you and marry me.’
Despite the offence to herself, Chloe couldn’t help feeling a little tug of sympathy. The baby did make a difference. Although Laura shouldn’t have been having an affair with Tony in the first place.
And she knew it, immediately trying to justify it, her whole body leaning forward in an appeal for understanding as she rattled on. ‘I tried not to fall in love with him. He was your husband and on every moral ground he was out of bounds to me. I truly struggled against the attraction I felt, Chloe, but he sensed it and played on it. I liked working for you. I didn’t want to give up my job, but I was terribly drawn to Tony and one night when I’d had too much to drink, he seduced me into bed with him. I’m as much a victim of his charming ways as you are. I thought he really did love me and his marriage to you was just a sham to further his career. I’m terribly sorry you were hurt but at least now you’ve got Max Hart so you’ve moved on and up.’
‘I’ve certainly moved on but divorce brings everyone down and having Max as a friend does not mean I’m up,’ she sharply corrected her.
‘More than a friend surely,’ she snapped back, an envious flash in her eyes.
Better value than Tony.
She didn’t say it but Chloe knew she was thinking it, and instantly started bridling against the mercenary aspect of Laura’s outlook. She cut to the chase.
‘Why have you come here, Laura?’
She gave an anguished shake of her head. Her hands fluttered in agitation. ‘I’m out of work. I thought Tony would support me but he won’t and I can’t pay the rent on my apartment. I’m almost destitute, Chloe.’ Her eyes begged for help. ‘I don’t have anyone to turn to. We used to be friends. If I hadn’t been thrown so much into Tony’s company because of working for you…’
Anger stirred. ‘Are you saying your pregnancy is my fault?’
‘No…no…but he did deceive both of us. I thought you might understand and forgive how it was, and for the sake of the baby…please, Chloe…if you could lend me some money to tide me over for a while…just bypass Tony and give me what he should be giving me. You could tell your lawyer what it’s for and he could deduct it out of Tony’s divorce settlement.’
The cash cow…Chloe couldn’t forget that phrase. She wanted no part of this-none at all. Yet there was an innocent baby involved and she was appalled at Tony’s callous dismissal of it. ‘What sum of money do you have in mind?’ she asked, careful not to commit herself to anything.
Triumph…greed…something glittered in the amber eyes that was at odds with Laura’s supposed desperation, although the glitter was quickly swallowed up by another gush of tears. ‘I hate asking this of you…’ She blotted up the moisture with a tissue, blinked rapidly, took a deep breath and gabbled, ‘Maybe a lump sum settlement would be best. I could go away, make a life for my child somewhere else, a more simple existence…’
‘How much, Laura?’ Chloe bored in, hating this scene.
She wrung her hands, looked distracted, then hesitantly, pleadingly answered, ‘If you could write me a cheque for fifty thousand dollars…’
Fifty thousand!
The sheer boldness of it floored Chloe for a moment. Had she been such a walkover person in the past? Apply emotional pressure and she’d buckle to it every time? No mind of her own? Is that what Laura had been counting on?
However, there was still the baby to be considered.
‘I won’t hand out that amount of money, Laura,’ she said decisively. ‘I will talk to my lawyer about your situation and get him to talk to Tony’s lawyer…’
‘But that could take weeks…months…I’m down to the dregs of my bank account now,’ she wailed.
‘I assure you something will be done to persuade Tony into shouldering his responsibility within days,’ Chloe said with steely resolve, rising from the dining table to put an end to the distasteful conversation.
‘He won’t…he won’t,’ she cried, remaining seated and burying her face in her hands.
Luther, who’d also sprung to his feet as Chloe had risen to hers, started barking at her to get up, too. Laura ignored him. Chloe sighed impatiently, shushed Luther and spoke very firmly, ‘I promise you, something will be done about getting child support to you one way or another. There’s no more to be said, Laura.’
‘Oh, please, Chloe…’ She stumbled up from her chair-a picture of wretched despair. ‘Don’t send me away with nothing. I don’t know what I’ll do.’
Was that a threat of suicide?
Luther started barking again, not liking whatever his instincts were picking up.
‘If you could just give me a cheque for five thousand,’ Laura begged.
Chloe didn’t like it but she was troubled enough to go to her handbag and extract five hundred dollars from her purse. She held out the notes to Laura. ‘That’s all I have on hand. It should help enough until other money comes through for you.’
She took the money, though still pressing for more. ‘I could cash a cheque…’
‘No. I’ve promised to act on your behalf and I’ll keep my word. That’s it, Laura. I want you to leave now.’
Chloe headed off down the hallway to open the front door. Luther stayed behind to bark at Laura until she followed. Which she did, weeping so noisily, Chloe felt it was a deliberate attempt to weaken her resolve. Though it might not be. She hated this. It was churning her up, making it difficult to cling to her sense of rightness in how she had acted.
