Snapping his gaze upwards again, he found himself taking her in and wondered at the change. She looked all business, and he suddenly found himself wondering how she was coping with the demands of McCormack Enterprises. Was she here about that? Did she need his help with something? He hadn’t exactly thought it through when he’d walked out, but it was more than likely that she’d need some sort of tuition in how to run such a large business.
Did she have a job offer? Could he work with her under the circumstances? Did he really want not to? Ignoring all of his thoughts, he instead focused on the words she was speaking and found himself surprised yet again.
“I want to make a deal with you, Zachary,” she said, and he looked at her, waiting for her to elaborate. “It’s very simple,” she continued, and he noticed that her confident manner seemed to be slipping slightly as she searched around for the right words. She wasn’t as calm as she’d first appeared, and he suddenly started to analyze why that might be. Why be nervous? What was she going to suggest that would have her wary?
“What is?” he prompted gently and watched as she blushed slightly before clearing her throat and straightening her back again.
“I want to give you everything back,” she said firmly, and he found himself surprised at her words. He hadn’t expected that.
“What?”
“I spoke to the lawyer. Apparently, now that everything is in my name and the pre-nup conditions have been broken I’m fully entitled to do anything that I want with it all. So I want to give it all back to you,” she added, and his brain scrambled to assimilate the offer. “You can have it all, Zachary. The house. The money. The business. All of it. Everything. It can all be yours. I’d only ask for perhaps a small amount of money and help to start on a new business venture. A bespoke crochet shop. Your idea was a good one. I think I can do something with my hobby and I’d quite like to try branching out into fashion designs. That’s all I’d ask for though. Everything else you can have back.”
Everything except her, he guessed. Though she was still stuck with him for two years. And if he helped her set up her business he had a chance at being in her life more, of getting to know her again, letting her see him again. Perhaps it could work. He had a greater chance of working things out with her if he was involved in at least one aspect of her life.
Of course the appeal of getting back his worldly goods wasn’t lost on him either. He still loved his dad, still wanted to keep his legacy alive, still wanted to work on the business that he’d poured so much time, energy, and heart into. If he were lucky he could have his wife as well as everything that he’d given up by leaving.
“On one condition,” she added, and he froze in place. He didn’t know what the condition would be and was worried about it. An immediate divorce? A guarantee that he’d stay out of her life? He wouldn’t do either. Not even to get back everything that he’d owned.
“What condition?” he managed tightly and watched as she shot a glance to the other occupant of the room, who seemed to have finished setting up his equipment. Equipment that Zach didn’t have a clue what it was for.
“A polygraph test. I want you to take a lie detector test. James has a list of questions to ask you, if you answer truthfully on all of them you get it all. That’s all it would take.”
“Your questions?” he asked, and she just stared back at him without giving anything away. “Will you know the answers?”
“James has been instructed to tell me if you fail on any question,” she said, and he noticed that she hadn’t explicitly answered him.
“Will you know the answers?”
Shooting a glance at the other man, she focused back on Zach, cleared her throat, and said, “Yes.”
Nodding in understanding, Zach pushed off the wall behind him and headed towards the table. “I take it that this won’t hurt,” he teased and watched as the man smiled and Ellie shot him a fleeting smile herself.
“Not at all, Mr McCormack. We just have to attach a few components to you then we can begin,” the man said as he started to place the equipment on Zach.
“I’ll be outside,” Ellie said from near the doorway, and Zach looked up in surprise.
“You’re not staying?” he asked, and she shook her head at him. “Why are you leaving if you’ll know the answers?” he asked in confusion.
“Knowing the answers and knowing which ones you lied about are different things, Zachary,” she said before heading outside, and he found himself surprised at her implication. She’d know that he lied but wouldn’t know about which ones. If he answered without lying it wasn’t an issue, but she’d allowed him the freedom to lie without knowing explicitly which answer it had been.
“All set, Mr McCormack?” the man asked, and Zach focused back on the other occupant with a smile.
“Of course.”
“Alright. Well, we’re going to start with some baseline questions. That will give us an indication of your responses. I’ll also ask you a question at the start for you to lie to, that will give me a comparison for an untruthful answer. Then we’ll move on. Every question is a simple yes/no response. When we’re finished I’ll be able to give you the results immediately. Hopefully,” he said with a smile.
“Okay then,” Zach said and sat back to answer the questions asked of him. The baseline questions were all straightforward, and Zach relaxed as he thought it all over. As the test started in earnest he found himself surprised by some of the questions being asked, wondering why he was being asked them, and by whom. He’d asked Ellie if she’d written them and she’d been noncommittal.
“Is it true that you consummated your marriage with your wife on the evening of December the twenty-third?” James asked, and Zach sat bolt upright in his chair.
“Excuse me?!” he asked and watched as the man blushed at his response.
“Did you and your wife –”
“I heard the question. I’m just wondering whose business that is,” Zach growled and saw the man shift uncomfortably.
