The clerk returned and stood in front of Barbara. The expression on the young woman’s face was a mixture of surprise and annoyance, as if she had caught Barbara dipping her hand behind the glass counter and snatching something.
“I’m afraid I have to take the card, Mrs. Bradford,” she said solemnly.
Barbara blinked and stared at her with wide eyes. “Excuse me?”
“The card has been cancelled and I have to keep it.”
“What?! That’s ridiculous. You can’t take my card.”
Barbara reached out to snatch the card, and the clerk stepped back quickly as if she expected Barbara to try and strike her. Barbara took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. What the hell was going on? Nothing like this had ever happened before. Bradford always paid the bills on . . .
Bradford. She clenched her fist. He had deliberately cancelled her black American Express Centurion Card. She had three other cards she could try, including a platinum American Express card, but what was the point? She was sure that he had cancelled all of those too and that she would only embarrass herself further.
Barbara avoided the clerk’s eyes as she put her Coach wallet back in her Vuitton bag and walked briskly out of the store. As soon as she was outside, she wrapped her silver fox coat around her tightly and practically ran back to her Benz. She jumped in and flew out of the parking lot.
Bastard. How dare he do this to her. She fumed all the way around the beltway. She was going to march right into his office and tell him to back off. Two days ago, she learned he had sabotaged the real estate deal with Bernice and Bradford Wright.
“What’s wrong?” she had asked Noah as they sat down together in front of the fireplace with microwaved dinners when he returned from the office. “You seem down about something.”
He opened the top buttons of his shirt. “Bad news about Bernice and Bernard.”
Barbara frowned. “Don’t tell me they changed their minds about buying the house again?”
“No, not exactly.”
“Then what?”
He sighed. “They still want the house, but they’ve decided to use a different agent.”
“But why?”
He shrugged. “They claim they can get a better deal with a buyer’s agent.”
“But . . . but they can’t switch agents after you did all that work helping them to find a house.”
“They can and they are.”
Barbara jumped up. This didn’t sound right. “They called you at the office today and told you that? Out of the blue?”
“Actually, Bernard called and told me yesterday. I didn’t say anything to you because I thought I could persuade them to come back to us. That’s why I was so late getting home.”
Barbara paced the floor. Why would Bernard and Bernice change agents at the last minute? Something was not right, and it had Bradford written all over it. He could be ruthless when he thought he had been wronged.
She didn’t say any of this to Noah. What would be the point? She was sure Bradford was behind it. As soon as Noah left for work the next morning she grabbed the phone.
“Hello, Bernice. It’s Barbara Bentley.”
“Barbara. How are you, darling?”
“I’m fine, and you?”
“Oh, I’m good. So tell me, Barbara, where are you living now? I hear you’re no longer in Silver Lake.”
“Um, no, I’m not. I’m living in D.C.”
“So, it’s true then? That Noah must be something else for you to leave Bradford.”
Barbara ignored that comment. “That’s not what I called about, Bernice. I need to ask you something. It’s important.”
Bernice cleared her throat as if she knew what was coming. “Go ahead.”
“Why are you changing agents? And why now?”
Bernice sighed. “It wasn’t my idea. I mean, I think Noah is a doll and he’s good at what he does. But Bernard works closely with Bradford, and you know how that is.”
“So Bradford talked Bernard into changing his mind?”
“No. He didn’t have to. Bradford just made it clear that he wasn’t happy with what’s going on between you and Noah. Naturally, Bernard doesn’t want to do anything to make Bradford angry. He depends on Bradford for half his business.”
“But that’s unfair to Noah, Bernice. He worked his tail off for months to help you find that house.”
“I know, and I feel bad, but there’s not much I can do about it. We’re planning to move to Silver Lake, and no one in their right minds who plans to live in Silver Lake and works with Bradford is going to go up against him. I’m sorry, Barbara.”
Barbara had known all along that Bradford would be difficult if she left him. But she never expected him to stoop this low. He was trying to ruin her life and he had to stop.
She hastily pulled the Benz into the parking lot of Bradford’s office building without even bothering to straighten the car between the lines. She hopped out, ran by the Digitech sign, her fox coat flapping in the breeze, and flew to the elevators.
She reached his suite on the top floor and marched through the lobby. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Bentley,” Bradford’s secretary said cheerfully as soon as she approached the entryway to Bradford’s office. “Mr. Bentley is . . .”
The secretary stopped mid-sentence when she realized that Barbara was not going to stop as usual. Barbara rounded the desk, opened the door to Bradford’s office, and slammed it shut behind her.
Bradford was on the telephone and he looked up and signaled for her to wait. Barbara walked up and stood in front of his desk, tapping her black suede Gucci boot on the carpet as she waited for him to finish his call.
He hung up and stood, fastening the buttons to his navy Brioni suit jacket. “I’ve been trying to reach you on the phone for days, Barbara. What brings you here?”
“How the hell could you cancel my credit cards, Bradford?”
“Oh, that.”
