Accidental Father Read online

  Alex nodded his consent. “Too bad my brother wasn’t aware of your tour. You could’ve come to St. Michel.”

  “St. Michel? As in, the Boulevard St. Michel?”

  She gestured around the street on which they walked.

  “No.” Alex laughed. “I’m talking about the island. It’s a separate principality right off the coast of France.”

  Despite the cold, Julianne felt heat fan across her cheeks. Even though she felt silly and decidedly uncultured, like an uneducated geography failure—his voice was a soothing rich mellow timbre with the tones of a well-played cello.

  “Don’t worry, many people have never heard of it” he said. “We don’t hold a major car race like Monte Carlo does to attract tourists. I’m from St. Michel originally. My brother is the state’s minister of arts and culture.”

  “St. Michel. Of course,” she said, suddenly remembering. “Last year an American woman made headlines when she discovered she was the long-lost heir to the throne.”

  Alex nodded. “But I’ll bet you didn’t know that that woman, Sophie Baldwin Lejardin—the queen of St. Michel—is my sister-in-law.”

  Julianne stopped in her tracks. “Are you kidding?”

  Alex shook his head. “Why would I kid about something like that? She married my brother, Luc.”

  “The minister of arts and culture?”

  “No. Luc was formerly the minister of protocol. Now he is the prince consort. My middle brother, Henri, is in charge of arts and culture.”

  Julianne stared at him with eyes so large and blue that for a fleeting moment he wanted to swim in them. Until he remembered himself, and the sobering fact that she was Liam’s aunt, Marissa’s sister. Not a woman to be trifled with. Perhaps rather than acting like an imbecile and making faces at her in the glass to hear her laugh, it would be best to direct his gaze straight ahead.

  Not at her.

  Not at her blue eyes.

  Perhaps at his son sleeping in the carriage.

  He also decided that it would be a good time to begin easing into the fact that she undoubtedly did see the security agents who were following her. Given the dangerous nature of his job of fighting human rights violators—who were another breed of terrorist—coupled with the fact that Liam was related to the royal family of St. Michel, Secret Service agents would now be a permanent presence in her and Liam’s lives.

  Arranging for Julianne and Liam to be guarded was among the first things he’d done once Julianne’s story checked out.

  The last thing he wanted was Liam or Julianne to be used as a pawn in the sick game of world politics. Of course, that posed another problem: Liam would be much safer in St. Michel rather than in the States with his aunt.

  Funny, twenty-four hours ago, the last thing he would’ve wanted was to be saddled with a child. Now, the thought of protecting his son was his greatest priority.

  He simply needed to figure out how to let Julianne know the magnitude of the situation without scaring her.

  “How long have you been with the orchestra?” Alex asked

  “Three years.” Inwardly she cringed at her short, closed answer. Really she needed to make a better effort at keeping up her end of the conversation.

  “Where else did you perform on this tour?”

  “Rome, Milan, Barcelona, Madrid, Nice and now Paris.” She checked off the cities on her fingers as she named them. “Actually, it’s my first time out of the U.S. Marissa was the adventurous traveler in the family.”

  They strolled silently for a few moments, Marissa’s memory walking between them like a silent ghost.

  There were so many questions she wanted to ask him about his relationship with her sister: How did he and Marissa meet? What had they meant to each other—or what had she meant to him? She’d already heard Marissa’s side of the story, but Alex had been a bit closed about his relationship with her sister, saying only that they were “good friends.”

  Good friends who had a baby?

  The thought knocked the breath out of her. Before Marissa died, it had been three years since Julianne had seen her sister. They were both busy. Marissa had her work; Julianne had just landed the position with the orchestra. They talked often, e-mailed more frequently. They’d fully intended to see each other—for the holidays or one of their birthdays. Or when Liam was born…

  The wind whipped her hair across her face, making her eyes water. She stopped and pretended that something had blown into her eye.

  “Are you all right?” Alex asked.

  “Yes, I’ll be fine. Just give me a moment. Let me close my eyes and see if it’ll water itself out.”

  Actually, no, she wasn’t fine. She was a coward. That was the long and short of it. She’d been too afraid to venture to war-torn Afghanistan to be with her pregnant sister when Marissa needed her most, when she was giving birth. Julianne had rationalized it—written it off with valid excuses. Perfectly valid, rational, reasonable excuses.

  She had performances. Her orchestra mates needed her. She couldn’t just up and leave. They were planning this European tour, rehearsing night and day…and even though she wouldn’t be there when Liam was born they could meet in Paris when Julianne was here with the orchestra. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…as if they had all the time in the world.

  Three years since she’d seen her sister. Three years. And now it was too late. Julianne realized, as she stood there with Marissa’s baby in a stroller and the man who’d fathered the child standing beside her, that even though she thought she and her sister were close, she really hadn’t known Marissa at all.

  And now she never would.

  “Here, let me have a look.”

  “No. I’m okay.” Julianne waved him off and turned away from him again. She sucked in a deep breath, summoning her composure.

  A moment later, she felt stronger and swiped away the remaining tears that somehow had managed not to brim over.

