His gaze was serious, the look she had loved so long. ‘Because I want you to.’
In that instant, the world changed.
‘Lana, there’s something I have to say.’ He watched her solemnly. ‘I don’t want to marry Elisabeth. I thought I did, but I don’t. I convinced myself it was the right thing but it’s not. Please, don’t interrupt, let me just do this.’ He leaned forward. ‘All I can think about is you. Only you, always you. Since you walked away from us, not a day, not an hour, not a single minute has gone past when I haven’t thought about you.’ A beat. ‘I’m yours. You have me, you always did and you always will.’
‘Robert …’
‘I haven’t finished. I love Elisabeth. I do. But not in the way I love you. The way I love you is different, I can’t explain it, like it’s a different part of me I’m loving you with, and that part can’t ever belong to somebody else.’ His voice shook. ‘I don’t care how long I have to wait, how much I have to face, what it means for any of this’–he gestured around him–’but I’m not getting over you again.’ He bowed his head. A frown furrowed his brow. ‘I can’t marry her.’
Lana’s heart was thumping. ‘Did you just say all that?’ she whispered.
‘I’ll say it again.’
The fire that had been dead in her caught light. ‘You don’t need to,’ she said. ‘I can remember it.’
He took her hand again, not caring who saw. ‘Say it could work.’
‘We’d hurt people.’
‘Not in the long term.’
‘It’s impossible.’
He laughed, looked about him, then at her. ‘Anything’s possible. Wouldn’t you say?’
She laughed with him. ‘It’s crazy.’
‘The only things worth it are.’
Lana shook her head, squeezed his hand. ‘Robbie Lewis, what have you done to me?’
He smiled. ‘Not nearly enough.’
She smiled back.
Los Angeles
‘I am not terminating this marriage contract.’
Cole Steel banged his fist on his lawyer’s table, sending a brown puddle of coffee spilling over the rim of his cup.
In his downtown office, Randy H. Ford shuffled a bundle of papers on his desk. He was a sharp-featured man with abundant grey hair and half-moon glasses that perched on the end of his nose. In the business for over thirty years, Randy was one of the best lawyers that money could buy.
He looked between Cole and Marty King, unperturbed. ‘It’s what Rachel Manelli is pushing for, I’m afraid. We need to consider all avenues open to us.’
Cole shook his head in disbelief. ‘It defies belief that Lana’s doing this to me!’ He turned to Marty. ‘She’s the one who messed this whole goddamn thing up!’
Randy leaned forward. He removed his glasses and pinched the thin bridge of his nose. ‘As your lawyer I do need to acknowledge that a dissolution would be in our best interests.’
‘How?’ Cole spat. ‘By making me the gullible fucking chump? I don’t think so.’ He laughed mirthlessly. ‘I begin shooting in a few weeks, then what? The movie’s scheduled for release in the same month as some bastard offspring?’
Jesus, he felt awful–and, judging by Marty’s poorly concealed reaction when they’d met earlier this afternoon, he looked it, too. Sleep had eluded him since Lana had vanished, along with his appetite.
Oh, he knew where she was hiding. She’d only gone and run off to Vegas, thinking she could get a free deal from that hotelier he’d introduced her to. Rita Clay had been to see him on her return: she’d said that Lana would come back, but that she needed time. Time? What a fucking joke. She hadn’t taken time to think about her husband in any of this, had she? Rita had also assured him that if he tried to seek her out they would go straight to the papers and tell them everything. Apparently Lana was willing to risk it–the bitch knew how to hit him where it hurt.
‘It will end on our terms.’ Randy poured himself a glass of water. ‘For me, this makes it an attractive proposition. Think carefully, Cole. Your wife is pregnant and unwilling to maintain that the child is yours. If the contract is dissolved we can mitigate damage caused to you. That is my primary concern.’
‘Well, my primary concern is how in the hell it’s going to make me look!’ Cole jabbed his chest with a finger. Marty reached out to calm him and Cole slapped his hand away.
‘Exactly my point,’ said Randy evenly. ‘Your wife has stated that she wishes to continue with the pregnancy, meaning that she will give birth to a third party’s child with or without your consent. The option given to us is to take control of the story that emerges–up to a point agreed with the other side, of course. If we fight for the contract we will still face the same outcome, only it will look decidedly worse from where you’re standing.’
Cole had never felt so impotent.
‘I always treated her well,’ he lamented, looking at Marty for reassurance. His agent, sensing he was up, nodded obediently. ‘I never hurt her; I gave her everything she wanted …’ Except what she went out and got.
His eyes hardened. ‘I want this baby to be mine,’ he told Randy.
‘It won’t happen. They’ll never agree.’
‘We’re still in contract!’ cried Cole hysterically. ‘There has to be something in there that entitles me to have a say in this! Here, give me that.’ He snatched the papers.
‘I’m afraid not,’ said Randy. ‘Nothing that covers your wife getting pregnant by a third party.’
‘Can you stop freaking saying that?’
Randy sat back, watching Cole flip through the contract like a man possessed. When he’d finished he looked at Marty accusingly. ‘Great.’
‘We’ll talk in the morning,’ said Randy. ‘Once I know the facts we can start building this case. You’ll be frank with me about everything.’
Marty winced. Cole would love that.
‘I’ll talk her round,’ said Cole suddenly, as if a great idea had just dawned on him. ‘When she comes back.’ He looked between the two men. ‘She has to come back, doesn’t she? We’re still maintaining this, right? She’ll listen to me. If I can just get through to her—’
Randy shook his head. ‘We should avoid discussing this directly—’
‘She can’t really want to
