Chapter 71
1778words
Great, she thought to herself as she poured some tea, now I'm even taking on his nightmares. But there had been something so sadly poignant about the image … and even now she silently vowed to protect her own child from any similar scenario.
After breakfast she went into Sebastian's study which he told her she could use to make calls home or for the Internet. Feeling determined, she sat there for hours and trawled the Internet for every bit of information she could find about the Wolfe family. She managed to find out a lot more this time and it was only when Daniel knocked and called her for supper that she realised how engrossed she'd become.
Her head spun with information she'd found, but she'd ended up with nearly more questions than answers. By all accounts, William Wolfe, Sebastian's father, had been a charismatic and upstanding man of society. A vastly wealthy and enigmatic character, he'd had seven children, and a rumoured illegitimate son, the famous Brazilian entrepreneur Rafael da Souza. He'd clearly been a lover of women, with three marriages and at least a couple of love affairs to his credit. And yet all of his relationships seemed to have ended in tragedy, or mysterious circumstances. And exactly as Sebastian had said, he'd died by the hand of his own eldest son, although this tragedy had been ruled accidental.
There'd been one mention of Carrie Hartington,
Nathaniel and Sebastian's mother, to say that she'd been committed to psychiatric care twenty-five years before, and nothing about where she was now. Aneesa could only guess, after what Sebastian had revealed, that perhaps his mother had had some sort of severe postnatal depression, because surely her own husband couldn't have driven her to such a situation?
All in all, as she dropped exhausted into bed that evening, Aneesa knew that the real story of Sebastian's past lay between the lines of everything she'd read today, and she also knew that he would have to be the one to tell her. She woke up a couple of hours later when she felt Sebastian slide into the bed behind her, his naked body tucking around hers. On a wave of relief that he'd come to her, she silently turned to face him and took his face in her hands, kissing him on his mouth.
Her nightdress was discarded in a matter of seconds and Aneesa said nothing as she and Sebastian made love.
Afterwards, when he tried to pull away to leave, she gripped his arms around her and said determinedly, ‘No. Stay till I fall asleep.'
She could sense his struggle but finally he gave in, and for the first time, Aneesa lay awake while Sebastian slept. She prayed he wouldn't have the dream again, and finally fell into a dreamless sleep herself.
When she woke the next morning alone in the bed, Aneesa had to wonder for a moment if she'd dreamt that Sebastian had come to her the previous night, but then her naked and pleasantly aching body told her the truth.
Without even getting out of bed, she instinctively knew that Sebastian would be gone to work already and a small fire of anger and determination lit in her blood. She was not going to let him treat her as if she existed purely to keep his bed warm, and not even as a human being he could communicate with. She was carrying his child—she deserved better than that, no matter what secrets his past held.
Sebastian felt disgruntled and irritated. Ever since the horrific realisation that Aneesa had witnessed his most
vulnerable moment, when he'd blurted out his dream, he'd been determined to do his best to mark out his territory again. Reclaim his sanity.
He'd gone into the office yesterday and had instructed his assistant to find apartments for sale or rent. He was going to move Aneesa out, or he'd move out if he had to. She could have the apartment and Daniel. He couldn't stay there any longer. With her. With those huge eyes watching his every move, silently questioning him.
So last night he'd come home, with arms full of brochures for houses, determined to lay them all out and offer them up to Aneesa. He would set her up in style, so that she and his baby would never have to want for anything. He'd do the same in Mumbai if she so wished so he could keep them at arm's length and get on with his life.
And he would be calling a halt to the physical side of their relationship; it wasn't fair to keep sleeping with her when he had no intention of making her a permanent fixture in his life. He couldn't shake his visceral deep-rooted fears and simply could not envisage a future as a happy family.
But then … he'd come into her room where she lay sleeping and a force greater than he could resist had made him shed his clothes and climb into bed with her. He'd had to touch her. And then she'd turned to him and kissed him so sweetly and he'd been lost … and worst of all, afterwards he'd slept, until dawn had been breaking outside. His main feeling on waking up had been relief that he'd not had the dream again and his arms and hands had been full of soft, curvaceous and warm woman. One hand had rested across her belly, as if even in sleep it had gone there to protect the child within.
