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She turned her head away from him resolutely. “You’re wrong.”
“Then explain your reaction to me last week. When you woke from your coma, you were jumping with joy that I was your husband. You told me I’m the love of your life.”
Her mouth gaped. How dared he use that against her? “And you told me you loved me! What were you thinking, Zayn? You’ve been playing a part this last week. Why? Once you had me as your wife, why pretend to be so doting and devoted?” But she didn’t need him to answer. Realisation dawned on her in an unwelcome rush. “You wanted to know about Andrew. You thought I might tell you in my amnesia fogged state. That’s why you were asking me about him yesterday. Oh my freaking God. I can’t believe you’d go to these lengths… we slept together, Zayn!”
“At your instigation,” he reminded her defensively.
“I thought we were in love! I thought our marriage was as it seemed!” She shrugged out of his arms and took a step backwards. “How could you do this to me?”
“Stop.” He held up a hand imperiously, knowing it was essential that he take control of the situation. He expelled a long, calming breath. “You’re nearly hysterical, and I have no patience for it. I will leave you to calm down, now.” He began to walk slowly towards the house.
“Stop? Stop? I’m nearly hysterical?” She stormed after him, and planted herself squarely between him and the elegant building. “You’re damned right I’m nearly hysterical. Everything has been a lie! You ruined my life and enacted some barbaric revenge plan on mis-information. You schemed to make my dad’s company fail, so that you and you alone could bail him out, and in doing so buy me! All because you were angry that I’d apparently cheated on you? Well, newsflash, Zayn. You were wrong! It never happened. On my life, and my father’s life, I swear to you, Andrew and I have never so much as kissed.”
He regarded her intently, but not by a flicker of his expression did he show any softening to this woman he’d married. “Then how do you explain these photos?”
She lifted her eyes to his face cautiously. “I can’t.” She thought back to that night. “That night is a complete blur.”
His look was scathing. “Another convenient memory lapse?”
“There is nothing convenient about it.” She winced in
pain. “I had some champagne, and then everything went blurry.”
Zayn crossed his arms over his chest, but his mind was going into overdrive.
“Anyway,” she tilted her chin proudly, “I don’t think I’m the one who owes you an explanation. It wasn’t long after that photo that you started seeing woman after woman, making sure to get your picture in every gossip magazine in the world. How did you think that made me feel?”
“Honestly? I hoped it would hurt you.”
She made a noise of indignant complaint. “Why?”
“No one cheats on me and gets away with it. It’s as simple as that.”
She pressed her lips together. “I didn’t cheat on you though. I swear.”
“Yes, you’ve said as much already.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“Frankly, no.” He pointed to the incriminating pictures. “Whatever happened, you ended up half naked in bed with a man who is obviously besotted with you.”
“So that’s it, then? On that basis, you believe I deserve whatever punishment you see fit to dole out to me? God, Zayn, how could I have ever believed I was in love with you?” She couldn’t stand it a moment longer. She turned her back on him and fled into the house. She kept running, until she’d reached the secret sanctuary at the top, where they’d spent that first disastrous night. It had been a sign of what was to come, only she hadn’t known it then. She hadn’t known that pain and misunderstanding would litter their marriage.
* * *
The office was nothing like Zayn had expected. Set on the outskirts of East London, the small legal aid building was dilapidated and disorganized. He waited, conscious that he made the small waiting room seem like a doll’s house with his broad chest and long legs. If it hadn’t been for his desire to dot all of the ‘I’s and cross all the ‘T’s, he wouldn’t have bothered coming.
But he was missing an important detail about his wife’s past, and he wouldn’t relax until he knew it all.
Not that he expected her to be vindicated. In fact, it was what he feared most. If it turned out that the photographs had not been what they appeared, he would never forgive himself for what he’d put her through. What he’d put them both through.
He didn’t need to worry too much on that score. After all, how likely was it that she’d been entirely innocent? It was her bed. Her body. Her email account.
“Sir? Lord Cottee will see you now.”
Zayn rose and crossed the reception area, not at all aware of the appreciative inspection the receptionist gave him. In his jet black suit, he made quite the picture, but Zayn was used to women’s attention. There was only one woman’s stare that had ever been able to set his body on fire.
“I’ve asked them to drop the title,” Andrew said with an apologetic flop of his unruly blonde hair. He ran his fingers through it, combing it carelessly to one side, before extending the hand to Zayn.
