Alexei stretched out his arms and then dropped them again in a volatile gesture of frustration and impatience. 'I'm not listening to this nonsense again. Nothing you have told me justifies your behaviour. You've got nothing left to say. Lies are lies, no matter what the circumstances. I won't live with them or forgive them.'
White with anger, he studied her standing there in his half-buttoned shirt, her tangle of colourful red hair spread round her shoulders. He dealt her a bitter look of cynicism. 'We're over, we've got to be. Sizzling sex isn't enough to keep me with you,' he delivered with harsh emphasis, and this time when he turned to leave she said nothing and she made no attempt to bring him back.
That evening after Billie had tucked Nicky up for the night in her own home, she found herself engaged in a bitter debate with her mother.
'Your marriage is already over bar the shouting,' Lauren told her daughter sourly.
'Of course it isn't,' Billie reasoned. 'Once Alexei realises that Nicky is his son…'
'He's not like his father who was desperate for an heir,' the older woman pointed out bluntly. 'You're so naïve, Billie. Men aren't driven to be fathers the same way women are driven to be mothers. It's different for them, so wise up. Alexei has already told you that the marriage is over and in my opinion the discovery that he has a kid isn't going to change that.'
'You're such a pessimist,' Hilary scolded her sister from the lamp-lit corner where she had been trying to read a book.
'Billie has to look out for her own interests now,' Lauren argued forcefully. 'Alexei consulted his lawyers when he organised that DNA test. Billie should see a good divorce lawyer while she's in the UK. Hilary, stop looking at me like I just took an axe to Santa Claus! Alexei is a Drakos—let's face it, her marriage was always going to end in tears. His father only finally settled down because he was getting too old to stray and you can't hope for that with a guy who's only thirty-one.'
Billie breathed in deep. In truth she was finding her mother's ominous predictions more than she could comfortably cope with just at that moment. She offered to make some supper and went out to the kitchen, for she had already learned that the only way to keep a grip on her worries was to physically do something. Idleness while she had nothing but anxious thoughts whirling inside her head had become a torment. Much as she loved Nicky, she missed the buzz of working.
She was taking Nicky to Hazlehurst with her and had already arranged for Anatalya's daughter, Kasma, to travel with her and help her look after her son. After all, unlike Alexei, Billie already knew the results of the DNA test and she was convinced that she and Alexei would have a lot to talk about. She was praying that Alexei would find himself more interested in being a parent than her sceptical mother had forecast. A child could bring them together again, couldn't it? Unfortunately she remembered reading somewhere that a child only made matters worse in a failing relationship and she could only hope that Nicky would have a more positive effect on their marriage. Surely Alexei would not divorce her for being the mother of his only child?
The following day while she was engaged in packing for their trip to England, Anatalya brought her a letter, addressed to her as Alexei's wife but heavily marked private and confidential. Opening the missive, she sank down on the bed to read it after her eyes flew wide on the first shocking sentence, 'I believe it is possible that I may be your father…'