Page 54 of The Billionaire's Demand

Numbly, mechanically, she went on stacking shelves.

Leandros frowned. This apartment block might be in a better street than the dump Eliana had lived in before, and it was in better condition—cleaner and well-kept—but it was not what he’d expected. Had she really taken up with someone who lived here?

But it was not where that someone lived that he cared about—it was that there was a ‘someone else’ at all.

How could she? How could she after what we had in Paris? Did it mean nothing to her?

His thoughts darkened as he walked into the lobby. Six years ago her time with him had meant nothing to her either...

He gave her name to the concierge—at least this block had one. The man frowned for a moment, then his face cleared.

‘Second floor, apartment six—opposite the stairwell,’ he said. ‘Do you want me to phone?’

Leandros shook his head, vaulting up the stairs.

As he gained her floor he stopped dead. What the hell was he doing? He’d trekked here to fight for her—thinking that this time she was worth fighting for. But was he just fooling himself? Whatever had happened in Paris, she had still walked away from him as she had done before.

Six years ago he’d known who she’d left him for. And why.

Last time around I knew. This time around I don’t need to.

Could not bear to.

That was the sorry truth of it.

He made to turn away. He could not face this. Could not bear it. Whatever she was doing in a place like this, whoever she was with, he didn’t want to know.

She’s gone—and I’ve lost her. Lost her just as I lost her before. I have to accept it.

He twisted round to head back down, get the hell out of here.

The sound of the door of the apartment facing the stairwell starting to open—the very door he’d been about to approach—made him pause. He turned back, not wanting to, but turning anyway. As he did so a gasp sounded.

Shock. Dismay.

Frozen in the open doorway was Eliana. And she was pushing a child’s buggy.

Faintness drummed through Eliana. It could not be—she was imagining things, creating a mirage out of her own mind.

Her vision dimmed—then cleared.

He stepped up to her. Leandros. Out of nowhere.

‘How...?’ Her voice was as faint as the faintness drumming through her.

‘A private investigator located you for me. Followed you back from the supermarket you work in.’

There was no expression in Leandros’s voice. But she knew that shock must be going through him, as it was her. Knew why.

His eyes dropped from her to the buggy she was clinging to. To the infant within.

A single word broke from Leandros, and his eyes flashed back to her. ‘Yours?’

There was nothing in his voice. And yet there was everything in it. She didn’t answer. Could not. Desperation clawed in her head.

What to answer—? What to say—?

A voice called from inside the apartment.

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