“I didn’t say I wasn’t interested in your proposal.”
She stopped dead in her tracks and turned back to him. “I thought disapproval and anger probably indicated that.”
He walked slowly over to her. “Then you thought wrong.” He picked up a scarf she’d accidentally left on the sofa and hooked it around her neck, his hands dragging down each side of the soft cashmere. “You want to bargain? Then I will. But not your way. You can have the child you want. You can return to your life in Finland, to the family home.”
She tensed as she waited for him to finish. “Go on.”
He smiled briefly. “Most people would have thought that was it. But you know me too well.”
“I’ve tried hard to forget, but it’s proved more difficult than I imagined. I guess when someone uses you with such ease, when someone tricks you into a marriage, all for their own gain, then it’s hard to forget.”
His face hardened. “You believe what you want to believe. You always have and no doubt you always will.” He paced away from her as if he couldn’t bear to be near her. “As I said you can have the property and land your parents left you, and you can have the child you apparently desire so much. But, in return, I want you to work.”
“Work? Doing what? Typing your letters?”
“I want you to work in your family jewelry business—in Kielo. In the ten years since your mother died, the company has lost its edge. I’m re-launching it with a new team of designers as a showcase for our diamonds. You trained as a designer and simply being a Mustonen will help our marketing.”
“It was so useful that I never changed my name after we married. No doubt another part of the agreement between you and my father about which I knew nothing.”
“Yes, it is useful,” he said, deliberately ignoring her sarcasm. “It’s a prestigious name in Finland, a name that will help the company’s branding as a reliable family firm. A firm in which you will work.”
She shook her head. “You are joking, aren’t you? What do I know about the business? My design training was for show only. I’ve never used it. My father brought me up to marry and breed. I’ve done the former, now I’m here to begin a family. That’s the only role I’ve been raised for.”
“I want you to work on the public launch of the diamond company,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “The advertising agency says the company needs someone to represent the company brand… someone like you. Someone beautiful, someone well-connected, someone to be the face of the company. You do this for me, for our company, and you can have your child.”
“And I suppose you still want one hundred percent ownership of the mine?”
“No. No, I don’t. We’ll continue to own it jointly and it’ll be inherited by our children. Because, Taina, if you have a child by me we will remain together.”
“Just one big happy family.”
Again he ignored her sarcasm. “I don’t see why not. And if we’re not”—he shrugged—“we will at least appear to be, for the sake of the children. I suggest you accept my offer, Taina. Because there will be no other.”
It was as she’d imagined—at least some form of family life, as her parents had given her. What she hadn’t imagined was his declining 100% ownership of the mine. Was he trying to show he regretted what had happened? She also hadn’t imagined becoming involved with her mother’s company. That would be harder for her than Daidan thought—and not for the reasons she’d given. But she had no choice but to accept his offer. The heartache remained. She guessed it always would. But she had to try to ease it, try to heal, to begin again.
She nodded. He held out his hand and she took it, closing her eyes briefly as his large warm hand engulfed her slender one.
“Do you agree?”
“I agree.”
“Tomorrow morning. My office.”
He turned away and went back to his stance in front of the fire, just as he’d been when she first entered.
She walked away, out the door, and along the jetty to the boat. She didn’t look back this time. Shivering under her coat, she narrowed her eyes against the dancing lights of Helsinki. Coming ever nearer. Her future. And with it, the child she so desperately wanted. Something to stem the heartache that throbbed continually, deep down, never easing. Time hadn’t done it. She hoped a child would do it—fill this aching void.
But it wouldn’t be easy because Daidan had been correct. She wasn’t telling him everything. And if she still cared for him, even a little bit, it would have to stay that way. Because her secret had the potential to destroy his whole world. And she couldn’t do that to him.