Page 20 of Hayes

"My dear, I don't mean to sound callous and selfish, but I have to think about my family. You are barely seventeen, and so is my son. This thing–" She waved a delicate hand vaguely. "This romance between you and Hayes will pass.

Your future is uncertain as it is, but he is the heir to a fortune. Our standing in society will be rocked if you stay and continue to be with Hayes. Go to Europe, get out of the country, and try and pick up the pieces of your life."

Camelia stared at her in shock. "We love each other, and we can get through this."

"You are so young," Hillary told her with a smile and a shake of her blonde head. "So naive—this awful scandal will not only stain you, but it will stain us as well. My husband—the company is negotiating with an airline in the south of France, and the negotiations are delicate.

The slightest hint of scandal will upset things and we cannot afford that deal to fall through. If you love my son as you claim, you will do the right thing and leave without saying a word to him."

Camelia felt the rest of her world collapsing as she stared at her boyfriend's mother. Hayes had been her last hope of clinging to something good. Everything in her life was in shambles. Her so-called friends had stopped calling, and only Hayes stood by her. She was all alone in the world.

Her father had murdered her mother, and people were saying that it was because she had been having an affair. She had stopped going out in public because of the whispers and the reporters clamoring for a story.

"You want me to leave the man I love."

"I want you to leave the boy you think you love. This is a teenage crush, and you both will get over it." She rose gracefully and looked around the room. "I heard from several good sources that you are going to be losing everything. Go away from this place and try to forget what has happened here."

She had thought about telling the woman she was pregnant but decided to keep it to herself. And she had cried brokenly for a life she thought she had.

Taking a deep breath, Camelia blinked away the tears. It had been wonderful being with him, and yes, she loved him even more than ever, if that was possible. But as before, she had to make the sacrifice. Hayes Marsden was a multi-billionaire, and like men of his status, he would need an heir, and she would never be able to provide him with one.

*****

"Dearest, you missed dinner." Hillary met him as he entered the front door, a concerned frown on her forehead. "Simone called here looking for you as well."

"I was tied up," he said briefly, not really in the mood for a chat. "I am tired–"

"You had the interview with Ms. DeWinter."

Hayes turned to look at her, an amused look on his face. "Ms. DeWinter? Mother, you knew Camelia since she was a child, why the formality now?"

"She almost ruined your life–"

"You don't know anything." Walking into the library, he shrugged off his jacket and draped it over the chair. The ruined shirt had been dumped, and he was wearing a fresh one. "She was pregnant, did you know that?" He watched as the shock flickered over her face.

Settling into a chair in front of the desk, Hillary stared at her son. "You did not say anything. You never said a word."

"Because we were keeping it to ourselves. It was an accident, and we had no idea what to do. She had just discovered her condition when the awful thing happened to her parents. It ended up putting the pregnancy on the back burner."

"What happened?"

"She left abruptly without saying a word to me." Leaning back in the chair, he closed his eyes wearily. "I was devastated, and I thought she had gone away to get rid of my baby."

"And she didn't?"

"No. I accused her tonight of doing just that, and she was stricken and outraged. She miscarried and almost lost her life in the process. After what she went through with her parents’ tragedy, she lost our baby."

"Do you believe her?"

"Yes, mother, I do."

"Dearest, it does not change anything. You cannot mean to take things back up with her."

"I love her," he smiled grimly. "Nothing is ever going to change that. She is my life, the beginning and ending of it. But she wants nothing to do with me. She claims she cannot be in a relationship, not even with me."

"You should listen to her," Hillary began earnestly. "Her scandal, what happened to her, will come back up. You are the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company and as soon as it is known you are with her, it will start all over again."

"Do you think I give a damn about that? I wanted to be there for her. She was alone and in pain. She almost died and was told that it might be impossible for her to conceive."