Prognosis Irreconcilable Differences Page 3
Jacqui nodded. Her mother kept her up to date with all Nate’s goings on. She received regular clippings from the nation’s newspapers, all featuring Nate’s very commanding presence.
Trent Fertility was about to go public.
‘Of course. We do have TV and newspapers out here, you know.’
He ignored her sarcasm. ‘This is big for me. Bigger than anything else I’ve done.’ She needed to understand that he wasn’t asking anything of her lightly.
Jacqui heard the hard edge in his voice. He wanted this badly. ‘I don’t understand. Why do you need Vince? Surely you have enough money of your own? Why do you need his financial backing?’
Nathan shook his head. ‘It’s not about his money. It’s about confidence. Market confidence. Vince is a seasoned executive. He’s known and well thought of in all the right business and financial sectors. He has experience, and a reputation for shrewd fiscal choices. Stock markets, particularly in the last few years, are notoriously jittery. Having him on board will be a ringing endorsement for Trent Fertility.’
Jacqui listened to Nathan’s clinical assessment of Vince Slater’s attributes and felt chilled by how detached he sounded. ‘So billionaire doctor, top of the rich list isn’t enough for you?’
Nathan stalled. She didn’t get it. She’d never got it. A nerve jumped at the angle of his jaw. ‘Like I said, it’s not about the money, Jacqueline.’
She sighed at his stiff response. She, more intimately than anyone, knew that. She understood the demons that had driven him to push himself beyond just a career in medicine. She had been party to all his young-man dreams, his drive to make something of himself beyond just plain Dr Nathan Trent.
The hand-to-mouth existence of his childhood, when he’d been forced to live out of the family car for a while after his father’s bankruptcy and subsequent suicide, working three jobs to put himself through med school, had hand-tooled him to build the medical empire he resided over today.
Twenty fertility clinics responsible for a thousand babies — several to high-profile couples. He’d gone global five years ago, with clinics expanding into the Asian and European markets. Three research facilities. He’d come a long way and become a force to be reckoned with — both in medicine and in business.
More importantly, he’d built something that no one could take from him. Because underneath it all Nathan Trent —fertility guru, medical magnate — craved security.
She sighed. ‘What’s this got to do with me, Nate?’
‘Vince’s wife.’
Jacqui saw the slight flicker in his gaze, the way he couldn’t quite meet her eyes. He looked guilty as hell. She shut her eyes. Had money totally corrupted him?
‘Oh, Nate...you haven’t?’
Nathan blinked, his gaze settling back on hers. He drew his brows together, annoyed that she would think what she was obviously thinking. ‘No,’ he denied icily, his jade gaze chilly. ‘I bloody well haven’t.’
‘Nate...’ He could deny it as much as he liked, but something had happened between the two of them. She could read him like a book. ‘Tell me.’
‘Abigail’s taken a...a shine to me.’
Jacqui raised an eyebrow. ‘And you haven’t encouraged her?’
‘No.’ His denial was as emphatic as he could make it. ‘She’s young enough to be my daughter. And married. To a close business associate and dear friend. You know me better than that.’
Did she? Truth was, she didn’t know him anymore. She hadn’t even known who he was for the last couple of years of their marriage. Perhaps she never had? Perhaps she’d only ever seen what she’d wanted to see?
But he hadn’t exactly been a monk during the decade they’d been apart. Her mother made sure she had a copy of every picture of every woman who had ever been photographed gracing Nathan’s arm.
‘She’s got the wrong idea,’ Nathan supplied.
‘And how would she have got that, Nate?’
‘Not through anything I’ve ever said or done,’ he said firmly. Infidelity had always been abhorrent to him. Jacqui knew that. At least she’d used to. ‘But she’s persistent. She thinks I’m playing hard to get.’
‘So tell Vince.’
Nathan shook his head. ‘Vince may be a financial genius, but he’s dumb as a rock when it comes to matters of the heart. He loves her. You know what they say, there’s no fool like an old fool. It’d break him.’
