by Heidi Betts
They’d made love last night, more than once. Slept wrapped in each others’ arms. He’d thought—stupidly, it turned out—that they had turned a corner and might actually be able to make their relationship work.
But while he’d been falling in love with her all over again, and thinking about reconciliation, she’d been planning a timely escape. Exactly the same as before.
Exactly. Because the last time she’d left him, she’d been pregnant with his child…and there was a good chance the same was true now.
“No,” Vanessa said, nervously licking her lips. “I mean, yes, I’m leaving, but no, I’m not trying to sneak off. I left you a note upstairs…on the back of the one you left for me this morning.”
Well, that was different, at least, he thought with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
“And a note makes up for taking off in the middle of the day while I’m at the office?” he shot back. “With my son?”
“Of course not,” she returned, looking strangely not guilty. “Although when you read the note, you’ll see that I explained I’m not really taking off. I’m simply leaving the estate for a hotel downtown. I was going to stay there until I had the chance to talk to you.”
He cocked his head, wondering what she could be up to. But then curiosity won out and he heard himself ask, “About what?”
She swallowed hard, her blue eyes going dark and oddly blank. “Your mother asked me to leave.”
His own eyes went wide in surprise. “Why?” Why would his mother ask his wife—his ex-wife, he corrected himself silently—to leave?
“For the same reason she drove me away last time—because she hates me. Or at the very least disapproves of me greatly. As far as she’s concerned, I’m not good enough for you and I never will be.” A small smile touched her lips as she added, “Of course, this time she was much more forthright about wanting me gone, probably because I told her off.”
“You told my mother off,” he murmured, trying to process what he was hearing, but growing more confused by the minute. “Why would you do that?”
The amusement that had begun to touch Vanessa’s features vanished, turning her face hard and defensive.
“Because I refuse to let her push me around any longer. I refuse to let her make me feel inferior just because she will always think of me as a lowly waitress, unworthy of her son’s misguided affections.”
Marc shook his head and started forward. “This is just a misunderstanding. Mother can be distant, I know, but she’s thrilled about Danny and I’m sure she’s pleased to have you back at the house, as well.”
He reached out to grasp her shoulders, but she took a quick, single step back.
“No. It’s not a misunderstanding, Marc,” she told him, her tone implacable. “I know you love your mother and I would never ask you to change that. I would never intentionally try to drive a wedge between you and your family. But as much as I love you, I can’t be here anymore.”
Marc’s chest tightened at her words. She loved him…or claimed to, at any rate yet she was preparing to walk away and leave him. Again.
“You love me,” he scoffed, tossing the declaration back in her face. “Right. You love me, but you’re leaving. Again. And what about Danny? What about the child you might be carrying now? My child. Are you going to run off and hide another pregnancy from me? Keep another baby from its father?”
She blanched at that, and God help him, he was glad. He knew he was being cruel, saying things to intentionally hurt her. But damn it, he was hurting, too. He was being betrayed a second time by the only woman he’d ever loved and who’d claimed—more than once—to love him in return.
“That’s not fair, Marc,” she said in a small voice, tightening her grip on Danny.
“The truth hurts, doesn’t it, Vanessa? Signed divorce papers or no signed divorce papers, you knew you were pregnant when you left town the last time and you didn’t even bother to tell me.”
Because Danny was starting to fuss at her hip, she lowered her voice, but her temper came through loud and clear.
“Don’t you dare lay that entirely at my feet. I kept Danny a secret, yes, but only after you refused to speak to me. I tried to tell you I was pregnant, but you couldn’t be bothered to listen.”
Marc’s gaze narrowed. What game was she playing at now? he wondered. If what she said was true, it was news to him—and he sincerely believed he would remember his ex-wife telling him she was carrying his child.
“What are you talking about?” he asked carefully.
