Still, he had to concede Tess had never done without financially—an heiress to a fortune from the day she was born. Nadia Kilman had been the only child of very poor immigrants to Australia—people who’d striven hard to give their beautiful daughter every possible advantage in their new country, only to be cheated of revelling in her glory, both of them dying while trying to save their home on the outskirts of Sydney from a summer firestorm.
Of course, they’d ensured Nadia was safe first. Nadia, at sixteen, had already begun a shining future as a model. Her rags to riches background had served her well, too, drawing admiration and generating sympathetic chances for her to advance. And advance. And advance. No looking back for Nadia Kilman. Looking forward was much more to her liking.
‘You’ve got me here now, Mother,’ Nick stated dryly. ‘What’s on your mind?’
Probably best to play her game first, get her in a good mood.
‘Juice? Coffee?’ Ready to play serving maid, which undoubtedly meant she wanted a big favour from him! After all, he was only her son, not a billionaire marriage prospect.
‘I’ll help myself, thank you.’
A complete breakfast buffet was laid out. He poured himself a long glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and took a croissant to help pass the time in a civil manner. They both settled at the table, his mother projecting immense pleasure in his company.
‘You bought the Upton place at Point Piper!’ came the opening line, the gold-amber eyes sparkling delight in the acquisition.
‘Yes. I heard it was to be put on the market and did a private deal,’ he answered matter-of-factly.
‘I’ve been to so many wonderful parties there! Though I must say, neither the Uptons nor the Farrells before them ever made the most of that marvellous house. Now what I’d like to suggest, Nick—and you know how good I am at this—instead of getting in some professional interior decorator…’
‘No. Don’t go there, Mother,’ he warned. ‘The position is already taken.’
‘But I need a new project.’ She pouted and smiled, playing all her appealing tricks. ‘And I’d give you a brilliant result. I promise your new home will be the talk of the town. Let me pay off whatever contract you’ve signed…’
‘No. This is not a negotiable situation.’
‘Darling, everything is negotiable. It’s just a matter of finding the right price.’
Nick shook his head, realising he would have made the same cynical generalisation only a few weeks ago, but he knew now that wasn’t true. The love he felt towards his son wasn’t negotiable. And the trust he wanted Tess to feel with him wasn’t negotiable. In fact, nothing relating to either Zack or Tess was negotiable.
‘I know you like to do things your own way,’ his mother ran on, ‘but you have to concede that I have huge expertise in…’
He waved a sharp dismissal of any persuasive tactics and stated bluntly, ‘I’ve married since I saw you last. My wife will be choosing and overseeing whatever decoration she wants done in our home.’
‘Married!’ She stared at him in stunned disbelief. When he didn’t repudiate his statement, disbelief moved to chagrin. ‘Why haven’t I heard of this?’
‘Well, basically it’s none of your business,’ Nick answered evenly, shrugging away any criticism as he added, ‘I don’t recall you ever consulting me on any of your marriages. You just went ahead…’
‘You knew who I was marrying,’ she broke in, more angry at having her own plans frustrated than caring about his choice of wife.
‘Irrelevant, Mother. The point is…’
‘I want to know who,’ she cut in petulantly. ‘After all your cynical cracks about my marriages, I want to know who and what changed your mind about giving marriage a try yourself. It’s so totally out of character…’
‘You may have misjudged my character.’
The thought burned through his mind again…I am not my father!
She rolled her eyes. ‘Just give me her name. I’ll judge for myself where you’re coming from, Nick.’
He felt a quiet sense of pride as he said, ‘Tessa Steele is now my wife.’
‘Tessa Steele?’ His mother’s voice climbed, gathering a shrill edge. ‘Tessa Steele—Brian Steele’s daughter?’
He nodded.
She broke into a wild peal of laughter. ‘Oh, that’s priceless! Absolutely priceless!’ she spluttered, standing up and pirouetting around, clapping her hands in girlish glee. ‘Brian gets rid of me as his wife and you get his one and only daughter to marry you! I love it!’
Nick sighed in sheer exasperation at her habit of turning everything back to herself. Just for once, he wished she could move beyond the centre of her own universe.
Her arms lifted, hands reaching out to gloatingly gather in and express what his marriage to Tess meant to her. ‘It has such delicious symmetry! And all that lovely money is back in the family! What a glorious, fabulous coup!’
Money!
Nick’s jaw clenched as he fought back a tumultuous wave of hatred for the values his mother had espoused all her life…the sheer meanness of it in human terms.
‘Nothing on this earth would induce me to take one cent of the Steele family fortune,’ he grated.
His mother was momentarily dumbfounded by this emphatic claim, but she quickly rallied, scoffing, ‘Then why marry her? She’s not even beautiful.’
‘She is to me.’ He stood up, too angry to remain seated. ‘And more to the point, Tess has had my child—a son…’
‘A child!’ she spat, rolling her eyes at the supposed idiocy of his decisions. ‘So, the boot is on the other foot and you fell for it. She used that trap to get you to marry her, just as I did, Brian.’
‘No, Mother. Not as you did, Brian. I wasn’t his son, whereas Zack is definitely mine.’
‘You have proof of that?’
‘Indisputable.’
‘Well, it was damned clever of her, anyway. No doubt she guessed you had a thing about being rejected by your father. And having a boy-baby…perfect weapon to pull you in.’
Anger was pulsing from both of them and the conversation was fast escalating into a vicious row because his mother had decided her side wasn’t winning any more and she had no understanding of the stakes in play and probably never would.
Nick took a deep breath to calm himself down and quietly corrected her view. ‘Tess didn’t use it to pull me in. In fact, she didn’t even reveal our son’s existence until after I’d proposed marriage to her.’