Jacqui was taken by the softening of Nathan’s voice as he spoke about Vince, given his earlier businesslike summation of the man. Seeing Nate bordering on sentimental took her back to the old days — when he’d been nothing like the man who had looked at her from the kitchen doorway with cold purpose less than thirty minutes ago.
It was clear that while Vince was a means to an end, Nathan held obvious affection for the older man. But she had a feeling that the worst was yet to come, and hardened her heart. ‘I don’t suppose it’d help the float any either?’
Nathan lips flattened into a grim line. ‘Vince would resign. It’d cause a big scandal. A newly floated company might not survive the backlash. Vince is Trent Fertility’s greatest asset for legitimacy in this new frontier we’re embarking on.’
‘Aren’t you its greatest asset?’
Nathan returned her gaze, feeling curiously flattered. ‘Not this time. This is a whole new ballgame and I need him.’
She turned her attention to the murky contents of her coffee mug, formulating the question she didn’t want to hear the answer to. ‘And I fit in to this how?’
‘Cover. If we reconcile, she’ll back off.’
Jacqui shrugged. ‘You don’t need a wife for cover. Get a girlfriend.’
Nathan shook his head. ‘Tried that. Hasn’t worked.’
‘So what makes you think she’ll respect the sanctity of marriage? It seems she has no problem cheating on her own husband — why would bagging someone else’s be a no-go for her?’
He shrugged. ‘I don’t pretend to know what goes on inside the head of a twenty-two-year-old girl who’s been spoilt rotten all her life. All I know is that happily married men are a no-no for her. I suppose even princesses have some moral codes.’
Jacqui suppressed a laugh at the distaste in his voice. Poor Nate. Things were obviously on top of him. Fending off a determined female and chasing the almighty dollar even higher into the stratosphere had obviously run his immune system into the ground.
‘So why now? So close to the float? Why not take evasive action months ago?’
Nate ran a hand through his hair and placed his coffee mug against the throb that had started in his temple at thinking about it again. ‘I underestimated her determination. I came home Friday evening and walked into my bedroom to find Abigail naked on my bed. Vince was in the other room.’
‘Oh, no.’ Jacqui laughed, covering her hand with her mouth to stifle further merriment. ‘That’s awful.’ She pictured the scenario and bit her cheek to stop herself laughing again. It wasn’t funny, she knew, but she’d have loved to be a fly on the wall.
Nathan pierced her with a steely glare. ‘It’s not funny, Jacqui.’
Jacqui nodded, muffling her mouth. ‘No.’ She shook her head vigorously. ‘I know.’
But it was obvious to Nathan it was still tickling her fancy. She was sitting with her arms folded, a hand clamped across her delectable mouth, her body practically shaking with suppressed laughter, her curls vibrating around her face.
‘So, after I got rid of Vince, I told her you and I were reconciling. She’s invited us to dinner at their place on Monday night.’
It was Nathan’s turn to smile as he laid his trump card on the table. Jacqui stilled, her hand dropping from her face, a gasp escaping from her mouth. ‘You told her what?’
‘She’s dying to meet you.’
‘But...But...’Nathan chuckled and Jacqui fixed him with a glare. ‘This isn’t funny, Nathan.’
‘No,’ he said with mock contrition. ‘I know.’
But
still, he meant it. This was no joke. She could tell he was absolutely serious. She shook her head. ‘No.’
‘It won’t be for long. The float’s in a month, then maybe a couple of weeks after that. Just enough to convince Abigail that we’re happily reconciled.’
Jacqueline pushed her chair back and started collecting their dishes. She had to do something — anything to get out from under his compelling gaze. She needed to think. She couldn’t process information when he was looking at her as if they hadn’t been apart for a decade. She reached for his plate.
‘Jacqui.’ He put a stilling hand over hers.
She dropped the plate and it rattled against the wood. ‘I can’t just pick up and leave, Nate, even if I wanted to. Which I don’t. I have a life here. Work.’
‘I’ve arranged for someone to cover your practice.’
