by Folsom, Tina
“What is your point?” Daniel interrupted.
Brian sighed. “My point is, we can’t go through with the business deal. If we associate ourselves with you, it will . . . uh . . . taint our reputation.”
“You want to toss a multi-million dollar deal out the window because your reputation might be tainted in the process?”
Brian chanced a look in Sabrina’s direction as if his words needed any further explanation. “We can’t afford a scandal like this. You must understand.”
“Oh, I understand,” Daniel responded coolly, but inside he was fuming.
Brian and his father were backing out of the business deal they’d been working out for the last couple of months, because they didn’t want to be associated with a man whom they believed was marrying an escort.
He watched as Brian turned and left hastily, as if even a second longer in his and Sabrina’s company would implicate him in the same scandal.
21
Sabrina looked up at Daniel, who was still standing. “I’m ruining your life.”
He pulled the chair next to her back and sat down, leaning toward her. Her chest hurt, and she knew it wasn’t a physical pain though it felt like one. It hurt because she realized she had to take action now, before everything got even worse. She had no choice but to save what could still be saved.
“No, you’re not.” He made a dismissive hand movement in the direction in which Brian Caldwell had left. “People pulling out of business deals happens all the time. It’s nothing new.”
She shook her head and let out a resigned sigh. “You’re a terrible liar, Daniel. We both know why this deal fell apart. It’s because of me. Because of what they think I am. It’s never going to stop, is it?” She was certain of it. People in this town would always let her feel what they thought of her, just like Mrs. Teller and the woman from the lingerie store had. And now Brian Caldwell. And he wouldn’t be the last.
Daniel’s mouth set into a grim line. She knew then that she’d hit a nerve. “It will once they print the retraction.”
“But they’re not printing it, are they? We’re four days away from the wedding, and everybody still thinks it’s true. Your mother keeps getting more and more cancellations from guests. Daniel, this isn’t affecting only me. It’s affecting you, your business, your family.”
And she didn’t want to be responsible for destroying the lives of the people she loved.
“We’ll get through this together.”
Sabrina took a deep breath and prepared herself for what she had to do. The sadness that spread inside her felt like a cold hand that was trying to choke the life out of her. “The looks and whispers, the lies and accusations, they will destroy us. Today it’s one business partner pulling out of a deal, tomorrow it’s another. Don’t you see that this will only get worse? Your whole livelihood is at stake. And your parents? Do you think they will really stand by and watch all this without secretly wishing I weren’t there anymore?”
Daniel jerked back, his jaw dropping open, his chest lifting. “What are you saying?”
She looked at him with longing. She’d never loved a man like she loved him, but love wasn’t enough for a life together. Not anymore. If she only had herself to think of, she would meet the challenge head-on and weather the storm, take the insults, the snide remarks, the shunning, and not flinch. But this wasn’t about her alone anymore. She couldn’t bring a child into this situation. She couldn’t do that to their unborn child.
“My parents love you. They’re standing by us.” Daniel put his hands on her shoulders and peered into her eyes. “It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. You and I know the truth, and we love each other. We don’t need anything else.”
Yes, they loved each other, and she didn’t know how she could go on without feeling his love. But because she loved him, she had to make this decision, or one day he’d hate her for having ruined his life.
With a sad smile she shook her head. “It’s not enough. Don’t you understand? As long as this story is out there uncontested, nothing will ever be right.”
“They will retract it.”
“When?” she murmured, knowing that Daniel was stalling. By the look on his face he knew it too.
Daniel sighed. “I don’t know. Soon.”
“I’m sorry, Daniel. Soon isn’t enough. I think we made a mistake.”
“What kind of mistake?”
“We shouldn’t get married.” When the words were out, her heart clenched painfully, and she knew now what true pain felt like: as if somebody were slicing her heart into thin strips.
“Not get married?” Daniel stared at her in shock.
“This relationship was doomed from the start.”
“Doomed?” he repeated. “Don’t say that!”
“It started with a lie and spiraled downhill from there. It seems like no matter how hard we try, something or someone is always getting in our way.” She rose, her legs so shaky she was wondering if she would collapse if she took a step.
Daniel grabbed her arm, getting up at the same time. “Don’t do this!”
