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‘No one needs to know.’
His laugh was a mocking snort. ‘That’s simplistic and naïve. The tabloid press probably already has paparazzi on your trail. That’s before you show up to this—one of the most hotly photographed events of the year—heavily pregnant and asking to see me.’
‘I am not heavily pregnant,’ she said, and then clamped her mouth shut in frustration and the sheer irrelevancy of that. ‘And so what? Who cares? Lots of people have illegitimate children. There’ll be a rumour. We’ll say nothing, and then it will die down.’
‘You are missing my point,’ he insisted darkly. ‘From the minute this news hits the public domain, you will become a part of my world, and so will she, whether you want to be or not. Thinking you can just hide away from that is unrealistic.’
‘So?’ she said, though she hadn’t considered this, and didn’t particularly like the way it made her feel. ‘I’ll cope.’
‘As a bare minimum, you will find yourself and your every move open to speculation in the gossip papers, and our daughter will be photographed and written about even when doing the most mundane things. You will want my protection from this, Hannah, and she will certainly deserve it.’
‘I’d rather find my own way to protect her,’ Hannah said crisply. ‘I can handle a few photographers, and as for the stories, I just won’t read them.’
His smile was a grim flicker of his lips. ‘Sure, give that a go.’ It was pure sarcasm.
‘In any event, it is not,’ he continued, ‘the photographers that I am concerned with.’
She waited, holding a hand protectively over her stomach without realising it.
‘I was married once,’ he said, finally, the words like steel.
She remembered. Oh, it had been buried deep inside her mind, but as soon as he said it she recalled reading that, somewhere, at some time.
‘And my wife was murdered.’
Hannah sucked in a gasp, sympathy pushing every other emotion from her mind.
‘As was my two-year-old son.’
Hannah was hot and cold, sorrow and pain shooting through her. She almost felt as though she might faint.
‘They were murdered as a vendetta against my father.’ The words were strained and urgent. ‘They lost their lives to hurt him and punish him. They were killed because of who they were to Dion Stathakis, and to me. I will not let that happen again. I will not let that happen to our daughter.’
Hannah’s chest hurt. She’d known she was pregnant for a few weeks and already she knew she would give her life for this baby. She couldn’t imagine the desperate agony of losing a toddler, of knowing a toddler to have met such a violent end.
‘I’m so sorry.’ The words were thick with tears. ‘That must have been unbearable.’ She swallowed, but the tears she was so adept at fighting filled her eyes.
He didn’t respond—what could he say?
‘But isn’t that even more reason for me to hide away? To let me move far away from you and your world?’
‘You cannot hide her. Not from men like him.’
A shiver ran down Hannah’s spine.
‘Only I can protect you both.’
Fear made Hannah tactless. ‘I beg to differ, given the past...’
His expression cracked with pain and she winced.
‘I’m so sorry. That was an awful thing to say. It’s just...’
‘No, you’re right.’ He held up a hand to stall her. ‘I did not appreciate the danger to Amy and Brax. I failed them.’ His voice was deep and her heart ached. ‘I had no idea they were being watched, nor that a madman would use them to seek revenge on my father. His conviction did much damage to our business, and my brother and I worked tirelessly to make amends there, to return Stathakis Corp to its position of global prominence. That was my focus.
‘I failed them, my wife and child, and I will never forget that, nor forgive myself.’
He straightened, his expression like iron. ‘I will not make that mistake with her.’
