Deliberately keeping her gaze off the couch, she strode into the room and located Darius, who was in front of his desk, with his arms crossed and his eagle-eyed scrutiny fixed on her.
“Isobel.”
“Can we get this over with so I can return to Aiden?”
He didn’t move, but she could practicallyseehim bristle. “How is he?” he asked, surprising her once more with his concern for her son.
“Sleeping, as you said,” she murmured. “He’s still warm, but he seems to be resting okay.” Drawing in a breath, she mimicked his pose, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m sorry you couldn’t reach me. That was my fault. I was at work, and management doesn’t allow us to have our cells on us. And I didn’t even notice I had missed calls when I left. So I apologize for worrying...everyone.”
“Work?” he asked, his voice dropping to a low rumble. “What ‘work’?”
“I’m sure the private investigator you hired included my job in his or her report,” she said, sarcasm dripping from her tone. “If not, you might want to request a refund for his shoddy performance.”
He shook his head, dropping his arms to slash a hand through the air. “Don’t tell me you’re still going to that supermarket?”
“Of course I am,” she replied. “That contract didn’t require me to give up my job.”
“Why?” he demanded. “You don’t need the job, especially when it pays basically pennies. And yes, I do know how much you make, since my investigator’s report included not only where you work but how much you’re paid,” he added.
“There’s nothing wrong with ringing up groceries. It’s good, honest work.” She thrust her chin up. “Maybe you’re so far removed from that time in the mail room, you don’t remember what that’s like.”
“No, there’s nothing wrong with your job.” He frowned, cocking his head to the side. “But what do you need it for, Isobel? If there’s something you want, why don’t you just come to me and ask?”
His obvious confusion and—hurt?—smoothed out the ragged edges of her anger. How could she make him understand?
After his parents had died, he might’ve lived with the Wellses, but he’d never been totally dependent on them. Not with a multibillion-dollar empire waiting on him. Not with homes scattered around the country and money in bank accounts. He didn’t know the powerlessness, the helplessness of being totally reliant on someone else’s generosity...or lack of it.
She’d learned that particular lesson the hard way with Gage. Yes, she might’ve held down the job when she’d been married, but Gage had considered his role to be manager of their finances. And he’d been horribly irresponsible with them. And later, when his parents had parceled out sympathy money to him, he’d stingily doled that out to her, holding money for things like groceries and diapers over her head.
Never again would she be at the mercy of a man.
And if that meant keeping a low-paying job with good hours so she could maintain a measure of independence, then she would do what was necessary. If it meant losing some time with Aiden while she squirreled away her wages, well, then sacrifices needed to be made. She needed to be able to provide for them when Darius’s charity finally reached its limits.
She was a mother first. And any good mother did what needed to be done.
“Then enlighten me, Isobel. Because I don’t understand. You have a home. You don’t have to pay any bills. You even have cars at your disposal if you’d stop being so damn prideful and use them—”
“No, you’re wrong,” she interrupted, her voice quiet but heavy with the emotion pressing against her sternum. Frustration, irritation and sadness. “Youhave a home.Youhave cars at your disposal.Yourmoney pays the bills. None of this is mine. Even after we sign that marriage certificate and exchange vows, it still won’t be. If you put me out, I couldn’t leave with any of it. Couldn’t lay claim to it. And you could put me out at any time, on any whim, because of any conceived sin on my part. And I would be on the street, homeless, with no money or resources for me and my son. No.” She shook her head. “I won’t allow that to happen.”
He stared at her, shock darkening his eyes. His lips parted, head jerking as if her words had delivered a verbal punch.
“I would never abandon you or Aiden like that,” he said, the words uttered like a vow.
She knew only too well how vows could be broken.
“I know you believe you wouldn’t. But minds change, feelings change,” she murmured. Then, suddenly feeling so tired that her limbs seemed to weigh a hundred pounds, she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Are we done here? I need to get back to Aiden.”
“No,” he said, the denial firm, adamant. As if it’d pushed through a throat coated in broken glass. “You don’t believe me.”
“I wanted to return to college. Did you know that?” she asked softly. Without waiting for him to reply, she continued, “One of my regrets is that I quit school. I would’ve been the first one in my family to earn a degree if I’d stayed. So graduating from college was a dream of mine, but when I broached it with Gage, he convinced me to wait until after the baby was born. At the time, I thought him wanting that time for the two of us was sweet. So I agreed. But after Aiden came, I couldn’t go back. Working a full-time job, being a mom...” She shrugged. “College would’ve been too much, so I had to place it on the back burner. But I’ve always wanted to go back. To obtain that degree. To have a career that I love. And when Aiden is older, I’ll show him that no matter how you struggle, you can do anything you desire.”
Scrubbing her hands up and down her arms, she paced to the wide floor-to-ceiling window and stared sightlessly at the view of his Olympic-size pool, deck and firepit. Her admission made her feel vulnerable, exposed.
“Did Gage support your dream?” Darius asked quietly.
She didn’t turn around and face him. Didn’t let him see the pain and anger she couldn’t hide. Darius didn’t want to hear the truth. Wasn’t ready to hear it. And he wouldn’t believe her anyway. College, money for tuition—those had been givens in his and Gage’s worlds. He wouldn’t understand or see how his friend would begrudge his wife that same experience.
“Gage had specific ideas about the wife he wanted,” she whispered instead. “A wife like his mother.” One to cater to him. Be at his beck and call. Place him as the center of her universe, at the exclusion of everyone else.
