Bound by Their Love

by Nicole Flockton

  He closed the door, stopping when he spied his bags sitting on the foyer ground. Greta standing beside them, arms crossed. ‘Angel? What’s going on?’

  ‘I want you to leave. We’re over.’

  Something wasn’t right. What had happened since they’d parted that morning?

  ‘I’m not following.’

  Her anger radiated toward him like solar flares. ‘It’s quite simple really. I can’t be with someone who betrays my trust. I asked. No, begged, you not to tell my dad. But what do you do? You go and tell him I’m pregnant. Not only did you tell him that little bit of information, but you also told him we slept together before my presentation. Now he thinks the only reason I got the account was because my performance in bed was better than my performance in the boardroom.’

  Greta was breathing heavily when she finished. He wanted to take her in his arms and calm her down. It can’t be good for her or the baby to be this angry.

  But he was getting angry too. He didn’t know how her father found out about the baby. Or the afternoon they spent together. But he knew for a fact it wasn’t from him.

  He also knew there was no way Nick or Luc would say something to her father. They had no reason to get involved in his personal life. The only thing that made sense was that someone overheard them at the restaurant. Someone who had access to her father. Someone who had a lot to gain by discrediting Greta in her father’s eyes. Jeffrey had an idea who that person might be, but he wasn’t one to make false accusations.

  ‘I didn’t tell your father, Greta. I would never break that promise to you.’

  ‘Really? That’s not what he told me. Because I thought the only people who know I’m pregnant are you and me. Am I right?’

  Jeffrey ran a hand through his hair. Somehow Greta had found out he’d told Luc and Nick about the baby. ‘No. I had lunch with Luc and Nick today and told them.’

  ‘I can’t believe you did that,’ she whispered, wrapping her arms around her stomach. He went to reach out and steady her. She slapped his hands away.

  ‘Greta. I’m sorry.’

  ‘It’s a little late for that.’

  ‘I know, but you have to believe me when I say Luc and Nick wouldn’t say anything to your dad. I trust them implicitly. Maybe someone from your office overheard my conversation.’

  ‘And that would be so convenient if that happened, wouldn’t it? Then you could be guilt-free from causing my world to crash down around my ears. Well, tough, I don’t believe you. It’s too convenient.’

  ‘What do you mean, your world is crashing down around you?’ Jeffrey really didn’t like where their conversation was heading.

  ‘Dad has pulled me from the account. Then he tells me not to come back into the office until after the gala.’ She laughed harshly. ‘But the unspoken words were he doesn’t want me back at all. So I told him I was done with him.’

  Anger at the way her father was treating her flared to life inside of Jeffrey. He would do everything in his power to get to the bottom of whoever spilled their secret. ‘He can’t do that. I’ll speak to Luc and he’ll fi—’

  ‘Stop, Jeff. Just stop! Nothing is going to fix this. I don’t want anything to do with you or your stupid collection or the campaign. It was stupid of me to think that getting your account would really make a difference in my life. That you and your account could somehow help me get to the top of the advertising world.’

  As she started pacing the room, Jeffrey knew he had to let her say what she needed to say before he could try and reason with her.

  ‘I imagined all the headlines after the launch. Greta Adamas lures the reclusive Jeffrey Courteux out of hiding. To know it was my campaign that led you to having jewellery in every store in the world. That it was me who was responsible for the biggest coup of my career. That because of you, I would get the vice president’s job in Dad’s firm.’

  As she collapsed down on the couch, everything inside Jeffrey closed up. From what she’d just said, she didn’t care for him at all. She only wanted to use him to get somewhere in the world. Like Kelly wanted him to get her into the upper echelons of society, Greta wanted to get into the upper echelons of the advertising world.

  ‘Now what do I have?’ she spoke the words quietly, almost to herself. ‘I’ve got no job and I’m pregnant when I’d never planned on having children at all. My career was my child.’

  The ice that had so recently melted around him, froze in instant. ‘Are you saying you were just using me? That I’ve ruined your life?’