“There was some sort of condition set out in your prenuptial agreement,” James fumbled as he looked through a stack of paperwork. “Something to do with –”
“Yes. I’m aware of the condition,” Zach gritted out angrily.
“I just ask the questions given to me, Mr McCormack,” the man defended, and Zach couldn’t deny that. Clearly this test had been set by a lawyer. Most likely his lawyer, and Zach sighed in defeat. He’d never liked the condition in the first place, it was far too intimate a thing to be discussed with strangers, but the fact was that it existed and he’d have to tell everyone the truth about it in order to grant Ellie a divorce if she wanted one. There was no point in lying.
“Yes,” Zach said with a sigh and watched as the other man looked at him in confusion. “The answer to your question is yes,” he clarified and watched as the other man shifted uncomfortably and cleared his throat with a hesitant and grateful smile.
As more questions were fired Zach’s way he relaxed again until another unexpected one appeared.
“Do you love your wife?”
“What?”
“Do you love your wife Mrs Ellie McCormack?” he repeated, and Zach fumbled before replying honestly.
“Yes. Of course.”
“Are you in love with your wife?”
“Yes,” he said softly as his heart pierced again at thoughts of the woman. Who knew what that would do to the results but he couldn’t change how his body reacted to thoughts of her.
“On the night that you consummated your marriage, were you in love with your wife?”
“Yes,” he said on a breath as his thoughts filled with the experience again. He was absolutely positive that that would do something to the results.
Trying to control his runaway thoughts, he focused on more of the man’s questions before they delved into territory that he was starting to feel uncomfortable with again.
“Was your marriage to your wife a product of coercion and blackmail?” th
e man asked, and Zach tensed before answering.
“Yes,” he said reluctantly.
“Was that coercion and blackmail instigated by Mr Malcolm Kincaid, the now Mrs Ellie McCormack’s father?” he asked, and Zach bolted upright again.
“What?” he asked.
“Were you forced to marry your wife because of threats made to you by one Malcolm Kincaid?” the man asked again, and Zach’s heart rate went crazy as his mind went into overdrive. Ellie would see the answers to these questions. She would see that her dad had lied to her. It would destroy her. The knowledge that her father had forced her into this for his own reasons would kill her, would kill her memory of the man.
He couldn’t do that to her. He wouldn’t do that to her. No way. She was not going to find out about it. Not like this. Not ever.
“Mr McCormack?” the man asked as Zach remained silent. He didn’t care if he never got back his money and business. He would just start again. He didn’t want it at the expense of Ellie’s heart. And that’s what telling the truth would cost. Her heart. It would break her heart for her to find out what her father had done to her.
“No,” he said then locked eyes with the other man.
“Sorry?” he asked in confusion.
“No. No, it wasn’t because of Ellie’s dad. No, it wasn’t his idea. No, he didn’t blackmail me. It was me. I blackmailed him. I forced him. You can tell her that.”
Looking at his laptop screen before focusing back on Zach, the man looked knowingly at him, and Zach just continued, “She said that she just needs to know if I lied. She doesn’t need to know about what. That’s what she said. Am I right?”
“That was what she said,” the man replied, and Zach stood up, while pulling all of the connectors off of himself.
“Then you tell her that I lied. You tell her that I failed. Tell her that I didn’t tell the truth. But you make sure that she never finds out on which question it was,” he said sternly with fire shooting from his eyes as he gazed at the other man. “I lied. You and I both know that I lied, there’s no use in continuing with this anymore. I lied, and you tell her that. You tell her I lied.”
“If you wish, Mr McCormack,” the man said as he stood and headed for the door. Following his form with his eyes, Zach found himself confused at the man’s movements. He’d left all of his equipment on the table, surely he wasn’t going away without it. “Mrs McCormack?” the man said as he opened the door, and Zach tensed. He hadn’t thought that the man would tell her right now.
“I thought that you’d take longer,” Ellie commented as she reentered the room, and Zach felt that same sucker punch that always seemed to get him in the gut when he saw his wife.
“Everything’s done,” the man said, and Zach waited in silence.
“That was quick,” she said with a quick smile.
“We didn’t finish,” James added, and Ellie looked at him in surprise.
“I don’t understand.”
“Mr McCormack called an end to the test. He lied and admitted to it partway through. There was no point in continuing,” the man elaborated, and Zach was surprised to see a flash enter Ellie’s eyes. If he knew her well, and he thought that he did, it looked an awful lot like a flash of triumph.
Confused by the reaction from his particularly unmercenary wife, Zach stared at the pair as they continued to hold a whispered discussion with each other. When he saw a smile break out onto Ellie’s face he was even more bemused by it all.
“You lied,” she said to Zach as she focused on him, and he nodded in agreement. “You gave it all up. By lying. All you had to do was tell the truth, Zachary,” she said, and he stayed silent on that. He could have, but he wouldn’t have.
“That seems a foolish thing to do,” she said softly with a slight smile. It didn’t seem foolish from where he was standing and with the knowledge that he had. “You could have had it all back,” she added, and he stared at her as she moved closer to him. He wouldn’t have had it all back, he still wouldn’t have had her. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that big a loss.
