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‘There must be something you can do. Doesn’t your family own, like, a million newspapers?’

He grimaced. ‘We have a policy of not getting involved in editorial.’

Her eyes squeezed shut. ‘This is our child. This is my life.’

‘I know.’

‘Stop saying that,’ she groaned.

‘I don’t know what else I can say.’

‘How about you’re sorry?’

A muscle clenched in his jaw, his eyes sparking with something she didn’t understand. His Adam’s apple shifted visibly in his stubbled throat as he swallowed. ‘I should have prepared you for this possibility.’

She recognised that it wasn’t exactly an apology, but it was close enough. A statement of regret. Besides, this wasn’t, strictly speaking, his fault.

‘You said you expected it,’ she said quietly.

‘Yes.’

‘Why?’

‘You know why. When my father demanded a paternity test, and it ended up in court, there wasn’t a single aspect of my life—or my mother’s—that was left unexplored. My very existence was the scandal of the year. All the salacious details were tabloid fodder for months—for ever, in fact, because nothing written in the media ever really goes away. How they met, how long the affair lasted, all of it is now in the public domain. You can search my name even now and find the articles that were written then.’ He clenched his jaw, and pity usurped almost every other feeling she had.

‘That must have been awful.’

‘At the time, it was bad, but a lot of the details went over my head. It was only when I was older and went online and saw what had been written, what the truth of the situation was, that I really understood. My mother was turned into a laughing stock by my father. Her entire relationship history was paraded through the court as if to provide evidence that she was lying about my parentage. And even though the test results conclusively proved that I am a Carrigan, those rumours persist. All through school, boys would laugh about me, call me the bastard. I mean, for fuck’s sake. It’s the twenty-first century, who knew that was even still a thing?’

Sarah’s eyes filmed with tears as penny after penny began to drop.

Why Tate had fought so hard for this marriage, why he’d hidden away out here on the station, alone with his thoughts, king of his domain, not venturing into the wider world. He was fiercely private, and now she understood that so much more.

‘Kids can be so cruel.’

He drew himself up to his full height. ‘It wasn’t children writing those articles, buying the tabloid magazines. It was grown adults, who should have known better.’ He clenched his jaw visibly. ‘I’d love to say things have changed, but they haven’t. Scandal sells, and this “unplanned” baby is just the kind of thing they’re going to eat for breakfast.’

She closed her eyes on a soft nod of her head. ‘Yes.’

Even if she’d been living in denial about that, she couldn’t ignore it now. Tate Carrigan wasn’t just any man; he was famous the world over, richer than sin. It didn’t matter that he’d chosen to live a life of isolation out here on the land; the second he ventured into a city, anywhere in the world, it made headline news. If anything, his reclusiveness made that even more apparent.

‘It won’t be long before the bridal gown shop leaks, too,’ he said.

Sarah lifted a hand to her mouth, pressing it there. ‘But—we—I haven’t decided…’

‘You have to make the decision, Sarah.’ His tone was grim, carefully wiped of all other emotion. She saw no expectation on his face, no emotion there that would make her think he was invested in this conversation beyond strategic necessity. ‘My office is preparing a press release. They’re just waiting on a call from me, as to what it says.’

She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. ‘Can’t…can’t you just say nothing? Or what’s that line celebrities say when they’re getting divorced? Asking that our privacy be respected?’

He pulled a face. ‘That’s like a red rag to a bull. It’ll just whet their appetite for information.’

‘But all the way out here? No one can get to us.’

‘Australian paparazzi are some of the most determined in the world. Believe me, they can get anywhere.’

Her jaw dropped. ‘Tate…’

‘I know. It’s far from ideal.’