High-Society Secret Baby

by Maxine Sullivan

  The older woman looked startled, then her eyes clouded over. “I hadn’t thought about Christmas.”

  Cassandra understood, but said, “It’s only eight days away.” She paused. “I know. Why don’t you all come for dinner on Sunday, as well?”

  “Er…I’m not—”

  “I think it’ll be good for Nicole to have her grandparents involved in her life like this, don’t you?” Cassandra said, determined to do this. She remembered her own early childhood—without grandparents.

  Laura slowly nodded. “You’re right. Nicole needs us here.”

  That wasn’t exactly the response she’d wanted, but Cassandra managed a smile. “Good. I’ll speak to Dominic tonight.”

  After that Laura left, and Cassandra went back upstairs to get her purse. She checked in on Nicole, praying she was doing the right thing by inviting Laura and Michael here, before blowing her sleeping daughter a soft kiss goodbye and leaving.

  Then she had Dominic’s driver drop her off in the usual place outside the shopping arcade in the city. After Dominic’s threat last night, she was even more uneasy as she looked around to make sure no one was following her. She even went into the dentist’s office to make an appointment, then pretended she’d have to check her diary, before leaving and catching a cab to the nursing home. At least now she could truthfully say she’d gone to her dentist.

  Her father was in good spirits and that delighted Cassandra. Jane Clyde confirmed that she could start volunteer work there the following Tuesday—in time for their Christmas party. She felt the need to assure the other woman again that the money was on its way, and Jane seemed pleased about it.

  So Cassandra felt a little more relaxed when she arrived home. She was sitting on the living-room floor with Nicole and playing with building blocks when her cell phone vibrated in her pocket. Thankfully, it wasn’t the nursing home. It was Penny calling from Sydney.

  “How is everyone feeling now?” Cassandra asked, happy her sister had called back. Could Penny possibly have remembered her birthday yesterday, after all?

  “All better now.” A pause came down the line. “Cass, I need a favor.”

  Cassandra’s instincts went on red alert. Her sister was independent and rarely asked for any help, so this must be important.

  She pushed herself up and sat on the sofa. “What’s the matter, Penny?”

  “It’s Dave. He lost his job six months ago.”

  “What! Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You had so much on your plate, I couldn’t.” Another pause. “Cass, he hasn’t been able to get another job, and our house payments are behind. If we don’t pay two thousand dollars by Monday, we could lose everything.”

  “Oh, Penny.”

  “I was wondering if you could lend us the two thousand. Just temporarily, mind you. Dave’s got a second job interview next week and it looks promising, but even if he gets the job, it’ll be too late to make the payment.”

  Cassandra’s heart sank. She’d help her sister in a heartbeat if she could, but right now was the worst time to ask her for money. She just didn’t have any.

  “Penny, I haven’t got it on me right now,” she said, keeping to the truth as much as possible.

  “Oh, no!” Penny murmured in dismay.

  Cassandra swallowed. She couldn’t do this to her sister. “But listen, I’m told that Liam’s estate will be finalized by Monday and the money in my account,” she fibbed, trying to think fast. She’d get the money somehow. She had to. Even if she had to ask Dominic….

  “That would be fantastic,” Penny said with relief. “But what if it’s not, Cass? We could still lose the house.”

  Cassandra didn’t want Penny worrying more than necessary. “Then I’m sure Dominic will be happy to help out.”

  “Do you think he would? Oh, thank you! Thank you both!”

  “You’re welcome, Penny,” she said, but her mind was trying to think ahead. Lord, things were getting so out of her control now.

  “Everything’s okay with you and Dominic, then?” Penny asked, settling down. “When I heard you’d married Liam’s brother, I did wonder why.”

  Cassandra’s gaze went to the little girl playing happily in front of her. “It was for Nicole’s sake, Penny. Liam wanted her to grow up a Roth, and both Dominic and I decided we would grant his last wish.”

  “Well, you’re lucky the older brother was a hunk, Cass.”

