HER ONE AND ONLY VALENTINE - (5 page)

Had she maybe known all along that he hadn't known? Had a part of her wanted to keep Lizzie from him? If that was the case, then why had she been so angry with him for so long?

Kane spread his feet a little wider apart as he stood tall to his full six foot two again, towering over her. 'It's like this, Rhiannon—if you don't tell her who I am, then I will. Or we go the legal route. Either way, now that I
do
know she's mine, I plan on being part of her life. And there's nothing you can do to stop that happening. Not this time.'

Even without holding her, with several
safer
inches separating them, Rhiannon knew he had her trapped. Now that he knew and was determined to be a part of Lizzie's life, he wouldn't change his mind, would he? She knew that from the various tales she'd heard over the years—of his determination and single-mindedness in business, his knack of always getting what he wanted in spite of the odds. And, after all, she had been one of those 'things' once, hadn't she?

It wouldn't matter where she ran to if she left Brookfield. Now that he knew...

What she needed was a way of making this work without causing any more damage. 'I need some time.'

'You've
had
ten years.'

'I'll
tell her.'
She glared up at him, making it crystal clear she wasn't happy about it. 'But I'm not going to collect her from school and just announce it. She's just had to adjust to losing her home, her friends at school, an uncle she adored... I can't just land a new father on her too.'

His jaw clenched; his large body even rocked forwards a little. And Rhiannon stood taller, prepared for whatever he would throw her way. But he corrected himself, rocking back as his rumbling voice resonated from deep inside his chest.

'I'll stay here until she's more comfortable with me.'

Rhiannon's eyes widened. 'You can't—'

'Can't I?' He quirked a brow again. 'There are two ways to play this: the easy way and the hard way. You tell me which way you think would be best for her. Because, frankly, right this minute, I don't give a damn what suits you best.'

Her mind swiftly filled in various versions of the 'hard way'. If he chose to fight for Lizzie she would put up one hell of a fight. But was that really what was best for Lizzie?

As if somehow seeing into her mind, he forced the point home for good measure. And if it comes down to a legal battle over this then we both know I can afford to fight it for as long as it takes.'

Rhiannon momentarily felt dizzy.

'I'll go and make arrangements to have equipment sent up from Dublin so I can work from here.'

Just like that? He was already making plans to move in?

And I'll spend time with her when she gets home from school.'

He'd be right here, under the same roof, where she would have to stand by and watch as he tried to bond with Lizzie.

And then you'll tell her who I am.'

From somewhere she finally found some words. 'You can't be like
this
with her. You'll have to try being
nice.'

A sudden burst of sharp laughter caught her off guard. A laugh of disbelief, as if he didn't know how she'd just had the audacity to say what she had.

'Ah, but
she
didn't hold this back from me, did she? Why would I be angry at
her?'

Rhiannon shook her head, a deathly sense of calm washing over her in the face of the inevitable. 'Fine. I obviously don't have a choice. And, to be honest, I'm done arguing with the people living under the same roof as me, even if they're only staying temporarily.'

'What the hell does that mean?'

And that just proved how vulnerable she was in her current state of emotional exhaustion, if 'secrets' were spilling out. 'It means that I have to tell her if you're determined to have access to her, because I won't put her through a battle. But she does need to spend some time with you and settle into her life here first. And that's a request for her sake, not for mine.'

'We're not talking months when it comes to telling her. I'm not even talking weeks. I'm talking days—within the week. Otherwise
I
tell her.'

Rhiannon closed her eyes for a moment. The temptation to run was so strong it was like a fishing line tugging at the back of her sweater. But she'd promised herself when they came to Brookfield that it would be the last time they moved.

When she opened her eyes Kane was studying her, a deep vertical frown line between his blue eyes—a sign that he frowned often, no doubt. But in the depths of his eyes there wasn't just anger, there was something else—a mixture of what looked like consideration of a puzzle yet to be solved, as if he was somehow trying to size her up.

And, for some reason, Rhiannon found herself fascinated by that, distracted even. For a heartbeat she forgot all the difficulties between them and was curious about the man who stood in front of her. Had he really been the person she'd once thought he was or had he lied to her all along? Why had he left the way he had? What had driven him to be so successful when he could simply have sat back and lived on the money his family already had?

Who
was
Kane Healey,
really?

But all she really wanted to know was whether he could be the kind of father that Lizzie deserved. She prayed he could be. And now he was going to be a part of her life, and Rhiannon knew she was going to have to learn to live with that.

Because the sooner everything was sorted out, the sooner he would go.

She ran the tip of her tongue over her lips and fixed her gaze at a point past Kane's shoulder. 'I'll tell her as soon as she's comfortable with you. But we can't argue in front of her like this. If you have anything to say to me, you say it when she's not here. She shouldn't have to pay the price for our dislike of each other.'

Kane stepped sideways, his upper arm brushing briefly against her shoulder as he walked past, causing a sudden crackle of static to pass through the wool to her skin.

'She's lived her entire life without a father. I'd say she's already paid, wouldn't you?'

Rhiannon stood in the cold room for a long time after he left, her eyes dry and sore, while inside she felt—nothing, as if a part of her had just given up. It occurred to her that she should at least have wanted to cry, just a little, while she was alone.

But, with a resigned sigh, she knew a part of her
had
always known this day would come. All she had to do now was find the right words to explain it to Lizzie.

