One Hour to Midnight (17 page)

"He knows," Leon said at last.

"Knows what exactly?"

A harsh sigh escaped Leon and he raked a hand through his hair leaving it dishevelled. "After Sonia gave him a twisted version of his biological parentage, I decided he needed to hear the truth."

Her heart pounded at the base of her throat, and she found it difficult to breathe. "And what was
your
truth, Leon?"

Leon rose from the bed and crossed the space, caught her chin in one hand and lifted it. Something in his gaze made blood pound at the base of her throat.

"I told Jordan you were his mother and you were too young to be able care for him."

"And his father?"

"That was more difficult," he conceded quietly. "Sonia's filled her kids' heads with vitriol and Jordan's always played with his cousins."

"His half-brother and half-sister."

"Yes. And this past year, since he became ill, he's finally understood this."
 

Veronica didn't know whether this explanation made her feel better or worse. She pulled out another book and then slotted it back on the shelf, keeping restless fingers busy.

And then she saw it, a threadbare brown teddy tucked into a cubby hole in the bookshelf.

"Jordan still has this?" The words suddenly seemed over-loud. "This is the bear I bought for him."

"One and the same." Leon crossed the space and laid a hand on her shoulder. "It's always been his favourite."

"I stopped on the way to the airport and bought it for him." She dashed a hand across her cheek to swipe away an errant tear. "I wasn't sure he would ever get it?"

"Was that why you dropped it off at my office?"

Veronica nodded, picking the bear up and cradling it against her cheek. "I knew if I sent it to Claremont, Julia would make certain Jordan never saw it."

Air hissed from his lungs. "That's so harsh, Veronica. Julia wasn't vindictive."

He looked away¸ thrusting his hands in his pockets.
 

"Harsh maybe, but true." She stroked the teddy's worn fur.
 
"I had just enough of my own money to pay for him."
 

That brought his gaze back to her, his frown dark. "And that was important to you. Why?"
 

Veronica looked up at him and shook her head at his lack of understanding. "The money you gave me was blood money."

He expelled another loud, hissing breath. She didn't need to look at him to know he was angry.

"Blood money!" He stalked closer until she could touch him if she wanted to. "How was it blood money?"

Veronica clutched the bear a little tighter. "It was money I accepted in exchange for my child, Leon. To my mind that makes it blood money."

"If that's a sample of your warped thinking I'm not surprised you never saw the need to come and see Jordan."

Veronica looked at him shaking her head. "God, you didn't expect much did you?"

He caught her shoulders, fingers digging into flesh. "I expected you to keep in touch, to visit, to watch your child grow up. So Jordan would gain a sense of his roots."

"Really?"

A ruddy flush seeped up under his tan at her sarcasm. "Meaning?"

"And had I come back, would you have even noticed Julia's hostility?" She challenged, looking him straight in the eye. "Or would have you only have seen what you wanted to see, Leon. Where Julia is concerned, you were selectively blind."

"And you, Veronica, need to get rid of that chip you're carrying around on your shoulder."

Veronica placed the teddy on the bed and smoothed the wrinkles out of the duvet where they'd been sitting. "And you need to open your eyes, Leon. And take off the blinders."

For long, grim moments they stared at each other, neither prepared to give an inch. He was first to look away. He rubbed a hand around the back of his neck. "I have to go into the office tonight for a staff meeting."

"And?"
 

 
He stepped closer, lifted her chin, and looked at her, his eyes narrowed to glittering slits, before he bent his head and kissed her.
 

He took his time demanding her response.
 

And, to her absolute chagrin, she couldn't prevent her response to his blatant sexuality. When he lifted his head she felt as if she was on fire.

"Happy decision making, don't wait up for me, darling, I'll be late." On that mocking salutation, he turned on his heel and walked out and shut the door.

Restless and unsettled and not willing to explore further, Veronica walked back to the lounge room.
 

If she didn't talk this out with someone, she would go crazy.

On the verge of seeking out Cassie, she paused. No way could she discuss this with Leon's housekeeper. On impulse she picked up the phone, punched in a number and it was answered on the second ring.
 

"This had better be good," Tania snarled through the receiver.

Startled, Veronica looked at the clock and swore under her breath. With the time difference it was well after midnight in Auckland. It didn't take a rocket scientist to guess what she'd interrupted. "Sorry Tania, I never realized it was so late."

"Vic?"

"Yeah, it's me." She rubbed a hand around the back of her neck.

"What's wrong?" Her friend sounded far more conciliatory and alert. "How's your boy?"

"He's desperately ill, Tania," she said, the words catching on a sob.
 

In the background she heard a man's voice. Milas? And she knew she'd interrupted her friend sharing an intimate moment with her lover.
 

"Can you donate bone marrow?"
 

"Yes, we're a good match," Veronica's breath hitched on another sob. "But even that may not be enough to save his life. A transplant isn't a miracle cure for the strain of leukaemia Jordan has, even if he surmounts the hurdle of rejection."

Veronica was surprised at how quickly she'd become accustomed to the medical terminology surrounding Jordan's illness. There was a small silence.
 

"I'm so sorry. Is there nothing else that can be done?"

Veronica took a deep breath and the words came tumbling out. "There is a new therapy."

"Are they going to try it? Is it dangerous?"

