Page 36 of A Nine-Month Deal With Her Husband

‘She fell pregnant with me and when she was six months pregnant, he put her in hospital with a broken jaw.’

Ben released an angry growl and Millie rested her temple on his shoulder. ‘That’s not the worst of it, Ben.’

‘There’s more?’

Unfortunately. ‘While she was in the hospital, she found the courage to call her parents. They dropped everything to go to her. They’d tried to contact her, but he monitored her mobile and deleted their calls, emails and messages. Anyway, with them in her corner, she laid charges against him. Mum told them she had hidden photos showing the other beatings he gave her. When the police searched his stuff, and their flat, they got more than they bargained for.’

Ben tensed.

‘They found evidence linking him to sexual assaults and burglaries. He’d attacked many women over many years. The man was awful.’

Ben released a soft curse. ‘Did your mum go back to live with her parents?’

Millie nodded. ‘Yes, she lived with them until I was born, and afterwards. But when I was six months old, they were killed in a car crash. That’s when she moved to Iceland.’

Ben’s hand curled around her waist as he flipped the folder closed. ‘That’s awful, Millie. I’m so sorry.’

‘You know, I’ve been so worried about what bad genes my baby will inherit from an anonymous donor, but now I’m worried about what genes he might inherit from my father!’ she said, sounding a little unhinged.

‘I believe nurture will trump nature, Mils. None of your bio father’s genes came out in you and they won’t come out in your kid.’

He sounded so certain and she wanted, desperately, to believe him. ‘Are you sure, Ben?’

‘Jacqui was an amazing mum, Mils, and you will be, too,’ Ben told her, without a hint of worry in his voice. He closed the files and stacked them. His complete certainty calmed her fears. ‘I’m so sorry that happened to her.’

‘Me, too. She had such a hard time,’ Millie stated. ‘But now I understand why she kept my real father a secret and why she pretended Magnús was my dad.’

‘She was trying to protect you from the knowledge that your father was a serial rapist.’

Millie turned to face him and put her elbow on the table. ‘I think it would’ve been a lot better and healthier for me if she just told me that my dad was a bad man and left it at that. Thinking Magnús was my dad, but knowing he didn’t love me, did some damage, Ben.’

He ran his hand over her hair. ‘I know, Mils.’ He pulled her in for a long side-to-side hug before pushing her heavy, long fringe off her face. ‘I’m going to try to say this as gently as I can...your childhood is over, Millie. You’ve got to let it go. You can’t keep carrying that baggage around with you.’

She nodded, tears streaming down her face. ‘Iknow. I do know that, Ben, I just don’t know how to put it down, to walk away from it. Tell me how to do it and I will,’ she gasped the words out, her chest heaving with the concentrated emotion of a lifetime. ‘Tell me how not to be angry and hurt and devastated and I will change, I will be better, I promise you!’

Ben pulled her into the shelter of his big body and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. ‘Ah, Mils. Just be you. You are more than enough. You always were and always will be.’

She sobbed and held on to his words.

As the limousine made its way through the still snowy streets of Reykjavik, Millie smoothed down her golden skirt and touched her hair, pinned up into a romantic wavy bun on the back of her head. The loose style was supposed to look, as her stylist said, as if she’d just rolled out of bed, but it had taken hours for her to do.

Ben took her hand in his and squeezed it. ‘You look wonderful, Millie.’

‘For the daughter of a criminal, you mean,’ Millie snapped back. She closed her eyes, immediately remorseful. She’d had a long, tough day and was still coming to terms with the contents of the safety deposit box. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean that. I’m just on edge and tense and so nervous about making this speech.’

Ben gave her a reassuring smile. ‘If I’d had any idea what you were going to find in the safety deposit box, I would never have asked the bank manager to see you on the same day as the concert.’

He’d pulled some strings to get her the appointment and she was grateful.

‘It’s not your fault, Benedikt,’ Millie told him. Man, he looked amazing. He wore a classic tuxedo, but instead of a bowtie, he wore a plain black silk tie. He looked stunningly handsome and very debonair. She wondered what the press would think about them arriving together in the same limousine, then remembered the world knew them to be business partners.

In the eyes of the world, they were the two people closest to Jacqui and there was nothing to be read into them attending the gala concert together.

‘It’s not your fault either, Millie,’ Ben told her, his tone suggesting she not argue with him.

She nodded. She took his hand and slid her fingers between his, grateful he’d lifted the privacy screen in the limo and that the windows were so darkly tinted that no one could see inside. She looked at Ben and managed a smile.

‘I know, Ben. And I do understand why Jacqs didn’t want me to know about him, he wasn’t a very nice man. No, he was an awful man, but I’m choosing to believe I inherited all my genes from my mum, she made me the person I’m today.’

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