Chapter Two #2
“But that’s for later on,” Xander said temporisingly.
He must not overwhelm Dan with too many changes all at once.
However much he wanted to transform his life instantly, he had to take it at his son’s pace.
Deliberately he changed the subject. “Now, where’s our hamburgers?
I’m starving! What about you!” he said lightly.
“Me too,” agreed Dan, expression clearing.
Fortuitously, the waitress was heading towards them with their orders, and Dan’s face brightened. As their burgers were deposited and they got stuck in, Xander felt emotion knife through him.
My first meal with my son—
Had it not been for that fateful glimpse of Laurel that day in the department store, if he hadn’t seen the child at her side, hadn’t had her checked out…
I would never have known he existed—my own son…
His eyes lanced to Laurel, and the expression in them was murderous.
But for Dan’s sake, the sake of the son who had been taken from him, he had to veil all that he felt about the woman who had done so.
Laurel saw his expression, knew what caused it.
Her own hardened in response. She could feel, like a tangible force, the anger radiating from him, the steely will to get his own way.
Totally ruthless, implacable. She’d felt its ugly force seven years ago, refusing point-blank to believe her, credit her with any honesty, but to jump to the conclusion he’d already decided on.
Guilty as charged. He was judge, jury and hangman, all in one.
Thief, he had called her, and had stuck with it ever since.
Stealing that bracelet. Stealing his son.
That’s what he thought of her.
And it was bitter, bitter gall.
“Okay, in you go.” Xander helped Dan clamber up into the car the following Friday afternoon, parked at the kerb of the narrow two-up-two-down terraced house in the North London inner suburb where his son had had to live.
But no longer. I will insist on that!
Laurel could say that the new rental house was only for a holiday, but once Dan saw it he’d be bound to want to live there and go to the new school with the playing fields and swimming pool.
He just had to get used to the idea, that was all.
And today would start that off. Dan’s school term had ended at lunchtime, and they were free to leave London. For good, Xander was determined.
Thrusting Laurel’s suitcases into the capacious boot of the SUV he’d hired, he left her to get in while he settled Dan into the booster seat fitted into the rear. Moments later they were setting off. Satnav guided him out on to the nearby arterial road, heading west out of London.
“Are we on holiday now?” Dan asked from the back seat.
“Yes,” Laurel answered. She was using that same bright voice as in the restaurant last weekend.
He didn’t contradict her. If it helped Dan adjust to his new life, thinking it was only for a holiday, well, he would go along with that too.
For Dan’s sake.
Because from now on, everything in Xander’s life would be for his son’s sake.
Xander’s eyes glanced to the rearview mirror as he merged onto the motorway heading out of London. Laurel’s head was turned towards Dan, pointing out the road signs to him, telling him where they were headed.
But where they were headed was crystal clear to Xander. Into the future. A future he would decide for his son from now on.
Not the woman who’d stolen him from him…
Who could go to hell and stay there for all he cared…
His eyes snapped back to the road. He might wish Laurel to hell, but he could not despatch her there. For Dan’s sake.
She’s his safety, his sense of security. I get that. Have to accept it.
Memory bit suddenly, of his own mother. She’d been, so he now could see, with his adult eyes, a foil to his father’s strong personality. She’d been calm, placid even. Quiet, unobtrusive but always there.
Until she’d died—
He yanked his memory away. Those final few years of her life, ailing steadily, for all the desperate money his father had thrown at her medical care.
And when she’d finally slipped beyond all further care, just as he’d finished university, he and his father had known a loss that had united them even more strongly in grief as in love.
His gaze went to Dan. The son he might have lost all his life, had it not been for that moment of sliding doors at the elevator in the department store…anger bit in him yet again.
Deliberately he calmed himself. Refocussed on the present.
He’d spent time with Dan twice more during this last week of term, meeting up with his son and the woman who’d stolen him from him after school at a café nearby.
Over a milkshake and a bun Dan had visibly started to relax more, getting used to him, chatting to him, telling him what he’d been doing at school, telling his father more about himself under Xander’s obvious interest in him.