That soft yet hard swell had made a light sweat break out on his brow, but even so, the prospect of sending her away from him in that moment had sent panic through his system. So once again, with his head thumping with a mass of contradictions, he'd left so that he could avoid seeing her wake, seeing those eyes widen and the inevitable questions form.
That morning Daniel had gone out to do some shopping
and Aneesa had declined to join him, still a little nervous of going outside, even though Daniel had informed her that Sebastian had two bodyguards standing by. Somehow Aneesa had known that the only person she would feel safe with was Sebastian.
So when she was passing the study and she heard the phone ring, she went in to answer it, her heart tripping to think it might be him. But it wasn't. It was another voice which sounded eerily familiar, deep and authoritative. When he asked for Sebastian and she said he was at work, the man sighed deeply and then said, ‘Is this Aneesa Adani?'
‘Yes …' she replied warily. ‘Who is this, please?'
A long silence and then, ‘It's Jacob Wolfe, Sebastian's brother.'
‘Oh.' Immediately Aneesa thought of the fact that this man had been responsible for his father's death.
‘'Oh" is right,' came the wry response. ‘Sebastian hasn't responded to Nathaniel's wedding invitation. Do you know that our brother is getting married this weekend?'
‘Yes …' Aneesa said, her head buzzing with questions. ‘I'd heard … read about it in the paper. But I don't think Sebastian intends to go.'
‘Somehow I'm not surprised.' Another silence fell and then Jacob said, ‘Speaking of the papers, I saw you with my brother.'
Aneesa frowned. ‘What do you mean?' And then she went paler and paler as Jacob described how pictures of Sebastian carrying her to safety from the mob on Bethnal Green had been tabloid front-page news for the past couple of days. She closed her eyes; she could just imagine the lurid headlines.
‘Do you mind me asking—is it true? Are you having a baby with my brother?'
Miserably Aneesa figured it wouldn't have taken long for the hacks to get that information from the Indian papers and answered, ‘Yes.' She hadn't even told her parents who the father was yet.
‘Well, then, you must come to the wedding, even if Sebastian won't. You're part of the family now, and everyone would love to meet you.'
Aneesa gripped the phone cord tighter. Here was a chance to get to know more about Sebastian's past. Jacob was right; she was part of this family now whether Sebastian liked it or not.
‘OK …' she said huskily, ‘I'd like that very much.'
Jacob became brisker. ‘Good, we'll see you at the weekend, then, and tell Sebastian I called.'
It was only when Aneesa put down the phone that some instinct made her pull open the top drawer nearest to her on the desk, and inside she saw it—the invitation to Nathaniel's wedding, torn neatly in half. The fact that he hadn't destroyed it completely sent a flicker of hope through her. She picked the two halves out and, with a sense of determination, found some sticky tape and stuck them together again.
And then when she was on the way out of the study, her head still spinning, she spotted them. Sitting on the edge of the desk. A pile of glossy brochures, all detailing luxury one-and two-bedroom apartments for sale or rent just nearby Sebastian's apartment. And worse … luxury apartments in Mumbai.
Hurt lanced Aneesa so badly that she had to suck in a breath. And then she heard a door slam, long strides coming towards the study. The door was flung open and Sebastian stood there, resplendent in a dark suit. Every inch the successful and powerful titan of industry.
He frowned. ‘What's wrong?' And Aneesa knew she must look pale. She shook her head and bought time to recover.
‘What are you doing home?' She cursed her tongue, as if this was home.
Carefully now Sebastian said, ‘I forgot a document I need for a meeting.'
Aneesa held the patched-up wedding invitation high in one shaky hand and said, ‘Was it this?'
And then with the other hand she held up the sheaf of glossy brochures. ‘Or perhaps it was these?' She glanced at them, and back to Sebastian. ‘I haven't had the chance to look through them properly yet but perhaps a penthouse apartment isn't the most practical place for me to live once the baby gets here.'