  ‘I want you out of my life, Jeff. You’ve screwed it up so much I wish we’d never met.’

  He shut down as the sound of her words died around the room. He reached into his jacket pocket and put his sunglasses on. ‘Your wish is my command, Greta. You’ll never have to see me again. Any discussions about the baby and visiting rights, et cetera, can be done through lawyers. And that’s one promise I have no desire to break.’

  Picking up his bags, he strode for the door, throwing down the key she’d given him not twelve hours ago. ‘Goodbye Greta, enjoy your lonely life.’

  ‘Likewise.’

  As the door clicked shut, Jeffrey used the sound as a symbol for the closing of a chapter of his life. Never again would he leave his Broome hideaway. Never.

  As the door clicked shut behind Jeff, the tears that she’d been fighting to hold back poured down her cheeks. The sobs echoed around her apartment, crystallising the fact she was alone now. There was no one she could turn to. To help her when she needed it. Her father may eventually come around, but she wasn’t holding her breath on that.

  A knocking at the door penetrated the fog that had enveloped her since Jeff had left. Her heart leaped, wondering if it was him behind the door. That he’d come back to beg her for forgiveness. She squashed the thought before it could take hold. Why would she even want the man who couldn’t keep a promise back in her life?

  You love him and he’s the father of your baby. That’s why you’d take him back.

  The knocking persisted. Greta chose to ignore the truth of the little voice inside her head. She swiped at her face, knowing for sure that her eyes would be all puffy, but she didn’t care.

  Not bothering to look through the peephole, she flung the door open. ‘What?’

  ‘Whoa.’ Sheree held up her hands as if expecting Greta to strike her. ‘Are you okay?’

  Greta slumped against the door. She’d never had a friend to confide in. A girlfriend she could call when she needed to talk to someone. She’d always been too busy to foster any friendships with the girls who’d tried to get to know her better. Now that the life she’d always thought she’d have was changing, she should embrace the possibility of Sheree being that friend.

  ‘No.’ And the tears she thought she’d finished shedding trickled down her face again.

  Immediately Greta found herself being embraced by Sheree and led over to the couch. ‘What’s happened, sweetie?’

  Greta gulped back another sob and sniffed in a very unladylike manner. ‘My life is over. Everything I ever wanted has been snatched away from me. I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘Why don’t you tell me everything?’

  Greta looked over at Sheree. ‘Everything? Do you have a week?’

  ‘That bad, huh?’ Sheree laughed and an answering spark ignited inside of Greta and a broken laugh erupted from her.

  ‘Well, I guess a week is a slight exaggeration.’

  ‘You don’t say? Start at the beginning and then we can go from there.’

  Which beginning, Greta wanted to ask. The beginning of her life when the moment she entered the world and had disappointed her father by being a girl not a boy. Or the beginning when her mother had died and she and her father were all alone. Or the beginning when she first met Jeff and her life careened out of control.

  She couldn’t find the words. Seeing her distress, Sheree took hold of her hand. Greta looked up. ‘How about you tell me about your baby daddy. I have a f
eeling he’s the catalyst for everything, isn’t he? Was that him who stormed out of here not long ago, as if his world had been torn apart?’

  ‘His world isn’t being torn apart. His world is just the way it always was. It’s my life that’s been torn apart and irrevocably changed.’

  ‘Well, to me he looked like he’d lost everything that was important to him.’

  Greta paused and thought over what Sheree was saying. Was it possible that Jeff was just as upset as she was? No, she couldn’t believe it.

  ‘It doesn’t matter what he looked like. Whatever we had is o-over.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because he broke a promise to me. Now I’ve lost everything that was important to me. My job. The account of a lifetime. The account that was going to get me the ultimate job of my career. My father’s respect. Everything. And he took it all away.’

  Greta pulled herself away from the couch. She couldn’t sit, she needed to be moving. Needed to do something, otherwise she knew the tears would start up again and she was afraid they’d never stop.

