Read Online A Bride for Kolovsky by Carol Marinelli - Free Book Online Page B

thank Ms Hewitt, but as Lavinia sat at the hairdresser’s she was shaking with silent rage as her thick blonde hair was curled into spirals and pinned.
    â€˜Problem?’ Zakahr checked as she stomped back into the office after her appointment.
    â€˜Only of my own making!’
    Oh, she’d sworn her distance from him, but Zakahr was there , just at the right moment, and asking a question. It was like a champagne cork popping. Her rage was fizzing out, years and years of rage spluttering over the edges with such ferocity Lavinia’s eyes actually stung with tears.
    â€˜She’ll send her back to Kevin,’ Lavinia said.
    â€˜You don’t know that.’ Zakahr wished he hadn’t asked the question—wished he hadn’t heard Lavinia’sresponse. He gave his brief, soothing answer and turned to go.
    â€˜She sent me back to my mother time after time.’ Lavinia’s words hit his turning back like arrows. ‘I’m supposed to keep things even with Rachael and not make promises I can’t keep. I’m not even supposed to tell her I want to raise her.’
    â€˜ Can you raise her?’ Zakahr challenged—because he believed in action rather than words, and before he offered his support where a child was concerned he had to be sure. ‘Or is this just a cause for now?’
    â€˜It’s why I bought a house—I’ve got a room for her at home that I’m waiting to decorate. I’ve wanted Rachael in my care since she was born. But I’m not supposed to confuse her with all that.’ She shook her head, cross with herself for bringing her problems to work, for exploding in front of him. ‘Just leave it.’ She brushed past him, heading for the safety of her office.
    â€˜Ms Hewitt is wrong.’ Zakahr halted her. ‘All this stuff about keeping your distance, not building up her hopes.’ He could see Lavinia do a double-take, could see her try to speak, to tell him this was not his concern—except right now it was. ‘Take her to your home, show her the room, tell her that no matter what happens, what is decided, it is always there for her. Say that you will do your very best to get her there—that even if you are not able to look after her now you are thinking of her, and that the room is hers , waiting.’
    â€˜Go against everything I’ve been told?’ Lavinia’s knuckles were white on the office door. ‘I could lose her.’
    â€˜You’re losing her every day you are not honest,’Zakahr insisted. ‘How many milkshakes, how many dolls, how many clothes will fill her soul? She needs to know that you love her, and that you are doing everything you can for her—even if she can’t see it, even if it doesn’t feel like it.’
    â€˜Build up her hopes?’ Lavinia challenged. ‘And then what if she finds out she’s going back…?’
    â€˜She might not,’ Zakahr said. ‘And if she does…’ he was exasperated because it was surely simple ‘…buy her a phone.’
    â€˜She’s not even five!’
    â€˜A cheap phone.’
    â€˜She’ll lose it. They’ll take it off her.’
    â€˜Then buy her another—and another,’ Zakahr said. ‘You can text her a kiss each night.’
    â€˜Ms Hewitt said—’
    â€˜Are you going to change your mind?’ Zakahr demanded.
    â€˜Of course not.’
    â€˜Because that is Ms Hewitt’s concern. I can guarantee it. That Rachael will be too much like hard work—that Mr Right will come along but he won’t want children, or not someone else’s. Are you going to change your mind?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Then let them accuse you of loving her too much. So long as it doesn’t wane, their argument won’t last.’
    â€˜I don’t know…’ Lavinia admitted. But when he said it like that, it made sense. ‘I want to tell