by Janet Dailey
Sighing heavily, she turned from her bedroom window and walked to the cupboard. From the far corner, she brought out her suitcases. There was no longer any way that she could stay in the same house with Zachary. An annulment would be a simple procedure, one that she would start in motion the minute she left the house. With leaden movements, Alisa opened the suitcases on her bed and began transferring the clothes from her drawers into the empty bags. Outside the closed window she heard a car crunch to a stop, the sound of slamming car doors followed by the opening and closing of the front door of the house. In her lethargic state, her mind registered little else except that it wasn't Zachary's footsteps she heard on the stairs. It really wasn't until Christine came bursting into the room that Alisa had even given a thought to the fact that it wasn't a schoolday.
'Hi! I had a great time. Was the party fun?' The excited voice stopped and the exuberant steps slowed as Christine saw Alisa meticulously folding clothes into the suitcases. 'Where are you going?'
'We're going on a little trip,' Alisa answered calmly. 'What did you and Mary Ann do last night?'
'Nothing really,' Chris answered absently. Her wonderful time faded with this sudden turnabout of affairs. 'Where are we going to go?'
'Oh, we'll probably go see your cousin Michael' Alisa tried to smile confidently as if it was really going to be an enjoyable time.
The brown eyes inspected Alisa closely, too intense for Alisa to meet the gaze squarely. The small hand trailed idly over the railing at the foot of the bed, as Chris wandered to the opposite side. Then she saw the chair sitting in the corner, its broken leg crumpled beneath it. Seconds later she saw the wall where the plaster had been gouged out.
'What happened to the chair? And the wall?'
Alisa hesitated nervously, her hand crushing the slip in her hand. 'It got broken,' she replied casually.
'Who broke it? Did you?'
'No, I didn't.'
'Then who did? Did Zachary?' Chris persisted.
'Yes.' Alisa slammed the dresser drawer shut harder than she intended.
'This trip we're going to take–when it's over, are we going to come back here?'
Alisa tried desperately to meet the troubled expression on her sister's face. 'Really, Chris,' she laughed, 'you ask so many questions!'
'We're not coming back, are we?' The small face crumpled with her cry. 'We're not ever going to come back!'
'Chris dear, it's so hard to explain.' The lump was back in Alisa's throat, but the child didn't wait for explanations as she ran sobbing out of the room.
For a moment Alisa started to follow her before deciding that it would be best for Chris to be alone, to cry out the hurt as she had not been able to do. She turned back to her packing, trying to block out the accusing look in her sister's face. Angry screams from downstairs halted her. She dropped the clothes in her hand on to the floor and dashed out of the room to the head of the stairs. At the base of the staircase, Christine was screaming and kicking at Zachary, her arms flailing at him ineffectually.
'I hate you! I hate you!' Her cry was a sobbing scream. 'You broke Lisa's chair! I hate you!'
'Christine, stop that at once!' Alisa called sharply, hurrying down the stairs.
'What have you told this child?' Zachary glared accusingly at Alisa now that Christine's attack had begun to subside.
'You broke her chair,' Chris sobbed, 'and now we have to leave. And we're never going to come back!' Her face twisted with pain was turned on Alisa. 'I know it. We're never coming back!'
'You are not leaving, Chris,' said Zachary, his eyes holding Alisa's gaze firmly. When Chris started to protest, he interrupted, 'I don't care what your sister says, you are not leaving. Now go outside, so I can talk to her in private.'
Christine glanced hesitantly towards Alisa, who nodded for her to obey. She hadn't intended to confront Zachary with her decision to leave. She had hoped to leave him a note–a coward's way, she realized, but the easiest way. Now that was denied her. Alisa tried to regard him in a detached way. Although it was difficult, she succeeded.
'Lets' go into the den.' The tight rein on his temper was evident in the way he tried to speak calmly, even though the anger danced in his eyes.
'There's nothing to discuss,' Alisa said coldly.
'You have a choice, Alisa. We can stand here in the hallway and discuss your 'nothing' or we can go into the den and do it in private. Make up your mind.' His ultimatum was clear, and stiffly she agreed. He took her arm as if adding insurance that she would accompany him. Once inside the room with the doors closed behind them, he released her arm and stepped away. He lit a cigarette, offered her one, and put them away when she declined. The silence lengthened unbearably.
'Why are you leaving?' Zachary finally spoke.
'That's a stupid question,' Alisa answered.
'No, it isn't. I want to know why.'
