‘I don’t think that they will ever speak with me again,’ Leila said, ‘so I doubt I will find out.’
James looked at her and felt a bit bad then—his parents were trouble enough but Leila was dealing with a king and queen. ‘I’m sure they’ll come around.’
He took a breath; a sense of disquiet was growing as the ramifications of that thought hit home. Yes, her parents would surely come around and what then?
What happened then to the princess and her baby?
What happened to his child?
‘How did your parents take the news?’ Leila asked.
‘I’m not here to talk about our families,’ James said. ‘I’m here to sort things out between us.’
‘There is no us,’ Leila said.
‘Who’s your OB?’ James asked, and she frowned. ‘Your physician? You have seen someone other than the hotel doctor?’
‘No.’
‘You haven’t had an ultrasound?’ James checked, and she simply stared back at him. ‘It might be twins!’
‘There are a lot of twins in my family.’
The day just got better and better!
‘So, Leila, what are you going to do for money now that your parents have cut you off?’ James asked, and glanced around the room. He’d seen in the bedroom when he’d stood from the chair that her once-empty wardrobe was now bulging and there was a lot of evidence of her extravagance here too—she must have fifty bottles of perfume laid out on the table and the diamonds sparkling from her ears hadn’t been there that night.
Her make-up was amazing though—her lips were in a neutral shade much more subtly seductive than that terrible red lipstick she had worn, and the touch of mascara she wore now accentuated the gold of her eyes.
‘What I do for money is not your concern.’
‘Actually, it is,’ came James’s sarcastic response, ‘because given the news you’re no doubt entitled to half of mine...’
‘James,’ Leila interrupted. ‘I know there are laws here, that you will feel obligated, but I told you, I have already decided to go it alone. Anyway, I don’t want someone so promiscuous or reckless as a father...’
‘Don’t. You. Dare!’
Leila shivered as she heard James, the man who had once made her smile, now speak in ice. The man whose voice had once soothed her now made her stomach clench.
‘Don’t you dare try to exclude me from my child’s life. I’m not one of your servants that you can dismiss.’
‘Actually,’ Leila coolly said, and James’s mouth gaped, ‘you are.’
She got up and walked over to the table. She picked up the newspaper and tossed it to him, and then she opened a drawer and took out some magazines she’d spent a lot of time crying over and she tossed them at him too.
Then Leila picked up the phone and dialled three.
‘I would like James Chatsfield removed now.’