Renewed hope filled Lana.
Hope that she and Matt would never be like her parents.
Hope that she and Matt might actually be able to make a go of their marriage.
And perhaps he might even come to love her one day?
Her heart fluttered and a feeling of warmth stayed with her for the rest of the evening. She couldn’t shake it. She didn’t want to shake it. The look in Cesare’s eyes had given her hope for a future with Matt.
“Megan had a great time, didn’t she?” Matt murmured, coming up behind her as she stood looking over the crib once the party was over.
She nodded. “Everyone did by the looks of them.”
“Did you?”
She smiled softly at him. “Oh yes.”
“But you didn’t expect to, did you, Lana?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Did you have parties as a child?”
She felt herself freeze up. “Sometimes.”
“I suspect they weren’t fun.”
“No.” Maybe one day she’d tell him about them but not yet. She didn’t want him staying with her out of pity.
If he stayed with her at all.
“Then this was an emotional day for you,” he murmured.
“And you,” she said, looking back down at Megan sleeping peacefully in her crib.
“Yes. I never thought I’d love her so much.”
“I feel the same.”
All at once she knew she wanted more children with Matt. Her heart expanded at the thought of carrying another baby of his, this time with him playing a major part. He’d be tender toward her for sure. She could see him in her mind’s eye, running his hands over her expanding waistline, leaning forward to kiss their baby through her protruding stomach.
Buoyed by the warm feelings between them, she decided to test the waters. “I love being a mother. One day I’d love to have more children like Megan.”
There was a moment of silence.
Then, “How many?” he said in a clipped tone that should have forewarned her but didn’t.
“Three or four. I want a big family.” She kept her eyes lowered to Megan. “Would you like to have more children, Matt?”
Another moment crept by.
“Eventually,” he said, a coolness to him now that was hard to miss. It filled her with dismay. This discussion was obviously not to his liking.
He turned away, tension coming off him in waves. “I’ve got some work to do in the study.”
Her heart broke in two as he left. It was clear he had no intention of falling in love with her or extending their marriage, or having more children with her.
With a sense of desolation she showered and went to bed. Matt joined her sometime in the early hours and she fully expected him to turn his back on her and go to sleep, but he pulled her into his arms and made love to her with an edge that stabbed at the pieces of her heart.
He brought her to cl**ax, then reached his own cl**ax, but there was none of the usual feeling of togetherness they shared.
One thing was apparent now.
They might be together in bed.
But they weren’t—and never would be—together in their hearts.
Ten
M att got through Sunday by keeping to himself, and then Monday at work was slower as he kept trying to keep his mind on the balance sheets, only it wasn’t working.
He would never have believed how much he loved his daughter, and how great it had felt to share her first words with Lana. But did she have to go and spoil it all by saying she wanted more children one day in the future?
God, he hated the thought of another man in his daughter’s life. Bloody hell, but he couldn’t bear to think of Megan having stepsisters and stepbrothers, and calling another man “Da-Da.”
And to think of Lana with another man…
He felt as if he’d been stabbed in the gut thinking about her marrying another man, making love to someone else, carrying that other man’s child. Just the thought of it had him wanting to rip any man’s throat out who came near her.
Yet she’d said it so calmly, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary. He hadn’t needed to know she was already thinking of being with another man before she’d even left him.
“Matt?”
He spun his leather chair away from the window. The million-dollar view of Sydney Harbour was worth nothing to him right now.
“I’m leaving now for my three o’clock dental appointment,” Irene reminded him. “I’ll see you tomorrow. If you need anything just ask Evan.”
“Fine. See you tomorrow.” He doubted he’d get much work done this afternoon now. All he could think about was going home and seeing Megan and Lana, who was at home on her day off.
He missed them, dammit.
Maybe he should go home early?
He sighed and straightened in his chair. No, he’d better stay here and finish up this lot of accounts. They needed reviewing by tomorrow.
Half an hour later, Matt was sitting up much straighter in his chair. “Christ!”
He didn’t believe it.
He couldn’t believe it.
He hadn’t been looking for any anomalies, but fifty thousand dollars was missing from one of the accounts. It was a brilliant piece of cover-up, but even more brilliant was that the money had been stolen at a time Lana wasn’t working for them.
He knew who the thief was now.
Irene.
His PA.
He fell back against his chair stunned but greatly relieved. It proved to him that Lana was innocent—what he’d put her through with his accusations. She’d be relieved to know he’d found the culprit.
He knew his longtime PA was the thief just by something in the way she had fiddled the books. It had her stamp all over it. He just hadn’t been looking beyond Lana before.
But what if Irene denied it? She was a personal assistant, not an accountant. She could make a fairly believable case that she couldn’t possibly know how to fix the books.
Would the authorities believe her?
He dared not risk it. He had to set up a trap. An after-hours one because that’s the only time Irene could have accessed the accounts without anyone getting suspicious.
But first he had to go and confess everything to Alex and Nick. They weren’t going to be pleased that he’d kept the missing money from them, nor that he’d blamed Lana. They’d understand that he’d been trying to keep it quiet for their father’s sake after his heart attack, but now it really was time for them to call in the police.