that amount of money?’
He protests, furiously. ‘We were expecting a baby. My dad was in insurance. He always said a young family should have life insurance.’
‘Right.’
He tries to calm himself, regain control. ‘Look, if you’re telling the truth about this kid, I’ll figure something out.’ He gives her a hard look and says, ‘But stay away from my wife.’
She doesn’t answer. She gets up off the bench, turns her back on him and walks away.
He watches her go, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He realizes that he’s between a rock and a hard place, and Erica has put him there.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE TWINS ARE still down for their nap, and Stephanie lies in bed in the darkened room. Even though she’s bone-tired, she doesn’t fall asleep. Her mind is racing. She sees the photographs in her mind’s eye – the car almost buried in snow; the smiling, dark-haired young woman; her husband’s younger, anguished self. All of this happened a long time ago, but it’s all new to her. It’s been there, on the internet, all this time. It’s been in her husband’s mind – I still think about it, about what happened, every day – and she hadn’t known. It makes her wonder what else she hasn’t known about him.
She’d never pressed him on the subject of the death of his first wife. She knew there had been an accident – he’d told her that she’d died in a car accident – but nothing more. She sensed that he didn’t want to talk about it and she let it be. He would tell her when he was ready.
He’d never told her he’d cheated on his first wife. Why would he? She knows so little about his life before. What had that marriage been like? Should she ask him? She has become very curious now about this earlier marriage. Does it presage anything? Will he be unfaithful to her?
She thinks about Erica in the park that morning – how attractive she was, how lovely she must have been when Patrick slept with her. Suddenly she wishes she’d known that the woman talking to her near the sandpit was Erica, her husband’s one-time lover. She might have asked her questions. This woman knows things about her husband that she doesn’t know.
She’s angry at Patrick for bringing this on them. He never should have cheated on his first wife. Then they wouldn’t be in this awful position. Who knows what lies Erica will tell? In today’s climate, people seem willing to believe just about anything – the more outrageous the lie the more gullible people seem to be.
She turns over in bed, feeling ill. The media would love a story like this. An extramarital affair, a possible murder disguised as an accident, blackmail … they’d never be left alone. Even after it was proven, again, to be an accident, the taint would remain. Everyone would know that her husband had cheated on his first wife, and how his first wife had died. Their daughters would grow up being the daughters of that man, the one made infamous in the news.
She’s going to have a hard time forgiving her husband for sleeping with another woman while he was married to his first wife. She has never felt resentment towards her husband before – she’s never had reason. She knows that resentment can poison, even destroy, a marriage. She doesn’t want that to happen to her. She tells herself that it was a long time ago. He’s not going to cheat on her; he wouldn’t dare. After all, she’s the one with the money.
Niall closes the door to his office and pulls out his cell phone to call Erica. It’s been two days since their tryst at the hotel together, and he can’t get her out of his mind. He’s eager to see her again.
‘Hello, Niall,’ Erica says.
Just hearing her sexy voice gives him a jolt of pleasure. He smiles into the phone. ‘I need to see you,’ he says, his voice low. ‘But – somewhere more private.’
‘You could come to my place, if you don’t mind the drive,’ she suggests.
‘I don’t mind at all,’ he says, and takes down her address. They arrange a time for after work that day and then he disconnects, takes a deep breath and calls his wife. ‘Hi, honey,’ he says.
‘Hi, what’s up?’
‘I’m really sorry, but I’ve got to visit a job site after work – problems to deal with.’
‘Oh.’ He can hear the disappointment