LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

      ‘SHE'S PINK!’

      Estelle couldn’t believe the little pink fingers that wrapped around hers. Even Cecelia’s nails were pink—it was suddenly her favourite colour in the world.

      ‘That’s the first thing we said.’ Andrew was holding Cecelia’s other hand. ‘She’s been fighting so much since the day she was born.’ Andrew smiled down at his daughter.

      All were too entranced by the miracle that was Cecilia to notice how much Raúl was struggling.

      Raúl looked down at the infant, who resembled Estelle, and could hardly believe what he had almost turned his back on.

      ‘I have to go and do some work,’ Raúl said. ‘Do you want to get lunch later?’

      Estelle looked up, about to say no, but he was talking to Andrew.

      ‘Just at the canteen,’ he added.

      ‘That would be great.’ Andrew smiled. ‘Estelle, could you take Amanda for some breakfast? She wants one of us with Cecelia all the time but she needs to get out of the unit and get some fresh air.’

      ‘Sure.’ Estelle stood.

      ‘I thought we could go for dinner tonight.’

      This time Raúl was speaking to Estelle.

      ‘I’m here to be with my niece.’

      ‘Andrew and Amanda are with her. As long as she continues to improve I am sure they expect you to eat.’

      ‘Of course we do,’ Andrew said. ‘Go out tonight, Estelle. You need a break from the hospital too!’

      * * *

      It was a long day. The doctors were in and out with Cecelia, and talked about taking her breathing tube out if she continued to hold her own. Amanda’s parents went home, to return at the weekend, and after they had gone Estelle finally persuaded Amanda to have a sleep in one of the parents’ rooms.

      It was exhausting.

      As she closed the door and went to head back to Cecelia she wondered if she had, after all, grown far too used to Raúl’s lifestyle—she would have given anything to be back on his yacht, just drifting along, with nothing to think about other than what the next meal might be and how long it would be till they made love again.

      Being Raúl’s tart hadn’t all been bad, Estelle thought with a wry smile as she returned to Cecelia.

      It was being his wife that was hell.

      ‘Amanda’s asleep,’ Estelle said. ‘Well, for a little while.’

      ‘Thanks for being here for us,’ Andrew said. ‘Both of you. Raúl’s great. I admit I wasn’t sure at first, but you can see how much he cares for you.’

      She felt tears prick her eyes,

      ‘Did you ask him to offer me a job?’

      ‘A job?’

      She couldn’t lie easily to her brother, but instantly he knew that Estelle’s surprised response was real, that she’d had no idea.

      ‘Raúl said that when things are sorted with Cecelia there will be a job waiting for me. He wants me to check out his hotels, work on adjustments for the disabled. There will be a lot of travel, and it will be tough being away at first. But once Cecelia’s better he says we can broaden things so it’s not just about travelling with disabilities but with a young child as well.’

      It was a dream job. She could see it in her brother’s eyes. Soon he would be earning, travelling, and more than that his self-respect and confidence would start to return.

      ‘It sounds wonderful.’ Estelle gave him a hug, but though she smiled and said the right thing she was furious with Raúl—his company was about to implode, and she and Raúl were soon to divorce quietly.

      How dared he enmesh himself further? How dared he involve Andrew in the chaos they had made?

      She wanted it to be tomorrow, she wanted Raúl gone so she could sort out how she felt, sort out her life, sort out how to tell him that the temporary contract they had signed would, however tentatively, bind them for life.

      There was a note from Raúl waiting for her when she reached the hotel, telling her that he was tied up in a meeting but would see her at the restaurant at eight.

      ‘You signed up for this,’ Estelle told herself aloud as she put on her eye make-up. She wondered if it would be just dinner, or perhaps a club after, or…

      Estelle closed her eyes so sharply that she almost scratched her eyeball with her mascara wand. He surely wouldn’t expect them to sleep together?

      He surely wouldn’t insist?

      Then again, Estelle told herself as she took a taxi to the restaurant, this was Raúl.

      Of course he would insist.

      Worse, though, she knew she must comply—no matter the toll on heart.

      * * *

      He turned heads. He just did.

      He was waiting for her at the bar, and when they walked into the smartest of restaurants he might as well have being stepping out of a helicopter in a kilt—because everybody was looking at him.

      ‘You look beautiful,’ Raúl told her as they sat down.

      ‘Thank you,’ she said.

      He could feel the anger hissing and spitting inside her, guessed that she must have spoken to Andrew since lunchtime.

      ‘It’s a lovely dress,’ he commented. ‘New?’

      ‘I chose it.’

      ‘It suits you.’

      ‘I know.’

      He ordered wine. She declined.

      He suggested seafood, which he knew she loved, but he had read in one of the many leaflets he perused in the hospital waiting room that pregnant woman were advised not to eat it.

      ‘I thought you loved seafood?’ Raúl commented when she refused it, wondering what her excuse would be.

      ‘I’ve had enough of it.’

      She ordered steak, and he watched her slice it angrily before she voiced one of the many things that were on her mind.

      ‘Did you offer my brother a job?’

      ‘I did.’

      ‘Why would you do that? Why would you do that when you’re about to walk away? When you know the company’s heading for trouble?’

      ‘We’re not heading for trouble,’ Raúl said. ‘I have been speaking with Luka at length today, and Carlos and Paola too. There is to be a name-change. To Sanchez De La Fuente… Anyway, if there is trouble ahead it will only be in the office.

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