The Ultimate Surrender

The tears that burned the back of her throat and eyes felt like raw acid.

What was she doing crying over him, a man who had not only been the cause of her betraying every moral cornerstone she had built her life on but who, in addition, had callously and cynically laid bare the intimacy of her feelings to the woman he really loved?

She had never dreamed that Marcus would be capable of an act of such malice and degradation and she still found it hard to believe.

‘When are you ever going to learn?’ she asked herself out loud as she faced the mirror. ‘He was using you, abusing you, and you let him. You encouraged him. You deserve everything you got. You deserve Suzi’s anger and her contempt, and right now, knowing what you know about him, you should be thanking your lucky stars that he loves her and not you.’

‘You’re just someone he was using for sex because I wasn’t there,’ Suzi had taunted, and, even though she had known all along that that was what he was doing, having it put into words, hearing Suzi tell her that Marcus felt nothing for her, had torn her apart and left a huge gaping wound within her that she knew would never be properly healed. Never.

How was she going to be able to continue to live and work at Fraser House now?

But she didn’t have to stay there—not with Phil’s job offer on the table.

The thought of leaving Fraser House wrenched painfully at her heartstrings, but she told herself that it was a punishment she fully deserved in view of her own folly.

She had, after all, seen Marcus with Suzi, sensed the intimacy between them.

But for Marcus to have made love to her out of nothing more than sexual necessity and spite was so far removed from the man she had thought him to be she could hardly bear to think about it.

By the time she reached home she had made up her mind. She was her own person, and responsible for her own life. What was the point in exposing herself to even more misery and humiliation? Before she could weaken and change her mind she telephoned her solicitor, Richard’s family solicitor, who had known her all her married life.

‘You want to sell your share in Fraser House,’ he repeated when she’d told him what she wanted to do.

‘Yes,’ she insisted, explaining at least half truthfully, ‘Briony is at college now and Marcus is moving into his own house. I’ve been offered the chance to manage a much larger hotel and—’

‘Have you discussed this with Marcus?’ she heard Tim Webb asking her.

‘Not yet: he’s away on business in China at the moment and this offer came up rather unexpectedly, but…’

‘Well, I would certainly counsel you to do so, Polly. You and Marcus are, as you know, joint owners of Fraser House but—’

‘Yes, I appreciate that,’ Polly agreed. ‘All I’m asking you for, Tim, is your advice on how, legally, I should go about selling my share and withdrawing from managership of the hotel,’ she reminded him gently.

‘Well, as to that, the contract I drew up for you when you became the hotel’s general manager is pretty flexible and informal, as you know. At the time Marcus was anxious to make sure that everything was shipshape from a financial point of view. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of the muddle Richard left his affairs in, and I know that Marcus was concerned that you and Briony should be financially secure.’

Sensing that Tim was rebuking her, Polly felt her face starting to burn.

The time of Richard’s death had been so traumatic for her that she had only the haziest recollection of the more practical side of things. Marcus had taken charge of everything, and whilst she could remember feeling that his behaviour had been rather high-handed at the same time she had also felt an undeniable sense of relief that he had taken charge for her.

‘I’m not planning to defraud Marcus, Tim,’ Polly responded sharply. ‘I simply want to know what the procedure is, what exactly I need to do to ensure that I’m free to accept this new position I’ve been offered. With the plans he’s got for his own life I think you’ll find that Marcus will be only too glad to have any kind of contact with me legally severed.’

Appalled at what she was saying, what she might be giving away, Polly abruptly stopped speaking, but fortunately, either because he was too wise to comment or because he hadn’t realised the significance of what she had just said, the solicitor did not take her up on her incautious statement.

He simply said, ‘I’m sorry. I’ll need to get the file out and go through it. I suspect a formal letter to Marcus should be sufficient to release you from your responsibilities as the hotel’s manager. So far as your financial involvement as co-owner goes, though…’