“Oh, yeah, Shana. That would have swept you off your feet.”
Hopeless romantic that she was, she had chosen to believe that her love for him would make a difference. Then there was the matter of the baby. Perhaps Justin had thought to present her with just such a bargain, but her pregnancy had swept them both up in a whirlwind of life-altering decisions and things had just gotten blown out of proportion.
For hours Shana analyzed the data of her relationship with Justin but after lists of pros and cons, columns of events and results, the bottom line was always the same.
Justin didn’t love her.
Once her anger dissipated, she realized that she didn’t even care that the world knew it, either. It mattered that she knew it.
Justin had made a mockery of her love and that was inexcusable.
Shana had no choice but to gather the pieces of her life that were worth saving and make something good of it.
One of her problems was that she truly loved this hotel more than she wanted to admit. As she walked around the penthouse and saw all the changes she’d made, changes that Justin had actually loved as well, she felt a huge void growing inside her.
She had no idea how she was going to mend her heart and fill that vast emptiness with a different life, but she had to try. Her child deserved the best life she could give it and she would do it.
They would find a new place to live. Perhaps she should go back to Europe. “The south of France,” she mused although her first thought was of Justin and his wish to visit there.
Someday, when her heart was healthy again, she would be able to see Justin and talk with him and walk with him when he came to visit their child. But right now, the image of him was so painful, it made her knees buckle.
The sooner she got Justin Yates out of her head and heart, the better off she’d be.
*****
It was after four o’clock when Justin returned from arduous meetings with Leon, Chuck Hughes and Trent Wellington. Plotting his counter suit to Felicity had exhausted him, but it was worth it. He didn’t care if the courts nailed him to the cross, he would fight the maligning foul creature in order to secure the hotels for his child’s future.
Now that he had somewhat of a handle on things legally, he needed to tend to Shana. All day he thought of the things he would say to her and the promises he would make to ease her pain.
He stepped out of the private elevator and into their penthouse. He heard the sound of the television as he walked through entry hall to the living room. He saw the door to the master bedroom standing wide open.
“Shana?” he called but there was no answer.
Thinking she might be in the shower, he went into the bedroom where the television was blaring. The local news was playing the headline stories. He walked over to the French armoire that held the flat screen television and grabbed the remote from the armchair next to it to turn the volume down. He glanced at the screen and saw Felicity Cummings speaking with a reporter.
“That’s right, Sylvia. I expect that rather soon I’ll be quite involved with the Lux Hotels. Move over Leona, huh?” Felicity chuckled and smiled broadly as she preened for the cameras.
Justin expelled a plethora of expletives and snapped off the television. “How long has that been running?”
He paused a beat to think. He looked around the room. The bed was still unmade. There was no sound of the shower running. There was no Shana calling out his name.
He glanced over at the closet doors and felt the pit of his stomach land somewhere on the floor.
“Shana!”
Racing to the walk-in closet, he threw the doors open. “Her clothes. Where are her clothes?”
Justin opened the doors to the packing table in the middle of the closet where Shana kept her luggage. “Gone.”
He rushed to the bathroom in disbelief. Her perfume bottles were gone. He opened the drawers where she kept her toiletries and makeup. “She’s left me.”
Anger exploded like fireworks as he tossed his head back and screamed. “Nooooooooooo!”
He slammed his fists against his temples and slumped onto the edge of the jetted tub. Staring at the marble floor his anger vanished in a flash was replaced with abject remorse.
“Oh, Shana. I would have done the same thing.”
*****
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Like a caged lion, Justin stormed around his office snorting, growling and stomping for two days after Shana left. He’d called Shana repeatedly and left messages on her voice mail. He’d emailed her, texted her, called her old apartment number and left messages on Cate’s recorder.
“She can’t do this to me! She can’t just ignore me forever!” Justin brightened as he pulled himself to a halt in his pacing. “She has a legal obligation to me.”
Justin instantly picked up the telephone and called Leon. He was put through in seconds. Justin smiled. There were a lot of benefits to being your attorney’s wealthiest client.
“Leon. I need your help. It’s Shana. She’s left me and I want you to get her back for me.”
Leon burst into laughter on the other end of the phone. When he finally calmed down he said, “Justin, I always go the extra mile for my clients, but this is too much.”
Justin shook his head. “What I mean is, I married Shana. She has a legal obligation to me and to our child. She has to come back…or… I could sue her or something, couldn’t I?”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. “She knows about the Will.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t tell her before the wedding? Before it was in the newspapers?”
Justin felt the strangest, alien feeling in the pit of his stomach. He realized he’d never experienced this particular unpleasantness before. It was as if his innards had quick frozen. He realized it was fear. “No. She saw it in the newspaper.”
“That’s really not good, Justin.”
“Legally, you mean?” Justin asked.
“That and morally. Look, I like this girl. I think you like her, too. She deserves better from you, Justin.”
