The Blackmailed Bride's Secret Child / For Business...Or Marriage?: The Blackmailed Bride's Secret Child / For Business...Or Marriage?

His mind flew back to their last night together before Beth had left, making love in the vineyard, her body bathed in moonlight. To the nights before that. Had they used protection? Every time? Could this small child be the product of his and Beth’s love all those years ago?

More than instinct told him he was right. Mark washis child, regardless of the age Kent and Beth attributed to him. Obviously a lie to keep him from the truth. To keep him from his son …

As the body blow slammed into him and the world tilted, Nico struggled to remain standing.

His son.

He had a child.

A small boy of his own flesh and blood. A thick ball of emotion filled his throat and he swallowed again and again, trying to move it. That perfect little person tugging on his grandfather’s hand was his. He’d wanted children so badly when he was younger, had wanted children with Beth.

It seemed his wish had been granted—goose bumps broke out across his skin as he felt a sudden chill—it’d just happened without his knowledge.

Mind reeling, he focused on Beth. “We have to talk. Now,” he said through gritted teeth.

Frowning, Mr. Jackson looked from him to Beth and back again. “You didn’t know, did you?”

“No,” Nico ground out.

For a suspended moment, everyone seemed shocked, either by the secret or its release. No one spoke a word or moved a muscle. Even Mark seemed to notice the unnatural stillness and froze, barely blinking.

Then, breaking the spell, Beth’s mother leaned over to kiss her daughter on the cheek. “We’d better get going.”

Her father held out his hand, offering the handshake he’d rejected only minutes earlier. Nico took the proffered hand and shook it once in recognition that this man hadn’t been part of the conspiracy of lies and secrets. He was glad of that at least—he’d always respected Beth’s father, both her parents.

He watched as the older couple bundled Mark into the car and drove away, too furious to dare look down at Beth.

Once they were gone and there was no chance of upsetting his son—his son—Nico turned to the woman who’d betrayed him on so many levels. “Well?”

In the distance, a falcon screeched as it flew up into the blue sky, possibly disturbed by the car carrying their son. Trying to hold back her panic at the menace in Nico’s voice, in his eyes, Beth’s gaze was momentarily drawn to the bird.

Then, resigned to the confrontation that surely must follow, she drew in a breath of icy air and nodded. She turned and led him through the door into her living room.

They were barely inside when he spoke through stiff lips, his eyes cold. “I want a paternity test.”

Beth felt her throat constrict. Of all the reactions she’d expected, she’d never considered this one. “You’re questioning his parentage?”

“Of course he’s mine,” he all but hissed. “But you’ll provide confirmation of the fact.”

She nodded. It was a reasonable request under the circumstances, even if it hurt that he’d ask. “I’ll call a lab first thing tomorrow morning.”

Then, all pretence of control gone, Nico threw his arms in the air and words exploded from his mouth. “How could you keep my son from me?”

Beth stood her ground, refused to flinch but, oh, how could she explain the unforgivable? “If I’d had a choice—”

Nico held up a hand, eyes blazing. “We always have choices.”

Every muscle in her body went limp. He was right.She had to tell him, despite the consequences.

At least part of the story—enough for him to understand. Heart racing, she walked on unsteady legs to one of the antique brown armchairs and sank into its soft comfort, trying desperately to compose words in her head. Words that had to make sense despite the trembling in every muscle and nerve of her body.

She took a deep breath and met Nico’s eyes. “Kent blackmailed me into marrying him. I had to leave that night and never contact you again.”

Two steps and he loomed over her, a wild intensity in his every feature. “So Kent didn’t pay you?”

Money? She felt sick. How could he have believed she’d been for sale? Though how could he not, given how she’d left.

“No,” she whispered. “All the money in the world …” Her voice trailed off as she felt the shame that he thought so little of her, when she still loved him.

Nico scrubbed both hands through his hair and dropped into the other armchair. “He told me that he bought you.” But it was no longer an accusation; instead he seemed to be analyzing the information.

“I’d never be with a man like Kent if I had a choice. And … and I didn’t know I was pregnant then.”

“Would it have changed your mind?” His eyes zeroed in, trapping her with his demand.

Would it? She pressed her fingertips to her temples. Pregnancy or no, Nico and his father would still have been in as much danger from Kent’s information. And yet family meant so much to him.…”I honestly don’t know. Once Kent found out I was pregnant, he added that as another condition to the blackmail. If I told you about our son, or if I had any contact with you, or if I told you what he blackmailed me with, then …”

Her voice trailed off, but Nico supplied the ending. “Then he’d make public whatever it was he was holding over your head.”

“Yes,” she whispered. And no matter how bitter and cold Nico had become, she couldn’t be responsible for robbing him of all he held dear. Or robbing his father of peace in his last days.

He leaned forward, forearms on his knees, eyes hard and suspicious, obviously still unwilling to believe her completely. “Tell me what he had on you.”

She’d known the question was coming, but still it sent a shiver down her spine. It would be so easy to tell him here and now, such a relief to share the burden she’d carried alone for five years. She licked dry lips, tempted almost beyond endurance.

But telling Nico he was illegitimate would be the ultimate act of selfishness. Robbing him of his family, heritage, career, everything, just so she could feel better? That would make her no better than Kent—not caring how actions impacted others. If she told him before Tim passed away, Nico would feel compelled to tell his father the truth, to allow his father to change his will—and stress could shorten Tim Jordan’s life, according to the doctors. If Nico couldn’t bring himself to stress his father, then their last days would be tainted by secrets not shared. How could she do that to either of them? At least if she held the secret for now, Nico and Tim’s goodbyes would be untainted and full only of the love they shared. It was what they deserved, and she wouldn’t let Kent’s manipulations ruin that.

“Beth, tell me what he had on you,” Nico repeated.

A hand crept up to circle her throat and she thought of the letters, still hidden somewhere. After Kent’s passing, she’d turned his bedroom upside down looking for them, before checking his office at work when she’d gone in to clear his personal items. The letters had been nowhere to be found, but she hadn’t given up yet. She couldn’t let them be found by someone else, just as she couldn’t let Nico know their contents.

“I can’t,” she said, trying to hide the anguish it caused to deny him. “Please don’t ask me that.”

Nico flung exasperated hands in the air. “But he’s dead! Anything you had to fear from him has expired.”

She shook her head in jerky movements. She understood his frustration at the situation—she’d lived with it day and night for so long she barely remembered how it felt to be free.

She exhaled and met his gaze. “I can’t.”

“Why not?” The set of his shoulders, the way his eyes bored into hers, the twist of his mouth all proclaimed his distrust of her words, and she had no weapons to challenge it.

She closed her eyes for several seconds, searching for composure in the face of his onslaught. How to make him understand? To let her tell him only once it was safe? “Not yet. One day …”

“That’s absurd.” He waved a dismissive hand. “Kent is dead.”

“I know … but—” She swallowed hard. “Nico, it’s so much more complicated than it seems.”

His jaw clenched and released before he spoke, as if gathering himself. “I won’t stay away from Mark. He’s mine. I wasn’t giving up when I thought he was my nephew—now I know he’s my own son, nothing could make me walk away.”