Marrying My Father's Killer

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The words were like a knife thrust deep into her heart.

"What have you told Rea about her father?" His bitterness was as searing as acid. He added, "In such circumstances, I believe the classic story one tells a child is that he's dead."

"I... I haven't told her anything. Moreover, she hasn't asked me about her father yet."

"Good. It could be traumatic to have a father she believed was dead suddenly turn up. Out of curiosity, what did you plan on telling her if she did ask?"

"Only that her father had left us."

"Not the other way round," Troy said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Well, I..."

"You'd have been quite happy to let her think her father didn't want her?" he asked.

"No, I wouldn't have been happy, but what else could I have done?"

Troy sighed. "Oh well, what you would or wouldn't have done doesn't seem relevant anymore. Once we're married she'll have both her mother and her father — a complete family."

"I don't want to marry you, Troy." Chloe's voice raised a notch higher. "I won't marry you."

"I'm afraid you have no other option. Either you marry me, or I take Rea away from you."

"No, you can't do that to me."

"I think you'll find I can."

If he'd shouted or raged, somehow it would have seemed less of a threat, but his calmness terrified Chloe more — it meant he really meant his words.

"Please, Troy," she found herself begging. "She's all I've got left."

"Then get this straight, Chloe. No matter what lengths I have to go to, I'm going to be part of my daughter's life. However, as a tug-of-love situation always harms the child, I'd prefer not to take this to court."

"Even if you went to court, no judge would take a child away from her mother and give her to a father she has never seen."

"Unless she was an unfit mother."

Shocked, Chloe cried, "But I'm not an unfit mother!"

"I'm sure you're not," he agreed smoothly, "but if you make it necessary, I'll use every dirty trick known to man to make it appear that you are."

Aghast, she whispered, "You wouldn't do that to me."

His blue eyes were as cold as a winter sea. "Go ahead and try me, Chloe."

In desperation, she suggested, "What if I let you see her whenever you want?"

"I'm afraid that's not enough for me. I want her with me on a permanent basis. I won't become the visiting parent."

"Oh no, Troy, please. I can't be parted from Rea. It would destroy me."

His face ice-cold, he said, "Why should I care if it destroys you? You never cared about me."

If she really had destroyed him, it was no wonder he hated her so much.

"But I don't want to hurt Rea by depriving her of her mother. That's why I made the decision that we should get married."

"What good would it do for two people who hate each other to get married?"

"If we both set our feelings aside and act like civilised people, I believe it can work. It will be better for Rea — she wouldn't miss out on..."

"Rea doesn't miss out on anything," Chloe interrupted sharply. "She's a happy, well-balanced child. She has everything she needs."

"An only child, who sees little enough of her mother, a child who's left with her nanny when her mother goes on a business trip."

Unable to deny it, Chloe bit her lip, digging her fingernails into her palms.

"Wouldn't it be better for her to have a father, mother, brothers and sisters... pets if she desires them?"

The words cut deep as Chloe remembered Rea's wish for a puppy.

"I haven't even mentioned the financial aspects, and that's important too. You wouldn't have to work, neither would you have to scrimp and save every dollar. I'll take care of everything."

Caught off guard, she said, "I try to give Rea whatever she needs."

"I'm sure you do, but at the expense of having nothing left for yourself."

As she began to shake her head in denial, he pressed on. "When you've paid for the essentials, how much do you have left to spend on yourself? Nothing. Right?"

He shifted position slightly so that his thighs pressed against hers. Feeling trapped, she inched her legs back as far as they would go.

"The cosmetics and clothes you wear are cheap. Your shoes and handbag are years-old collections."

"I didn't know you had your eyes on the fashion industry," Chloe said dryly.

"I don't. I remember them from the old days. When you become my wife, you'll have money to..."

"How does money matter if I'm married to a man I..."

"Loathe?" he completed wryly.

"I'd only be unhappy with..."

"I know money can't make up for being unhappy, but as you're going to be unhappy either way, you have nothing much to lose and at least something to gain. You'll be with Andrea, have the kind of lifestyle most people dream about — and I know I can more than satisfy you in bed."

A flush crept from her face down to her arms. "The only thing that really matters is Rea."

A bitter taste in his mouth, he said, "Then look on the rest as compensation for being married to me."

"What about you?" she asked curiously.

"You mean, what do I gain? Quite a lot. My daughter, to begin with. The chance to have other children. A beautiful, albeit unwilling, wife. A good life. Companionship. At one point, we did enjoy being together..."

"But that was before I..." She stopped abruptly.

"Before you got it into your head that Rose and I were lovers."

'Not just that,' Chloe thought dryly.

"Why didn't you marry her?"

"There'd never been any question of marriage between us. We were old friends, nothing more than that."

Remembering how she'd found them together in each other's arms, Chloe shook her head.

"If we'd wanted to marry, we could have done so before she married her first husband," he continued. "Though I haven't lived like a monk, you are the only woman I've ever wanted to put a ring on. I wanted to marry you then, and I still want to marry you now, regardless of everything that happened."