Justin heard recrimination and concern in Leon’s voice, which stabbed Justin in the solar plexus. “I want her back, damn it, Leon.”
“You can sue her. Take her to court. She doesn’t have to live with you according to the Will. My guess is that she will sue you for divorce. Then you would have to counter sue for joint custody of the child.”
“Divorce? She would do that?”
“Look around, Justin. She’s left you. If you don’t do something and quick, that’s exactly what she will do. If I were you, I think I’d ask myself why you want her back.”
Justin frowned and rubbed the back of his neck with his palm. “Fine. Shana is my wife now and she belongs here where I can take care of her and see her through this pregnancy and that’s all there is to it!” Justin roared.
Leon was silent for a long moment, which might as well have been an echo chamber as far as Justin was concerned. He heard his own words and they sounded like the rantings of a spoiled child.
“Thanks, Leon,” Justin said. “I’ll call you later.”
Justin hung up knowing that he had to take action. He thought seriously of calling her mother to see if Shana had flown to Sedona but he hadn’t devised the exact excuse he would give when he spoke to Emily. “Hi. Your daughter left me because I’m an idiot.”
He raked his hair with his fingers and slumped into his chair. “And then what, Mr. Bigshot?”
There was a strong possibility that Shana had indeed left New York, but until this very moment Justin had not considered this. For two days now he’d been convinced that because of Shana’s sense of duty and loyalty he’d believed she would show up to work. Even if they had differences she would have come to work. Her pride would have spurred her to do that. However, Shana had not called him to apologize for leaving him in the lurch. She was being inconsiderate and very unprofessional.
“She can’t keep this u
p forever. We have meetings scheduled with the building inspector and a conference with the construction general and …”
Justin’s anger was so volatile he knew that if he didn’t get out of his office, he would go off on the next person he saw. He stomped out the door and stopped at Helen Mavery’s desk. “Helen, reschedule my afternoon and re-book everything for tomorrow if you can. I’ll be on my cell if you need me.”
“Yes, sir,” Helen said as Justin trounced out of the office.
Justin entered his suite and tossed his key on the white washed oak cabinet in the foyer. He crossed to the middle of the living room and stared at the newspaper still lying on the floor. He glanced up at his mother’s portrait and gazed into his mother’s beautiful blue eyes. “What would you have me do, Mom?”
Shoving his hands into his trouser pockets he trudged to the bedroom where he saw that the carpenters had finished the dry wall separation between the master and the nursery. The painters were obviously on break as they’d left tarps and cans of paint on the floor. The room was nearly finished now. It was painted in a soft butter cream yellow with crystal white trim, crown molding and white doors. The baby’s crib had been delivered this morning. Helen had been good enough to oversee the delivery of the nursery furniture that Shana had ordered.
Justin walked to a white bead board chest with a changing table on top and saw the packages of baby clothes Shana had ordered. He picked up a tee shirt that was so tiny it barely covered his large hand.
“My God.”
The realization of the fragile life he would hold in his hands in a matter of a few more months hit him like an avalanche. For the first time in his life he was going to be completely responsible for another human being. He was no longer at war with his father. He was no longer battling to secure the hotel chain and yet, he knew he’d never been engaged in a more monumental, life-altering crisis as this.
“I have to get her back.”
For over fifty-three hours since Shana left, Justin hadn’t been able to form a strategy of attack and it had been killing him. He’d responded to emotions he didn’t know existed. He’d felt fear, pain, loss and regret. He hadn’t been able to sleep or think and that wasn’t like him.
Shana had turned his life upside down just like she’d transformed his penthouse from a place where he hung his hat to a real home in the blink of an eye. She had made him see himself for the first time and some of it, he didn’t like at all.
Justin stuffed the tiny tee-shirt in his jacket pocket.
“I must get her back.”
***
Shana pulled up the document on her computer, typed in today’s date and hit the print button. “Glad I saved this,” she said as she snatched the resignation letter she’d submitted to Justin the day after they’d met. She signed the paper, folded it and put it in an envelope.
She took the envelope and walked into the living room where Cate was doing her stretches before her afternoon run.
“Would you drop this in the mail for me?”
Cate took the envelope. “Sure. What is it?”
“My resignation,” Shana said glumly as she sat in an overstuffed chair. She picked up a box of truffles and started to open it when Cate snatched the box out of her hand. “Oh, no you don’t.”
“What?”
“It’s not good for the baby,” Cate scolded. “It’s also not good for you or the baby to sit here behind closed draperies for three days. It looks like a cave in here. I can feel my SAD’s coming on.”
“You do not have seasonal affective disorder.”
“I just developed a strong case,” Cate retorted. “Look, Shana. I love you. I want the best for you, but you have to want the same. You can’t keep avoiding Justin. He’s your husband, at least until you divorce him or annul him or something.”
“Divorce?” Shana’s eyes widened and then suddenly teared.
