Page 11 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

‘It’s the perfect night for a barbecue,’ Angeliki declared, strolling into his office later that day as he sat at his desk, having been determined to work and put Lexy and the three babies hemightsuddenly have totally out of his mind. Only that hadn’t worked. Two boys and a girl, born only seven months after that night, which meant that something had gone wrong with the pregnancy and the whole lot of them might have died. That horrified him and knocked him straight back into abstraction.

‘I’m afraid I’m not in the mood,’ Nic admitted, forcing a smile for her benefit. ‘Sorry.’

Their estrangement hadn’t lasted for long, he recalled. Angeliki had phoned and then come to see him. She had confessed that the breakdown of yet another of her fleeting relationships and a sense of insecurity had prompted her into that inadvisable straying into his bed. Of course, he had forgiven her, but he still hadn’t told her that she was his half-sister, even though he had told his brother. And Jace? Jace had merely rolled his eyes without much perceptible interest in the news that he had a sister. Why? Probably because Jace was already dug deep into playing happy families with his wife, Gigi, and his little son, Nikolaos. A reformed rake, Jace was so into Gigi and their progeny that Nic was wholly glad to be heart whole and still fancy-free.

Nic, however, was feeling guilty that he still hadn’t told anyone else, but he couldn’t see that being given the news that she was a secret Diamandis would decrease Angeliki’s general discontentment with life. Angeliki was an heiress because his father had made provision for her long ago, only that wealth, supposedly inherited from a distant relative, hadn’t made her any happier. And unfortunately, she was still very much given to referring to that night Nic had rejected her, instead of just leaving that controversial topic alone, even though she had to see that it still made him uncomfortable to think of her in naked, seductive mode.

‘You’re not much fun today.’ Heaving a sigh, Angeliki batted her eyelashes at him in annoyance as she leant back against his desk. ‘What about tomorrow night?’

‘I’m dealing with a bit of a crisis right now,’ Nic told her with perfect truth.

‘You should’ve said that first!’ the beautiful blonde exclaimed in reproof. ‘You can be so secretive about things that it worries me. Are you still seeing Mila Jetson?’

Nic shrugged. ‘No, that’s over.’

He recognised that he no longer confided in his friend as he once had but, having only recently registered her response to the women who passed through his life when Mila had complained, he wasn’t unleashing her on the likes of Lexy. Angeliki could be bitchy and critical and very devious, and Lexy was none of those things, although if those babies were his, and he had to assume within the time frame that theywere, she had some explaining to do about why she hadn’t made tracking him down her priority months ago. He was angry about that. He wasveryangry about that omission, he reminded himself, and it took a great deal to make Nic angry.

‘Good news, I hope,’ Lexy’s solicitor passed on during her first call in weeks. ‘Mr Diamandis has already lodged his DNA sample with a private firm and has requested permission to send one of their lab techs out to your home to speed up this process.’

‘My goodness...’ Lexy murmured in genuine astonishment.

‘I suspect he’s keen to deal quickly and quietly with the claim. Will you agree to me passing on your address and phone number for the collection of your sample?’

‘Of course.’ Lexy knew she didn’t have much choice and would be grateful to avoid the stress and expense of a trip out. She hadn’t worked full-time since she was five months pregnant. Eileen sent her occasional bits of translation work and she put the triplets in daycare one day a week to accomplish it. As she was living with the help of welfare, she received some free childcare, but nothing she was allowed to earn part-time in such circumstances was up to the challenge of keeping a decent roof over their heads.

That was why, as she moved back into the spacious living room to rejoin her friend Mel and share the contents of that call, she was beaming, because their current home was only a temporary one. She was house-sitting for Mel’s parents while her father took up a year’s placement on the faculty of a New York college. She looked after the family pets, Barney the Labrador and Chica the cat, and the house plants, keeping the lawn cut and the dust down. In return she received the use of their car and the glorious relief of having a comfortable place to live. But time was running out because the Fosters would be returning home in another few weeks and she would soon be homelessagain.

‘About time he stepped up to do something other than ignoring you!’ Mel, a tall, lanky brunette exclaimed. ‘Stop acting like your boat’s finally come in. This is only his first move and, of course, he’ll still be hoping the kids aren’thisright now.’

