice faded to a whisper and she dropped back onto the sofa as if her legs had lost their strength. ‘How do you do that? I don’t know—I mean, should I have said, “How was your day, dear? By the way, I lost the baby”?’

‘Faith—’

‘I was devastated and you hate emotional scenes, you know you do. Look at you now—you’re standing there thinking to yourself, “I hope she doesn’t cry again. Once was enough.’”

‘That isn’t true,’ Raul lied swiftly but her soft, derisive laugh told him that he’d been less than convincing. He paced to the furthest end of the living room although why, he didn’t really know. There was already an enormous gulf between them. Physically and emotionally they were as far apart as it was possible for two people to be.

‘It’s all irrelevant. What matters now is that we’re married. And we have to find a way of moving forward from here.’ He thought of the past year and the passion they’d shared. He’d loved the fact that she hadn’t known who he was at their first meeting. Loved the fact that the chemistry between them had been raw and explosive and nothing to do with who he was.

And even when she’d discovered his identity, it hadn’t changed her. She’d continued to be herself, challenging him constantly without guarding what she said. Surrounded by people who deferred to him, he’d found Faith a revelation. And then there had been the sex.

‘Raul, it’s over.’

‘You’re my wife, Faith. I want you back in my bed.’

She gaped at him. ‘You have to be kidding.’

Taken aback by her less than enthusiastic response to his statement, Raul frowned. ‘Every relationship goes through rocky patches.’

‘This isn’t a rocky patch, Raul, it’s a mountain range!’

‘I told you earlier that there wouldn’t be a divorce.’

‘I assumed you didn’t mean it.’

‘We were good together.’

‘At sex. You’re just being ridiculously possessive and macho. You’re doing it again—that whole Argentine-man thing.’ Her face was terrifyingly pale and she rose to her feet so suddenly that her body swayed.

With a sharp frown, Raul stepped towards her but before he could reach her her legs gave way and she sank to the floor, unconscious.