Nine

      “Okay.” Rebecca drew a deep, shuddering breath. “Look, maybe it’s time to tell you something else about T.J. Something I’ve waited too long to tell you. But I was afraid—” She broke off.

      “Afraid?” Damon prompted, coming closer.

      Rebecca forced herself to continue, not to run a million miles away. She stared at the strong features she loved so much. “Not long ago you said I’m the strongest woman you’ve ever known. But I must be the most fearful, too.”

      He brushed a strand of hair from her face. “So tell me,” he invited. “What are you afraid of?”

      Damon was so confident, so sure of himself. Why had she ever thought that the truth she’d hidden so carefully might hurt him? “Well, there are lots of things. I’m afraid of losing those I love. You know that.”

      His gaze softened. Wordlessly he covered her hand with his. His touch was warm and comforting. It gave her the courage to carry on. She took a deep breath. “I’m afraid of hurting people, most of all I’m afraid of hurting you.”

      “Don’t worry about that. You couldn’t hurt me. I’m tough.” But his eyes turned a shade darker as wariness crept in. “So why don’t you just spit out this big dark secret of yours?”

      “Okay.” She squeezed her eyes shut, murmured a prayer and clutched his hand like a lifeline. “T.J. is Fliss’s son. Not mine. I adopted him.”

      The silence was total.

      Nothing moved. But his hand grew stiff in hers. Rebecca opened her eyes.

      Damon dropped her hand and rose slowly to his feet, his face white. Finally his mouth moved. “T.J. is my son?”

      “No.”

      “I heard you, Rebecca,” Damon accused. Every last vestige of humour had fled. “You said he was Fliss’s son. You kept this from me?”

      “I—”

      “You what exactly?”

      “I wanted to tell you that he’s Fliss’s son.”

      “When?”

      “I was trying to tell you…” She drew a quick, fortifying breath. “I wanted to tell you before—”

      Before we made love. But she couldn’t speak of love. Not while he stood there so pale and angry. Rebecca shut her eyes in frustration.

      “You—” He broke off. She flinched and opened her eyes, waiting for the invective to follow. “You robbed me of my son.”

      “Stop it!” she yelled. “T.J. is not your son.”

      “What?” The bones of his face stood out sharply under his tan. “What do you mean he’s not my son?” He was grappling, searching for words. “But I heard you…you said he was Fliss’s son.” But the massive self-confidence had dwindled. He looked shaken.

      “I didn’t want to ever have to tell you this.”

      “Tell me what?”

      “Fliss…” Her voice trailed off.

      “What? What about Felicity? Talk, dammit.”

      “Fliss was in love with my brother. He asked her to marry him.”

      “James.” His voice was colourless. “Your brother. He’d recovered from his addiction, hadn’t he? So why the hell didn’t she marry him if everything was so damned perfect in Eden?”

      “Because she was insecure. You have to understand. Fliss lost her parents when she was nine. She was terrified of change. She wanted security above all else. James’s cancer horrified her. She couldn’t stand beside him and watch him die. And then she met you.”

      He folded his arms, closing himself off from her. “You’re telling me I was her meal ticket?”

      “Oh, no, no. It went much deeper than that. You’re more than simply a rich billionaire.” Was she getting through to him? Or was she wasting her time? “You’re strong, confident, respected. Fliss craved all that. Nothing was ever going to go wrong with you around.”

      “But it did. She left me after barely six weeks of marriage. Without a word of explanation she upped and left with you. No sooner was the honeymoon over and the bride fled.”

      He’d hated that, Rebecca realised. He must have thought himself the laughingstock of the city.

      He was glaring down at her now. “Did you and Fliss laugh yourselves silly when you read the papers? Did you see what they said about me? They wondered what kind of monster I turned into after dark.”

      “No,” she said slowly. “I didn’t know. We didn’t read the papers. James…the cancer was spreading. Losing Fliss had jolted him. He’d decided to try radiation. I came to tell Fliss. The only reason Fliss left you was because James wanted to see her before the radiation. He was terrified of the treatment. I think Fliss grew up very quickly right then. She couldn’t bury her head in the sand anymore. He loved her, he needed her.”

      Damon had grown fuzzy in front of her. The whole room blurred. Rebecca blinked. A hot tear splashed down her cheek. Impatiently she smeared it away.

      “And she went?”

      “Yes. I only meant her to go for a day. James was here, in Auckland, for a final consultation before the treatment started. But once she saw him—” Rebecca broke off. How could she explain how Fliss had felt?

      Fliss had felt terrible about abandoning James, about betraying him by marrying another man while she still loved him. There’d been guilt, too, that she hadn’t stood by James while he came to terms with his diagnosis. Fliss had faced the fact that she could no longer run, that she wanted to spend whatever time he had left at his side. Yes, James had cancer, but there was a slim chance that he might survive. This time she’d chosen to betray Damon and her marriage vows.

      “In the days before the treatment she stayed with James in my apartment. After the radiation—” Rebecca swallowed “—they discovered she was pregnant. It was like a miracle.”

      “But she was still my wife,” Damon growled.

      “That was the only thing that put a damper on their happiness. They’d have to wait the legally required two years before Fliss could divorce you. James was scared he’d be dead by then. So they decided to live each day to the fullest. James was convinced the baby was a sign that he would make it. But six months later the cancer was back. This time the doctors weren’t as optimistic. But James and Fliss wouldn’t accept it. They thought James would pull through.”

      Except they had both died. James had been having a good week. The baby was due soon. He’d agreed to attend a party in his honour, celebrating his temporary reprieve and their baby’s imminent birth. Fliss had been blooming and James had so desperately wanted to live. For Fliss. For the baby.

      No one had foreseen a car accident. James had been killed instantly. Fliss had held on long enough to speak to Rebecca, to sign a will and an application for a birth certificate…to hold her baby and name him Tyler James. There had been a lot of blood loss, shock, multiple transfusions before she passed away.

      Rebecca had walked away with a huge lump of a bruise where the seat belt had restrained her and a massive case of survivor’s guilt.

      She started when Damon put his hands on her shoulders.

      “And while she was pursuing her future happiness with your brother, she didn’t think to tell me why she’d left? To call? She owed me an explanation.”

      She shrugged his hands away and stood. “Your wife was scared you’d be angry. She thought you’d come after