She blinked, his arrogance sucking her breath away. Of course he had. Why let a little thing like her objections get in the way of another billion or two?
‘We’re done, Nate. We were done a long time ago — maybe even from the start. We always had different dreams, and no good can come from pretending otherwise.’
She pushed away from the table, turning her back on him, stalking into the kitchen, dropping the crockery into the sink. She pushed the plug into its hole and flicked the taps on, concentrating on the gushing water and not on the man who had come to her house with the most ridiculous suggestion she’d ever heard.
‘You owe me, Jacqueline.’
Even over the gush of the tap, the drum of the rain and the gallop of her heart his quiet but unflinching statement snaked towards her, pregnant with purpose. She squeezed eco-friendly detergent into the water and stared at the frothy bubbles in the sink for a moment, before slowly reaching for the taps and shutting them off.
‘You said you wouldn’t collect.’
Six years ago Jacqui had stumbled across this, her beloved vet practice, nestled right near the ocean smack in the middle of a series of small communities that shared her life philosophy. It had been serendipitous indeed —she’d fallen in love, and it had been for sale. And she’d wanted it.
Wanted it with an intensity that had surprised her. Wanted it more than she’d wanted anything in the preceding four years. She’d been functioning on autopilot since her split with Nathan, and the practice had been the first spark of life — true grab-you-by-the-guts life — she’d experienced.
But she’d been skint.
After every bank in Australia had turned her down, she’d swallowed her pride and rung Nathan. Nathan her ex. Nathan whom she’d walked away from when it had finally dawned on her that he was never going to change. Nathan who’d never wanted the babies and white picket fence that meant so much to her.
Much to her surprise, he hadn’t batted an eyelid. He hadn’t questioned her or lorded it over her, just deposited the sum of money into her stipulated bank account. Almost as if he’d been doing a favour to a distant relative. Maybe a crazy old aunt he was slightly embarrassed to have as a branch in his family tree.
As if by doing so he could finally wipe his hands of her — discharge his duty.
And that had hurt. It shouldn’t have. It had already been four years and she was over him. But it had. To be dismissed so resoundingly. Like a bug on his windscreen or a piece of lint on his expensively cut jacket. A mild annoyance.
So she had worked like a demon to pay him back. And she had — in two years. But deep down, even though he’d assured her in their one and only phone conversation there wouldn’t be any strings, she’d always felt she still owed him. And now he was calling in his debt.
His stringless debt.
Looking at his face, the rigid set to his jaw, the steely determination flinting his gaze, she marvelled that Abigail would even dare pull such a stunt on such a ruthless man. She shivered. Where was the Nathan she’d fallen in love with? Surely he was there somewhere?
He shrugged. ‘You’re forcing my hand.’
Nathan felt about as low as he’d ever felt. But he wasn’t going to let Abigail ruin things for him. Owning a publicly listed company on the stock exchange was the pinnacle, his father’s ultimate dream realised, and he hadn’t come this far to stall so close to the top. So what if he had to play on her sense of obligation? This was business, and if Jacqui was collateral damage then so be it.
‘You could be less superior about it,’ she snapped.
‘Hey. I did ask nicely.’
Jacqui shook her head at his calmly neutral delivery. This was just business to him. ‘Not this, Nate. You can’t ask me for this.’
Nathan moved forward into the kitchen. He stopped in front of her, excruciatingly aware that some errant part of him wanted to move closer.
‘It won’t be for long. I promise. Just do this one little thing for me. Then you can come back here and get on with your life.’
Jacqui could feel herself wavering. This close, his charisma was suffocating. Compelling. Which was precisely what she was worried about.
It wasn’t just uprooting her life and the hundreds of inconveniences that would cause. Having him back in her world for two days — even semi-comatose — had been curiously fulfilling. Living with him? For weeks?
Now he’d given her a teaser, the temptation was intoxicating.
But she had to remember that they were still two different people, living two completely different lifestyles. He was still chasing success and she still wanted to settle down with a tribe of kids, that white picket fence and a dog or two.
