it would have been obvious to him that I knew you—or at least knew who you were. If you’d approached on your own it would have been a different story.’
It sounded weak even to her own ears.
‘And he’ll be there with Nimr when he plays in the park with his friends from school? How long will a boy put up with that kind of shadow? How long before he gets embarrassed about it, and finds ways of avoiding Joe’s protection?’
He was giving voice to the thoughts that kept Lauren awake most nights and she hid the dread they brought.
‘I’m not stupid!’ she snapped. ‘Lily’s stories about people conspiring to get rid of her and Tariq, which I’d thought gross exaggerations, were proven to be true. And I’ve always known I could only go so far to protect Nim. But after four years I’d begun to hope that anyone who actually knew of his existence would have forgotten about him.’
Those conversations—well, them and the accident and abduction—were the reasons Lauren had fled. With help from the police liaison officer, she’d officially changed her name and disappeared, moving constantly for the first two years—in touch with the police in different places who had twice alerted her that someone from Madan was looking for them—never entirely sure they were safe.
And now Lily’s words were coming true. Now this man was here, wanting to take her child—Lily’s child.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I’m sure you mean well, but I have to think of Nim, so no more talk. He’s not going—we’re not going—anywhere.’
Except to move as soon as possible to another town, maybe a city... Would a city be easier to lose themselves in? Even with half the money from the sale of her parents’ mansion put away for Nim, she still had more than enough to take them anywhere in the world.
But the thought of moving again made her feel ill. Aunt Jane and Joe were settled in the other half of the duplex, They’d done more than enough for her and Nim already, and weren’t even true family, for all Aunt Jane had been her mother’s best friend, and Joe had worshipped Lily since they were children—
‘What did you say?’
She shook her head to clear it, realising it was tiredness that had led her mind to stray away from this man—from danger.
He was watching her, his face devoid of expression, but his eyes were focussed.
Seeking her reaction?
‘I said I would prefer not to go through official channels, but by the law of my country Nimr became my child on the death of his father. I have every right in law to claim him.’
Lauren ran her tongue over suddenly dry lips, tried to think, but shock and anger, and possibly exhaustion, had closed her brain.
* * *
Malik saw what little colour she’d had in her cheeks fade, and the tip of her tongue slide across her pale lips.
And found himself wanting nothing more than to take care of her—this small, fiercely protective woman. Not only to keep her safe but to lift the burden of fear from her slim shoulders.
To hold her, tell her it would all work out.
To hold her?
Get your mind back on the job.
But guilt at how he’d hurt her with his words made him reach out and touch one small, cold hand, where it lay in her lap.
‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have threatened you like that—you look exhausted, and all this has been a shock to you. No one should make decisions when they’re tired, but there’s a way out of this for all of us. Don’t answer now, we will talk again in the morning. I shall phone your Mr Marshall and explain you won’t be in to work.’
But she’d obviously stopped listening earlier in his conversation.
‘A way out for all of us?’ she asked, looking at him with a thousand questions in her lovely eyes.
‘Of course,’ he told her, and felt a small spurt of unexpected excitement even thinking about his solution.
‘We shall get married,’ he announced. ‘That way Nim is both of ours and will be doubly protected.’
Her eyes had widened and although he hadn’t thought she could get any paler, she was now sheet-white.
But she stood up, and for a moment he thought she might physically attack him, but in the end she glared at him and said, ‘You must be mad!’ before turning towards the kitchen.
‘Peter, your customer is ready to leave,’ she called, before disappearing down the passage, presumably into her bedroom.
As his driver appeared, with Joe looming behind him, Malik realised there was no point in arguing, but the idea, which had come to him out of nowhere, was brilliant.
All he had to do was convince Lauren.
Her name rolled a little on his tongue and, inside his head, he tried it out a few times.
He said goodnight to Joe, and followed Peter out to the car, but his mind, for once, was not on Nimr, but on the woman he’d decided to marry...
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