  ‘Greta, stop.’ Sheree’s quiet demand had her feet halting. ‘Why don’t you tell me everything? I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation to everything. You can’t give up on the father of your child. Is your career so important to you that you’d give up possible happiness with a man you love?’

  ‘I don’t love him?’ The words tripped off her tongue but they didn’t sound convincing, even to her own ears.

  ‘Are you sure? If you didn’t love him, do you think you’d be crying every ten seconds? I can see the pain in your eyes. I have no doubt he did something to hurt you. If you didn’t love him, he wouldn’t have the power to hurt you so deeply.’

  Greta stopped her pacing. She may think she hated Jeff but, like the little voice inside her head told her, she did love him.

  ‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘Yes, I do love him. I don’t know what I’m going to do now.’

  ‘Look, I don’t know the whole story and I’m not going to pressure you to tell me. It’s clear that it’s all too raw and painful. Maybe you have to process it in your mind before you can tell me. I’ll be here when you’re ready to do that. But there is one thing I do know.’ Sheree paused and walked over to where Greta stood. ‘You need to talk to him. Tell him you’re sorry. Tell him you want to try and work things out.’

  Greta couldn’t deny Sheree had a point. She wasn’t sure she was ready to face Jeff just yet.

  ‘Did you and your husband have fights like this?’

  Sheree laughed. ‘All the time. Still do, although we try not to be too obvious about it. The girls tend to pick up on things.’ A beeping sounded around the room and Sheree pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at the screen. ‘I’ve got to go, the nanny is about to leave. Let me say this one last thing about relationships. When you truly love someone, and I mean bone-deep-can’t-live-without-the-other-person type of love, then you will do anything for them, anything. Like I know my husband will do anything for me. And I would do anything for him. Can you say the same thing about you and Jeff? Think about that and you’ll know what to do. If you need me, I’m always here for you to talk to.’

  Sheree gave her hug. Greta returned the hug, feeling grateful for fate throwing them together in the lift that day.

  Once the door closed behind Sheree, Greta went back over their conversation. Did she have the courage to call Jeff and work things out?

  Chapter 24

  Nerves assailed Greta like darts being thrown at a dartboard. She wiped her hands down the sides of her trousers. She’d taken a risk and had headed over to the Palazzo Regent, hoping Jeff had headed there and not to the airport to catch a flight back to Broome.

  Fortunately her guess had paid off and she now found herself standing out the front of the penthouse suite at the hotel. She took a deep breath and raised her fist, halting a hair’s breadth away from hitting the white wooden door. Sucking away her nerves, she knocked briskly.

  The wait for her knock to be answered seemed never ending. The door opened and her breath caught in her throat. Any thoughts of denying she loved Jeff died when she saw him standing there in a towel, droplets of water glistening on his chest. Her hand moved to reach out and wipe away the droplets. She quickly put it down.

  ‘What do you want?’

  Nervous laughter bubbled up as she recalled saying something similar, in the exact tone to Sheree, not two hours ago.

  ‘Can I come in?’

  ‘Now’s not a good time.’ He crossed his arms over his impressive chest and it took everything in Greta not to run her fingers over his arms. Entice those arms open so they could wrap around her.

  ‘Please, Jeff, can we talk? About what happened this afternoon.’

  ‘I thought you were done talking.’ His words clipped and cold and she knew if he could get his sunglasses he’d put them on.

  ‘It’s not just about us, Jeff. We’re having a baby.’

  If possible, his body seemed to tighten at the mention of the baby. ‘If I remember correctly, you said the baby has ruined your life. Even before it has been born.’

  Greta sighed. There was no point denying something she knew she’d said. ‘I was angry. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.’

  ‘Well, let me put it this way.’ Jeff uncrossed his arms and took a step closer to her. ‘When the baby is born I plan to sue for sole custody. I will be more than happy to take away this little “inconvenience” and be a single father. At least then I’ll know the baby will be looked after and not fobbed off to nannies because you’re too busy chasing your father’s approval. I will not let my child feel like they’re unwelcome.’

