Oh, no.
“That he wanted to treat you equally,” she surmised with dread. She wanted to bury her face in her hands, hiding from what she suddenly saw as the bitter truth.
“He said Val was showing initiative and independence. The sort of maturity and business acumen that would serve him well when he inherited everything—because why would he reward the weaker son?”
“No.” Javiero was not weak in any way. He had had a steeper hill to climb and had lost his grandfather along the way. How could Niko dismiss him so cruelly? She had known him to have a ruthless streak, which she had thought of as the result of his sons’ rejection, not the source of it.
She felt sick, genuinely sick.
“I had no choice but to renounce his magnanimous offers to reinstate me as his heir. I might have proven myself in his eyes by the time you came along, having recovered and surpassed what my grandfather had amassed. I might even have been driven by Niko’s ridicule to achieve all that I did. But I have long ceased to care if he even remembered we shared DNA. I sure as hell didn’t want his money. I especially didn’t want to be beholden to him for anything. I still don’t.”
She couldn’t even defend Niko. He had mellowed as his health declined and his granddaughter came on the scene. She had watched it happen, but none of that erased his heartlessness toward his own children.
“I’m so sorry, Javiero,” she murmured.
“For what? For working for him? For showing up here and acting as though I was the one being hurtful and stubborn because I refused to go see him? Or for burdening our son with that tainted pile of cash? I don’t want you touching it, Scarlett. It will ruin all our lives. It will ruin mine all over again.”
CHAPTER FIVE
THE NURSE RETURNED from the shops, interrupting them. Her smile faltered, revealing she knew she had walked into a heavy discussion.
Javiero left her to badger Scarlett into a nap, going to the den to make some calls, mostly seeking privacy to regain his control. He didn’t like that he’d slipped back into ancient rage that had no place in his life anymore. The source of it was dead and he had moved on, but it was difficult when Scarlett was hanging on so tightly to the role Niko had given her.
And what the hell had he been thinking by kissing her? His ego wasn’t so fragile he needed proof a woman could still find him attractive! Rather, he had needed to know that the spark between them still existed. Not just to prove she could see past his disfigurement, but to prove to himself their passion hadn’t been completely one-sided that day.
He didn’t take much comfort from the confirmation. It only meant he had a weakness for her that she could exploit if he wasn’t careful.
The next days—and nights—were consumed by the learning curve of new parenting. They hired a nanny who was cheerful and efficient—and unable to settle Locke. Even Javiero was at his wit’s end with Locke’s long bouts of crying. He didn’t want to put the burden on Scarlett to walk him, but he was hideously relieved each time she turned up at his elbow and said, “I’ll take him.” Locke was happier when his mother held him. Javiero refused to torture his own child by separating them.
Scarlett didn’t complain, either. Like any mother, she was anxious to soothe him, but the demands of a new baby took a toll. She refused to talk about wedding arrangements, and the one time he questioned whether she ought to be working, suggesting she nap, he stepped squarely on her frayed nerves. He managed to resist engaging with her temper. Although he was a man used to getting what he wanted with a single order, he couldn’t fight a woman with dark circles under her eyes, especially when she was so sensitive that she teared up over a text.
“Was that Kiara? What did she say?” he asked as he noticed her glistening eyes. They were in the back of his car, headed to Casa del Cielo after nearly two weeks in Madrid.
“My sister. It doesn’t matter.” She leaned to check on Locke, fast asleep in his carrier.
Sister? She hadn’t said much about her family, only that it was “complicated.” The one time she had looked as though she was willing to open up, Locke had needed her and the moment had passed.
“What did she say to upset you?”
“Can we talk about it another time?” She flicked a glance at the nanny, who was staring out the window and trying to pretend she wasn’t there.
Javiero bit back a curse of frustration. He couldn’t fix problems she wouldn’t identify.
“Things will calm down now we’re home.” He nodded as the villa came into view. He kept his attention on her as she took in Casa del Cielo atop a plateau draped in vineyards and orchards. From its vantage point, he had always felt as though he could see from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean. He loved his home with all his heart.
“Sky House,” she murmured with awe. “Pictures don’t do it justice.”
Maybe he had expected covetousness to enter her expression, or judgment of its weathered age, both things he’d seen on other women’s faces. Parts of the villa were three hundred years old. It definitely had its limitations, but his grandfather had added the “new”