“Please let me go! Don’t make this any harder than it already is,” she demanded softly. “I can’t marry you. This scandal will eventually destroy your life, your reputation, your business. And I could never live with myself knowing that I’m responsible for it. I can’t carry that burden.”
Because it would be hard enough to care for their child on her own. To raise it without it ever finding out what her mother had done. To love it so much that it would never know of the father’s love she was depriving her child of.
“Sabrina, you’re overreacting. Your father upset you. In a day or two you’ll feel different. Please!” His gaze locked with hers. “Don’t do this!”
“I’m sorry.” Sabrina slid her engagement ring from her finger and held it out to him with shaking hands. The gold seemed to burn in her palm.
Daniel refused to take the ring. “We can work this out, Sabrina. We’ve done it before, and I know we can do it again.”
She shook her head, her mind spinning and her eyes welling up with tears she desperately tried to suppress. “I love you, Daniel, but I can’t stand by and watch your life get destroyed because of this. One day you’ll know I was right. You’ll thank me then.”
With her last ounce of strength, she put the ring on the table and drew in a shaky breath. If she didn’t get out of here right now, she would burst into tears, and Daniel would put his arms around her. And then, her resolve would crumble.
She turned on her heels and nearly collided with the waiter carrying a tray of drinks. She slid past him quickly, not wanting to give Daniel a chance to stop her. She couldn’t allow it.
“Excuse me, sir, your drinks,” she heard the waiter say, as she hurried away.
Keeping her head down so she wouldn’t meet the eye of any of the club’s guests, she rushed through the dining area, then entered the foyer.
She reached into her purse without stopping and felt for the spare key for Daniel’s car. Clutching it tightly in her palm, she ran outside and unlocked the car. When she turned the key, the engine howled. She put it in gear and backed out of the parking spot, turned and drove down the long driveway leading away from the country club. Her movements seemed mechanical as if somebody else were steering her body.
Her vision became blurred, and she brought her hand to her eyes, wiping away her tears. She had to get away from here and start a new life where nobody knew her. Away from the scandal. Away from the lies. Away from Daniel.
Her baby would never have to listen to the lies about her. It would never have to hear them call her a whore.
22
Daniel looked after Sabrina in disbelief. This couldn’t be happening!
“Sir, the drinks,” the waiter repeated.
“We’re not staying. Put the charge on my account.” Daniel tried to squeeze between the waiter and a potted plant, when the waiter moved in the same direction. “Excuse me,” D
aniel ground out, watching as Sabrina disappeared inside the club building.
Finally the waiter moved out of his way, and he was able to pass and run after Sabrina. He didn’t care who found his hasty departure curious.
The Maitre d’ tossed him a displeased look, when Daniel charged past him and stormed into the lobby, then outside. He got there just in time to see Sabrina speed away in his sports car.
Daniel stomped his foot on the ground. “Fuck!”
He’d forgotten that she had a spare key to his car, and hadn’t expected that she would leave him in the dust like this.
As he watched her disappear, a dark Mercedes with tinted windows pulled up and stopped in front of the entrance to the club house. The passenger door opened, and Linda Boyd stepped out.
Daniel inwardly groaned. Linda was the last person he wanted to see right now. He tried to turn away to avoid her, but it was too late. She’d obviously spotted him from afar and was already making a beeline for him.
“Hi Daniel, I thought that was your car driving past us.”
There was no use denying it. Linda knew his car as well as anybody else who knew him. And with the top being down, she would also have had no trouble seeing that Sabrina was driving it.
Tensing, he greeted her, “Linda.”
She smiled at him, either oblivious to the fact that he wasn’t in the mood to talk, or blatantly ignoring it. “Sabrina just dropped you off here? If we’d known that you needed to get to the club, we would have given you a ride.” She motioned to the black Mercedes which was just pulling into a parking spot.
“Thanks, but it was no bother.” Under no circumstances would he let on that Sabrina had just broken off their engagement.
Oh God! He couldn’t believe it. Everything had gone so fast. Had she really called off the wedding?
“Mr. Sinclair!” he heard a voice call out for him from inside the foyer.
Daniel whipped his head around and watched as the waiter hurried toward him, reaching out his hand. Something glittered in the midday sunlight.
Before his brain could fully comprehend what was going on, the waiter pressed Sabrina’s engagement ring into Daniel’s palm, driving home reality once more. Sabrina had left him.
