Ruthless Milllionaire, Indecent Proposal. Emma Darcy
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me tell you how it happened. After a few years the sister of the princess was to marry a man who came from the same country as the prince, so her family had to travel halfway around the world to attend the wedding. The princess didn’t know that this man was a cousin of the prince and she would meet him again. It was a shock to her when she did, and when the prince saw her son, he knew the boy was his son, too. They had the same eyes.’
‘Like you and me,’ Theo said, instantly grasping the point.
‘Yes. Exactly like that. But the princess asked the prince to keep her secret until after her sister’s wedding because she didn’t want to take people’s attention away from the bride. The prince understood this but he wanted to spend as much time as he could with his son. And he also wanted the princess to know that being a father meant a lot to him. It made him very sad that he had missed out on so much of his son’s life and he wanted to be there for him in the future.’
‘Can I guess now?’ Theo asked.
Ari nodded.
Theo cocked his head to the side, not quite sure he had it right, but wanting to know. ‘Are you my Papa, Ari?’
‘Yes, Theo. I am,’ he answered simply.
Tina held her breath until she saw a happy grin break out on Theo’s face. The same grin spread across Ari’s. Neither of them looked at her. This was their moment—five years in the waiting—and she couldn’t resent being excluded from it. It was her fault they had been kept apart all this time. Ari had been fair in his story-telling and she now had to be fair to the bond she had denied both of them.
‘I’m glad you’re my Papa,’ Theo said fervently, rising to his feet. ‘After my birthday party I dreamed that you were.’
Ari lifted him onto his knee, hugging him close. ‘We’ll always celebrate your birthday together,’ he promised huskily.
‘But I don’t want you to hurt Mama again.’
Tears pricked Tina’s eyes, her heart swelling at the love and loyalty in Theo’s plea to his father.
‘I am trying very hard not to,’ Ari said seriously. ‘I kept her secret until today, and now your Mama and I are going to work out how best we can be together for the rest of our lives. Will you be happy to be with your grandmother while we do that?’
‘Does Yiayia know you’re my Papa?’
‘Yes. Your Mama told her this morning. And now that you know, too, you can talk about it to your grandmother. Tomorrow, if it’s okay with your Mama, I’ll take you to visit your other grandparents whom you met at your birthday party.’
Theo’s eyes rounded in wonderment. ‘Is Maximus my Papou?’
‘Yes, and he very much wants to see you again. So does my mother. You will have a much bigger family. The boys you played with at the wedding are your cousins.’
‘Will they be there tomorrow?’
‘Yes.’ Ari rose to his feet, hoisting Theo up in his arms. ‘Let’s go back to your grandmother because your Mama and I need to have some time to talk about all this.’
The face Theo turned to Tina was full of excitement. ‘Is it okay with you, Mama?’ he asked eagerly.
‘Yes,’ she said, not yet ready to commit to a mass family involvement until after her night with Ari, but smiling at her son to remove any worry from his mind.
It was enough for Theo.
He was content to be left with her mother, happy to share the news that his birthday wish had come true and ask a million questions about what might happen next. He waved goodbye to Tina and Ari without a qualm.
All the qualms were in Tina’s stomach.
She was about to face a new beginning with Ari Zavros or an end to the idea of marrying him.
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