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Lizzie had paled. ‘I’m sure relations between you will settle down eventually. Right now, Jaul’s probably in shock—’
‘What’s he got to be in shock about?’ her sibling asked thinly.
‘Discovering that he’s a father—’
‘I hate him. I’m going to go out tonight and have fun with Sofia and Maurizia,’ Chrissie swore, springing upright and dashing the tears from her eyes. ‘Jaul stole all that away from me!’
Lizzie knew that was true but she deemed it wiser to say nothing. Chrissie had had a very hard time while she was carrying the twins because it had not been an easy pregnancy and all the pastimes of youth had been lost to her. Her little sister had had to grow up too soon and face heartbreak and betrayal at a time when all women were very vulnerable but that she had done so without a single whine of self-pity and had gone on to establish a career in teaching had made Lizzie feel incredibly proud.
* * *
It would have been a challenge to know which of the parties was the most surprised when Jaul showed up at Lizzie and Cesare’s home that evening.
Lizzie hovered and hurriedly called her husband, feeling that Cesare would be politer and more diplomatic than she could be when forced to deal with the detestable man who had married her sister and let her down so badly.
‘I would like to see Chrissie...’ Jaul announced without a shade of discomfiture.
‘Unfortunately that’s not possible,’ Cesare declared smooth as butter. ‘She’s out—’
‘Out?’ Jaul repeated in apparent surprise.
‘Clubbing,’ Lizzie supplied with pleasure.
‘Then I would like to see the twins,’ Jaul advanced grimly and Lizzie enjoyed a first-hand experience of the stone-statue image Chrissie had employed.
Cesare sighed. ‘I’m afraid that’s not possible either. I couldn’t let you see the children without their mother’s permission—’
Jaul’s gaze flamed bright gold. ‘They are my children—’
‘But it doesn’t say so on their birth certificates, does it?’ Lizzie cut in with unashamed satisfaction. ‘You’ll have to come back tomorrow when Chrissie is here—’
‘Where has she gone...clubbing?’ Jaul asked with distaste.
And to Lizzie’s annoyance, Cesare gave Jaul information that she would have withheld.
‘Why on earth did you tell him?’ she demanded when Jaul had driven off again in his glossy limousine adorned with official Marwani flags.
Cesare shot her a sudden unreadable look that disconcerted her. ‘He’s Chrissie’s husband.’
‘But she hates him!’
‘It’s not our place to interfere. Making an enemy of him isn’t likely to help anyone and least of all their children, cara mia,’ he reasoned.
* * *
Escorted into the plush VIP area of the exclusive club, Jaul was restless. His bodyguards had perked up though, he noted with a sudden amusement that pierced his exasperated mood. His protection team was overjoyed to be in what his father would have described as a ‘Western den of iniquity’. He stood on the balcony overlooking the dance floor packed with scantily clad girls below but his thoughts were far removed from the sight.
Chrissie’s family disliked and distrusted him and in the wake of the chaos his father had created that was hardly surprising, Jaul conceded grudgingly. Even so, such a poor reception struck at his pride and his sense of honour for in twenty-eight years of life he had never once shirked his responsibilities. With the exception of Chrissie, he acknowledged bitterly, running through all the reasons why that had happened. He cursed his own pride and vanity for not finding some way to make enquiries of his own and check out what his father had told him.
Yet such misgivings about his only parent would never have occurred to Jaul before. Jaul had been very close to his father and positively coddled. A man who had virtually panicked whenever his only child succumbed to common childhood illnesses was not a man to inspire distrust. Jaul tucked the memories away hastily, working through the bitter bite of his lingering grief for the older man while feeling disloyal about the vague doubts that Chrissie’s condemnations had stirred up.