"It depends on what you class as dangerous," Veronica gave a strangled laugh. "Some would think it's suicidal."

"Vic? Tell me?" Veronica held the phone away from her ear when Tania's shrieked.
 

"Calm down, Tania. Let your friend speak."

That was Milas.
 

"You have the phone on speaker?"

"Yes. Do you object?" Milas growled through the receiver. "If you want to be private, I'll go into the next room."

"No it's okay," Veronica said after a moment. Tania would only tell Milas after they finished talking.

"So what's this new therapy?" Milas asked and Veronica recognised a similar authority in his voice to the one Leon had in his.

"It involves the harvesting and freeze storing the stem cells in umbilical cord blood," Veronica said quietly clenching her fist.
 

There was a pregnant pause.

"We're talking umbilical cord blood as in the cord blood from a new born baby?" Tania asked her voice too quiet, too even.
 

"Yes."

"And not just any baby? Whose baby are we talking about?"

"Leon has asked me to marry him and have his baby."' The words tumbled out one after the other. "The stem cells in cord blood of a maternal sibling will generate healthy bone marrow cells and give Jordan a seventy-five per cent chance of a complete cure."
 

There was a stunned silence on the end of the phone.

"Are you out of your freaking mind, Veronica?" Tania's voice rose with each word. "You have to be insane to even consider it. Tell me you're not going to do it."

Veronica held the phone away from her ear grinning at the predictable reaction. Tania had never changed in all the years they'd known each other.

"Tell me, Tania?" she asked, tongue in cheek. "Is the sex okay with Milas?"

She heard Tania splutter and Milas give a bark of laughter. "What sort of question is that?"

"Just to let you know, my drought had ended, so yes, I'm going to marry Leon and have his baby. And rest assured, creating a baby will be no hardship."
 

Tania was still spluttering as Veronica put down the phone and cut the connection. She leaned back in the chair and grinned.

Putting the dilemma facing her into words had made the decision easier.

She wasn't going into this arrangement wearing rose coloured glasses. As Leon said, they were adults. They could make this work. And the sex was great.
 

On impulse, she rang for McKenna. If Leon was at a meeting, she would go and spend some time with Jordan.

~***~

Once she was protectively garbed, Veronica tiptoed to the bedside. Jordan was sleeping, dark lashes resting on gaunt cheeks that were far too pale.

He stirred as she sat in the chair beside his bed.

"Hi, how you doing?" she asked softly.

"Mummy?" Jordan was sleepy and obviously disorientated.

"No, it's Vic." The diminutive slipped out. "Your Dad has a meeting, and I thought you'd like me to keep you company."

The sea-blue so like hers, widened. He gave her a look she couldn't fathom and then turned his head away. "I don't."

Veronica's heart stopped and then raced. "You don't what?"

"Want you here."

The words hurt, but Veronica refused to be deterred. If she and Leon were to marry, Jordan needed to become accustomed to her.

"Why's that?" She took care to keep her voice soft and unthreatening.

"I want my Mum." Tears rolled down Jordan's cheeks. "She was here. I know she was here and she told me she wouldn't go away again."

Veronica managed a shaken breath. Did Jordan remember her helping sponge him down the other night, when he was running that dangerous fever? How could she ease his heartache?

She picked up his hand, the skin papery and hot to the touch, and silently prayed for the right words. "Your Mum got sick, Jordan, and she can't come back."

"She was here. I know she was here."

"Jordan, look at me," Veronica said quietly and firmly. It took a while but she waited him out. He turned his head and looked at her. "When you were so sick the other night, I was here with your Dad, helping him care for you."

He glared at her, his eyes swimming with tears. "You said you were my mum?"

The accusation in those words hit her hard. She wanted to protest that she
was
his mother, but instinctively knew that would be a mistake. Had she made an error of judgement visiting alone? The last thing she wanted was to upset Jordan. If she did so Leon would be furious.

"I was trying to help you," she said, quietly.
 

"You lied to me." The accusation and his glare were uncannily similar to Leon's. "You don't like me."
 

"I do like you, Jordan," she said vehemently. "It's because I care about you that I've come from New Zealand to give you some of my healthy bone marrow, remember."

Jordan lay there looking at her with eyes too large in his wasted face, and so very old. She could almost see him thinking. "You were going to the seaside."

About to admit she was staying at Claremont, she sensed that would also be a mistake.

"I have, and the weather's been lovely." The ease with which the lie slipped out left her faintly shocked.

"Andreas said you stole his father from them.
 
Did you?"
 

The faint sneer in the words made Veronica queasy.
Sonia gave Jordan a garbled version of his parentage, so I told him the truth.
 

She closed her eyes briefly, fighting down an old pain.
 

"No Jordan, Andreas has it wrong. I never stole their father," she said very quietly. "Yannis, their father and your biological father, had a lot of problems. His biggest problem was he couldn't tell the truth. He lied to me and he lied to your Aunt Sonia."

Veronica found it an eerie sensation to be judged by a ten-year-old boy.

"Why would he lie? Dad says it's wrong to lie."

Veronica covered Jordan's hand with her own. "You dad is right. Yannis's lies hurt a lot of people."
 

And it was you and I who suffered most of all.
 

Jordan was quiet for a long time watching her without blinking. "Would you like to read to me? Dad usually reads to me at night."

Her relief at this simple request was disproportionate.