LITMIR.BIZ

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      ‘Spot on. In the family law section. He specialises in divorces. Society divorces mainly. People with money. His own family is wealthy. His father’s a senator. Word is Mr Leighton has his eye on going into politics himself. He’s not married and doesn’t have a permanent partner. Quite the ladies’ man, according to a work colleague of his I spoke to this morning. “A silver-tongued charmer” was the way this chap described him.’

      Scott tried to blank his mind out to where that silver tongue might have been, but it was impossible, a black cloud of jealousy descending to darken his mood further. He hated being taken for a fool. And Sarah had taken him for a fool. Her outrage last Saturday morning had all been a sham to deflect attention away from her own guilt. The plain truth was Sarah had allowed herself to be seduced by that smooth-looking bastard.

      Maybe if you hadn’t been going away on business so much lately, it wouldn’t have happened...

      God, now he was making excuses for her!

      Scott sat up straighter in his chair before sending his head of security what he hoped was a composed look. ‘Is there anything else you have to tell me about my wife’s relationship with this Leighton fellow?’

      ‘Only that she didn’t go to him after she left you on Saturday. He owns a house on the North Shore, and there’s no sign of her—or her car—at his address.’

      Was he relieved at this news? He didn’t feel relieved. His gut churned some more.

      ‘She’s probably gone to stay at Cory’s,’ Scott muttered. ‘He’s her best friend. Sarah met him at university.’

      Scott didn’t elaborate, mostly because he didn’t know all that much about the circumstances behind his wife’s close friendship with the young architect. It came to him suddenly that he didn’t know all that much about his wife’s past all round. She’d told him during their whirlwind courtship that her mother was dead and she was estranged from her father and her only sibling, an older brother. There’d been a bitter divorce when she was a teenager, with the brother siding with the father, despite the bastard being unfaithful to his wife. He’d never questioned her further about her past. He’d also never grilled Sarah over her friendship with Cory, mainly because he wasn’t worried about Cory. He rather liked the fellow. And Cory liked him back.

      He probably doesn’t like me now, Scott thought. Not after Sarah told him what I did last Friday night. And she would have. She told Cory everything. They were like two teenagers sometimes, laughing and chatting to each other on the phone for hours. Scott would have liked to be a fly on the wall at Cory’s place right at this moment. Though possibly he wouldn’t find out anything. It was Monday, after all, and both of them would be at work.

      Suddenly, Scott wanted Harvey gone so that he could make some enquiries of his own. He stood up and strode around his desk where he stretched out his hand.

      ‘Thank you, Harvey. You have gone over and above. I am most grateful.’ At least he now knew where he stood. Though he still didn’t know everything. And it was eating away at him. Did Sarah love this man? Had she ever loved him? Scott could have sworn she did. But then, he could have sworn she would never have cheated on him.

      And she had.

      ‘My pleasure, boss,’ Harvey replied, rising to take Scott’s hand. ‘Sorry I wasn’t able to bring you better news.’

      ‘Like our one-time Prime Minister said, Harvey, life isn’t meant to be easy.’ Or love. Because he still loved his unfaithful wife. Lord knew why!

      As soon as Harvey was out of earshot, Scott took out his personal phone and brought up the number for Sarah’s workplace. When he found out she wasn’t at work, having called in sick, he wasn’t sure what to think. Sarah never took days off, going into work through thick and thin. She loved her job, especially since being stationed permanently in the firm’s pro bono section, which helped people without the funds to pay for a lawyer. She’d worked on a variety of cases so far, including one of unfair dismissal plus several sexual discrimination cases, most of which she’d won. It certainly wasn’t like her to take a day off work without good cause.

      Scott frowned. Clearly, Sarah was still upset. But with him, or herself? Maybe she’d only been unfaithful the once. Maybe she regretted it as soon as she’d done it. Maybe that was what her behaviour last Friday night was all about, her trying to make it up to him for what she’d done.

      Suddenly another truly appalling thought occurred to Scott. Maybe she’d run off with this Leighton fellow, taken off interstate or even overseas.

      Scott’s heart did a savage somersault, then stopped entirely. ‘Is Mr Leighton in this morning?’ he somehow managed to ask the receptionist, his voice gravelly.

      ‘Yes, he is, sir. Do you wish to speak to him?’

      Relief had Scott quickly pulling himself together. ‘Not right now,’ he said firmly. But he would. Soon. First, he needed to speak to Sarah. Depending on what she revealed, then he would be speaking to Leighton. Though he doubted it would be a civil conversation. Scott could feel his temper rising just thinking of that sleazebag who thought nothing of seducing another man’s wife. There was no doubt in his mind that Leighton would have been the one to make the first move. Sarah simply wasn’t the unfaithful type.

      Or was she?

      It was becoming clear to Scott that maybe he didn’t know his wife at all!

      Shaking his head, he brought up Sarah’s number, expecting that it would be turned off as it had been all weekend. It wasn’t, but it was engaged. Who was she talking to? Cory? Or her sleazebag lover? On top of that, where was she? Still at Cory’s place, probably.

      Scott didn’t hesitate, knowing that he couldn’t sit there in his office, stewing over things. It was time to face Sarah again, and to insist on knowing where he stood. Grabbing his suit jacket from the coat stand in the corner, he dragged it on then hurried out to where Cleo was sitting behind her desk, frowning at her computer screen.

      ‘Have to go out, Cleo. Things to do. Cancel any appointments I have this afternoon and take the day off. You deserve it.’

      Cleo glanced up and sighed. ‘You’re not going to do anything foolish, are you, Scott?’

      ‘Not today. I did that just over a year ago.’ When he’d married a girl he didn’t really know, a girl who was an enigma in this day and age.

      Because Sarah had been a virgin when he’d met her.

      As he hurried down to the basement car park Scott began to wonder with some of his old, well-earned cynicism towards the opposite sex if she’d had a secret agenda in keeping her virginity so long. Now that he thought about it through less rose-coloured glasses, how she’d got through high school then university untouched, along with two years backpacking around the world, was beyond credibility. Unless she’d always wanted to marry money, and had seen her virginity as the perfect weapon to ensnare the right rich sucker. Namely him.

      Scott had come across quite a few gold-digging females since he’d made it big in the mining world, but none of them had been virgins. Not even close.

      He hadn’t questioned Sarah’s inexperience at the time; had accepted her explanation that she’d been wary of the opposite sex for a long time because of her cheating father. He’d also eagerly swallowed the added seductive reason that till he came along, she’d never met a man who’d made her really want to have sex with him.

      Not that she’d used the word, sex, at the time. She’d said make love with. Naturally. Nothing crude about Sarah. She was the epitome of femininity, her large liquid blue eyes windows to a soul that seemed as pure as it was incapable of deception.

      More fool him. They said love was blind. Well, they were right, he thought angrily as he jumped into his Mercedes and gunned the engine. But he wasn’t blind now. And he wanted answers. Lots of them!

       CHAPTER

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