  She walked closer to a storefront window to check her reflection in the glass hoping her mascara was still in place. But it wasn’t her own face that caught her eye—it was the old, battered flute haphazardly tossed in with the rest of the junk in the so-called antique shop window.

  It was a Bundy. Identical to the one she’d started with in junior high school. It was an oldie, but certainly not an antique. And not very valuable. In fact, she’d seen similar models on eBay for as little as $5.00—though flutes at that price were few and far between and she grabbed them up as soon as she found them. It would certainly be worth checking this one out. There were always more kids who needed a chance to make music than there were instruments.

  She glanced at Liam, who was still sound asleep, snuggled down into his blankets.

  Yes, it would definitely be a find for one of the kids who received help from her A World of Music foundation. She turned to Alex. “I know this is crazy, but would you mind staying out here with Liam while I go inside? I want to check on this flute in the window.”

  He looked confused. “For you?”

  She laughed, feeling more like herself again. “Oh, no, not for me, for one of my students. Liam seems comfortable and I’ll only be a moment.”

  Alex nodded. “Sure, take your time.”

  Alex knew about Julianne’s charitable foundation, A World of Music. The investigator had given him a brief outline of it in Julianne Waterford’s dossier when Alex had ordered the background check. No wonder she was so good with kids, he thought as he watched her through the shop’s glass door.

  Anyone who was talented enough to play with a symphony orchestra that toured the world, anyone who cared enough to round up musical instruments and volunteer teachers had to be good with children. And have a heart the size of the globe.

  Liam was lucky to have an aunt like Julianne.

  At least she’d still have plenty of little ones in her life when Liam went to live in St. Michel. It seemed wrong for her not to have children in her life somehow.

  As Alex watched Julianne haggl
e with the shopkeeper, he wondered why she didn’t have kids of her own. The report had indicated she’d been married briefly to a man who had also been a musician in the Continental Symphony Orchestra. After their divorce he left the group. Since him, there was no evidence of other romantic interests in her life. Perhaps she’d simply chosen to focus on her career. God knows she seemed busy enough with the orchestra, the foundation and now, Liam.

  Even though they seemed to click, Alex imagined that people took Julianne at face value. She didn’t seem like the easiest person to get to know. Sometimes reserve was mistaken for aloofness. Yet she was quite charming when given the chance.

  She wasn’t shy, as evidenced by the way she’d burst into his office to defend her nephew, and she obviously had no qualms about getting up on stage and performing her music in front of large audiences.

  Hmm… The woman was a study of contradictions.

  Although he couldn’t hear what she and the shopkeeper were saying, she seemed to be holding her own. The man must’ve spoken English, because Alex witnessed a lot of back-and-forth talking and some emphatic headshaking and gesturing on the part of the shopkeeper, an old man who looked as antique as some of the relics in his cluttered shop.

  Someone honked a car horn and Liam startled awake crying. Loudly.

  Oh, great.

  Clumsily, Alex picked up the baby, and that only seemed to make him cry louder.

  Much to his relief, an empty-handed Julianne exited the shop a few moments later.

  “Oh no, poor baby,” she said. “What’s wrong?”

  At the sound of her voice, Liam turned and held his little arms out to her.

  “A car horn startled him,” Alex said.

  “Here…” Her voice was soothing as she took the baby. Liam stopped crying and smiled at her through his tears.

  “Ma Ma,” he said.

  Ma Ma? He called her mama?

  For a moment, Alex worried about how taking the boy away from Julianne would affect his son.

  Mama…

  He blinked away the thought. Liam was young, and he was also a sitting duck for a kidnapping. Sending him to St. Michel was the best thing for him, even if he couldn’t expect Julianne to drop her life in Washington, D.C., and go with him.

  She has her foundation and her job with the orchestra; a full life and important commitments.

  “The old coot must be insane to think he can charge $500 for that flute.” Her words chased away his thoughts. “If he’s not crazy, he’s unscrupulous. If he tricks someone into paying that kind of money he’ll be guilty of robbery.”

  They resumed their trek toward the hotel.

  “How much did you offer him?”

  “I was willing to go as high as $30. But even that was high.”

  Alex shrugged. “Well, if he was asking $500 apparently he didn’t agree.”

  “Maybe it’s because I’m American, because my French isn’t very good? Do you think?”

  “Who knows? It’s hard to say since I wasn’t in there with you.”

  That wasn’t the only thing that was hard for him to say. She was set to leave Paris the day after tomorrow. At dinner tomorrow night he had to tell her that she’d be leaving without her son. No—without his son!

  Her nephew, who called her, “Ma Ma.”

  Chapter Four

  “I’m speechless,” Alex’s brother, Luc Lejardin, uttered through the telephone receiver.

  Breaking the news about Liam to the family was the first step in devising a security plan to protect the boy and to ensure Alex didn’t lose his son for good. Because Luc had once been the head of St. Michel’s national security before his marriage to Sophie, the newly crowned Queen of their country, Alex figured talking to Luc first was the best place to start.

  Thank God Luc’s loss of words was only momentary. Before Alex could begin explaining how he’d discovered he was a father, Luc was bombarding him with a barrage of who-what-why-where questions. Not the least of which was, “When do I get to meet my nephew?”