'Because I'm not going to spend another minute in this house,' pausing for effect, 'with you!'
'I won't let you leave.'
'If it's the money you're worried about, you don't have to. The money was yours the day you married me. That was your condition, remember?' Alisa said bitterly.
'I thought you'd bring that up.' Zachary walked to the desk, opened a drawer, removed a small book from it and tossed it to her. 'There's your money, all two hundred thousand. I never touched a penny. I never needed to touch a penny. I'm not rich, but I am self-sufficient.'
Alisa stared at the figures inside the book in dumb-founded silence. 'I don't understand.' She replaced it on his desk as though it was too hot to touch. 'It doesn't change a thing. I'm leaving.'
'Last night, I told Renée. I didn't ever want to see her again. I haven't wanted to for a long time, if I ever really did.' Zachary took a step towards her.
'How foolish of you to burn your bridges behind you,' Alisa retorted, turning to leave the room, finding the conversation was more than she could bear.
But Zachary grabbed her by the shoulders and twisted her violently around to face him. Alisa couldn't help cringing at the rage etched on his face. He gave her a short vicious shake.
'Have you forgotten the reason you married me in the first place?' he snarled. 'It was so you could have Chris. You told me your mother's will stated that you had to reside with your husband for one year. You still have a little over eight months to go.'
'You wouldn't,' Alisa gasped. 'I know you care a little bit for her. What goes on between you and me has no bearing on Chris! You wouldn't tell Marguerite?'
'Wouldn't I?' He released her, walked to the desk and picked up the telephone receiver. There was a pause as Zachary dialled. 'Operator, put me through to the Roy Denton residence in Oakland, California … No, I don't know the number,'
Alisa stared at him in disbelief. His dark eyes jeered her from her frozen immobility. His mouth curved wickedly as she tore the receiver from his hand and slammed it back on its rest.
'How can you be so cruel? How can you do this?' she sobbed.
'I won't let you go. Alisa.' She could no longer doubt that he meant it. The hard, uncompromising expression on his face made it unbelievably clear.
'Why? Why?' Her voice was a mere whisper.
Zachary reached out, gripping her shoulders so tightly that she moaned unwillingly at the pain. He crushed her against him, his hand forcing his head against his chest.
'Because I'm a fool,' he growled. His hand roughly stroked her head. 'Because I need you. Because last night I saw all the cold reserve leave you and you became a woman–my woman, Alisa. I'll make you mine again.'
'Please,' she begged, pushing weakly against him in an effort to free herself. 'Don't humiliate me any more. Isn't it enough that you made me love you? Must you take away my pride and self-respect too?'
'You do love me.' He pinioned her face between his hands. The passion and desire filled his eyes as he greedily inspected every curve and angle of her face. 'I don't want to take away your pride, my darling,' he murmured. At the st
artled and surprised expression in her eyes, he laughed softly. 'My beautiful wife, you believe that I merely wanted to possess you last night. I did, make no mistake about that. But because I love you! I need you because I love you!'
He leaned forward to kiss her lips, but Alisa stepped away, not willing to believe what he was saying.
'Please, Zachary, don't play with me. Don't use me.' She stepped away again as he moved towards her. The glint in his eyes became harder to resist. She put up a hand to ward him off. 'Why did you marry me?'
'I had no intention of marrying you,' Zachary smiled. 'That night in the casino I went along with you to see how far you would go, to see just how much you would do to get your sister.' At her indrawn breath, Zachary looked at her tenderly. 'You must remember that I knew how callously cruel you'd been to Paul. But the following morning when I went to tell you what I thought of you, I saw you all soft and tousled by sleep, looking so vulnerable and alone, and I knew I was going to marry you. I told myself that I would make you fall in love with me so you would know some of the pain that Paul went through, never knowing that I would go through it myself. I must have fallen in love with you that morning.'
This time she didn't resist when he took her in his arms, murmuring over and over again how much she loved him but her words were constantly being silenced by his kisses. A small sound from the doorway brought Zachary's head up, though he didn't loosen his loving hold on Alisa.
'Are we leaving?' Chris asked hesitantly from the door.
'No,' Alisa answered softly, gazing adoringly into Zachary's face.
'Maybe for a few days, as a sort of belated honeymoon,' Zachary corrected her before turning to the auburn-haired child at the door. 'Come here, Peanut,' affectionately gathering Christine into an arm and lifting her up so that all three were encircled in the same embrace. 'We're a family now.'
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