“I called you. As soon as I realized I was pregnant, I called you at the office, but you said—and I quote, because I will never forget the words as long as I live—there’s nothing you could possibly have to say to me that I want to hear. End quote.”
Well, now he knew something fishy was going on. Because he’d never uttered those words, not where Vanessa was concerned.
“I never said that,” he murmured quietly.
“Yes,” Vanessa retorted with conviction, “you did. Or at least that’s the message Trevor said he was ordered to give me on your behalf.”
“Trevor.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Yes.”
For a second, Marc wasn’t certain if the thin sheen of crimson falling over his eyes was imaginary or if he was literally seeing red. He did know, however, that his blood pressure was rising like a geyser about to erupt and his hands were fisting with the urge to punch something. Or someone.
Reaching into his jacket pocket, he pulled out his cell phone and punched the button for his assistant’s line at Keller Corp. Trevor Storch picked up on the first ring.
“Yes, sir,” the overeager young man answered, well aware of who was calling thanks to Caller I.D.
“I’m out at the house. I want you here in under fifteen minutes.”
“Yes, sir,” Trevor responded dutifully and Marc could almost see him jumping up and rounding his desk before he’d even returned the telephone to its cradle.
Meeting Vanessa’s wary blue gaze, he snapped his own phone closed. “He’ll be here soon and then we’ll get to the bottom of this mess once and for all.”
Fifteen
The seconds dragged on like hours, the minutes like years. Vanessa stood at the bottom of the stairs while the stony silence in the foyer grew heavier and more suffocating.
Danny wasn’t getting any lighter, either. Shifting him to her other hip, she started to lower herself into a sitting position on one of the wide, carpeted steps, but Marc moved forward to stop her.
“Let me take him,” he said brusquely, holding out his arms.
For a moment, she hesitated, the panicked thought that if she let Marc take the baby, she might never get him back racing through her mind. But if she tried to hold on to him now, then her avowals that she wouldn’t try to keep Marc from seeing their son would be a lie, wouldn’t they?
Hoping Marc hadn’t noticed her uncertainty, she handed Danny over, rolling her shoulders and stretching her arms to work out the kinks.
“He’s getting big, isn’t he?” Marc said, a small smile curving his lips. The first he’d offered since spotting her luggage in the middle of the entryway.
“Yes, he is.”
She was about to suggest they move into one of the nearby parlors to await Trevor’s arrival, but just then a squeal of brakes came from the front drive and a minute later the door swung open.
Trevor Storch was tall, thin and more gangly than athletic. He stood just inside the foyer, brown hair mussed, shoulders sloped and breathing hard, as though he’d run most of the way from Keller Corp’s main office building instead of driving.
Before he could say anything or begin bowing, as was his usual custom, Marc handed Danny back to her and turned on his assistant, any sign of kindness or amusement wiped from his face. Watching him close in on the younger man, even Vanessa had the urge to shy away and cover the baby’s face to protect him from the steam that was almost literally pouring from Marc’s ears
.
Raising a hand practically in Trevor’s face, Marc said in a low voice, “I’m going to ask you some questions and I want honest answers. God help you if you lie to me, do you understand?”
Any hint of eager anticipation drained from Storch’s face, along with every bit of his skin’s natural color. No doubt he’d thought he was being summoned to Keller Manor to run some extra-special errand or to receive a much-deserved—in his mind, at least—promotion.
“Y-yes, sir,” he stammered, struggling to regain his composure.
“Did Vanessa call the office last year, just after we were divorced, and ask to speak with me?”
Trevor’s eyes darted past Marc’s shoulder to where she was standing, rocking slightly with the baby, who was currently content with attempting to fit his entire fist into his wide-open mouth.
“Yes or no, Trevor?” Marc demanded sharply.
“Y-yes, sir,” he said, returning his attention to his very unhappy employer. “I believe she might have.”
“And did you or did you not tell her that there was nothing she had to say to me that I wished to hear?”
