LITMIR.BIZ

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guilt assailed Tia because, for the first time, her mother looked her almost fifty years. ‘You’re welcome back at the house,’ she forced herself to declare.

      ‘Why did you invite her?’ Max asked drily as soon as they were back in the limousine. ‘You know Cable’s waiting to read Andrew’s will and she can’t be present for that.’

      ‘Inez can mingle with the other guests,’ Tia retorted. ‘Whatever else she is, she’s still my mother. I should respect that.’

      And not for the first time, Tia resented the reality that the funeral had been rushed to facilitate the will reading because the stability of her grandfather’s business empire depended on smooth continuity being re-established as soon as was humanly possible. It was all to do with stocks and shares, she recalled numbly, the weariness of stress and early pregnancy tugging at her again.

      She took her seat in the library with Andrew’s other relatives for the reading of the will. The lawyer read out bequests to long-serving staff first before moving on to the children of Tia’s grandmother’s siblings. Disappointment then flashed across a lot of faces and Tia stopped looking, thinking that people probably always hoped for more than they received in such cases and, mindful of her own inheritance, she was determined not to be judgemental. Silence fell as Mr Cable moved on to the main body of the will and the disposition of Andrew’s great wealth.

      Redbridge Hall and its contents were left in perpetuity to Tia and any children she might have, along with sufficient funds to ensure its maintenance and a sizeable private income for her support, but the bulk of Andrew’s money and his business holdings were left exclusively to Max. Only if Tia and Max divorced would there be any change in that status quo and, even then, Max would have the final word on every decision taken in that situation.

      A shocked muttering burst out amongst Tia’s companions as a wave of dissension ran around the room. Tia was disconcerted by the will but not surprised, having long since recognised that her grandfather’s strongest desire had always been to ensure that Grayson Industries survived for future generations. Building Grayson Industries into an international empire had been Andrew’s life’s work, after all, and, as far as Tia could see, how he chose to dispose of his life’s work and earnings had been entirely his business.

      As threats to take the will to court and distasteful insinuations and accusations about Andrew’s state of mind and undue influence being used on him were uttered, the lawyer mentioned that Andrew had taken the precaution of having a psychiatric report done a couple of months earlier to make bringing a court case on such grounds virtually impossible. He also intimated that his employer had for several years been very frank about his hope that Max would marry his granddaughter and take permanent charge of his empire. Amidst much vocal bad feeling, Tia rose from her seat and quite deliberately closed her hand round Max’s, for as far as she was concerned Andrew’s last wishes were sacrosanct and she did not want anyone to think that she stood anywhere but on Max’s side of the fence.

      Not that Max, his dark head held high as they left the library, seemed to be in need of her support, particularly not when those also present at the will reading spread amongst the other guests. A low, intent murmur of chatter soon sounded around them and Tia could tell that she and Max were the centre of attention. Her face went pink at that acknowledgement but Max seemed gloriously impervious to the interest of other people.

      ‘How do you feel about all this?’ Max enquired almost lazily.

      ‘Andrew wanted you to inherit,’ Tia murmured with quiet emphasis. ‘It was his business and it was his right to dispose of it as he saw fit.’

      His lean, strong profile taut, Max dealt her a frowning appraisal from glittering dark deep-set eyes as if questioning that she could really feel like that. Tia evaded his direct gaze because what had happened between them in Brazil was playing heavily on her mind and she knew she had questions to ask her husband before she was willing to bury the subject.

      ‘We’ll talk in here.’ Max flung open a door off the crowded drawing room. ‘By the way, don’t feel sorry for your cousins. Andrew made generous settlements on all of them before he died.’

      ‘Good to know.’ Tia preceded him into a small sitting room. Faded curtains and rather outmoded furniture attested to the fact that it had once been her grandmother’s favourite room. It had stayed unchanged for over a quarter of a century and the sight of it and the beautiful view out over the colourful rose garden never failed to touch Tia’s heart. Her grandfather had mentioned how he still liked to picture her grandmother sitting writing letters at her bureau and of how in the initial stages of his grief he had liked to sit there to feel close to her again.

      ‘How do you feel?’ Max prompted again, standing with wide shoulders angled back and legs braced as if he expected her to attack. ‘You can be honest...tell me.’

      ‘Did you know?’ Tia asked hesitantly, her luminous gaze welded to his devastatingly handsome, lean dark features.

      ‘What would be in the will? Andrew filled me in on the details only after we had married,’ Max admitted flatly, raking a frustrated hand through his tousled black hair. ‘Prior to that I assumed he would leave it all jointly to both of us.’

      The will had shaken Max and it was ironic that, while the disposal of Andrew’s assets had made Andrew’s other relatives jealous, it had almost made Max groan. He didn’t need the ownership of Grayson Industries to feel good about himself or the future. As far as Max was concerned, Grayson Industries would always rightfully belong to Tia, who was a Grayson by birth. He was not sorry, though, to be left with complete autonomy over the business because he would not have enjoyed interference from any other source.

      But what Max disliked most of all was the suspicion that Andrew’s will had muddied the water in his marriage and no matter what Tia said, she had to have serious doubts about how much she could trust him now. Did she secretly suspect that he had married her for her money? He needed to be more frank with her about why he was with her and why he had been willing to marry her, he acknowledged grudgingly.

      The worst of Tia’s tension had already dissipated. ‘It would never occur to me to think of you as a fortune hunter, Max,’ she confided ruefully. ‘I would never think that of you.’

      ‘Then possibly you should think again. I have to tell you the truth because I won’t lie about it. Before I came out to Brazil to collect you, Andrew told me how worried he was about bringing you home here when he was dying. He was worried sick about how you would cope as his heiress in a world so far removed from that of the convent and he asked me to marry you to protect you.’

      All her natural colour draining away in the face of that unwelcome revelation, Tia fell back a step from him in consternation: Max had not freely chosen to be with her. It was as though her whole world lurched and spun around her because she suddenly felt sick and dizzy and disorientated. Her legs like woolly supports, she dropped down heavily into an armchair and stared back up at him, her cornflower-blue eyes huge in the white triangle of her face.

      ‘That is the one secret I won’t keep from you, bella mia,’ Max declared harshly. ‘Andrew came up with the original idea. You heard the family lawyer refer to it. It was news to me, however, that he was considering the idea years before he mentioned it to me. I said I’d consider it after I had met you but the minute I saw you, I stopped considering anything. I wanted you and I didn’t want any other man to have you.’

      Tia gazed back at him in shock, never having associated such strong emotions with Max.

      ‘Right there and then, I became determined that you would be mine,’ Max continued in a harsh undertone. ‘I didn’t think about the business or the money. That didn’t come into it for me. I’m an ambitious man but prior to meeting you I had built up enough wealth to satisfy me and anything more was icing on the cake. Somehow in a very short space of time you became both the icing and the cake. Even so, I was intolerably greedy and selfish. I didn’t want any other man to have an excuse to come near you.’

      ‘Intolerably?’ Tia queried his choice of words shakily.

      ‘A more

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