  “That’s a good question,” Alex said. “Julianne, his aunt, is set to go back to the States tomorrow.”

  Luc blew out an urgent breath.

  “Is that what you want?”

  “I don’t know. I mean, no, it’s not what I want. I don’t want to lose any more time with my son. But realistically, I can’t do the work I’m doing and raise a child alone.”

  There was a long pause on the line, but Alex could almost anticipate his brother’s next question.

  “Have you considered the security issues associated with sending the boy back to the States? Especially given the Vonisian issue?”

  “Of course,” Alex said. “That was one of the first things I thought of.”

  Through his work with iWITNESS, Alex had recently exposed heinous acts of genocide committed by a group of rebel militants in the small, war-torn European country of Vonisia. Working with informants, Alex had gathered enough evidence against Vonisian rebels to involve the United Nations. Even though the case would soon be up for review by the International Criminal Tribunal, underground Vonisian militants were still carrying out monstrous acts of ethnic cleansing and issuing brazen threats against those trying to end their illegal, brutal rule and bringing them to justice.

  Alex was at the top of their hit list because he’d been the driving force behind the victims’ fight for human rights. Despite numerous threats, there’d never been an actual violent incident aimed at Alex thanks in large part to his own private security team. However, now that Liam was in his life, it made Alex all the more vulnerable. The people he exposed wouldn’t hesitate to take his child hostage and use the baby as leverage against him. They’d done it to their own countrymen enough times for Alex to know that was their favorite mode of operation.

  “You can’t allow the aunt to take Liam out of France,” Luc said. “It’s just not safe. Plus, if you do, you might have a harder time getting him back if she decides to play hardball.”

  The image of ice queen Julianne that first day she’d arrived at his office, fighting for Liam’s child support, snapped into focus in Alex’s mind’s eye. He’d experienced firsthand how strong her “mama bear” instinct was and how fast she’d rear up when it came to protecting the boy. Still, even though she could be fiercely protective, she’d be no match against conscienceless monsters intent on cleansing the world of people who weren’t like themselves, including anyone who tried to stop them.

  Yes, it would be in everyone’s best interest for Liam to stay in Europe where he could have the highest degree of protection with the least amount of interference from St. Michelian Secret Service. But it was a double-edged sword: It would be hard on the boy to be taken away from Julianne, the person he considered Mama. Alex knew what it was like to have his mother ripped out of his life; he’d lost his own mother when he was a child. It was heartbreaking to think of hiring a stranger to care for Liam when the baby loved Julianne so much. On the other hand, leaving Liam with Julianne was exposing both of them to potentially life-threatening danger.

  And the idea of Julianne being in harm’s way roused his own protective instincts. He grappled with whether he should tell her about the specific dangers, but decided it would only alarm her. For now, all she needed to know was that the nature of Alex’s job posed danger to all who were in his life and that danger increased for Liam since he was a member of the royal family.

  “You do want to be a part of your son’s life, don’t you?” Luc asked.

  “Yes, I do. There are just so many things I still need to sort it out. I travel so much, I can’t exactly take him with me or stick a fourteen-month-old in a boarding school.”

  “Bring him to St. Michel,” Luc offered. “The palace is one of the safest places on earth. He’d be well-cared for among family. Maybe we’ll even get to see you more often since Henri and I aren’t enough to get you back here regularly.”

  “Liam’s cuter than you are.” Mixed emotions washed over Alex. It
was exactly the offer he’d hoped to receive from Luc—even if Alex hadn’t realized it when he called. Despite how close Alex and his two brothers were, asking either of them to raise his son was a tall request.

  So, for Luc to offer…

  “But then there’s the matter of Julianne.” Alex squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know for a fact neither she nor Liam will be happy being separated.”

  “She’s welcome to come St. Michel, too. Believe me, there’s plenty of room in the castle.”

  “Easier said than done,” Alex said. “She has a career and a charitable organization she’s involved with. I doubt she’d go for it.”

  “Even if it was a matter of the boy’s safety?” The pitch of Luc’s voice rose at the end of the sentence, as if such hesitance was unthinkable.

  “I don’t know, Luc. Like I said this is all new. I’m still getting my mind wrapped around it. All I know for sure is that she’s fiercely protective of Liam.”

  Alex leaned back in his office chair and stretched his legs out under his desk.

  “Has she legally adopted him?” Luc asked.

  “According to my preliminary investigation, no. The court has simply appointed her his legal guardian.”

  “Good. That is very much in our favor. You are his father. Any idea if this Marissa named you as the father on his birth certificate?”

  “Yes, she did.”

  Alex picked up Liam’s file, the most important item on his desk. He thumbed through the documents, most of which—including Liam’s birth certificate—he’d copied the day of Julianne’s first visit. Other documents had been obtained during the background check his investigators had performed.

  “You’re in a very good position, then,” Luc said. “Is it an official birth certificate?”

  “No, just a photocopy.”

  “It won’t be difficult to get our hands on a legal copy,” Luc said. “Send over everything you have and I’ll get the St. Michel legal team to formalize everything. Liam is family, Alex. We’ll make sure you get to bring him home where he belongs.”