Laura paused in the doorway to start pleading pitifully again.
‘No, stop!’ Chloe cried, completely out of patience. ‘Don’t come here again, Laura. I won’t be swayed into doing any more for you.’
Amazingly, her screwed-up face suddenly smoothed out. The leaking eyes flashed fury. She lashed out, not the slightest wobble in her voice. ‘What are a few measly thousands to you when you’re feathering your nest with Max Hart’s billions? Next to nothing!’ The vicious tone turned into wheedling. ‘This is so bad of you, Chloe, sending me off with a pittance, not caring about the baby…’
Luther growled and jumped at Laura’s legs, making her scuttle onto the porch away from him. Chloe immediately shut the door and locked it, breathing a grateful sigh of relief. She bent and scooped the little terrier up in her arms. ‘Good dog, saving me again,’ she crooned, petting him lovingly as she headed for the backyard, wanting as much distance as possible between her and Laura Farrell.
Her head was throbbing and her insides felt all twisted up. So many times in the past she had given in to whatever was being demanded of her, needing to end this awful inner turmoil, but she didn’t feel bad about not giving in to Laura. This was Tony’s fault, not hers. Tony’s responsibility. Laura’s, too. It was wrong that she should be expected to fix the situation.
Although she would call her lawyer and set up a meeting with Tony. One way or another, he had to be made to give his child appropriate support.
Max parked his Audi outside Chloe’s terrace house at Centennial Park and wished once again she was still living with him at Vaucluse. He’d liked having her on hand, liked the sense of going home to her. He knew it was important to her to be independent of him, knew he should be pleased about it for her sake, but it didn’t please him.
It pleased him even less when he went inside and listened to her account of Laura Farrell’s visit and the outcome of it with Chloe involving herself with Tony Lipton again. It was pointless telling her she shouldn’t have given any money to Laura. The baby was the big issue with Chloe. Max suspected it was always going to be a big issue-one that would inevitably separate them if he didn’t rethink his life.
‘Anyhow, I told my lawyer I wanted urgent action on this and he’s set up a meeting with Tony in his office tomorrow,’ she finished with a grimace of distaste. ‘It’s going to be horrid but I can’t just forget it, Max.’
‘No,’ he agreed. ‘It will play on your mind until it’s settled. But don’t assume Laura told you the truth, Chloe. There’s something very fishy about her story.’
Like a lot of emotional pressure for the big handout-a very clever piece of manipulation that Chloe might have fallen for a few months ago, the kind of manipulation Laura would undoubtedly have seen used on Chloe by both Stephanie Rollins and Tony.
She laughed. ‘Luther didn’t like the smell of it, either.’
Max smiled. ‘I made a good choice, getting him for you. Worth his weight in gold.’
‘Absolutely!’ She wound her arms around his neck, her lovely face tilted up to his, eyes shining pleasure in his gift. ‘You have a happy knack of getting everything right, Max.’
He slid his arms around her waist, drawing her closer. ‘Would you like me to go with you tomorrow? Help sort things out with Tony?’
‘No. This is something I should do myself.’ Her mouth curled into an ironic smile. ‘I can’t expect you to protect me forever.’
The urge to do precisely that was very strong. Max found it difficult to back off from it. Probably his intense dislike of her ex-husband was driving it. He didn’t want Chloe meeting with the slime. Yet the encounter with Laura Farrell had definitely demonstrated she could no longer be influenced into doing anything she didn’t feel was right. She was no-one’s fool anymore, and he had no right to fray her confidence in handling a situation which she saw as her business.
‘Besides, I should be perfectly safe in my lawyer’s office,’ she insisted.
‘True,’ he conceded. ‘I’m worried about when you leave it. If Tony turns nasty…’ No mental strength could fight superior physical strength. Chloe needed him to protect her.
She frowned, fretting over the very real possibility that Tony could try physical force on her until a solution struck. ‘I know. I’ll call Gerry Anderson, ask him to take me to the lawyer’s office and bring me home. Gerry’s a very good security guard.’
An independent solution.
Little by little she was separating herself from him.
Soon she wouldn’t need him at all, although wanting him was still strong. He made sure it would stay strong, pouring every bit of his sexual expertise into their love-making later in the evening. Afterwards she cuddled up to him with a satisfied sigh and murmured, ‘You know, Max, I’m not with you because I want to feather my nest with your billions. You don’t think that, do you?’
‘No, I don’t. Never would with you, Chloe.’
She snuggled down contentedly, accepting his word without question.
Max knew he couldn’t buy her.
Wouldn’t want to, either.
Her heart and mind were now geared to making the choices that felt right to her-running her own race.
To keep her he had to make himself her choice.
The hell of it was he wanted her to share everything with him, wanted to share everything with her. Running his own race into the future looked very empty without
