Chapter 2

Paralyzed, Mayra could not articulate a word. Amazement left her speechless, nailed her to the spot. Him! Here, in London! The man she had worked so hard to erase from her memory. Seductive as always, with his gorgeous starry black hair of droplets of rain, this athletic silhouette enhanced by the elegant clothes he wore....

Under the disdainful gaze fixed on me, my face flared up, for a fraction of a second, before regaining its ashen pallor.

He noticed the haggard expression of those big black eyes, the dark circles under her eyelids, the pale complexion. He also noticed the quivering of her luscious lips. Was she reacting like this because she had come close to an accident? Obviously, she was unharmed. Stifling a curse. After all, what did the fate of this woman matter to him? If she found herself in a difficult situation, she alone bore the responsibility.

He was already turning on his heels when an angry howl escaped from the depths of the baby carriage. Frowning, he watched Sophie lean over the pram, take out a package wrapped in a shawl and press against it. An expression of tenderness enlightened her features rise, that same expression she had when she was taking care of Carla's twins. She had been a perfect nurse. On this point, he has nothing to reproach her with.

She had been recommended by a respectable British agency. Hands deep in the pockets of his overcoat cashmere, he considered the wife and the baby now chirping emitting bubbles.

" I no longer work as a nanny. I'm sure you know that., And Torry is my son."

And yours, she added mentally, all the gold in the world wouldn't have made her says those words out loud.

"Excuse me, I'm already very late. I have to go".

The wind was blowing in gusts. The rain, harder and harder, was falling horizontally now, whipping the emaciated, very pale face of the young woman. Over there, on the island, slightly tanned by the sun, she radiated health. He remembered the way she laughed or smiled. He had seen her smile often, and it was this tremendous joy of living that first seduced him. Retrospectively, he admitted that Mayra's warmth and quick wit had been weapons of choice in her impressive arsenal, effective enough to bamboozle a businessman like him and turn his life upside down. Leaning over the pram, she no longer lent him her attention. Her only concern was to sheltering her child from the rain.

"Well?"

He asked in an irritated tone.

************

Why didn't he leave. She curse fate for having put back on his way this man that she has done everything to forget. It had taken her a long time to erase from her memory those magical weeks that they had shared on the island. Their beautiful story had become a nightmare, full of humiliation and pain when she has considered her like a liar, deaf to her denials, and that he did what was necessary to ensure that I would never work as a nanny again. Which I had such a hard time getting.

"I'm going to Finsbury,"

She mumbled through her teeth. She only answered his question to get rid of his presence, but understood that she was not finished with him when, in an imperative tone, he declared:

"I'll take you there. It is not very far."

"No,"

She answered firmly.

Anyway, by this time, Tim wouldn't be home. The taxi loaded with the rest of her belongings would not arrive before the start of the evening. Also, there was a staircase to climb and she would need help to get up to the second floor.

"Don't be stupid, you are soaked to the bone and, as you yourself have pointed out, you have no chance, alone, of being on time for your meeting. The passenger door of his luxurious Mercedes was open, and it was terribly tempting to slip inside, warm and dry. Torry who was in my arms made me change my mind. We couldn't stay out forever in this weather and I had to think first and foremost about the well-being of my child.

"My pram, I can't leave it here, it contains all my stuff."

" I'll take care of it. You made me lose enough time, mount and strap yourself in with the baby."

She did what he told her as he went back to big strides towards the baby carriage, pushed it in the direction a shop, dedicated to humanitarian aid. A few seconds and a generous donation were enough for him to unload the old pram of its woolen blankets, a few toys, plastic bags full of things... Why bother so much? Etore doesn't have an idea. In any case, to help this woman It could only be for the sake of an innocent baby, no doubt to have! With this certainty, he filed the contents of the pram in the back seat, slid behind the wheel and started the engine.

" The address?"

The answer barely formulated, the car started. He glanced at his passenger and noticed she wasn't wearing a wedding ring. The baby in her arms was babbling. Another look allowed him to see that he was a vigorous child with hair as black as his mother's. Too bad for him to have a hypocritical and unscrupulous mother. His attention riveted on the dashboard clock Mayra said to herself that, finally, they had the opportunity to arrive on time. This thought reassured her.

Her son's belongings were gathered at the lady town waiting for a taxi to pick them up she had taken with her, in the pram, the nappies, the spare linen, bottles ready to be warmed. She was lost in thought when she heard Etorre talking to her.

" Is this appointment professional or personal?"

It was only a question for breaking the silence, he was sure that there was no interest in his question.

"Personal",

Answered Mayra uncertainly. His gaze turned to her again and he frowned. The eyebrows she looked sick, he didn't know her not that sickly Face. On the other hand, under the raincoat shapeless she wore, her body seemed deformed and he could no longer distinguish her once so exciting curves.

" And?" He insisted.

He reacted as if he cared about the fate of this woman, when it was far from the case She sighed.

"I'm moving in with a friend who has very little time to welcome me. Maybe he is even already left. Fortunately, Tim was still there.

Mayra's heart was relieved when she saw him hurtling down the front door steps of the big house in front of which the Mercedes was coming stop. The young woman got out of the car, her son tightly pressed against her chest. Etore grabbed the things he had put on the back seat. Was it the child's father, endorsing a little late in his responsibilities? She had said that she moved to this address.