The Ultimate Betrayal

—cash millionaire, I think I recall you saying once.’ Her blue eyes looked up at him speculatively. ‘That means half your assets are mine if we get divorced. I wonder if it would be worth the—’

Taking her firmly by the shoulders he turned her towards the door. ‘We’re going home—to the new house, not the old one,’ he said threateningly. ‘Then we’re going to dump the kids on our new housekeeper while we use one of the finished bedrooms so I can show you which asset of mine is more important to you!’

‘Sounds interesting,’ she mused.

‘It will be more than interesting,’ he promised threateningly.

‘I am in a rather delicate condition, you know,’ she reminded him.

‘That never caused problems before.’ He dismissed that argument. ‘In fact,’ he added silkily, ‘I recall from past experience that you’re rather more—sensitive at times like this.’

Just then the door to his office opened, and three children scrambled in, saving Rachel from having to refute that last provoking remark.

Daniel stooped to pick up Michael, who was falling asleep on his feet. The baby’s head flopped on to his shoulder and Rachel smiled lovingly at them both.

They rode down in the lift and walked off towards the car park, Daniel carrying the sleeping baby, his free arm still resting possessively across Rachel’s shoulders. Sam was a tornado fighter plane, bent on circling them all as they walked. Kate held tightly to her mother’s hand. She had pulled Rachel’s face down and kissed her a few moments ago, her blue eyes full of silent remorse. ‘I’ll never do it again, Mummy,’ she promised solemnly. And Rachel knew she wouldn’t. Kate had learned her lesson the hard way.

It was a sunny day, and half of Masterson Holdings seemingly happened to be gazing out of the office windows as their employer and his family made their way across the car park.

‘I just can’t believe it of him,’ one man said. ‘I knew he was married, but three—nearly four kids!’

‘I’ve been working for him for years,’ someone else put in. ‘And I never knew he was married. He’s always been such a ruthless swine, so sharp you could cut yourself on him. What the hell made a sweet creature like her marry a man like that?’

‘He doesn’t look so sharp and ruthless now,’ the first remarked ruefully. ‘In fact he looks kind of cute. Perhaps he’s different at home.’

‘Or maybe she’s not so sweet and innocent as she looks,’ the second leered. ‘After all—four kids? That takes a lot of loving…’

‘What about my car?’ Rachel protested as Daniel herded them towards his.

‘I’ll get it delivered this afternoon.’

‘Not while I have the keys right here, you won’t,’ she pointed out with perfect feminine calm.

Daniel muttered something beneath his breath, swapped the sleeping Michael for the car keys and commanded the twins to get in the back of the car. They scrambled in, he closed the door, then opened the front passenger door and carefully helped Rachel inside.

The faces pressed to the office windows watched him stalk back into the building only to reappear again a few minutes later with young Archer from Sales—the same young man who had escorted Rachel to Daniel’s office earlier.

Daniel handed him the keys and pointed to the white Escort. The two men parted and Daniel climbed into the BMW. A moment later he was climbing out again and opening the rear door. The twins scrambled out. He came around to open the front passenger door and took the sleeping child from Rachel, then helped her climb out. Then they were all trooping across the car park towards the Escort, where words were exchanged with Archer, plus sets of keys, then the family were opening doors to the Escort and the reason for this swap became clear when the baby was strapped into a child safety seat. Archer was about to make for the BMW when he was stopped by Kate. She gazed pleadingly at her father, who glanced enquiringly at Archer, who shrugged and grinned and held out his hand. The daughter demanded her father’s cheek for a thank you kiss, gave it, then was skipping off beside Archer and the rest were scrambling into the Escort.

‘Good God,’ someone gasped. ‘They’ve got him wrapped around their little finger! I wonder what the formula for that is? It could be worth a fortune bottled!’

‘Blue eyes, blonde hair and the most delicious body even while pregnant,’ someone listed.

‘I thought he had something going with Lydia Marsden not so long ago,’ someone else murmured thoughtfully.

‘Lydia Marsden!’ the scathing cry went up.

‘Sorry,’ the other man shrugged. ‘Stupid idea.’

‘Nice kids,’ someone said.

‘Nice wife,’ said another.

‘Nice car,’ laughed the next.

‘Nice home?’ The joke continued down the line.

‘Nice business,’ sighed someone wistfully.