Xander had taken things slowly, just wanting Dan to feel at ease with him. He continued that now.
“Not far to go,” he said cheerfully. “We come off at the next junction.”
“It’s coming up!” Dan pointed to the sign.
“Well spotted,” said Xander, and moved into the slow lane.
Once off the motorway they took an A road, shortly driving though a prosperous-looking market town with an old church and a town square. On the far side they went past a school set in its own grounds.
“That’s the school I told you about,” said Xander. “You can go there if you want to,” he went on, keeping his tone of voice casual.
He saw Dan’s head turn to look in the rearview mirror.
“We’ll have to see,” said Laurel. Her voice was not bright but compressed.
For a second Xander’s eyes met hers in the reflection. Clashed hostilely.
His eyes went back to the road. The village with the house he’d rented was a few miles further on, in open countryside.
It was as prosperous-looking as the market town, with a village green, a well-kept pub, a smart village shop declaring itself to be a delicatessen and artisan bakery, all neatly manicured and well-heeled.
He drew up at one of the several large cottages set a little way off from the green.
Detached, made of brick and flint, it had a small white-fenced garden, a front porch and a separate garage to the side.
He turned into the driveway in front of the garage and cut the engine.
“Here we are,” he announced. “Let’s take a look.”
He himself already had, with the estate agent when he’d signed the tenancy, just as he’d already looked around the excellently well-equipped fee-paying school Dan would—he fully intended—be going to next term, reserving a place with the headmaster.
But these weeks of the Easter holiday before term started were going to be essential to help get Dan used to the new life he’d be living now.
Getting him to accept it as his new life.
Whether Laurel accepted it he couldn’t care less.
If she didn’t, then he’d make a formal application for joint custody.
Drag her into court if he had to, to get his rightful share of the son she’d deprived him of.
As he cast his eye over the neat, spacious, well-kept cottage in this clearly affluent village, a cynical expression fleeted in his eyes.
What possible reason would Laurel have to object to living here, completely free, in all this affluence, rather than that cramped terrace house in that urban street in North London?
After all, she took to life with me on my yacht easily enough—enjoyed the luxury I could afford.
His expression darkened. Yes, so much so that she’d tried to take a pricey little souvenir of it back home with her once she realised it was all ending…
He opened the car door and Dan clambered down, looking about him. Laurel got out, and took Dan’s hand.
“It looks nice,” she said. Her voice was back to bright, and she headed to the front door with Dan.
Xander followed with the house keys and her suitcases.
When he’d got her to accept that this move was permanent he’d make arrangements to get all of his son’s things here.
That was all that would be necessary. The house came move-in ready, fully equipped.
What Laurel did with her own house and its contents, he didn’t care.
All he cared about was Dan.
He opened the front door and ushered them in.
Laurel looked around her. Fernwood Cottage was more of a house than a cottage, and it was very swish indeed.
The rent—she’d seen online—was sky high.
But Xander Xenakis could afford it. She explored it with Dan, starting with the beautifully furnished sitting room with its log burner in the fireplace, and patio doors to the garden beyond, glancing in at the formal dining room on the other side of the entrance hall, and then the kitchen, a sunny extension with large windows and a partial glass roof, top-of-the-range units, a breakfast bar and a separate kitchen table.
It was all very, very nice, she had to concede.
Consternation filled her. Of course it would be lovely to live here.
How could it not be? It was more than twice the size of her little terrace house, and she could see that the garden stretched way back to the woods beyond.
Xander had chosen well, though it galled her to admit it.
But I won’t be rushed—I won’t! He can’t just bulldoze me. I won’t let him!
She knew, bitterly, that if it came to a legal fight over Dan, Xander would be a terrifyingly powerful opponent. She couldn’t risk it, she just couldn’t. So surely this way, galling though it was, was preferable? Cooperating, though it choked her—but never just giving in across the board.
Determination filled her as she followed Dan upstairs. Xander was leaving them be, and she was grateful for that at least. Upstairs were three bedrooms, a master with an en suite, plus a very fancy bathroom for the other two bedrooms. Dan made a beeline for the one that looked out over the garden.