  ‘You wouldn’t dare!’ Greta’s arms closed around her stomach. Hoping to protect her child from the words just spoken.

  ‘Try me. Now,’ he opened the door a bit more and she noticed someone sitting on the couch. Someone with long hair and legs to match. Someone definitely not male. ‘I said I’m busy. I’ll speak to you in a few months.’

  Greta’s knees buckled and she slid to the ground as the door closed. Surely he hadn’t been playing with her all this time?

  How could things have gone so wrong so quickly? She wished she could turn the clock back and replay the moment Jeff turned up at her apartment that afternoon. Why had she let her anger take control of her? Why hadn’t she thought before she’d spoken?

  Slowly getting to her feet, she made her way down the hall back to the lifts. There was no chance of a reconciliation with Jeff now. And there was no way she was going to let him take her child. No way at all.

  Jeffrey leaned his head on the door and felt like the biggest arsehole on the planet. But he wasn’t ready to face Greta again. He needed to get himself and all the feelings he had for her sorted out.

  ‘Now I know why you, Lukas and Nick get on so well.’

  Jeffrey turned around and faced the woman who had been sitting on his couch—the very pregnant wife of his best friend.

  ‘Why is that?’

  ‘Because you all act before you think, and hurt the ones you love.’ She waved him away before he could respond and deny that he loved Greta. ‘Go and get dressed before Lukas arrives and gets totally the wrong idea.’

  His hands went to his towel to make sure it was secured and walked to the bedroom to get dressed. The last thing he wanted to do was have dinner with Luc and Jasmine. But it was better than sitting in his room dwelling all night on how everything had gone to hell with Greta.

  He returned to the living room and found that Luc had arrived. His friend was too busy kissing his wife to notice Jeffrey had walked into the room.

  ‘Shall I go back into the bedroom and leave you two alone?’ he said drily.

  Luc pulled his lips away from his wife and looked at him. ‘Very funny. Are you ready for dinner?’

  ‘As ready as I’ll ever be!’ He tried to inject enthusiasm into his voice but it was impossible.

  ‘What happened?’ Luc asked as he stood
and walked over toward him. ‘What did you do?’

  ‘What makes you think I did anything?’

  Luc laughed and Jeffrey wanted to wipe the smug look off his face. ‘I recognise the look of self-loathing on your face. I was well acquainted with it at one point in my life.’

  As Jasmine approached her husband, the look of love on her face burned into Jeffrey’s soul. He wanted Greta to look at him that way.

  Oh God, he really did love her and want her.

  ‘I’m such an arse,’ he muttered.

  Jasmine laughed and touched his arm. ‘I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think. Even though you were a complete jerk when she was here earlier.’

  ‘Cara, can’t you see the man’s hurting?’ Luc leaned in and kissed his wife beneath her ear. Jeffrey closed his eyes as she melted into his friend. He couldn’t believe he was jealous of his best friend’s relationship.

  ‘Why don’t you two just go home instead of taking me to dinner. I’m not sure I can handle seeing you all lovey-dovey with each other.’

  Jasmine pulled herself away from Luc. ‘Why don’t you tell us exactly what happened and then we can work out how you can win your girl back.’

  ‘I don’t think it will be that easy.’

  This time it was Luc that spoke. ‘Nothing is impossible. But I hazard a guess it had something to do with a visit I had from Graham and Derek this afternoon?’

  ‘What did they want?’

  Luc led Jasmine back to the couch and sat. ‘They came to tell me that Greta had requested to be taken off the account due to health concerns, and they would be dealing with the final arrangements. Is everything okay with the baby?’

  ‘Baby?’ Jasmine looked between the two men, before she hit Luc lightly on the arm. ‘You didn’t tell me.’

  ‘I just found out today, cara.’

  ‘You could’ve called.’

  Watching the domestic exchange between the tough businessman and his wife had him wishing he could have those sorts of discussions with Greta in their future. He needed Greta.