At that, Trevor Storch’s eyes went as wide as golf balls and his jaw dropped like a boulder. “I…I…”
He closed his mouth, licked his lips nervously. Then he seemed to deflate, his shoulders sinking even lower beneath his black shirt and beige sweater-vest than before.
“Yes, sir,” he replied obediently, “I did.”
Even from her vantage point near the stairwell, she saw Marc’s brows dart upward in astonishment. Until that moment, she knew he hadn’t believed her. He’d thought she was lying, or at the very least had suspected she was reinventing history to suit her purposes.
“Why?” he asked, shock and confusion evident in his tone.
“I…I…” Trevor’s mouth open and closed like a guppy’s and the color returned to his face in two rosy spots of nervous embarrassment.
“Because I told him to.”
Eleanor’s voice, deep and stern and coming out of nowhere, made Vanessa jump. Danny jerked in her arms at the sudden movement and began to fuss. She bounced up and down and pressed a kiss to the top of his head to shush him, but the greater part of her attention was on her ex-mother-in-law and the bomb she had just dropped into the middle of the cavernous foyer.
“Mother,” Marc murmured, turning in her direction. “What are you talking about?”
Eleanor stepped from the doorway of the very same parlor Vanessa had almost suggested they move to before Trevor’s arrival, the heels of her powder blue pumps clicking regally on the thick parquet tiles.
“After your separation, I instructed Mr. Storch to field any calls that came into the office from Ms. Mason and to inform her that you didn’t wish to speak to her again, for any reason.”
Marc swung his disbelieving gaze from his mother to Travis and back again. Vanessa’s own heart was pounding in her chest, emotion clogging her throat until it threatened to cut off her supply of oxygen.
All this time, she’d been so angry at Marc. So hurt that he could cut her off the way he had, that he could be so cruel and uncaring with a woman he’d once claimed to love…and who was unexpectedly carrying his child.
She knew, too, that Marc had probably been equally as angry and hurt at what he perceived to be her actions after they split, if he’d been expecting her to stay in at least moderate contact, only to have all of her calls impeded by his personal assistant.
Now she realized they had both been deceived.
“But…why?” Marc asked.
Eleanor’s lips thinned. “She’s trash, Marcus. Bad enough that you married her and brought her home in the first place. Having her continue to contact you and hang around after you finally wised up enough to divorce her would have been beyond unacceptable. As though I would ever stand by and allow her to work her wiles and trick you into taking her back.”
“So you ordered my assistant to block my wife’s attempts to contact me.” It was a statement, not a question.
Eleanor had known Marc all his life, while Vanessa had known him for only a handful of years. Yet his mother seemed ignorant of the resentment building in the heat of his green eyes and the clenching of his fists at his sides.
“Of course,” Eleanor responded haughtily, tipping her nose another few centimeters into the air. “I would do anything to protect the Keller name from gold diggers like her.”
“Her name,” Marc intoned from between gritted teeth, “is Vanessa.”
Before his mother could respond to that bit of information, he crossed to Vanessa and plucked Danny right out of her arms. While she floundered, unsure of what to think or do, he grabbed her elbow, ran his hand the rest of the way down her arm and threaded his fingers with hers. He marched them past the pile of her packed belongings nearly to the door, stopping a mere foot from Trevor’s trembling form.
“You’re fired,” he told the young man in a brook-no-arguments tone. “Return to the office, clear out your desk and leave. You’re welcome to work for my mother, if she’ll have you, since the two of you certainly deserve each other, but I don’t want to see you anywhere near Keller Corp ever again. Is that understood?”
Vanessa could have sworn she saw tears fill Trevor’s eyes just before he ducked his head to stare at the tops of his shoes. “Yes, sir,” he said in a watery voice.
“And you,” Marc continued, turning this time to glare at his mother. “I always thought Vanessa was exaggerating when she told me how badly you were behaving toward her behind my back, because I didn’t want to believe my own mother would treat the woman I loved as anything other than a true member of this family. But she was right all along, wasn’t she?”
