He’d known the bed was empty the moment he’d opened his eyes and it had hurt far more than Maddy’s admission that she was Alexander St. Claire’s daughter. What the hell had he been thinking when he told her he didn’t know who she was? He knew her heart, knew she was kind and loving and that she’d made him happier in the little time they’d been together than he’d ever been in his life. How could he blame her for wanting him to see her as she really was? He couldn’t imagine how she’d ever coped with mingling among the society snobs, not with Maddy’s shy, gentle nature. How happy she must have been to break free of that, and how miserable she must have been when he’d condemned her for trying to avoid being shoved back into the image of a politician’s daughter.
He’d found her curled up into a tight ball, looking so small and vulnerable in the middle of the king sized bed. Her eyelids were red and swollen and it was obvious by the tangled mess of blankets that she’d had a restless night and probably hadn’t fallen asleep until the wee hours of the morning. He’d done this to her, Chase thought in utter dismay. He’d made her cry, made her feel so despondent she hadn’t felt welcome in his bed. He’d hurt her, and the emotional distress wasn’t good for the baby either. God, he’d been such an insensitive ass.
Chase had leaned over and brushed a light kiss to her forehead then dragged the comforter over her shoulders. He wanted to wake her and assure her there was nothing to worry about, that he loved her with all his heart, but even in sleep she looked tired and drawn so he’d left to go take his shower and get ready for work. He’d checked on her again before he headed out and it wasn’t until he was settled at his desk that he realized he should have left a note.
All he would have needed to write was that he loved her and it would have put her mind to rest but he hadn’t thought of it, and with his first appointment due to arrive soon, Chase didn’t have time to run back home. Reluctant to call and wake her, he’d done the next best thing and called the florist and ordered a huge bouquet of wildflowers along with a balloon that said I love you on it.
He’d call her later, after she’d had a chance to sleep for a few more hours, and then maybe he’d take her to lunch. Or maybe he’d just go home and make love to her so she’d know that nothing had changed, that he still loved her and wanted to marry her. As a matter of fact, he’d call Alexander too. He’d smooth the way for Maddy by telling her father about that baby and that Maddy hadn’t known about it until recently. And he’d also let the Senator know in no uncertain terms that he was not to upset Maddy in any way. She’d had enough emotional turmoil because of Chase, she didn’t need to have anymore thrust on her.
Maybe she didn’t need him to take care of her financially, but she still needed him to take care of her in other ways and that’s just what he intended to do. He wouldn’t be the cause of even one more sad tear and he’d be damned if he’d let anyone else cause her heartache either.
***
The sound of a car pulling up to the house had Maddy’s heart thundering in her chest. She’d hoped Chase would wake her before he left for work but apparently he’d still been angry and needed some time away time before they talked. Her stomach fluttered nervously as she made her way down stairs then sank when the doorbell sounded. It wasn’t Chase. He hadn’t come home early as she’d hoped, which meant he was still upset with her. Maddy peeked out the window, not entirely surprised to see it was the man who delivered next day air packages; there was usually one or two a week, though they didn’t usually require a signature. This on apparently did.
Maddy signed for the letter envelope then stepped back inside, her overwrought nerves growing even more edgy when she saw who it was from. Angela Donelli. And it was addressed to Maddy the Maid. What nasty little surprise had the woman thought up to torture her with now? She held it in her hand for several minutes, gnawing at her lip and contemplating not opening it at all, but eventually curiosity over road caution and she tore the seal. Maddy stuck her hand inside and pulled out the contents, letting the envelope drop to the floor. Her heart froze, the air in her lungs eeked out and refused to be drawn back in. Everything around her faded out except the photographs that were clutched in her hand; those remained cruelly in focus and in full living color.
****
Maddy choked back the sob that tore at her throat and slowly sifted through the pictures Angela had sent. They were in succession, no doubt so that Maddy could see his progress as he advanced towards his lover’s waiting arms. Chase standing outside a hotel, then another of him in the lobby. Angela greeting him at the door in a translucent nightie. In the next frame, an embrace, then Chase disappearing inside her room. It was like having a knife thrust into her heart then viciously twisted as each new photo was revealed. But it was the last picture that threw Maddy over the edge and had her making a mad dash for the bathroom.
Everything she’d eaten that morning was violently thrown up, her stomach heaving long after there was nothing left but a raw throat and rasping cough. Maddy hauled herself over to the sink and washed off her face, dragging in huge gulps of air until she was sure she wouldn’t pass out. She glanced at herself in the mirror, at the wide, frightened eyes and trembling lips. She looked like a woman who’d just found out the man she loved more than lift itself had cheated on her. It’s a matter of trust. Isn’t that what Chase had told her just last night? Trust. Deceit. Chase and Angela.
Maddy bolted from the bathroom and raced back to the foyer where she’d dropped the pictures and scooped them up. She thumbed through them quickly at first, a slow smile spreading across her face. He didn’t look happy, not in any of them! There was a dark scowl on his face in the parking lot, and he was glancing at a piece of paper in the photo taken inside the hotel lobby as if he’d written down the room number and was checking to verify what it was. If it was a prearranged rendezvous with Angela, why would he have had to write it down? And why would he have bothered bringing in his briefcase?
