corporation. Had she been disowned? Betrayed?
It seemed that way. Peter had never contacted André after he’d seen him shuffle Kira from the Chateau. It was as if Peter had been glad to see her go. But if that were true, why had her millions gone to Bellamy? And why send the paparazzi to the island again?
The doctor emerged from the emergency room, his white coat fluttering wide. But it was his scowl that captured André’s attention.
“Monsieur Gauthier. On your word, you promised that Miss Montgomery would heed my advice, no?”
“Oui, I did.” But it was obvious he’d failed miserably. He’d been too intent on his quest for vengeance to care for the mother of his child. “How is she—and my baby?”
“Miss Montgomery is seriously dehydrated. We could not rouse her enough to drink fluids.” The doctor paused and shook his head, and André’s gut clenched. He was fearing the worst, fearing he’d lost them both. “We’ve forced fluids into her intravenously, and she is improving now.”
“The baby?” he asked, afraid to hope they’d avoided a heart-wrenching disaster.
The doctor smiled. “The fetus has a strong heartbeat.”
André simply stared at him, for though he’d believed Kira carried a child, he’d never thought a heartbeat could be detected so soon. He’d not thought of anything but vengeance and lust in turn.
“I ordered tests to check her chemical balance. If her electrolytes are normal, we will release her today.”
“No!” André ran a hand through his hair, damning the way it shook.
The doctor canted his head to the side. “No?”
“She can’t be trusted to hydrate herself this soon,” André said, hoping the doctor wouldn’t see through that flimsy excuse.
In truth, he didn’t trust himself around Kira right now, for his emotions were still bouncing between love and hate.
The doctor rubbed his chin and frowned. “She will not like being detained, monsieur, for she has told me she wants to go home.”
Home. The Chateau Mystique had been her home, and he’d taken that from her. He’d stripped her of everything.
“You will be rewarded for keeping her here for a few days,” André said, calculating that would give him enough time to do what he must. “Tell her she must stay, for the baby’s welfare.”
“Very well, monsieur. We appreciate your largesse.” The doctor turned to leave, then paused. “You may see her now.”
André wanted to, but he didn’t dare see her face to face until he found out if she’d been telling him the truth. Because if she was innocent, as she proclaimed, then his honor demanded that he right the wrongs he’d done her.
But even if that wasn’t the case he would give her anything and do everything to keep her well, so she would deliver a healthy child. Their child.
His chest tightened, his heart heavy and burning. Raw.
He’d been ready to marry her. To make her his forever.
But she was a Bellamy, and no matter how much André desired her, no matter how much his heart ached to make her his, he couldn’t marry his enemy’s daughter.
Kira sat in bed, staring out the window at the thin white clouds drifting across the azure sky. The scene hadn’t changed much in the two days she’d been hospitalized. Clear blue sky broken by occasional clouds, their formation the only variance.
Inside nothing changed either. The same nurse and doctor tended to her every whim, as if she were royalty. The food was above par, though her appetite was nil. But she ate and drank for the baby’s sake.
Thank God her child was safe. If she’d lost the baby, or hurt it in any way because of her neglect, she never would have forgiven herself.
But she’d lost André. She was sure of it, for she hadn’t heard from him since that confrontational scene at his house.
She’d relived that moment when she had walked away from him a thousand times. The anger blazing in his eyes had burned into her, incinerating her will to win his heart, her determination to carve a niche for herself and their child in his life.
Yet she was tormented by that moment when she’d collapsed, when she’d seen pain and regret and fear in his eyes.
Tears blurred her vision and she angrily swiped them away. He hadn’t visited her at the hospital once. How could he abandon her and the baby? How could he just walk away?
Because she was Edouard Bellamy’s daughter.
He hated her—he hated their child as well.
A hollow ache expanded in her chest, her heart grieving for what would never be.
She should be thankful the ugly truth was revealed. That he’d left her in peace. That she’d likely never see him again. For if she did it would be a tense, unpleasant meeting.
She should be happy. But she’d never been so heartbroken.
On the morning of the third day something roused her from a restless sleep, snapping her awake and wary. Kira scanned her room, her heart accelerating as her gaze fell on the tall man standing at the window, his back to her.
She stared at those incredibly broad shoulders and blinked. Was she dreaming?
No. This was real. André had come at last, and her foolish heart was rejoicing even as her brain tried to warn her to move with caution around him.
Everything about him pulsed with raw intensity—his potent masculinity, his arrogant bearing, his brooding indifference, all more sharply defined as he stared out the window.
“How long have you been here?” she asked.
“Not long. The doctor says you and the baby are well.”
“We were lucky,” she said, detecting no rancor in his voice.
But there was no emotion either. Or rather no more than one might bestow on a stranger in the wake of an accident. Simply a comment in the face of a near tragedy—an acknowledgement of survival—something to fill the tense silence.
She sighed, unable to be that detached even now. “Thank you for getting us here so quickly.”
One shoulder lifted in a careless shrug. “Don’t. I should never have confronted you with such—” He waved a hand, as if trying to snatch a word from thin air, as if annoyed that he couldn’t grasp a title for their situation.
“Animosity?” she supplied.
“Venom,” he said. “My behavior was inexcusable.”
“Yes,” she said, unwilling to forgive him so easily for setting her up for a verbal attack from which she couldn’t defend herself, unwilling to forgive them both for not putting their child’s needs