But she did owe him. She knew it. Her conscience knew it. Her highly developed sense of fairness knew it. He’d help make her dream possible. Who was she to stand in the way of his? Just because she didn’t approve and it wasn’t her dream didn’t negate it for him.
Nathan could see the indecision in her toffee gaze. He raised his hand and placed it on her bare shoulder. ‘Please, Jacq. I need you.’
Her pelvic floor muscles shivered as his pet name for her rolled off his tongue as if they’d never parted. The years fell away. He was again the boy-man she’d fallen in love with.
She shut her eyes to block out the appeal in his earnest green gaze. She only wished she could also shut out the memories and the warmth of his breath against her face. Tendrils of desire, real and remembered, wrapped her in their addictive embrace.
Jacqui took a mental machete and hacked them back. She opened her eyes and looked him straight in the eye. ‘With one proviso.’
Nathan nodded, prepared for bargaining. ‘Name it.’
‘I want a divorce.’ Seconds ticked by. Nathan looked at her blankly, and she continued. ‘When all this is done — I want a divorce. I think we’ve dragged this out long enough.’
It was time to move on. Way past time.
Nathan couldn’t have been more surprised had she slapped him in the face. Divorce had always been one of those things on his to-do list. But life had been insanely busy. He’d been building an empire and everything else had fallen by the wayside.
At the back of his mind he’d always assumed she’d initiate proceedings, and he knew he would never have held them up. He would have signed what was needed. But she hadn’t, and life, his empire, had taken precedence.
Now, standing here in front of her, looking at her for the first time in a decade, it seemed so...final. He knew legally severing their connection was merely a formality — apart from the loan, they’d not had a thing to do with each other in a decade — and he knew without a doubt that she wouldn’t want a single thing from him.
But suddenly it didn’t seem so clear cut.
Did he want to live in a world where Jacqui wasn’t at the end of an invisible string? Even if it had taken him until now to give it a good hard tug?
He shook his head. This was crazy. He was close to his dream. And that was paramount. He wasn’t going to let two days back in her company derail his purpose. A divorce was a cheap price to pay for what he wanted. He should be Mexican waving.
The heavy finality of his words was like the bells of doom heralding a tragedy, and Jacqui couldn’t believe she was even considering a fake reconciliation.
‘We won’t be able to make dinner tomorrow anyway, Nate,’ she said, staring directly into his eyes for one last appeal. ‘The whole area is flooded. The rivers won’t be down again for days. We’re not going anywhere.’
Nathan smiled at her. He’d won. ‘Lucky for me, I own a helicopter.’
CHAPTER THREE
Jacqueline stood staring at the Gold Coast panorama before her as the last of the sunset’s orange hues turned to a blushing crimson in the evening sky and lights twinkled on up and down the coast. Nathan’s sixtieth floor penthouse in Q1 towered over all the other skyscrapers, and dwarfed Surfers Paradise beach far below.
Was it only this morning she’d been tucked up safely in her sleepy little hollow, in another state, living her life her way? In a few short hours she’d not only crossed state borders but surrendered control of her life to Nathan.
For now.
She placed her hand against the floor-to-ceiling glass, feeling the cool against her palm. She shut her eyes and then opened them. The stunning view greeted her again. She gave another quick blink.
Nope. Still there.
She wasn’t sure if it was vertigo or the enormity of being back in Nathan’s world, but she suddenly felt dizzy. She placed her other palm on the glass, reaching for an anchor amidst the unexpected turbulence in her life.
Nathan walked into the massive open plan lounge and spotted her by the windows, stopping to stare at her silhouetted figure. She’d barely spoken to him since breakfast. She hadn’t been sullen, merely...resigned, packing and making her own locum arrangements while he organised their transport.
Which had made him feel worse. Spitting-mad-angry he could handle — hell, he was used to it from volatile Jacqui — but this subtle duty-under-sufferance routine was tapping his guilt reservoirs and milking them for all they were worth. The fact that he was totally beat, the dying remnants of the flu still maintaining a foothold in his system, left him more susceptible to her silent censure.