She flinched at the sound of her name but quickly recovered and smiled. She didn’t waste time on pleasantries. “I have a favor to ask. Would you please stay in the lobby? The woman in the blue suit talking to the concierge, and the two men she brought along want to talk to me. It isn’t going to be . . . amiable. Will you stay close by?”
“Of course. Would you like me to sit in on the meeting with you?”
“No, thank you,” she said.
He nodded, then said, “Here she comes. I believe I’ll post two guards at the front door.”
“Hopefully this will be quick,” Cordie said. She braced herself and turned around.
Simone had recognized her and was waiting for Cordie to come to her. They met in the center of the lobby.
Cordie’s greeting wasn’t cordial. “What do you want?”
Simone didn’t seem fazed by Cordie’s anger. “I thought we could go somewhere private to talk. There’s so much to say.” She motioned to the men behind her.
Cordie watched them walk past Simone and come toward her. Oh hell no. “I’m not going anywhere with you. Why would you think I would?”
The man with the Harry Potter glasses grabbed Cordie’s upper arm with a tight grip. She was astonished. Did Simone think she could drag Cordie out of the hotel?
“I don’t wish to be seen with you,” Simone whispered. “We look so much alike. I know a lot of people, and they’ll talk.”
Cordie looked down at the hand squeezing her as the thug forcefully pulled her away. She tried to yank her arm from his grasp as she screamed at the top of her voice, “Let go of me!”
Every person in the lobby turned toward her. Several men started forward to offer assistance, including Louis, who was all but running to her.
Simone gasped. “Bloody . . . Charles, let go of her. Arnold, step back.”
They quickly obeyed. When they moved to stand behind Simone again, Cordie put her hand up so Louis and the others would know she was okay.
“You have a choice, Simone. Or should I call you Natalie just for fun?”
Simone’s face became a mask. She wasn’t giving anything away.
Cordie pointed to the other side of the lobby. “You can either sit over there at one of the tables by the bar and talk, or you can leave. Which is it? I’m rooting for the second.”
Without a word, Simone walked to the tables. She chose one cast in shadows and sat with her back to the lobby. The men who came with her stayed where they were. Cordie took her time following. When she finally sat down at the table across from Simone, she stared at the woman and waited. Simone couldn’t quite meet her gaze. She nervously crossed her legs and brushed imaginary lint off her skirt, stalling while she gathered her thoughts and chose the perfect words to say.
Impatient, Cordie repeated the first words she’d said to her. “What do you want?”
Simone finally looked at Cordie. “That is the very question I have for you. Do you want money to keep silent? How much will it take?”
“I don’t want money.”
She didn’t think Simone believed her, and that guess was confirmed when Simone said, “Your father is a mechanic. Of course you want money.”
Cordie laughed. “No, I really don’t.”
“Then what?” Simone demanded, her frustration rising to the surface. She drummed her perfectly manicured fingernails on the tabletop. “Do you want an apology? Does Andrew? An explanation? I was young, very young. I didn’t even know I was pregnant until it was too late to do anything about it.”
Lovely, Cordie thought. “Should I feel sorry for you because you couldn’t abort me?”
Simone shook her head. “No, of course not. This isn’t going the way I thought it would. You’re a very . . . hostile young lady.”
Cordie wasn’t going to argue. She was hostile.
“How is your father?” Simone asked. Her voice was softer now. “Tell him I’m sorry if I caused him pain.” In the blink of an eye her voice hardened. “Did he send you?”
“No.”
“Revenge, then?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Did you come here seeking revenge because I left you?”
“No,” she answered. “I had a wonderful childhood.”
“Then why did you come here?” Simone asked with actual bewilderment.
If Simone weren’t sitting there looking at her so disdainfully, Cordie might have had just the slightest speck of sympathy for her, but the woman was so caught up in her self-absorbed world she didn’t have a clue. There wasn’t an ounce of regret or contrition for what she had done. Her grand deception was a thing of the past, a fluke. If it didn’t impact her life, it wasn’t important.
The scene Cordie had witnessed at the ball came back to her. Simone was surrounded by her friends and devoted family. By all appearances, her two sons were affectionate, even solicitous, toward their mother. Her husband seemed to genuinely care for her, and her father, the patriarch of the family, obviously had a strong bond with his daughter, because she clearly did not want to upset or disappoint him. She was loved and admired, and she lived in a world that never knew Natalie Smith.
“I don’t expect you to understand,” Cordie answered, “but it’s important to me that you know there’s someone out there who sees you for who you really are.”
Simone leaned forward with a look as cold as ice. “You asked me what I want . . . ,” she began.
“Yes?”
“Go home and keep quiet.”
“Even if I give you my word, how will you know I’ll keep it?”
Simone paled, but the steely tone in her voice did not change. “I won’t know. I can’t trust you.”
“No, you can’t.”
Cordie saw Aiden walk into the hotel and head in the direction of the atrium. He was in a hurry, and since they were supposed to meet at noon, she thought he would be looking for her. Time to wrap up this twisted reunion , she decided.
She stood to leave, but before she walked away, she got the final word. “I’m going home tomorrow, and it is my sincere hope that I never have to speak to you again. You deceived a good and honorable man, and you abandoned your child. Do you honestly think I would tell anyone about you? You’re an embarrassment.”
FIFTEEN
Aiden was livid. Louis had texted him to let him know about Simone and the two enforcers she’d brought along to the hotel, and when he heard that they had tried to take Cordelia, he went ballistic.
He all but shouted at her. “The second that son of a bitch put his hand on you he should have been thrown out of the hotel. What was Louis thinking? Why didn’t he—”
“He came running. You can’t be angry with him.”
Aiden and Cordie were standing together in the security room. She thought she had entered NORAD when she’d first walked in. There were monitors everywhere. The room was the size of their suite—maybe bigger—and one of the technicians was pulling up the footage of what Cordie called the incident. Aiden’s words were a little more descriptive: “I’m going to smash that bastard’s face in.” Cordie had never seen him so furious.
She had been nervous at first when she’d caught up with him in the lobby. She didn’t know how he would react to her after their passionate night together, and she was feeling self-conscious and a bit unsure of herself. Would things be awkward between them now? She had her answer within seconds. All her concerns were eliminated when Aiden heard about her unexpected visitors. He immediately took charge and began to bark out orders. He was the old Aiden again, confident and in control, and his attitude toward her was no different than it had been. He was still as bossy as ever.