“That’s what it looks like you’re doing. You left him. He lied to you. He married you under false pretenses. Call a lawyer because if you don’t, we’ll have to call a doctor for you. Depression is only something single people can indulge themselves in. You have a baby to think about,” Cate said caringly placing her hand on Shana’s shoulder.
“I hadn’t actually thought about divorce. I still can’t believe that this is happening. He doesn’t love me.”
“But you knew that.”
Shaking her head, Shana replied, “I thought that deep down there was still a chance he might. That he would come to love me. I was hopeful…”
“Hopeless, if you ask me. Frankly, this has all happened for the good. Thank God you found out now and not months or years from now. You could have been destroyed, Shana.”
Shana braced her back and squared her shoulders as courage ripped through her body. It was going to be tough, but she would find a way to tackle each and every difficult day ahead of her. “You’re right. I have to face all this and take action.”
“Now you’re talking sense,” Cate smiled. When Shana forced a smile back at her, Cate said, “Why don’t you come for a walk with me? You need to exercise you know. At least that’s what I’ve read.”
“I will. Give me a second and I’ll change.”
Shana put on her lime green racing back top and realized that her breasts were bulging out of the low cut neckline. “When did that happen?” Then she pulled on a pair of black tights with a lime green running stripe down the leg. “What?” She looked down at the slight bump in her belly. Placing her hands over her abdomen she smiled. “My baby.”
Glancing at herself in the mirror she smiled widely. It was true what the magazines and books said about pregnancy. She was glowing. It was if she was lit by a light from within and she liked it. She was going to be one of those mothers who proudly displayed her bump and then later, the bulge that told the world she was carrying a very, very loved human being inside her body.
Shana walked into the living room. “C’mon. Let’s go see the world out there.”
Cate beamed at her best friend. “Now, that’s my Shana!”
They took the stairs to the front foyer and Cate proceeded through the front door with Shana behind her.
“I thought we do a fast walk. You think forty-five minutes is too much?” Cate asked as she glanced up at Shana who had gone pasty white. “What’s wrong?”
Shana stood frozen just inside the door as she stared across the street at Justin. “He’s here.”
“Who?” Cate followed Shana’s eyes and saw Justin. “Well. Well. Muhammad comes to the mountain.”
“I’m not going,” Shana said and retreated into the building and bounded up the stairs before Cate could stop her.
Shana raced into the apartment and locked the door behind her. She rushed to the window where the drapes still closed out the world and peeked down to the street. Cate had crossed the street and was talking to Justin.
“Traitor! Benedict freaking Arnold! What are you doing?”
Justin looked up at the apartment window and saw Shana watching him. He smiled. Shana flipped the draperies shut. She rushed into the bedroom and peeked through the slats of the wooden blinds. Cate had finished her conversation with Justin and took off for her run.
Justin took out his cell phone and with his eyes still on Shana’s apartment window, he called the apartment.
Shana scowled at the ringing telephone. “Where’s your courage now, Shana?” she berated herself. For the first time in days, she answered Justin’s call. “What do you want, Justin?”
“I want to talk to you,” he said. “Can I come up?”
“We have nothing to say,” she answered.
“At least come to the window so I can see you face. Please. You owe me that much.”
“The heck I do! I don’t owe you squat.”
“Shana, I am your husband!” he countered.
“Only through tricks. Besides, you won’t be for long. I’m…going to get a divorce!”
The words thundered through Justin se
aring him with unexpected agony. She was right. He’d used deception and trickery to claim her as his wife, and until she’d left him he hadn’t seen the harm. Now he was on the receiving end and if he didn’t do something and fast, she would find a way…legally…to leave his life forever.
“Do you have a lawyer?” he asked pointedly.
“I…I…”
“That’s what I thought. Well, to get one you are going to have to leave the apartment eventually, find one, and sign papers in person. And when you do, I’m going to be right here waiting and you’ll have to talk to me then, won’t you?”
Shana opened the blinds a bit further to get a better look at Justin. “What are you talking about?”
Justin glanced up and down the street and seeing no traffic he dashed across and sat down on Shana’s front steps. “Just what I said. I’m staying here until you come out.”
Dropping her jaw, Shana retorted, “You can’t do that!”
“Watch me,” he chuckled.
Shana snapped off the phone and tossed the handset on the bed. “What kind of nutcase are you, Justin?”
***
Justin sat on Shana’s front door step and called his assistant, Helen, to make certain he hadn’t missed any calls. For two hours he sat on the cement step and conducted his business as if he were sitting at his desk.
Along Shana’s street were old oak trees that afforded him a leafy green canopy to shade him from the afternoon sun. He took off his jacket and hung it on the iron railing. He untied his tie, folded it and stuck it in his jacket pocket and when he did, he found the baby’s tee shirt.
“Don’t you worry little fellow, Daddy’s got this under control.”
Justin looked up at Shana’s window and saw her looking down at him through the crack in the drapes.
Billionaire's Love Suite Page 15