“And what is this with Bernice and Bernard using another agent?”
“I have no idea. Bernard is his own man. He can use whomever he wants.”
“Dammit, Bradford, I know you had something to do with it.”
“Barbara, why don’t you sit down.” He motioned toward the chair in front of his desk.
Barbara stomped her foot. “I’m not going to sit. I want you to stop this nonsense.”
“I tried to call you about the credit cards. But you kept hanging up on me.”
“Well, why on earth did you cancel them?”
“We’re not living together anymore. Why should I continue to pay your debts?”
“How am I supposed to live if you do this?”
“Let Noah handle your expenses,” he said sarcastically and sat back down behind his desk.
“Don’t be mean, Bradford. You know, I don’t even really care about the credit cards. That only hurts me. But please ask Bernard to use Noah as his Realtor. Noah worked so hard to help them find that house.”
“Like I said, Bernard is his own man. But I might be able to persuade him. I could certainly try.” He pulled the sleeves of his jacket down over his gold cuff links.
“Thank you, Bradford.”
“Provided you come home, where you belong.”
Barbara placed her hands on his desk and leaned in toward him. “Are you saying you’ll only talk to Bernard if I agree to come home?”
He stared at her pointedly.
“That’s not fair, Bradford. Why should I go back? To be miserable while you chase every skirt in town? Or all over the country?”
“I’ve stopped doing that.”
“That’s what you said before I caught you with Sabrina.”
“I was only having lunch with her. I told you that.”
“Why should I believe you? You’ve lied before.”
“But I’m telling the truth now. You have to learn to trust me again instead of running around with younger men. All I want is for us to have a good marriage.”
“Then
what were you doing at the Hilton all the way out in Tysons Corner?”
He glanced away.
Barbara straightened up. “You can’t answer that question, can you? Veronique was right. Once a cheater, always a cheater.”
He looked back at her sharply. “She said that to you?”
“That and a whole lot more. She told me all about your philandering down in Atlanta. I always knew you liked the ladies, Bradford, but I had no idea how rampant it was until she told me that.”
“I don’t know exactly what that woman said to you, but that was more than five years ago.”
“It doesn’t matter, Bradford, we’re not getting back—”
“There’s something you should know about your precious friend,” he said, interrupting.
“Who? Veronique?”
“Yes.”
“What about her?”
“I don’t know what kind of garbage she’s been filling your head with, but she’s the one who set this whole thing up.”
“What thing?”
Bradford sighed impatiently. “Veronique was the person I was waiting for when we ran into each other at the Hilton. I suspect that she knew you would be there. She wanted me to catch you.”
BARBARA LAUGHED. “OH, no. You don’t expect me to believe that.”
“Fine.” Bradford picked up the phone on his desk and held it toward her. “Call and ask her. I haven’t been able to reach her, but I’d put my money on it.”
Barbara sank down into the chair in front of his desk, and Bradford replaced the phone in the cradle.
“She called me late that afternoon. She said she had just had lunch with you at the Ritz and she wanted to talk to me about something important concerning you. She wouldn’t say what. She just asked me to meet her in the lobby of the Hilton that night. I cancelled all my business meetings and drove over there. I had been waiting almost an hour when I ran into you. Veronique never showed up, and I haven’t been able to contact her since.”
Barbara shook her head to clear it. As ridiculous as what Bradford was telling her seemed to be, it sounded like the truth. He wouldn’t have encouraged her to call Veronique if he was lying. And she had thought it was strange that Bradford had shown up at the Hilton the one night she was there. It was such an out-of-the-way place, and Veronique was the only one other than Noah who had known she would be there.
Barbara looked at Bradford, her eyes wide with horror. “But why? Why would she do that?”
“It’s a long story, Barbara. I think she blames me for her exhusband’s bad business dealings.”
“She mentioned something about him losing his company. But why would she blame you for that?”
“I loaned her husband some money, and when he couldn’t pay it back I took over his software company. The board eventually forced him out. It was tough, but it was business.”
Barbara closed her eyes and sighed. She knew that Bradford could be tough when it came to business. But she had always believed that was why he was so successful, and as she had with his mistresses, she had learned to look the other way whenever she heard that he had dealt harshly with a business adversary.
She still couldn’t understand why Veronique would feel the need to deceive her over some bad business dealings with Bradford that had happened more than five years ago. She thought they were friends.
“And Barbara, there’s more.”
She opened her eyes and glanced at him sharply. She didn’t think she could take more.
“You have to consider the possibility that Noah was in on it.”
She shot up out of her seat. “No, no, no. He would never do anything like that.”
Bradford lifted his arms. “Do you know him well enough to be sure he wouldn’t?”
“But why? What would be his reason?”
“Money. What else? He needs it and she’s got plenty of it.”
Barbara thought back to the day Veronique had shown up at the Realtor’s office when Noah was there. It seemed that things between her and Noah had heated up quickly after that, with Veronique’s encouragement all along the way. And it was Noah who had suggested they meet at the Hilton that fateful night when Bradford caught them. Had Veronique recruited Noah for her little scheme? That would go a long way toward explaining why such a young and attractive man would be interested in her.