“Now it’s my turn,” she declared and turned from him to sit in the chair that he’d vacated when he’d stood to finish the test prematurely.
“What?” he asked as he turned to look at her getting settled in and noticed her look up at him with that same mixture of confidence and doubt that he’d seen at the start of this strange visit.
“I gave you an opportunity to get back everything you wanted by telling the truth. Now it’s my turn,” she said and looked over to the other man where he was watching the interaction between the two of them. Nodding at him, Ellie summoned over James, and Zach watched on in confusion as she got herself hooked up to the machinery.
“What’s going on?” he finally asked as Ellie started to answer the same types of questions that he’d answered at the start.
“I’m taking a lie detector test,” she said simply. “And if I tell the truth I’m almost positive that I’ll be able to get the thing that I want most.”
“Honey, what –”
“Zachary. I’m busy. You can talk to me afterwards,” she said before focusing back on the other man, and Zach was left standing in confused silence. He supposed that he should leave, but she hadn’t asked him to, and he was too busy attempting to make sense of everything to move from his spot.
He found his attention snapping back to the other occupants in the room as Ellie’s questioning began though.
“Did your marriage to Mr Zachary McCormack occur because of threats and blackmail?” James asked, and Zach found his wife’s gaze fixed on him as she answered.
“Yes.”
“Were you led to believe that those threats were made by your husband?”
“Yes.”
“Did you blame your husband for his actions in your marriage?”
“Yes.”
“Did you resent your husband for your marriage?”
“Yes,” she answered, and he could see the sheen of tears in her eyes. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to hear her opinion of him, but he was too transfixed to remove his gaze from hers, never mind leave the room.
“Do you love your husband?”
“Yes,” she answered more softly, and Zach felt his breath catch in his chest at her response.
“Were you in love with your husband the evening that you consummated your marriage?”
“Yes,” she said, and Zach saw the first of her tears fall.
“At the time that you consummated your marriage, did you believe your husband to be in love with you?”
“Yes.”
“At the time that your husband left you, did you believe that your husband loved you?”
“No,” she said, and Zach found himself taken off-guard by her answer. In the space of less than a day her opinion had completely altered, and he found himself analyzing why.
“Did you ever stop loving your husband?”
“No.”
“At the time that your husband left, did you still believe that he was responsible for the threats that led to your marriage?”
“Yes,” she replied, and Zach found himself assimilating everything that she was saying to him. She’d loved him. She’d loved him even though she’d believed the worst about him. She’d loved him, and he’d walked out on her. Walked out on her and let her believe that he didn’t love her.
“Do you still believe that your husband was responsible for the threats pertaining to your marriage?”
“No,” she said, and Zach found himself staring at her in shock.
“Are you aware that the person responsible for making the threats that led to your marriage was –”
“Stop!” he said and interrupted the questioning. “Stop,” he added firmly, wanting to make sure that Ellie wasn’t exposed to the truth of the matter.
“Was my own father,” she continued regardless, and Zach found his eyes closing at the hurt in hers. “Yes. Yes, I’m aware that my dad was the one who threatened my
husband. Yes, I’m aware that Zachary was as much a pawn and puppet as I was. Yes, I know that it wasn’t Zachary’s fault. And no, I don’t blame him anymore. Either of them,” she added, and Zach looked over at her tear-strewn face.
“Ellie, you don’t –,” he started but she cut him off.
“Don’t what? Need to tell you how sorry I am for all of the hurtful and unjustified accusations that I made against you? Need to tell you how sorry I am for my father’s actions? Need to tell you how much I regret that you were lied to? No, I suppose I don’t need to, but I want to,” she added, and he kept his gaze locked onto hers as he took in everything that she was saying.
“I’m sorry, Zachary. I’m sorry for everything that my father and I put you through, either intentionally or unintentionally. But I don’t regret it,” she added softly. “I don’t regret it for a minute, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Papa might have been wrong in what he did. He might have been underhanded and devious, but if he hadn’t been, well, I wouldn’t have met you, would I?” she said, and Zach stared at her as her eyes blazed with intensity.
“My dad was an idiot. But he was desperate. He was upset. He was dying,” she added in a choked voice. “And he did what he thought was for the best. Best for me. And Tessa helped because she wanted what was best for you,” she added, and Zach’s brow furrowed. Tessa? What did she have to do with it all?
“Your sister loves you, Zachary. Loves you enough to suggest to a desperate and dying man that you would make the perfect husband to his only daughter,” she said with a soft smile, and Zach found himself slotting the puzzle pieces together. His sister the nurse, who had always promoted the match. It suddenly made sense how Malcolm Kincaid had gotten the photos of her; she’d given them to him. He’d always wondered how the man could afford a lawyer good enough to draw up such an intricate pre-nup, and it suddenly made sense. Tessa had done it. They’d conspired against both him and Ellie together.
Bonds of Matrimony Page 30