  Cassandra thought about how handsome Dominic was and how intense he’d been in bed last night. She’d known he’d been trying to erase the memory of Keith Samuels from her mind, but their lovemaking had been nonetheless physically satisfying. Emotionally, they’d been miles apart.

  Somehow she tried to sound casual. “Yeah, he’s easy on the eyes, isn’t he?” she joked, then quickly moved on. “Now give me your bank details, sweetie. The money will be in the account by Monday. I promise.”

  “Thanks, sis.”

  “I’m happy to help.”

  They ended the call, but that was only the beginning of Cassandra’s worry. Why-oh-why couldn’t Liam’s estate be already finalized and the money in her account? Then she wouldn’t have to mention a thing to Dominic about any of this.

  No such luck.

  And then something occurred to her and her heart started to race. This could actually work out for the better. All she had to do was tell Dominic about Penny’s predicament, then ask him for a small loan to make the house payment on Monday. That would then give him reason to hurry the money through from Liam’s estate, without her looking like she needed it for herself. And he would be none the wiser about the money she needed for the nursing home.

  It all made sense. Dominic thought she was a gold digger, so mentioning the money for Penny would be the lesser of two evils. Could it really be so easy?

  After Nicole was put to bed and they came downstairs for dinner, Cassandra discovered Nesta had cooked a surprise birthday dinner. The table was beautifully set, and a bottle of champagne sat in an ice bucket on the sideboard.

  Oh, heavens, it was the worst time for this. Her mind was in too much turmoil, trying to figure out how best to approach Dominic. Her stomach was jumping with nerves. Yet she knew that if she didn’t broach the subject with Dominic tonight, she’d probably worry herself into a nervous breakdown.

  Somehow she mustered up a smile, trying to focus on the moment, not on what was ahead. “Nesta, this is lovely,” she managed to say, then kissed the housekeeper’s cheek. “Thank you.”

  Nesta smiled with pleasure. “It was nothing, Mrs. Roth. I’m happy to do it for someone like you.”

  Cassandra was grateful that Dominic walked toward the table right then. She didn’t think she could have stood a sardonic look from him on top of all this.

  He picked up the bottle of champagne. “Care to join us for a celebratory drink, Nesta?” he said, surprising both women as he popped the bottle.

  Nesta actually blushed. “Maybe just a little one.”

  Soon they were all holding glasses, and he raised his in the air in a toast. “Happy birthday for yesterday, Cassandra.”

  Their gazes linked, sending her heart skipping all over the place. Hmmm, maybe he wasn’t as remote as he wanted her to believe.

  “Happy birthday, Mrs. Roth,” Nesta said, then took a sip of her champagne.

  Cassandra drew her eyes away from him and cleared her throat. “Thank you.”

  Nesta took another sip, then said, “I’ll take this with me, if you don’t mind. Otherwise the roast lamb will burn.”

  Cassandra smiled. “You cooked my favorite meal. Who told you?”

  “You did, Mrs. Roth, when we were discussing that new restaurant the other day.”

  “Oh, yes, I remember now,” said Cassandra.

  Nesta excused herself, then departed in a flash, and Cassandra smiled to herself. The housekeeper was another one who refused to call her by her first name.

  “What’s the secret?” Dominic asked, coming to hold out
her chair for her.

  She jolted as she looked at him. “Secret?”

  “Why are you smiling?”

  Relief raced through her. She’d thought he meant real secrets. “It’s just that everyone keeps calling me Mrs. Roth instead of my first name.”

  He lifted a brow. “Who’s everyone?”

  She’d been thinking of Jane Clyde, as well. Then she realized this was the opening she needed to sort things out. “Nesta, and everyone at the dentist’s office.”

  He sent her a penetrating look. “That’s strange. I thought you’d been going to him all your life?” he said, reminding her that he never forgot a thing.

  Her pulse stopped for a moment. Then, “Yes, and that’s the bizarre thing. Once I married…” She didn’t mention which marriage, “They started calling me Mrs. Roth.”

  He stared a moment more. “I’m sure you can handle it.”