Marc paused for a moment, but Vanessa didn’t think it was to allow Eleanor to respond. “You won’t see us again. Not here. I’ll send for my belongings and anything Vanessa might have left behind. But the company is mine. Mine and Adam’s. You’re off the Board of Directors as of now and your name will be removed from anything related to the corporation.”
Eleanor’s nostrils flared as she sucked in a breath, and Vanessa saw the first shadow of fear cross her severe features.
“You can’t do that,” she rasped.
Marc’s gaze narrowed, his expression every bit as unyielding as his mother’s at that moment. “Watch me.”
With that, he yanked open the front door and stalked through, tugging Vanessa along behind him. The two servants who had been helping her carry her things to the waiting taxi were standing beside the bright yellow car, doing their best to remain inconspicuous and out of what she was sure they assumed would be the line of fire.
“Put all of Vanessa’s things in my car,” he told them, transferring Danny back to her. The poor baby was probably beginning to feel like a racquetball, though from his happy gurgles, he seemed to think being passed from one parent to the other and back again was some sort of game.
Then Marc crossed to the cab and leaned in the open window to speak in low tones to the man behind the wheel. After Marc slipped him a few folded-up bills, the driver nodded, and Marc returned to her side.
“What are we doing?” she asked, still unable to believe all that had just happened.
Lifting a hand to cup her face, he said, “We’re leaving. We’ll stay at a hotel until I can get things straightened out at the office, then we’ll head back to Summerville.”
“But…”
“No buts.” He shook his head, his gaze immediately softening to a lovely emerald green. “I’m so sorry, Vanessa. I didn’t see it. I didn’t believe you because I didn’t want to admit my family was anything but perfect, that one of them would treat my wife with anything but love and respect.”
His thumb rubbed slowly back and forth across her cheek, and she felt herself melting.
“If I had known, if I had truly understood what you were going through, I would have stopped it. I never would have let things between us turn out the way they did.”
&nb
sp; Her throat was so tight, she couldn’t speak, but she believed him. After what he’d just done, how he’d stood up to his mother and walked away from his family home for her, how could she not?
“I love you, Vanessa. I’ve always loved you and I’m so sorry for all the time I’ve wasted being a blind, stupid fool.”
She sniffed as happy tears filled her eyes and balanced precariously on the tips of her lashes.
He leaned in, pressing his brow to hers, and said barely above a whisper, “If I could go back and do things differently, I would never let you go.”
A near-sob rolled up from her chest, causing those tears to spill over and roll down her cheeks.
“I love you, too,” she told him. “And I never wanted to leave, I just couldn’t live that way anymore.”
“I know that,” he said with more understanding than she’d heard from him in longer than she could remember.
“And I didn’t plan to keep Danny a secret from you. I really did try to tell you, but after Trevor refused to let me speak to you, I was so angry and hurt, thinking the directive came from you…” She trailed off, barely certain anymore of how she’d felt or what had led her to make the decisions she had.
“I know,” Marc murmured, one corner of his mouth lifting in a kind, loving half smile. He looked at their son with a father’s love and pride burning in his eyes before brushing a hand over the baby’s downy-soft head.
“We both made mistakes and let small issues become big ones. But we won’t let that happen again, will we?”
She shook her head, doing her best to blink back fresh tears.
Framing her face with his big, strong hands, he brushed his lips lightly across hers. “I really do love you, Nessa. Forever.”
“I love you, too,” she tried to say, but his mouth was already covering hers, kissing her deeply, with all the passion that had bloomed between them since the first moment they’d met.
Epilogue
Two years later…
Marc strolled down the sidewalk of Summerville’s Main Street, nodding and waving a greeting to friends as he passed. And he was whistling, for heaven’s sake. He never used to whistle, but lately, he’d caught himself doing it more and more often.