“London is London,” he said drily. “It's like my second home. Wonderful city, but after you’ve been here a few dozen times you basically know the place so well you stop getting excited . I'm more like an expat than a visitor. Quite a bit of rain here, though, and kind of chilly for August."
“Aaw, that’s too bad,” she sympathized. “When you get back I promise I’ll warm you up real good. In fact,” she said, letting a naughty inflection slip into her voice, “just think about me and you in a variety of brand new positions. That should warm you up while you’re standing in front of your audience.”
That made him laugh. “Bad girl. Now that you’ve planted the picture in my mind you know I won’t be able to think of anything else.”
“That’s the whole idea.” This time she was laughing along with him and her mirth was real.
Sadly, by the time Sloane hung up and she’d lain back down among the pillows, the sadness returned. Within minutes silent tears were sliding down her cheeks. She didn’t even bother to wipe them away. She just lay there, staring through the tears at the now blurry ball of color on top of the chest of drawers.
But when the horrible lump in her throat climbed up and up until she could no longer hold it in she turned her face into the pillows, clutched them to her, and sobbed out her grief and pain.
Nothing had worked. Not sex, not the vitamins and stress pills the doctor had prescribed, not the artificial insemination. She'd done intrauterine insemination, twice, with zero success. Now she felt like there was no more hope.
And on top of her despair was the overwhelming feeling of guilt. She’d promised Sloane a baby, demanded it of him, and he’d put his trust in her and married her. And she’d failed.
It just wasn’t fair. She’d wanted this so bad and worked so hard, to no avail. But mostly, she came to realize, it wasn’t fair to Sloane.
Under these circumstances there was only one thing to do. She was going to give Sloane a chance at life, a chance to find someone who could give him the family he deserved.
Before Sloane got back from London, she was going to leave.
CHAPTER 19
“Honey, I’m home.” Sloane had a smile on his face as he flicked on the light in the foyer and dumped his suitcase and briefcase on the floor. The flight from London had been long and dreary – that, after a delay of over two hours due to bad weather – but he was finally home.
“Melanie, where are you?” he called out as he headed for the stairs. It was late but not that late. He hadn’t expected her to be in bed before ten. Then again, she’d probably had a long day at the office and decided to turn in early. When he’d called earlier that day she’d sounded distant, almost as if she didn’t have time to talk. He hadn’t pressed, knowing he’d probably caught her in the middle of a business meeting but now that he was home he was eager to see her, hold her, make mad love to her.
And he had every intention of holding her to her promise. Making love in all kinds of new and crazy positions? As tired as he was, he was still willing and ready to try them all.
He bounded up the stairs then strode toward the master bedroom. The door was slightly ajar and he could see that there was no light inside. Strange. Melanie usually left the bedside lamp on until he got home.
Gently, he opened the door wider and was on his way toward the bed when what he saw in the shadowy room made him freeze. The bed was still made up and there was no-one in it.
Where the hell was Melanie?
Immediately, he turned and walked back to the door where he flicked on the light. And that was when he saw the plain white sheet of paper lying in the middle of the bed.
A sudden feeling of dread fell over him in a thick, grey cloud – something was seriously wrong. He went over to the bed and picked up the paper.
“Dear Sloane, I’ve made a very painful decision but one which is for the best,” it said. “Our relationship is just not working and it’s time for me to move on. This is hard for me to say, especially since we’ve been through so much together, but it’s better to say it now rather than continue to live a lie. I can’t be with you anymore. I’ve found someone else…”
What the fig?
There was more but Sloane couldn’t read another word. He felt like the earth was shifting under his feet. Another man? Impossible.
And the more he thought about it, the more he realized that it really was impossible. Melanie couldn’t have someone else in her life. Where the hell would she have found the time?
Between her hectic schedule, running Parker Broadcasting and her constant trips to Boston in her desperate effort to conceive, there was no way she could have fit an affair in between all that. There was definitely another story, the real story, and he was going to find out what it was.
Sloane picked up the phone by the bed and dialed Melanie’s cell phone number. No answer. He slammed the receiver back down.
Logically, she must have gone back to the house she owned in Westmount, her home before she’d gotten married. She hadn’t sold it and he knew the caretaker was still there. That was where he would start. If she didn’t want to talk to him on the phone then she’d have to talk to him face to face.
After his flight from Europe Sloane was dead tired but there was no way he was going to let this wait until morning. He jumped into his Benz and hit the highway at top speed, never easing up until he screeched into the dimly lit driveway of Melanie’s old home. He hopped out of the car and ran up the steps to ring the doorbell. As the chimes echoed in the house he waited, shifting from one foot to the other, his insides wound so tight it was like they’d snap at any moment.
A whole minute passed and no-one came to the door. He rang the doorbell again and thirty seconds later he was pressing it again. And after that he pressed the button over and over and over, filling the house with incessant chimes until finally a light came on in the hallway and the door opened to reveal Melanie, her eyes looking big and bruised, her mouth defiant.
“Didn’t you see my note?” She folded her arms and planted her body in the doorway. “Why are you here?”
“I’m here to take you home.”