and make one last attempt to convince Leon that he’d jumped to all the wrong conclusions.
‘You must listen to me,’ she begged. ‘You’ve got it all wrong. I’ve done nothing to be ashamed of. I’m truly innocent—’
‘Sure. You, and everyone in here,’ he mocked.
‘No, I am—’
‘You knew what was happening,’ he said snarling. ‘You were the financial director—’
‘That’s the point, I wasn’t, it was in name only I swear—’
‘Stop it!’ he snapped furiously. ‘You’ve perjured yourself enough.’
‘Leon,’ she mumbled, ‘you’re not giving me a chance—’
‘Did you give Taki a chance? Or those people who are now living on pittances instead of healthy pensions? My family will have to pull out all the stops to ensure they don’t suffer, thanks to you. It could take us years.’
It was hopeless. He was implacable. ‘How can we have become such enemies?’ she asked miserably. ‘Once…’
The rest of her words died in her throat. His eyes blazed with such an intense hatred that every muscle in her body turned to water, her hands feebly clawing at the table for support as she struggled to stay in her seat and not slide to the floor in a boneless heap.
Leon’s face suddenly loomed close to hers and she found herself pinned in place by the anguish that ripped at his face.
‘Once! Once we were lovers,’ he said in a terrible, raw whisper. ‘My passion matched yours, my hands caressed your body. My lips knew yours, our bodies pulsed together—’
‘Leon—’ she said, breathily brokenly, unable to bear any more.
He touched her face, his fingers trembling with a barely contained passion. She assumed it to be a shuddering anger and shrank back in distress.
Leon’s nostrils flared. ‘I’d never have come within a mile of you if I’d realised the depths of your viciousness—that you could blame Taki for the fraud.’
‘It was him,’ she insisted hopelessly.
‘Pity the jury didn’t agree with you,’ he countered.
There was a sudden silence between them. They were at deadlock. Emma gave up. Her late husband’s betrayal was no longer important.
Alexandra’s future was. The next few moments could affect her child’s life for ever. Sick and weak, she rallied the last drop of energy in her body.
‘Shun me,’ she declared, her voice shaking with emotion. ‘Hate me, think what you like. Forget I ever lived if that pleases you.’ Panic rose within her like an uncontrollable flood and she raised a tearful face in one last passionate plea. ‘But let me have the child I love.’
‘Not in a million years,’ he replied coldly. ‘I won’t let Taki’s daughter be brought up in an English prison by a callous, cold-blooded female. She’s out of your reach now…not even in this country.’
Abruptly he rose to go. Emma couldn’t speak, could barely think for shock. Her beloved Lexi was in Greece! A cracked sound filtered through her trembling lips as the reality hit her like a stone. Her mouth quivered as a terrible emptiness enveloped her. She hadn’t a hope of getting her baby back.
The nausea rose to her throat and sweat beaded her forehead. Hardly aware of her surroundings, she struggled for control, afraid that she’d be sick, then and there.
‘You’re…a monster!’ she whispered in horror.
‘Am I?’ he said curtly. ‘And what kind of mother are you? Did you once think of Lexi while you were plotting your criminal activities? Did you ever wonder what would happen to her if your fraud was discovered? Were you so wrapped up in your own selfish need for vengeance that it didn’t matter what happened to any of the people who had the misfortune to be involved in your life?’
Emma gazed at him tearfully. ‘But…I love her,’ she mumbled.
‘And I have her best interests at heart,’ he countered grimly. ‘She will remain with me. I came to put your mind at rest. Lexi is safe and content and will be well cared for. She will be taught to be honourable, well-mannered and honest.’
It sounded so dutiful. So utterly empty of warmth and affection. This was her baby he was talking about! A child who needed cuddles and affection, a mother’s love… ‘Is that all?’ she said jerkily.
‘More than you would have provided,’ he said coldly.
‘Leon!’ she said choking, tears spilling unchecked down her unhappy face as she was forced to accept the unthinkable.
There would be another woman mothering her baby, someone else reading bedtime stories, comforting Lexi, watching her grow up…snuggling into that baby-scented skin…
She gave a shuddering moan. ‘Oh, Leon, what about love?’
He had half-turned to leave. Taut in every line of his body, he jerked his head around and looked her full in the eyes. Now she was sure of his unhappiness, of some deep pain he suffered.
Her limpid gaze pleaded with him for compassion and understanding. The silence and the tension between them intensified and she knew they were both thinking of the past when they had been wildly happy together and without a care in the world.
‘Love,’ he rasped with a glacial contempt, ‘is a fool’s illusion.’
CHAPTER ONE
SECURE within the walled grounds of Leon’s country mansion, the two-and-a-half-year-old Alexandra slept contentedly in Leon’s arms while he laid plans for her to inherit his domain. When, he reminded himself grimly, he’d dealt with the problem of his ex-wife and her child.
He returned to more pleasant thoughts, planning for the day when he’d tell Lexi how his family had been rewarded with land for outstanding bravery. Like his father before him, he’d show his niece the hill where a lookout had spotted the Saracen pirates who’d roamed the seas of Greece in the sixteenth century, and who’d threatened to capture the entire island of Zakynthos.
And they’d walk from the beach where Kyriakis ships had set out for the decisive battle, to the shady, vine-covered terrace where he now sat. There, he would tell her, in his late father’s words, that the land would be hers, all the way from the coast, across the fertile plain and to the hills beyond.
She murmured in her sleep and burrowed deeper, her wilful little face soft with dreams. Smiling down at her, he stroked the silky blonde curls and had a sudden, sharply painful recollection of caressing Emma’s shining hair long, long in the past.
The rosy image was brutally replaced by Emma’s shocking appearance more than two years ago, when he’d confronted her in that unspeakable prison. He shifted, uncomfortable with the memory. In a moment of weakness he’d almost given in to her, his intentions shaken by Emma’s distress and her alarming physical deterioration.
But she had shown
