“He made the exception for you, my very precious wife.”
They didn’t even stay at the party long enough for the main course to be set out on the buffet. Ariston missed the opportunity to talk to the businessman he’d intended to meet, but had dismissed Chloe’s concerns with a wave of his hand as he ushered her out of the crowded mansion. “Some things are more important than business.”
In that moment Chloe had believed she was one of them.
When she’d learned the contrary, the emotional devastation had left her existing in a wasteland that nearly cost her health.
Coming back into the present, Chloe felt her knees buckle and she stumbled, bumping into a man on the sidewalk. He said something to her, but she didn’t hear him. She was too focused inward.
He grabbed her arm and shouted something about snotty rich bitches thinking they owned the sidewalks. She raised her head, thinking she needed to apologize, but she didn’t get the chance.
Ariston was there, yanking the man away, his bodyguards closing in to put a protective barrier between Chloe and everyone else.
Warm hands cupped her face. “You’re freezing.” He cursed in Greek and English. “You’re in shock.”
She didn’t say anything, just stared at him while too many thoughts vied for her attention. She had no hope of grasping hold of any single one of them.
“So, the prospect of having a child does this to you. Even now? Or is it the thought of having my child?”
“It’s not that,” she denied, her voice made weak by her distress, but the emotion behind her words vehement enough to make her brain work again. “I can’t believe you found …” She shook her head. “You would have been so angry.”
“I was livid,” he admitted, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “No man likes to be played the fool.”
Especially not a business shark like him. “No. You wouldn’t. But I never knew.”
“I guess we both were good at hiding things.”
“How good was I?” She needed to know. She didn’t care if he thought it mattered. It did to her.
“What do you mean?”
“When did you find out?” she asked, only now realizing he’d been moving her toward a limousine with its back door open the whole time they’d been talking.
He tried to usher her inside, but she balked. “Tell me.”
“A month before we left New York.”
“No …” It was almost funny in a macabre kind of way.
Because by then, she’d decided even if it was a baby holding them together it was worth keeping her marriage to the man she loved with her whole heart. She’d stopped taking her pills almost a month before that, but hadn’t gotten pregnant.
She wasn’t sure at first, though—those first two weeks after returning to the States she’d lived in a state of dread. The idea of staying married to him under the circumstances had been untenable. Not only that, but the contract hadn’t specified what happened if she had a baby after the marriage ended.
All custody parameters might have been negated by her timing.
She climbed into the limo without further protest, her movements clumsy and awkward.
They’d driven in silence for several minutes when he made a sound of exasperation. “I did not say you would have to give up our child. You are the one who suggested it.”
He still believed that’s what she was upset about? She was. Really upset. The very idea horrified her. But even such a despicable plan paled in comparison to the knowledge that her effort to protect herself had been the reason she lost her marriage and the love of her life.
She tried to tell herself it had been for the best. What kind of life would they have had together with him caring so little for her?
More memories of the life they had shared flashed through her mind, taunting her with how happy she’d been. Yes, there had been moments of pain, days she’d despaired in her unrequited love, but there’d been so many more when she’d simply been blissfully happy.
It was no use trying to deny it. She would have taken that life and with gratitude.
Two years on, she was no longer convinced love on one side wasn’t enough. Not when the other side respected their marriage vows and provided the kind of passion in intimacy that most women only dreamed about.
Okay, so he hadn’t adored her, or anything like that, but he’d been kind to her—when he remembered she existed. No question his position with SSE had come first, but she’d