The Blackmail Baby by Natalie Rivers Page A

angry with me again.’
    Lorenzo stared at her, a spike of annoyance stabbing into his gut and a band of tension tightening across his shoulders.
    Chloe was right. The previous evening he had reacted instinctively—striking back at her presumption that she could be the one to call an end to their marriage. But since then he had taken time to reevaluate the situation.
    He had originally wanted a wife to provide him with an heir, but he had no faith in marriages based on sentiment and emotion. He wanted a stable, nonmaterialistic woman, who would stand by the commitment of marriage and motherhood, and not abandon her children as soon as the going got tough. Or, even more reprehensibly, sell out if she got a better offer.
    Chloe had seemed to be a good candidate—until she ran out on him on their wedding day. But now things were different. She had Emma. And she had demonstrated a tenacity—a commitment to motherhood—that had made him reconsider.
    ‘I meant it,’ Lorenzo said, looking straight into her cloudy green eyes so that she would know he was sincere. ‘I expect us to remain married.’
    ‘I can’t do that,’ Chloe said. ‘I can’t stay in a loveless marriage, and I won’t bring Emma up in an environment like that.’
    ‘How will you care for her?’ Lorenzo asked. ‘Yesterday you pointed out that you have no job. Your savings are gone and your credit card is at its limit.’
    ‘I’ll manage,’ Chloe said hotly, flashing an annoyed look in his direction. She’d known the daybefore that it was a mistake to let him know about her precarious financial situation—and here he was, less than twenty-four hours later, throwing it in her face.
    ‘How?’ Lorenzo pressed. ‘It doesn’t sound like an ideal starting point.’
    ‘It’s really none of your business,’ Chloe said, but suddenly she knew that he wouldn’t care about that. As far as he was concerned he had a right to know everything—and he would keep digging until he found out. ‘The rent on Liz’s cottage is paid till the end of next month, and I’ll get a job at a temping agency in a nearby town,’ she said. ‘Gladys, Liz’s neighbour, will watch Emma till I can afford proper childcare. It won’t be long until I’m up on my feet again.’
    ‘It hardly sounds ideal,’ Lorenzo said. ‘Wouldn’t you rather Emma grew up as part of a family, with you to look after her, and other children to play with?’
    ‘Other children?’ Chloe repeated, appalled by his assumption and the added barb of emotional blackmail. ‘I haven’t agreed to stay in this marriage, and already you have me producing children like a brood mare. Is that all I ever was to you? A convenient baby-making machine?’
    ‘A baby-making machine is not a mother,’ Lorenzo said harshly. ‘I chose you because I knew you would be an excellent mother. You care deeplyabout family and about commitment. You have values that are important to me, which I consider paramount in the mother of my children. And the fact that you are willing to fight so hard for your friend’s baby proves that fact.’
    ‘How can you talk about values, when you don’t even believe in love?’ Chloe gasped. ‘Do you expect me to give up my values? Give up on my right to be loved?’
    ‘Are you going to give up on your chance for a family—on Emma’s future happiness and security—to chase an illusion that doesn’t exist?’ he demanded.
    ‘It does exist!’ Chloe exclaimed, springing to her feet and glaring down at him.
    ‘Really? I’ve never seen proof,’ he said, standing up so that once again he towered over her. ‘You said you loved me—then just minutes later you ran out on me. Somehow giving up on our marriage so easily doesn’t seem like an expression of love.’
    She stared up at him, suddenly realising that she didn’t have the heart to continue arguing. She’d tried to offer him an olive branch, but all he could do was throw her love for him back in her face.
    ‘I want a