Her Little Secret, His Hidden Heir(46)

Vanessa could tell from the pinch of her ex-mother-in-law’s lips that she was about as far from that happening as from flapping her arms and flying to the moon. “Get. Out.”

Eleanor spat the words like a fire-breathing dragon, as though they were two completely different sentences. Fury shook her from head to toe, and if she’d had any medical issues, Vanessa would have worried she was on the verge of suffering a heart attack or stroke.

“Get out of my house,” she repeated, turning to point one long, diamond-adorned finger toward the door.

Not that Vanessa had to be told twice.

“Gladly,” she said, bending at the waist to gather Danny’s blanket and toys one-handedly.

With her shoulders back and her head held high, she strode past Eleanor and up the long stairwell to Marc’s suite to pack her things.



Marc pulled his Mercedes in front of the house and cut the engine. Normally he would drive around to the garage, but he was only going to be a few minutes. He’d forgotten some files on the desk in his suite, and was hoping he had time to grab them, get back to the office, deal with the rest of the issues filling his long to-do list and get home again in time for dinner.

Normally, he would simply skip dinner with the family and remain at the office as long as it took to get the job done. But for some reason, his workaholic temperament seemed to have abandoned him. He barely wanted to spend the rest of the day at the office, let alone his evening, as well. Instead, he wanted to be here, at home, with Vanessa and Danny.

His mouth curved in a smile just thinking about them, and he glanced at his watch, debating how much time he could afford to spend with them before turning around and heading back into the city.

There was a taxi parked ahead of him in the driveway and he lifted a hand to the cabbie as he rounded his Mercedes, wondering what it was doing there. Perhaps his mother had visitors, though it was odd for any of her acquaintances not to have their own very expensive, chauffeured vehicles.

Bounding up the front steps, he pushed open the door and came to a screeching halt at the pile of luggage and baby items in the center of the foyer floor.

“What the hell is going on?” he muttered more to himself than anyone else.

Hearing a noise at the top of the stairs, he lifted his head to find Vanessa descending with Danny in her arms, two of his mother’s staff trailing behind, arms loaded with even more of his ex-wife’s and son’s belongings.

“Thank you so much for all your help,” Vanessa was saying. “I really appreciate it.”

“What’s going on?” he asked, more loudly this time.

Vanessa’s head jerked up at his sharp tone or his sudden, unexpected appearance, or both.

“Marc,” she breathed. “I wasn’t expecting you back so soon.”

“Obviously.”

His brows drew down in an angry, suspicious frown as she stopped at the bottom of the steps. The two maids dipped their heads and mumbled about taking her things out to the waiting cab, then disappeared as quickly as they could.

“Sneaking off again?” he accused, not caring that his voice was cold with disappointment and betrayal.

She was leaving him again, was all he could think. He’d asked her to spend just a few days with his family—a week at the most—and she hadn’t made it even two days.

They’d made love last night, more than once. Slept wrapped in each others’ arms. He’d thought—stupidly, it turned out—that they had turned a corner and might actually be able to make their relationship work.

But while he’d been falling in love with her all over again, and thinking about reconciliation, she’d been planning a timely escape. Exactly the same as before.

Exactly. Because the last time she’d left him, she’d been pregnant with his child…and there was a good chance the same was true now.

“No,” Vanessa said, nervously licking her lips. “I mean, yes, I’m leaving, but no, I’m not trying to sneak off. I left you a note upstairs…on the back of the one you left for me this morning.”

Well, that was different, at least, he thought with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

“And a note makes up for taking off in the middle of the day while I’m at the office?” he shot back. “With my son?”

“Of course not,” she returned, looking strangely not guilty. “Although when you read the note, you’ll see that I explained I’m not really taking off. I’m simply leaving the estate for a hotel downtown. I was going to stay there until I had the chance to talk to you.”

He cocked his head, wondering what she could be up to. But then curiosity won out and he heard himself ask, “About what?”

She swallowed hard, her blue eyes going dark and oddly blank. “Your mother asked me to leave.”

His own eyes went wide in surprise. “Why?” Why would his mother ask his wife—his ex-wife, he corrected himself silently—to leave?

“For the same reason she drove me away last time—because she hates me. Or at the very least disapproves of me greatly. As far as she’s concerned, I’m not good enough for you and I never will be.” A small smile touched her lips as she added, “Of course, this time she was much more forthright about wanting me gone, probably because I told her off.”

“You told my mother off,” he murmured, trying to process what he was hearing, but growing more confused by the minute. “Why would you do that?”