The Fatherhood Affair

Lyn heaved a sigh. ‘I couldn’t get him to understand that what I made myself simply wasn’t sufficient for my needs. We married too early in life. Damien was pouring money into the business, trying to expand it. Our future, he called it. Brett was taking money out of the business on some loan arrangement so he could have a good time.’

‘It sounds as if you should have married Brett,’ Natalie said unhappily.

‘You’re right about that.’

And she should have married Damien, Natalie thought. Both women had married the wrong man. The thought hit Natalie forcefully. Perhaps it was something she had always recognised and sternly repressed in the hope that everything would eventually come right.

‘Don’t look so glum,’ Lyn said with her infectious smile. ‘Everything is going to turn out fine.’

‘How do you know that?’ Natalie couldn’t help registering her surprise.

‘Damien and I discussed you at some length, and the role you’ve played in his life.’

Natalie’s instincts rose to the fore. There was something very wrong about this conversation, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on yet...

‘What conclusion did you come to?’

‘You missed the boat, Natalie. Happily for me, I fell right into it.’ She winked. ‘It’s called the rebound effect. Damien and I will very shortly be announcing our remarriage.’

Shock hammered through Natalie. It couldn’t be true. Unless Damien had decided there would be no happiness with her, no matter how long he waited. She frantically searched her mind for something effective to say. Lyn sipped her brandy with a calm, self-satisfied serenity that left Natalie floundering.

‘But...but...you said yourself you should have married Brett.’

Lyn put her glass on the table. The happy infectious smile spread wider. There was no bile in what she said. ‘That was then. This is now. Damien can now afford me, and I’m now prepared to make him a father. The deal is done.’

She stood up and tucked her handbag under her arm. ‘I wanted you to know,’ she said with an air of confidentiality that was somehow insufferably smug. ‘And by the way, I will do my best to give your career a boost. I hope it leads somewhere good for you.’

She sauntered off, not looking back, leaving Natalie to pay the bill.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

NATALIE seethed all the way home. Lyn Chandler had neatly sucked her in, drawn her out, dismissed the past, and moved in for the kill. She had obviously done the same thing to Damien, though with a different end in view.

Superficially Lyn was glittery gold, just like Brett, but underneath the bright patina was an

unremitting core of self-centredness. If Damien thought his ex-wife had undergone a change of heart in regard to her priorities, he was sorely deluded. However, Lyn was undoubtedly clever enough to dress herself in tones that appealed to a man who had just been rejected, and holding out the carrot of having his child was a master stroke.

Lyn wouldn’t be a good mother. Natalie was certain of it. Damien would end up being a parent, all right. Full-time. Either that, or hire a nanny. Natalie couldn’t imagine Lyn taking kindly to changing nappies or losing sleep over a baby. As for the pampering she would demand throughout a pregnancy, the sky wouldn’t even be the limit.

How could Damien be such a fool as to take that woman back into his life? Hadn’t he learnt from his experience with her the first time around? Natalie was strongly tempted to go to his apartment and confront him with what he was inviting upon himself.

On the other hand, Damien was a highly intelligent man. Maybe he knew precisely what he was doing. Maybe he had already counted the cost of a second marriage to Lyn and accepted it as the price to be paid for the family he wanted. After all, Lyn had been his first choice as the mother of his children. His first love. Natalie couldn’t be sure the spark wasn’t still there. She had never seen Lyn and Damien together.

Of course, there was the possibility that Lyn was lying through her teeth about what had gone on with Damien last Saturday. When Lyn had poured out her woes over the break-up with Julian, Damien might have reciprocated with an account of the disastrous fresh start with Natalie. Perhaps, Lyn had seized the opportunity today to drive a decisive wedge into the situation between them, leaving the way open for her to inveigle Damien into a second marriage that would provide her with what she wanted.

In which case, she had to be stopped, and what better time than right now? Natalie no longer had any doubts about Damien’s integrity. She was ready to make the commitment he wanted from her. She wanted to make it. She hoped she hadn’t lost him through not trusting her instincts.

The taxi she had caught from the city pulled up at her house. Natalie didn’t get out. She checked her watch. It was well past six o’clock. Damien would probably be home from work by now. If not, she could wait for him. She leaned forward and redirected the driver to Damien’s apartment in Collaroy.

Natalie immediately started planning what she would say to Damien. The more she thought about it, the less she liked the various scenarios that ran through her mind. They all revolved around her visit to Lyn, and how could she explain that away without it being offensive to Damien?

‘I went to find out what kind of husband you’d been.’

The scorn in his eyes would be spine-chilling. ‘I see. Would you like to see my character references, as well?’

Worse was, ‘I needed to know if you’d been unfaithful when you were married.’

Utter disgust. ‘Still bracketing me with Brett.’