Page 17 of The Secret Sanchez Heir
Abigail was hardly noted for her fervent adherence to the truth. She’d spent weeks papering over her background and the small matter of the theft hanging over her head. She’d effectively lied to him, and right now he chose to disregard all the reasons she had come up with for her evasions. Right now he could only think that, if that baby upstairs was his, then life as he knew it was about to be turned on its head.
Abigail paled. ‘You mean you don’t believe me,’ she said flatly.
‘You come with a reputation. Taking you at your word would be a ludicrous act of charity on my part.’ He pulled a chair and sat down, pushing it back so that he could extend his long legs. He felt like a giant in a playhouse.
The thought of any baby of his being raised in this sort of environment set his teeth on edge, and just like that he was shocked that his thoughts were already travelling down that road, already accepting possibilities.
One step at a time, he reminded himself grimly.
He would deal with the situation only when full paternity was revealed.
But the maths made sense...then there was that physical resemblance...and did he truly, in his heart, believe that she was the sort of woman who somehow would have thrown herself into bed with another man the second they’d parted company?
Leandro had a moment of complete terror, because suddenly he could see the ordered and well-oiled life he had built for himself falling apart at the seams.
‘You’re Sam’s father, Leandro.’ Abigail tilted her chin at a mutinous angle and held her ground but her world was shifting on its axis and she had no idea where it was going to end up. Right now, that look on his face was sending shivers of apprehension up and down her spine.
He’d wanted her for five minutes, wanted to have her back in his bed to scratch an itch until the itch went away. There had been no lingering affection behind that. Indeed, he had made sure to tell her that, so what on earth would he be thinking now?
Surely he must realise that a DNA test wasn’t necessary? But then, Leandro’s opinion of her was so low that he might actually believe that she would have disembarked at Heathrow airport over a year ago, broken-hearted, and headed for the nearest bar so that she could pick up a random stranger and drag him off to bed somewhere.
He loathed her, so where did that leave them? She should have been regretting bitterly the impulse to confess, but she wasn’t. Seeing him standing over the cot and looking down into it had made her realise that she couldn’t keep Sam from him. She had made her decision to say nothing for reasons that had been right for her at the time but, whatever the consequences now, it was right that he knew.
Which didn’t help when it came to trying to figure out what happened next.
‘I’m not asking for anything from you,’ she said quietly. ‘You didn’t ask for this situation and you don’t have to think that your life is going to be messed up because of it.’ She’d sat opposite him and she was very much aware of how tiny the kitchen was because he took up so much space in it. In fact, she was very much aware, ever since he had entered the house, of how confined her surroundings were. Her heart began a slow, scared drum roll inside her chest.
If she could see the limitations of where she lived, and she’d grown accustomed to it over the months, then what must he be seeing?
This was a man with a helicopter and flash properties worth millions scattered across the globe. He snapped his fingers and everyone around him jumped to attention. A house wouldn’t be a house for him unless every bedroom came with an en suite bathroom and a separate dressing room.
He was going to get a stupid DNA test, which would come back positive, and what then? Would he want to rescue his son from these surroundings? He couldn’t. The sensible side of her saw that, because mothers had rights too, but he could provide so much as Sam’s father and he could fight her with all the time and money at his disposal if he felt so inclined.
It suddenly seemed imperative that she persuade him that having his life remain as it was was what he wanted and needed.
‘It was an honest mistake.’ She smiled reassuringly at him. She felt about as sincere as the wicked witch smiling at Hansel and Gretel while she tried to lure them into the gingerbread house. ‘You didn’t ask for a child, Leandro, and I know what your lifestyle’s like. Your feet hardly ever touch the ground! You said yourself that you rarely get to visit your beautiful country house. I’ll bet you’re hardly ever in England at all!’
She cleared her throat and wished that he would say something. Agree with her, preferably. Or at least give some indication that he was hearing what she was saying. He was looking at her with brooding intensity and it was doing nothing at all for her equilibrium. Or for the sensible, rational part of her that knew he couldn’t sweep in and carry Sam off with him just because he was rich.
‘What I’m saying,’ she finished with a lot more bracing confidence than she was feeling, ‘Is that I wouldn’t want you to stop living the life you’re living because of this. I’m perfectly capable of bringing Sam up on my own.’
‘I will make arrangements for a paternity test.’
‘Is that all you can say, Leandro?’
‘What would you like me to say?’ His voice was deathly quiet. ‘That if you’re right, and he’s my son, that I’ll oblige you by disappearing because it was all an honest mistake?’ He stood up and looked down at her. ‘I have no intention of taking your word for anything,’ he said calmly. ‘I’m a very rich man and whether I believe what you’re telling me or not makes no difference. I am an easy target for gold-diggers.’
‘I’m not a gold-digger, Leandro, and you should know that.’
Leandro’s heart clenched at the genuine hurt in her face but he wasn’t going to retract a word of what he’d said. He’d been invigorated by the thought of pursuing her to take her to his bed so that he could finish something that had been started, something that needed a proper conclusion so that he could get on with his life, but now things had changed. Very, very dramatically.
‘What will the procedure be?’ she asked, defeated. ‘Will Sam have to go to a hospital for the test?’
‘It will be handled discreetly. You will hear from me tomorrow about arrangements for the test and once the results are known...’ He looked at her narrowly and thought about the small, softly breathing shape in the cot. Something threatened to engulf him, a depth charge as powerful as an earthquake. ‘We will take it from there.’
‘Leandro...’ She stepped towards him then hesitated and remained where she was, hovering and uncertain.
‘I’ll be in touch.’