As much as it repulsed her to do so, Maddy studied the pictures of Chase and Angela together. The first one, where she actually had at least a small amount of clothing on, was even more telling than the first two photos. Chase looked surprised and his head was drawn back as if he was trying to avoid being kissed by her. And his arms weren’t around her waist so he could hold her to him; instead, his hands were grasping her forearms which Angela had clamped around his neck. He was trying to free himself, of that Maddy was certain. She grimaced at the last picture, the one that had caused everything in her stomach to curdle.
Angela was completely nude and she had her arms locked around his neck with one leg wrapped around his thigh. But far from looking like a man who’d just had a good romp in the sack with his lover, Chase’s face held nothing but contempt as he stared down at her. And there was something else. If he really had fabricated the story about an appointment with a client and gone to all the trouble to tell her he would be gone for at least two or three hours, why would he have come home only after one? Wouldn’t he have stayed at the hotel with Angela for as long as he could?
Maddy laughed out loud. The most glaring evidence that this was all contrived by Angela to trick Chase into coming to the hotel was right there in her hands; the pictures. How else could Angela convince Maddy she and Chase were having an affair unless there was proof? Angela must have thought she was pretty clever to have someone both outside and inside the hotel ready to snap photos, which really only damned her as a fool. Why would anyone follow Chase around with a camera unless they’d been hired to do so? Absently setting the pictures on the stand beside the door, she wondered if maybe Angela wasn’t just a tiny bit insane. Why else would she concoct a scheme like this?
Maddy’s stint as detective was interrupted by the doorbell, but this time the delivery wasn’t from Angela. Her heart leapt when the man handed her the flower arrangement with a balloon attached that said I love you. After she’d closed the door, Maddy started across the foyer to find a vase for the flowers and stepped on the envelo
pe the pictures had arrived in.
She stared down at it for a moment, zeroing in on the return address. Setting the flowers on the floor, she picked up the envelope. Angela obviously wanted her to know who had sent the pictures, but her stupidity in giving away her address was going to be her downfall. Nothing Chase had done so far had deterred the woman from pursuing him, but that was about to end.
Maddy hurried up to her room and grabbed her purse, and with the envelope in her hand, she left the house and climbed into her car. It was time to pay Miss Donelli a visit. The first thing she’d do was to let Angela know her plan to make Maddy think Chase had cheated on her had failed. And then she’d do the one thing she’d been trying to avoid since she left her parents home; she’d use the weight of the St. Claire name to put the fear of God in the woman. Maddy was, after all, a Senator’s daughter, and as such had the ability to pull the high society rug that Angela loved so much right out from under her feet.
Maybe she had kept herself in the background as much as possible and maybe the people who ran in that circle didn’t always remember her first name, but they never forgot her last. Wives of men in power were very predatory when it came to their husbands because they knew there was always some other woman out there who wouldn’t think twice about trying to lure him away. It wouldn’t sit well with them to know that Angela was attempting to steal Chase away, especially if she made it known they were engaged and that she was expecting his child.
Maddy had never been much of a fighter, at least not where her own welfare was concerned, but she’d discovered a set of feline daggers slowly emerging ever since she’d figured out the photos were a set up, and those sharp claws were just dying to rip Angela to shreds. This was one time Maddy wasn’t going to back down and demurely accept her fate. Angela had thrown down the gauntlet, and Maddy wasn’t about to let that pass unchallenged.
Chase glared at the phone as if it was somehow personally responsible for the countless unanswered calls he’d placed to his house. He’d talked to the florist and knew the flowers had been delivered over two hours ago. He’d even talked to the man who’d made the delivery and had been assured that Maddy was extremely pleased when he’d given them to her. So why wasn’t she answering the phone? She was punishing him, deliberately making him suffer for the way he’d treated her last night.
She knew it would drive him crazy, knew that he’d be sweating it out and worrying that she might just pack her things and leave. Anger battled fear for a nanosecond or two before Chase shoved his chair back from the desk and hurried out of his office. He didn’t even pause when he passed his assistant on the way out, but merely called over his shoulder to cancel his appointments for the rest of the day and kept walking.
This was it, he thought as he maneuvered his car out of the parking lot. It was over. Done. Finis. When he got home he was going to grab Maddy and cart her sexy behind down to City Hall and apply for a marriage license then set up an appointment with the Justice of the Peace. No, that would take too long. It was early still. They could catch a flight to Las Vegas and be married before dinner time and then…and then he’d spend the rest of the night making love to his wife. His wife. Yes, Chase liked the sound of that, he liked it a lot.
He convinced himself that it would nothing more than a matter of smoothing her ruffled feathers and kissing away her doubts, but his confidence was crushed and tossed to the wind when he pulled into the driveway and saw that her car was gone. She probably just ran into town to get groceries or maybe to do a bit of shopping for art supplies, he told himself. There was no need to get worked up, nothing to worry about, no reason for this hollowed out feeling that had taken up residence in the pit of his stomach.