And a way to live under the same roof as the man she had spent a decade of her life hating.

Kane looked out of his office's floor-to-ceiling windows, over the city and the River Liffey far below, swinging back and forth in his chair while he tapped one long finger against his chin.

It was the first time in years that he'd felt so completely floored, thrown by something he really hadn't been prepared for. To suddenly discover that Rhiannon had kept that big a secret from him for so long—

Well, suffice to say it had been a long time since he'd been so angry at anyone; usually he considered himself an even-tempered kind of a guy. After all, he was more aware than most of how life could be too short to get heated up over things.

But how could she have possibly thought he wouldn't have cared that he had a child? Hadn't she known him at all? Did she honestly think he'd have walked away from something like that? Damn her!

'So, basically the offer is on the table.' His corporate solicitor continued talking behind him. 'The shareholders—and you are, of course, a major one—stand to make a fortune.'

He forced his mind to follow the conversation. 'If they vote to accept it.'

'Well, obviously there are still months of negotiations but I'd say it's a safe bet they will.'

Kane continued swinging back and forth, his mind elsewhere. It was a bad time for him to be forced away from the office too... But for the first time in years he had something infinitely more important than his company and his work to think of.
Nothing
was more important than getting to know his child. Not even an attempt from an overseas company to make a takeover. Takeovers he could deal with, shareholders he could deal with, million dollar technological developments he was used to dealing with on an almost weekly basis. The time with his child that he'd had stolen from him was something he would never,
ever
deal with.

How in hell could Rhiannon live with herself? All right, maybe not so much when it came to how he would feel, but to have deprived her daughter of her father...?

'It's a once in a lifetime offer, Kane. How many men are self-made millionaires before they're thirty-two?'

Kane took a breath. 'How many men can stand by and watch something they put their soul into split up into tiny pieces and swallowed by a company seeking worldwide domination of the market?' He swung the chair around to look the older man in the eye. 'It'll mean a loss of creative control and some major job losses. And neither of those things sit well with me.'

Particularly the latter—because the value of family might not mean much to Rhiannon MacNally, but it meant something to Kane. As far as he was concerned, people came first.

'Well, yes.' The man looked vaguely confused at Kane's lack of enthusiasm. 'But this sort of thing happens all the time; it's the way of the world. Job losses happen every day.'

He studied his adviser for long silent minutes. He'd built Micro-Tech from virtually nothing with the help of a small group of investors and, of course, Mattie Blair's faith. But, regardless of what had driven him to succeed, Kane still found it difficult to let go, even for such a large financial reward. Yes, he could agree to it all—to the takeover and the job losses— but he would have a problem looking in the mirror in the mornings. And now that he had a daughter it seemed even more important to him that he was able to do that.

He swung his chair back towards the windows, not allowing his gaze to stray towards the vicinity of Trinity University, where he had first met Rhiannon, while he focused on more important thoughts.

It might not make much sense to want to be the sort of man a child would feel proud to have as a father when that child had lived almost a decade with an
absentee father,
but it was how Kane felt. If she was his then he had to step up and try to make up for the years Rhiannon had stolen from them both.

He frowned at the view in front of him. Maybe he should have figured it out, believed in what they had had at the time so that he hadn't been so quick to think she'd moved on to someone else the second he was gone. But he'd had so much to deal with, had been so eaten up with bitterness and anger and an inevitable sense of fear...

Whereas Rhiannon had thought a letter was enough to ease her damn conscience!

He had to focus on the here and now. What he needed was a plan. Maybe a plan would make him feel better, more in control, more proactive.

Step one was the knowledge that the loss of jobs involved in a takeover would have a devastating effect on a lot of people and their families—people who had gone out on a limb with him in the first place. And he couldn't allow that to happen if he wanted to be the kind of self-respecting father any child deserved.

Step two, as he sung his chair back round again, was to make sure everyone was clear where he stood—and quickly—so that he could get back to Brookfield to right a wrong that he may well have to admit to being part of, because he'd left when he had.

And that meant that part of step three would have to be to discover just how much of a difference his leaving had made to Rhiannon's decision. Because he needed to understand, not so that he could forgive her—he doubted that was even possible—but so he could at least find a way to deal with her.

After all, she was the mother of his child.

'Every kid should have a dog, don't you think, Kane?'

'Not every kid does, though.'

'Yeah, but they
should.'

Kane smiled patiently at her. 'You don't give up easy, do you?'

Lizzie shrugged. 'Mum says I get my determine.. .detre...'

'Determination?'

She smiled. 'Yeah, that thing. I always get the word wrong. Anyway, she says I get it from my dad.' She shrugged. 'It's s'posed to be a good thing.'

He nodded in agreement. 'It can be; it helps you get the things you need to get.'

'And I
need
a dog and a pony.' She nodded curtly as she spoke, handing him another empty box to tear into flat pieces.

'And you think you'll get them if you pester her enough— is that the plan?'

'Mum? Yes.' Her nose wrinkled again. 'If it's not too expensive. We aren't rich.'

Kane smiled again at her matter-of-fact way of laying down the truth. But then he was enthralled by everything about her.

How could Rhiannon have kept all this from him for so long? She'd had no right to keep him from his child's first smile, first laugh, first step, first words—all of the things he would never get back or ever experience...