Lexy compressed her lips. ‘Well, I’m choosing to hope that he’s finally come to his senses and accepted that he can’t avoid his responsibilities any longer. I just wish I’d listened to you and gone straight to a solicitor as soon as they were born. I’ve wasted so much time with my phone calls and my letters and visits to that wretched office block of his. He truly is the most hateful man.’

Mel glanced at her watch and stood up. ‘I’ll have to run if I’m hoping to make dinner with Fergus tonight,’ she confided. ‘Sorry I can’t stay longer.’

Lexy hugged her best friend with a lump in her throat because without that friendship, she honestly wasn’t sure she could have made it through the horrendous challenges she had faced over the past eighteen months. Mel had been solid gold right from the start. She had never uttered a word of criticism over Lexy’s very bad decision to spend the night with a gorgeous stranger. Nor had she said anything while, with hindsight, Lexy had waited with such foolish confidence for Nic Diamandis to phone her afterwards and had never heard from him again. And when Lexy had needed support and understanding, Mel had been there for her every time.

She went upstairs to lift her children from their nap.Children!Even when she wasn’t consumed with worry about the future, she still marvelled at the wonder of her three babies. Ethan was already standing in his cot awaiting her arrival, which was par for the course. Ezra, his smaller twin, whose former health problems had meant his survival had been touch and go for a while, was lying back, eyes open but quite relaxed as usual. If Ethan was the boisterous one, Ezra was the quiet, more thoughtful one. And last, but far from being least, came her daughter, Lily, bouncing at the side of the cot in readiness to be lifted.

She grabbed two of them up and hurtled downstairs to place them in the playpen before returning to lift Ezra. He beamed up at her and she cuddled him. It struck her as particularly ironic that not one of her children looked remotely like her. They were a trio with unruly black hair, dark eyes and olive skin.

A call came from the DNA lab that afternoon and she agreed to a lab tech calling with her because it would save her a lot of hassle. Transporting three babies anywhere, even with the use of a car, was exhausting. The tech arrived within an hour of the phone call, which disconcerted her because she had expected to have to wait in at least the next day for the visit. The woman was barely in the house for ten minutes, taking a mouth swab with the minimum of fuss and promising speedy results. Lexy was tempted to say that she was in no doubt of what the results would be, but she said nothing.

She assumed that the triplets’ father would be praying that the results were not a match. After all, he had gone to some trouble to avoid ever seeing her again. She had been informed that her phone calls to his office were unwelcome and once she had even been escorted back onto the street by two very embarrassed and apologetic security guards. Slowly but surely her mortification had become burnished by wounded pride and rage at the level his behaviour had reduced her dignity to. She owed Nic Diamandis nothing. However, she had become ever more determined that he should help to support his own children. She wanted nothing else from him and sincerely hoped that she would never have to actually lay eyes on him again.

That hope was plunged into disappointment two days later when the doorbell rang. Lexy was unprepared for a shock. It was her work day, and her children were at the nursery. She was clad in yoga pants and a tank top, spectacles firmly anchored on her nose and wearing not a scrap of make-up when she went to answer the door, expecting the postman. Only instead she found herself focusing in disbelief on the man she had spent months trying to see or contact, firmly, squarely planted on her doorstep. And she couldn’tbelievethat Nic Diamandis was finally giving her the time of day, not after all her failed efforts and his established ghosting of her very existence.

‘Nic...’ Her greeting was weak and it swiftly died away, along with her voice.

‘Lexy. We need to talk.’

Lexy tilted her chin. ‘A bit late in the day for that, isn’t it?’ she heard herself quip, incredulity and bitter anger consuming her as he gazed back at her with apparently not even an ounce of decent discomfort.

And without another word, Lexy slammed the door shut in his face again, steaming with the recollection of all the many humiliations he had had heaped on her when he had evidently blocked her calls on the number he had given her and had then refused to recognise her name when she’d tried to see him, or evenspeakto him, at his precious giant office building in the city of London. No, no regrets, she reflected as she paced away from the door again, her arms folded in a defensive block. What sort of father figure would he be for her children anyway? There was no way that she would allow him to treat her kids the way her father had treated her, making her feel less, making her feel unwanted even within her own home.

Been there, done that, got the lesson in triplicate, not falling for the act again...ever!

CHAPTER FOUR

‘YOU’VEGOTAhuge problem here,’ Jace Diamandis mused as he strolled across his sunlit office. ‘No offence, but you’ve really screwed this up.’

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