He forced himself to walk at a normal pace, even pretended to himself that his hand didn’t shake a bit as he fit the key into the slot and unlocked the door. His entrance into the house was casual, unhurried, and he was just congratulating himself on being the epitome of calm when he spotted the flowers he’d sent Maddy lying in the middle of the floor not ten feet from the door.
Chase had to tell himself to breath as he leaned down and picked up the discarded bouquet. The balloon proclaiming that he loved her had come loose and was now bobbing around the ceiling, blown from side to side by the fan. She wasn’t gone. He refused to believe it. The flowers hit the floor with a muffled thump. He took the stairs two at a time and barreled into her room, breathing a huge sigh of relief when he saw all her art supplies and paintings were still there. Just to reassure himself, Chase checked the closet and dresser drawers. Only then did the sensation that he’d been pushed off a cliff and was plummeting towards the jagged rocks below finally begin to subside.
He laughed at himself all the way down the stairs, shaking his head at his own insecurities. Maddy loved him. She wasn’t going to leave him just because they had an argument, even if he had been an insensitive ass. And completely unreasonable. He’d just put the flowers in a vase then maybe change his clothes and make those flight arrangements while he waited for her to come home. Keeping busy would help pass the time, and considering how rampant his emotions had been all day, it would also prevent him from going stark raving mad until he had Maddy back in his arms where she belonged.
Chase got as far as picking the bouquet of flowers off the floor before his world started to unravel again. There on stand beside the door was a small stack of pictures, and even from where he was standing he could see just how damning they were. His grip on the flowers loosened and they once again found their way to the floor. It was a nightmare, making those few steps to the stand then viewing the pictures of him and Angela through Maddy’s eyes. That’s why all her things were still here. She’d seen the evidence of his infidelity and simply left everything behind when she fled the house. Except he hadn’t been unfaithful, not in body or in mind, but thanks to Angela’s cunning there would never be any way he could prove it.
Any hope he might have had to salvage his relationship with Maddy was shattered when he came to the last photo, the one with Angela wearing nothing but a smile. He should have turned around and walked away the moment he’d gotten out of her clutches the first time instead of going inside the room and trying to talk some sense into her. Past experience should have told him she wouldn’t listen anyway so it was nothing but sheer stupidity on his part to think this time would be any different. And why hadn’t he suspected she might pull something like this? Why hadn’t he been more wary?
Chase closed his eyes against the enormous pain in his chest. He’d lost Maddy. Even if he knew where she was, what could he say that convince her this was all Angela’s doing and that nothing had happened between them? A howl of rage tore from his throat at the injustice of it all, and in a fury Chase tore the pictures into tiny pieces until they looked more like confetti than anything, scattered as they were all over the floor. Nothing had ever hurt like this, as if his heart was being ripped out, as if his life had no meaning. Without Maddy there would be nothing, nothing but endless days and nights that would serve no purpose but to give him more hours in which to grieve the loss her love.
His feet carried him to the living room, but he had no strength to remain standing and dropped down onto the sofa. He thought about Maddy and how timid she’d been at the hospital, sitting there all wide-eyed and trembling while he verbally assaulted her. And he remembered that first kiss and how shocked he’d been by the emotions she’d stirred in him. Then he’d made love to her and nothing had been the same since. He’d been shaken to the core by her fiery passion and when he’d woke in the morning and drawn her mouth to his, he’d wanted to go on kissing her forever. But Angela had destroyed all that.
There had to be a way out of this, there just had to be, but he was too consumed by his own pain to formulate an intelligent thought. And somewhere out there, Maddy was hurting too. He hated knowing that she was suffering and he hated it even more that he was helpless to do anything about it. All he could do was wait and hope that once she had t
ime to calm down she’d call.
****
Maddy was feeling quite pleased with herself as she turned up the road leading to Chase’s house. She’d held her own against Angela and though she’d been shaking on the inside, outwardly she’d come across as confident and would even venture to say she’d been downright aggressive a few times. It had shocked the hell out of Angela and truthfully, Maddy had been a little shocked herself. It was amazing how liberating it had felt; not only because she’d put that lecherous woman in her place, but also because Maddy no longer felt the sting of jealousy preying on her mind and her heart. After what had gone on at the Donelli mansion, there would be no more stalking, no more attempts to seduce Chase, no more interference from Angela at all.
Maddy’s triumphant smile faded when she got within sight of the house and saw Chase’s truck parked outside. It was stupid of her not to have considered that he might come home early and she groaned at what must have run through his mind when walked in and saw the flowers he’d sent her on lying on the floor. Even more disconcerting was the thought that he’d probably found the pictures too and had to be frantic with worry. It wouldn’t take him long to jump to the conclusion that she’d left him because of the pictures and she could only imagine the state of mind that must have put him in.
A MATTER OF TRUST Page 16