Page 18 of The Baby Behind Their Marriage Merger

He was grateful she didn’t prod and pry. He’d never told anyone about Marina, how naive he’d been. Correction: he’d never told anyone since Jane had broken his confidence by spilling his story to a tabloid to exact revenge.

Addi’s dark eyebrows shot up. ‘I presume those amendments are why you want us to marry?’

She was so very smart and quick on the uptake. He liked the fact that she could keep up with him and that she could look at a situation with pragmatism.

‘My grandfather would never leave his company, the company his own grandfather started, to anyone outside of the family. But he had major doubts about my suitability to run his empire. He had questions about my judgement.’

Addi leaned forward, a small frown appearing between her eyebrows. ‘I don’t understand why, because you’re one of the most respected people in the industry. You’ve grown Fisher International, consolidated and increased your market share. You run a good company.’

He couldn’t help feeling pleased, and a little proud, hearing her words. ‘My lack of judgement was in my personal life, not my business life, but Bartholomew couldn’t differentiate between the two.’

‘Ah.’ She leaned back and wrinkled her nose. ‘So tell me what was in his will.’

He couldn’t tell her that—not yet. No, notever. No one knew, except for Thabo, Cole Thorpe, Bart’s lawyer and the Council of Three. And the trustees wouldn’t say anything because Bart had made them sign a non-disclosure agreement. To reinforce their silence, Jude also paid them a substantial yearly allowance. ‘That’s not pertinent to our discussion. What is relevant is that I cannot have an illegitimate child.’

Strangely, the desire to tell her more, to share his past, bubbled under his skin. There was a chance that Addi, with her unconventional mother, might just be the one person who would understand how difficult it was to have been raised by an unconventional parental figure, someone you were at complete odds with.

But he wouldn’t tell her. He’d told Jane about Marina and look how that had turned out. But he’d never told Jane how sick, sad and miserable he’d felt after he’d finally accepted the truth about Marina. How he’d felt like an idiot for being conned, a fool for still loving her, weeks and months after kicking her out of his life. How he’d felt the burn of humiliation, the acidity of stupidity. Jane had reopened those wounds when she’d blabbed his story to the tabloids and they’d never quite closed again. He hated the press, but he hated the fact that he’d been so naive to trust Marina with his heart, and even more stupid to trust Jane with his past.

The caveats in his grandfather’s will, the implication that he couldn’t be trusted to make good decisions, was acid in an open-to-the-bone wound.

‘You’re not giving me very much to work with here, Fisher,’ Addi complained.

He met her eyes and shrugged. ‘Is it necessary for you to know my reasoning? I don’t think so. I’m offering you a very good deal, Addi. Financial security, money to pay the best lawyers to keep custody of your sisters, a job if you want it. All I’m asking for is a short-term, completely secret, marriage.’

She narrowed her eyes. ‘Why does it need to be kept secret?’

Ah, he’d wondered when she’d ask that. ‘If the press hears about it, they’ll wonder about the length of our relationship, why we didn’t have a big wedding; there would be a lot of interest.’

There would be references to Marina and his idiocy and they would openly speculate about whether he was making another mistake. And he didn’t trust that one intrepid journalist wouldn’t dig a little deeper and somehow, somewhere, find a copy of the trust document that implemented his grandfather’s wishes. He didn’t want the world, his colleagues and employees to see how little Bart had trusted and respected his heir. It wasn’t likely to happen, but he couldn’t take that chance.

Making headlines was a nightmare, having his past replayed was a night terror and having the contents of the trust revealed—it was confidential, but he didn’t trust anyone—would be the worst indignity and seventh-circle-of-hell stuff.

No, it was better to keep it secret.

‘What will happen if youdohave an illegitimate child?’ Addi asked.

He pulled a face. ‘My business, and my reputation, would be seriously compromised.’ And the Council of Three would stay on for another ten years and they would hamper his plans to expand Fisher International. And his frustration levels would hit the roof. He was so close, just a year away from complete freedom, and he would do anything—well, nearly anything—to have his financial and business freedom.

Even marry.

Addi picked up on his reluctance and didn’t push, instead choosing to stand up and walk over to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking out onto the grey, cold ocean and the yachts in the harbour.

‘What if I left your name off the birth certificate?’

That was an option but not a good one. He was a Fisher, his child would be a Fisher, and keeping his or her name off the birth certificate would be denying the child knowledge of where it came from. No, marriage was the best option for them both.

‘Look, I didn’t think I was going to have the opportunity to be a father—that normally comes with a relationship with someone—but, now that it’s going to be a reality, I want my child to have my name, Addison. I want to be a part of its life, to be a father.’

He’d never trust anyone again with his heart. After his grandfather, Marina and Jane, he’d never allow anyone to have any say over what he did and how he did it. He’d tried love but it hadn’t taken. Why go back for more?

‘I might not want a day-to-day wife, someone in my space, but I do want to protect my company, so I think that we can come to an arrangement.’

‘An arrangement,’ she murmured, her voice low and cool. He’d never met anyone who hid her feelings as well as Addi, who could take anything thrown at her and remain calm. It made him want to prick that bubble of self-assurance, to pull away her layers to see who she really was beneath that layer of calm. It felt as though the only time he’d got to the core of her was when they’d made love. Within a few seconds of kissing him, she’d started to melt, and he’d tasted heat, demand and more than a little wild.

‘So how would this work?’ she asked, placing a palm on the window, her eyes fixed on the horizon. He followed her gaze and, there in the distance, a container ship skimmed along the horizon, barely discernible in the mist and rain.

He saw a stab of longing in her eyes and wondered if she was wishing she could run away from her life and her responsibilities, from the daily grind. He had only himself to worry about and he did what he wanted, when he wanted, but Addi had responsibilities he hadn’t. She juggled a family, a demanding job and handled the financial demands of a young family, mostly on her own. And, on top of what had to be a normally stressful life, she was worried about her job, was facing her sisters being taken from her and was pregnant.

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