Anna stared at her, breathing heavily. “Natalie, please…” she whispered.
Natalie’s eyes were hard. “You want to be strong? Fine. You got yourself in your mess. With Victor. With Nikos. Get yourself out of it. Just don’t kid yourself that your choices are for us. All you’ve done is make things worse for us. Thanks. Thanks a lot.”
Turning on her heel, she went for the door.
“Natalie!” She grabbed her sister’s wrist. “Don’t leave like this. Please.”
“Let me go,” Natalie said coldly. Her sister wrenched her arm away, and this time Anna released her.
After she left, Anna slowly sat down on the bed in the cool darkness of her room, still shocked by Natalie’s attack. Her sister had always been the one person Anna could count on. She hadn’t asked any questions when Anna had appeared on her doorstep in Russia, but had simply taken her in her arms and let her cry on her shoulder. She’d fought Nikos’s armed henchmen to try to keep Misha safe.
Heartsick, Anna left her room and realized she’d blindly gone to Nikos’s office to seek comfort. But his door was closed. She stared at the door, longing for him to take her in his strong arms and tell her everything would be okay. She would almost believe it if he was the one who said it. No doubt another example of her being delusional.
Was Natalie right?
Instead of being the one who’d saved and supported her family, had Anna been the cause of its ruin?
It was true that she’d never really stood up to Victor. He’d made passes at her, and Anna hadn’t known how to deal with his flirtations, so she’d simply put up with them. She’d never told him flat-out to leave her alone. When they’d gotten to be too much, she’d run away to work for Nikos.
And as for Nikos…She’d known his faults, but she’d still fallen in love with him. She should have been more careful. Especially about jumping into his bed. What had she been thinking to allow herself to conceive a child with a man who not only wasn’t her husband but didn’t even love her?
The closed office door stared down at her reproachfully.
Turning away with a heavy heart, she went to the nursery, where Misha was still napping in his crib. She gently picked him up and cuddled him in the rocking chair. Tears filled her eyes as she stared out the window at the pool, where for a brief time that morning she’d felt like she was part of a happy family.
How could she fix everything she’d done wrong?
How could she make things right?
The one thing she couldn’t do was ask Nikos—or anyone—for help. Natalie was right. Anna had caused this mess. She was the one who should take care of it. Alone.
Closing her eyes, she held her baby as she rocked back and forth. It was time to face reality.
Misha shouldn’t suffer just because Anna had such a hard time being around his father. No matter how much she wanted to return to New York, she couldn’t. She had to live close enough to Nikos that they could raise their son together. Misha deserved that much.
But she wouldn’t marry Nikos either. She’d been careless enough to get pregnant, but she wouldn’t make it worse by marrying him. She’d be miserable as his wife, committing herself to a man who didn’t even love her.
Anna would share parenting with Nikos, but that was it. She needed her own place. Her own life. Her own job.
She sat up straight in her chair as her eyes flew open.
She’d get Nikos to rehire her.
It was the perfect solution. She’d be able to travel with him around the world, so Misha would always see them both. Plus, working as his executive assistant was not only the best job she’d ever had, he’d also paid her a high salary that would be virtually impossible to find anywhere else. Enough so that she could set up a payment plan with Victor, which she’d force him to take.
It might be difficult to see Nikos every day, no doubt watching him date other women, but she’d deal with it. She would take responsibility for the choices she’d made.
Misha gave a little sigh. Opening his dark eyes, so much like his father’s, he smiled up at her. Anna smiled back.
All she had to do was convince Nikos to hire her as his secretary—while keeping herself from falling into his arms—and everything else would fall into place.
It wouldn’t be easy, but, hey—Nikos had asked for her help weeding out unsuitable résumés. She grinned. She’d pretend to go through them while taking over the secretarial job herself. She’d lull Nikos into complacency while she proved she could both work and be a good mother to his child. She’d prove to them both that she wasn’t a screw-up. She’d prove she could do it all.