A Model Mother

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Miles had seen the photo and he was in shock.

A close friend had directed him to it, keen that Miles should see it before the inevitable hounding from the press started. The resemblance between Lloyd and Miles was astounding. If a picture of Miles as a baby was published next to Lloyd, it would be almost impossible to tell them apart and given the predatory mood of the press he knew it could only be a matter of time before this was done.

He was still getting used to the idea that Rose had given birth to a boy who was actually their son – he had convinced himself that the child had not been his, even though he had always known that there had to have been a chance that it was. He kept returning to the same thought, could Rose have been telling the truth when she told him there had been no one else? But if this was so, what was he to make of the graphic photographic evidence he had that she was lying.

Just thinking of the photographs made his heart start pounding, not only had he been taken for a mug and fallen hook line and sinker for a lying, traitorous bitch, but now she had his son too and no matter how much Miles tried to convince himself that he would be able to find a way of playing a significant part in his son’s life, he knew she had him over a barrel.

Every time he thought of his son his heart hurt. He had had a loving, stable upbringing and family life had been everything to him. He could not bear the thought of his son growing up with another man playing Father to him. Miles groaned. How on earth had this happened to him?

 The one thing that still intrigued him was that Rose had stayed so completely out of his way.  Now that this photograph had been published surely she must be waiting for a response, yet nothing had been forthcoming from her publicists or her lawyers.

Miles had phoned Bill Campbell, from the  family lawyers and asked him to make some discreet enquiries around the photograph, where it had been taken, Rose’s reaction to it and what the media were speculating. He was impatient to hear what Bill had found out. Miles knew that Rose had paid to ensure that no photos of LLoyd got into the press and her publicists would no doubt sue this magazine over its breach. Miles felt concerned that the rag had decided to risk it anyway.

Now that he could see that Lloyd was unmistakably his son, he felt a rush of concern for the baby boy’s safety. Miles picked up the phone to Bill again. Regardless of Rose’s wish for anonymity Lloyd was the heir to a huge fortune. As a minor he was vulnerable to kidnap and Rose would be courted by every gold-digger that could find the cost of a ‘plane ticket to London. Miles felt himself break out in a sweat.