Wanted: A Baby by the Sheikh(59)

“Yes, I really do.”

He shrugged. “Not much to say. And, look, I’m sorry you had to find out this way, but I did what any man would have done in the same situation. What you’ve been doing with my wife for years.”

Daidan frowned. “Amelia?”

“Yeah, I know you loved her.”

“That was over years ago. Before I even came to Finland. Before you’d even met her. But no doubt you told Taina.”

“I may have done. Can’t remember.”

“Tell me what you can remember, then.”

“Hey, you don’t want to go there. Come on, let’s get back to the girls.”

“I want to know what happened.”

“Why would you care? Everyone knows your marriage is a sham, just a commercial arrangement jacked up with Taina’s father.”

Daidan took a step forward and Mark took one back, slamming himself against the stone wall of the castle keep. “Tell me what happened,” Daidan repeated.

“We had sex, what do you think happened?”

“What do I think happened? I know what happened. I just wanted to hear you admit it. You raped her, you bastard and you’re going to pay.”

“Rape? No way. And you dare lay a hand on me and you’ll be finished.” He barked a cruel laugh. “What am I saying? In a few minutes you’ll be finished anyway.”

Daidan tried to count to ten, tried to control the rage that burned in his gut. Mark must have taken his silence for agreement. And that’s when he made his final mistake.

“She’s a tart, just like all the others. She’s not worth us falling out over. A rough diamond that stayed rough. Just like her mother before her, from what I hear.”

Mark could insult Daidan, he could reduce his business to rubble, but there was no way he could insult Taina.

“Didn’t anyone tell you that diamonds are made beautiful under pressure?” Daidan moved away and saw Mark relax, just as Daidan swung his fist into Mark’s face. Mark hit the floor with a dull thud and Daidan walked out, down the narrow staircase and out into the auditorium.

At that moment the music began—the music they’d selected to open the short promotional video clip. Daidan glanced at the screen and then froze. The image was different.





Taina raced along the stone corridors of the castle, trying to get to the projection room as quickly as possible. That comment Mark had made, it had to do with the presentation. He must have tampered with it. And with the Russians behind him, God knows what he’d done. Was it the video he’d claimed he’d made of him raping her while she was drowsy with drugs? Footage which would scandalize and damn them. Or was it cobbled together lies about their mines? It wouldn’t matter if the footage was of their own mines, or the Russians, the seeds of doubt and controversy would be sewn in the minds of their influential audience and the future Daidan had worked so hard for would be ruined.

She ran panting into the makeshift projection room. “Stop the film,” she shouted at the surprised operator. The man looked up at his boss who nodded.

“But we’ve already begun it. We’re under strict instructions from the Prince to—”

“I don’t care what’s been said.” She glanced at the images that were beginning to appear on the screen—images that she’d never seen before, of a mine that wasn’t theirs. “It needs to stop.” She rushed up to the computer screen and was about to press a button—any button, when the supervisor spoke to the operator. “Go ahead, do as Madame Mustonen requires.”

With a few swift keystrokes the strange images morphed into a blank screen showing simply the company’s logo and the same music.

“It’s the wrong film. The wrong film! Find the original one, the one that my husband gave you yesterday. Find it!”

She looked over the supervisor’s shoulder, at the different versions of the video. Mark had even named his video the same as theirs. “Check the date.”

She scanned down the details of the files. “There, that one.” It was dated yesterday, at the time she’d made the final changes to it. “Run that one immediately. But filter it in slowly, like this was meant to happen.”

The supervisor took over and created a swirling effect from which emerged the logo once more. He changed the music so it rose to a crescendo and then began the video. Taina went over to the ruins of the window which overlooked the stage and watched the film being projected onto the vast screen above the stage, and held her breath. The mists cleared from over a watery, wooded Finland and formed their logo. So far so good. And then the landscape changed into the glamorous and lush fabrics upon which diamonds spilled and then the images panned out to a vibrant, bustling New York. It was the right video. Everything was on track. She returned to the supervisor and looked around.