  “Of course.” She took a sip of her champagne. “By the way, I had my dental appointment today and my treatment isn’t as intensive as we thought.”

  “That’s good news,” he said, thankfully not looking suspicious of her at all.

  Still, she hesitated before she spoke again. “Incidentally, I spoke to the director of the nursing home and she wants me to start my volunteer job next Tuesday.”

  One eyebrow lifted. “So soon?”

  “Yes. They’re very busy with Christmas and are thrilled I’ll be there to help out.”

  He considered her. “You look happy about that.”

  “Very.”

  “Then I’m pleased you’ll have an interest.”

  His comment both surprised and comforted her. That was so not like Liam. Liam had wanted her at home, ready to be the perfect hostess for their parties, or the perfect wife in public. He hadn’t cared that she’d been bored out of her brain with all the meaningless activity. At first she’d even wanted to please him, but once he’d shown his true colors, she’d realized she was trapped.

  And then he’d gotten sick…

  Just then Nesta came back into the room carrying the soup. Once she’d served them and left again, Cassandra decided to put aside the subject of the dentist and the nursing home. The further the distance between those two things and the money she needed to ask about, the better.

  “By the way, your mother stopped by this morning,” she said, then lifted a corner of the lavender-colored silk at her neck. “She gave me this.”

  His gaze traveled down over the scarf to her pale pink top she’d matched with cream pants. “It suits you,” he said, an appreciative glint in his eyes.

  She could feel her cheeks warm. “Thanks. Your mother has good taste.” She picked up her spoon. “And I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve invited your parents to dinner on Sunday. Adam, too. I thought we might put up a Christmas tree beforehand. Make it a family event.”

  He scowled. “What’s brought this on?”

  “It’s for Nicole’s sake. She’s only little, but I think it’s important for her to be around her extended family, don’t you?”

  All at once his features softened. He acknowledged her comment with a nod. “I couldn’t agree more,” he said, turning her heart over. “By the way, we’ve got a Christmas tree from last year around here somewhere. Ask Nesta.”

  “Yes, she’s already told me.” She idly began stirring her soup, remembering how Nesta had said one of the gardeners usually decorated the artificial tree each year. It had made Cassandra wistful. She’d never had a real tree, not as a child and not with Liam, who had suffered from hayfever.

  “Is there a problem?”

  She stopped stirring and glanced at Dominic. “I was thinking about getting a real tree for our first year.” No one need know, but it had been a dream of hers for so long now. A silly dream. “It would be nice, don’t you think?” She so much wanted this Christmas to be as normal as possible.

  He merely nodded. “If that’s what you want. Just let Nesta know. She’ll arrange it.”

  He started eating and she did the same, glad he hadn’t noticed how sentimental she was being. Having a real tree was such a trivial thing to be concerned about when there was so much else going on in her life, but she didn’t want him to know what a sap she really was about this. And perhaps next year they could even go and pick out a tree together. As a family.

  He mentioned it to Nesta when she brought in the main meal shortly afterward.

  “Mrs. Roth and I have already discussed it, but I think a proper tree would be just the ticket this year.” The housekeeper agreed with a smile.

  They discussed it some more, then Nesta collected the soup bowls and left. Cassandra was tempted to mention the money, but knew she couldn’t spoil the rest of her birthday dinner. She would wait until after they’d finished eating.

  It seemed to take ages before they’d eaten their way through the roast lamb and were finishing up with a chocolate cake. Thankfully she was spared a happy birthday sing-along, then Nesta brought in the coffee.

  “Everything’s tidied up in the kitchen,” the housekeeper said, collecting the dirty plates. “I’ll just pop the dishwasher on, and then I’m going back to my apartment.” She glanced at the few things left on the table. “There’s not much here. I’ll clean it up in the morning, if you don’t mind?”

  Dominic nodded. “That’s fine, Nesta.”

  Cassandra’s heart had begun to thud now that the moment to talk to Dominic was near, but she managed a smile for the other woman. “It was a delicious meal, Nesta. Thank you so much.”

