‘And my role would be…?’
‘You’re her mother, of course. Your role in her life would remain unchanged.’
‘But aside from that every other aspect of my life would be turned on its head, but that would be okay just so long as you get your own way.’
‘There’s no point arguing about it, Charlie. We will be married.’
‘When did you become like this, Riccardo?’
‘Like what?’
‘Arrogant. Intransigent. Thinking that you can have whatever you want with the click of a finger.’
Riccardo flushed darkly and glared at her. ‘Because I’m not soft? Because I don’t subscribe to the theory that men should not be ashamed to cry? That doesn’t make me arrogant.’ But he was arrogant, and the admission made him wince inwardly. ‘My solution would be for the best.’
‘You solution is insane!’ She stood up and controlled the shaking of her hands by dusting off some non-existent specks of fluff from her trousers. ‘I know you feel that I’ve deprived you of time you should have spent with Gina, but I won’t allow you to steal my life because you want to create a false family unit.’
‘Steal your life?’
‘That’s right.’ She looked at him squarely in the face without flinching. ‘Marriage at all costs for the sake of a child might be the Italian way, Riccardo. But it’s not mine.’
CHAPTER SIX
AND they hadn’t even got around to his fulminating diatribe about the fiancé!
Riccardo glared at the bottle of wine staring reproachfully at him from his gleaming black, granite kitchen counter. One glass for Dutch courage, something he had never needed in his life before, but which he seemed to need now because he was about to see his daughter for the first time.
After her incredulous rejection of his marriage proposal—something he fancied very few women would have turned down without even bothering to give it a second thought—Charlotte had stalked out of his office and he had stayed put, imprisoned by his own pride which had absolutely forbidden him to follow her, beg her to reconsider and listen to the advantages. The obvious advantages.
Four hours later he had phoned and coldly told her that he would respect her ridiculous refusal to listen to common sense, but he’d demanded that she tell Gina about him.
‘Of course I will,’ Charlotte had said, for all the world as though anything else would have been incomprehensible. ‘And you can come and visit with her tomorrow after school. I don’t want to fight you over this, Riccardo.’
‘Very generous,’ he had muttered with heavy sarcasm, but the arrangement had been made and now here he was, as nervous as a kid waiting to be seen by the headmaster. He swept his trench coat from the counter, drank the contents of his wine glass in one long gulp and headed out of the door.
He had a driver on permanent call, but this time he would be taking a black cab. George was as perfect a driver as he could hope to find, which meant that he never asked questions and could be counted on for his discretion, but a secret child? That might have been taking temptation too far, and Riccardo needed to come to terms with the situation himself before opening the door to the inevitable furore of gossip.
On the way, staring out at the dark, bleak and cluttered city streets, he marshalled his wayward thoughts into coherent points. Point one would be elimination of the fiancé. He wasn’t going to share his child with another man and that was just something she would have to accept.#p#分页标题#e#
Since when, he wondered, had she become so damned mouthy?
He frowned and thought of her glowering in his office, laughing at his proposal and then refusing to budge! Indeed, walking out!
Well, the fiancé would be a thing of the past if he had to set up camp in her house and supervise her movements like a babysitter!
The taxi drew up outside the house and nerves ripped through him like a knife. He had bought a stuffed toy. A very large one. What else did one buy for a child with whom you were intimately connected and yet didn’t know you from Adam?
He felt utterly foolish and stupidly terrified as he pressed the doorbell and heard it reverberate inside the house.
Charlotte opened the door, and behind her was Gina.
‘What on earth is that?’ Charlotte smiled reluctantly at the sight of Riccardo clutching an oversized brown-and-white stuffed dog. It was a very floppy stuffed animal and its limbs drooped over his hands as though it had decided to fall into a deep sleep, leaving its owner slightly bewildered as to what he was doing with the thing in the first place.