Page 57 of The Billionaire's Demand

‘Ellee!’

The sound of Miki finally tiring of riding the pony made her get to her feet.

She went over to him, lifted him off. ‘What shall we do next?’ she asked brightly. Fondly.

Spending more time with him had been the one clear bonus of moving in with his grandmother in order to save on her own rent, as she now had to do. She might only be Miki’s stepmother—or not even that—but he was growing in her affections. And she in his.

‘Slide! Slide!’ he cried out, and she laughed, taking his hand to make their way across to the smaller of the two slides.

She hefted him up to the top, holding him steady. ‘Ready?’

‘Slide! Slide!’ he enthused again.

‘Whee!’ she said, sliding him down, holding him around the waist to keep him steady.

‘Again! Again!’ he cried.

She moved to heft him up again. He was quite a weight, at just gone three years old.

‘Let me,’ said another voice.

Leandros was walking towards them.

‘Right, then, young man,’ he said, and swung Miki back up to the top of the slide, copying Eliana’s safety precautions as Miki glided gleefully to the bottom.

It took a while for him to get bored, but he did eventually, and progressed on to the roundabout, and then an infant swing with an encased seat to stop him falling off. Finally, the sandpit beckoned, and Eliana extracted a small plastic bucket and spade from under the buggy, settling him down with them in the sand. He got stuck in happily, fully absorbed.

Benches surrounded the sandpit, most filled with mothers watching their children in the sandpit, but one was unoccupied. She sat down on it, Leandros beside her.

He turned towards her.

‘What do I say to you?’ he said.

‘What do I say to you?’

The words—as inane as they were inadequate—echoed in his head.

When she had so shockingly revealed her virginity he hadn’t known what to say to her. Nor did he know what to say now—with this even more shocking revelation.

That the ‘someone else’ she had gone to was Miki...

And that her marriage was a farce—a lie from the very start. A lie both she and Damian agreed to. And now she has taken responsibility for a child that is not hers. A child she will not abandon and is determined to care for—whatever it costs her. Even it costs her me...costs her what we found again in Paris.

His gaze went to the small boy, playing happily in the sand. He was a nice little lad—cheerful and sunny—and Leandros watched him happily and assiduously fill his bucket with sand, then chortle as he emptied it all out again, only to repeat the process industriously.

A thought came to him, poignant and powerful.

What if he’d been ours—Eliana’s and mine?

They might easily have had a child that age by now...possibly another baby as well. His eyes went to Eliana, emotion snaking through him at what he had just thought. A sense of waste smote him.

How different our lives might have been from what they are.

She spoke now. ‘There isn’t really anything to say.’

Her voice was even, but he could hear a note of resignation in it. Or was it rather acceptance? Or both?

‘It’s just how things have panned out. We make our decisions in life, Leandros—and live with the consequences.’

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