  Nesta looked pleased as punch as she left the room and quietly closed the door behind her.

  Dominic glanced at Cassandra, his lips twitching with amusement. “Do you think she’s telling us we won’t be interrupted?”

  “She was pretty obvious,” Cassandra said, trying not to hyperventilate. She didn’t want to be interrupted, either, but for a different reason. She had what she was going to say all worked out.

  Taking a calming breath, she lifted the coffeepot, trying to extend the moment, allowing time for Nesta to leave. “Coffee?” she said, hoping he didn’t notice her hand shaking a little.

  “Thanks. We’ll have a brandy afterward.”

  The brandy would have been better right now. A double.

  “That would be nice,” was all she said, then poured the coffee, and they leaned back in their chairs and drank it in silence for a few seconds.

  She couldn’t wait any longer.

  She placed her cup down on the saucer. “Dominic, do you remember I mentioned my sister?”

  He looked surprised. “Yes.”

  “Well…she needs some money.”

  His face hardened in an instant. “Really?”

  She winced inwardly at his clear disbelief. “Yes.” She had to push on. “She’ll lose her house unless she pays two thousand dollars by Monday.” She swallowed. “So…um…I was wondering if you could lend it to me and I’ll put it straight into her bank account.” She’d already decided at least that way Penny might accept it as a gift from her, rather than a loan transferred from his account.

  “I wondered when you would get down to needing money,” he said curtly.

  Her heart thudded over at his tone. She actually thought she saw a glint of disappointment in his eyes. “It’s not for me. It’s for my sister, I swear.”

  His lips twisted. “Sure it is. That’s why you want me to give it to straight to you and not put it in her bank account.”

  “But—”

  “I don’t know what you want it for, Cassandra, but you’re just going to have to wait until Liam’s estate is finalized.”

  “Dominic, please. You have to believe me.”

  “I do? Tell me. Why should I believe a woman who has proven herself to be an unfaithful wife and a gold digger? A woman who lies for a living?”

  At the unfairness of it, anger rose inside her. She hated perpetuating the myth that she was only about wealth, but all this had been thrust upon her in the first plac
e. She needed to remind him of that.

  She lifted her chin. “Nicole and I are entitled to our inheritances, Dominic.”

  He glared at her. “I haven’t forgotten.”

  “I married you because of the money, Dominic. Not for it.”

  “There’s a difference?” he scoffed.

  “Yes, there is.” Their marriage had been about keeping her daughter, even if it was tied into the money she needed for the nursing home. Yet how to explain all that to Dominic without him learning about Joe? If he learned about Joe, then he might learn about her “blackmailing” Liam, and then she could still lose her daughter.

  He pushed to his feet. “The lawyers are already working on it,” he snapped, and walked out of the room.

  Cassandra didn’t have time to react, but as she heard Dominic’s footsteps go down the hallway, it was the disgust in his voice that made her heart ache with defeat.

  A short time later, his Porsche started up and drove away. Oh, God. She hated that this raised the hostility even higher between them. But what really threw her was a truth hitting her in the face. A truth she could no longer escape.

  She’d fallen in love with her husband.

  And he hated her with a passion.

  He should have known, Dominic told himself as he gunned his Porsche down the freeway, anger settling like a steel weight in his chest.

  Since their wedding he thought he’d managed to understand this part of Cassandra. That she’d felt vulnerable as a child and it had made her crave security…that she was a gold digger who had valid reasons for marrying for money. But there were simply some things too big to ever accept.

  And that was all the more disappointing because he knew now she had a depth to her he hadn’t suspected before. She wasn’t superficial like he’d thought she was. She was deep, but of course, that didn’t mean her integrity was beyond question. Obviously.

  Hell, he’d come to admire the way she’d survived all that life had thrown at her, but he’d been a fool to forget what she was. She had no hesitation in manipulating him. Sharing her childhood. Telling him she wanted to do volunteer work. Not telling him about her birthday. It had to have been for show.