The thought that Veronique and Noah had planned this together made Barbara’s stomach turn. She held on to the edge of Bradford’s desk to steady herself.
“Why are you telling me all this now, Bradford? Why didn’t you tell me right after you saw me at the Hilton?”
“I was too angry to think straight. It took me a few days to put it all together. I became more suspicious when Veronique refused to take my calls after that night. And I couldn’t reach you.”
It was true. She had hung up on him twice when he had called her at Noah’s house.
She nodded. “I . . . I don’t know what to think about all of this. I need to talk to Veronique.” And to Noah, she thought.
“Good luck reaching her. Barbara, listen to me.”
He walked around his desk and took both of her hands in his. “You have no idea how much I miss you. I’ve had some time to think, and I’m willing to forgive and forget about this thing, this fling, between you and Noah. All I want now is for you to come home and give us a chance to work things out.”
Barbara nodded in a daze. This was all so confusing. Her good friend Veronique had stabbed her in the back, and it looked like Noah was in on it. He had seduced her to help Veronique get revenge, all for money.
Even harder to believe was that Bradford was actually telling her that he missed her and wanted her to come home. He hadn’t held her hand and expressed affection like that in probably twenty years. Barbara had always thought that even if she lived another fifty years, she would never hear words like that from him again.
She swallowed and looked at Bradford. If anything was more startling to her than all she had just learned, it was that she realized as she looked into Bradford’s eyes that somewhere inside her was a deep desire to return to the safety of home.
BARBARA SAT IN her Benz in front of Bradford’s office and stared ahead with tight lips as she flicked her cigarette ashes out the window. She normally never smoked in her car but these were not normal times.
She knew what she had to do. She had to confront Veronique. And Noah. As much as she hated to think that he was in on all of this with Veronique, the timing of the whole sordid affair was impossible to dismiss. It was mind-numbing to think that two people she had come to trust and care for had deceived her like this.
She stubbed her cigarette out in the ashtray and stuck another between her lips. When she lifted her gold lighter, she noticed that her hand was trembling. She was a wreck.
She started the car and pointed it toward the beltway. The numbness she had felt ever since Bradford pointed out Noah’s probable involvement began to thaw, and she was left with outright anger. Tears welled up in her eyes. How could he have done this to her?
Maybe she deserved all of this for leaving her husband and moving in with Noah. Now she realized how little she really knew the man she had taken up with. An old saying came to mind: The devil you know is better than the one you don’t. How true that felt now. Bradford might be a jerk at times but at least she knew what to expect from him.
By the time Barbara pulled up in front of Noah’s house, her pack of cigarettes was empty. She crumbled the wrapper and threw it on the floor in front of the passenger seat then glanced at her watch. It was five o’clock, and Noah would normally be home from his teaching job, unless he went straight to the real estate office. Barbara dreaded the possibility of facing Noah. If she never saw him again it would be fine with her. But she wanted to clear out her things and the sooner she got it over with the better.
She let herself into the house and went straight back to the bedroom. Thank God there was no sign of him, she thought as she hastily gathered her
things from the closet and tossed them into her two Louis Vuitton suitcases. When she was done, she picked up both bags and carried them to the front door. She took her keys out of her shoulder bag, removed the one to Noah’s house from the key-chain, and placed it on the coffee table.
She glanced again at her watch. If Noah wasn’t back by now, chances were he had gone to the Realtor’s office and wouldn’t get home until late. She walked back to Noah’s bedroom and searched the drawers in his desk for a blank sheet of paper. She sat down, fully intending to be brief and to the point about why she was leaving him. But she soon found herself pouring out feelings of hurt, betrayal, and anger at him for what he had done. She ended the note by asking him not to try and contact her.
She stood up, inhaled deeply, then walked back into the living room. She placed the note on the coffee table next to the key then picked up her bags, left the house, and walked briskly to the curb. She tossed the bags into the trunk, slammed it shut, and climbed in.
Now to deal with Veronique.
USH-HOUR TRAFFIC WAS horrible, and it was a full hour after leaving Noah’s place before Barbara pulled up in front of Veronique’s mansion. The butler opened the front door, took Barbara’s fox coat, then escorted her to a sitting room that Barbara had never been in before. As with all the other rooms in Veronique’s home, this one was beautifully decorated with European antiques.
Barbara paced up and down the antique carpet in her Gucci boots and jeans as she waited for the baroness. In her mind she went over and over what she would say. Why had Veronique done this to her? Weren’t they friends?
All the questions flew out of her mind the minute she heard the door open.
“Barbara, how nice to see you,” Veronique said. She was wearing a stunning red silk suit and her face was all smiles, as if nothing had changed between them.
Barbara took a step toward her, and the baroness froze.
“What’s wrong, Barbara?” Veronique asked as she shut the door behind her.
“Bradford told me everything.”
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