“Your fiancée left her ring on the table, sir,” the waiter said politely, before turning back to the club house’s entrance.
Daniel cringed.
“Oh dear,” Linda said. While her voice sounded full of regret and pity, her facial expression said otherwise. When her hand touched his forearm, he almost jolted. “Is it because of Paul Gilbert? I’m so sorry, if I’d known it would come to this, I would have told you about them. I just didn’t think there was anything to it. It looked so innocent.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, about Sabrina and Paul meeting in East Hampton the other day. You know. They were embracing in public. I figured there’s nothing to it. It wasn’t like they were trying to hide it.”
Daniel forced himself to take a couple of deep breaths. He recognized when somebody was trying to manipulate him. And Linda was clearly manipulating him. But even in the state he was in, it didn’t work, though he wanted to find a different reason why Sabrina had left him—a reason he could do something about. A reason he could beat to a pulp and obliterate. But no such reason existed. He knew it in his gut.
“Paul and Sabrina have nothing going on. So stay out of this, Linda!” he ground out firmly. Though he knew that Paul enjoyed flirting, he trusted Sabrina fully. But why had neither of them mentioned the meeting? During the bachelor party Paul had even innocently asked how Sabrina was doing, as if he hadn’t seen her in ages.
“Your friend Audrey has caused enough trouble. So you’ll do well not pissing me off any further.”
He turned away from her, intent on hailing the cab parked at the taxi stand across the driveway, but two people blocked his way: Kevin had gotten out of the Mercedes and walked up to them, Audrey next to him.
He hadn’t anticipated seeing her. His heartbeat raced. For a long moment neither of them said a word.
Then Audrey purred, “Well, hello.” Her eyes dropped to the ring in his hand, and a smile started curving her lips upwards. “I think my work is done.” She let out a laugh.
Daniel took a step closer to her, going toe-to-toe. “If you think your lies are going to drive Sabrina and me apart, you’re wrong. I will prove that the article is a lie!”
Audrey shrugged. “Too late! By the looks of it, it worked. Seems like there won’t be a wedding after all. What a shame. Your parents will be so disappointed. And they will be the laughingstock of the entire community.”
She made an attempt to step past him, but he grabbed her upper arm. “Watch out, Audrey. I will take you down!”
He let go of her and hurried past her, jumping into the taxi.
“Drive!” he instructed the driver and pulled his cell phone from his pocket.
He had to put his mind to rest by clarifying one thing first before going home to stop Sabrina from packing and returning to New York. The call was connected almost immediately.
“Hey Daniel, forgot something?” Zach asked.
“Is Paul still with you?”
“No, he and Jay left a half hour ago to have lunch at Frank’s Crab Shack.”
“Thanks.” He disconnected the call without any further explanation. “Drive me to Frank’s Crab Shack, please,” he instructed the cab driver instead.
The drive from the Maidstone Country Club to the Crab Shack took only minutes, but to Daniel they felt like hours.
When the cab finally came to a stop, Daniel paid the driver and got out. He entered the restaurant, perused the people sitting at the tables inside, and walked through to the terrace that faced the beach.
He saw Paul and Jay sitting at a table at the end, plates with fresh crab legs in front of them. He approached without them noticing him, the two seemingly deep in conversation.
When Daniel reached the table, he tapped on Paul’s shoulder, making him snap his head toward him.
“Hey, Daniel! Wanna join us? There’s more than enough food!” Paul motioned to the mountain of crab in the middle of the table.
Daniel ignored the question. “Why were you and Sabrina meeting in town the other day?” His heart hammered in his chest.
Paul almost visibly choked on the crab in his mouth. He reached for his beer and took a deep gulp, all the while his eyes stared at Daniel in utter surprise.
“We ran into each other,” Paul finally answered.
“Are you saying it was a coincidence?” Daniel asked.
“Of course! Why wouldn’t it?” Paul exchanged a quick glance with Jay, who’d set down his crab leg and watched the exchange with interest, remaining silent.
“You were seen embracing her.” Daniel watched as Paul’s facial expression changed to one of defensiveness.
“Hey! Hold on here! That was entirely innocent.”
“Then why did neither of you mention it to me? Why do I have to find out from Linda Boyd?”
Paul shook his head. “That gossip mongering bitch! There was nothing to it, Daniel. I might have flirted with Sabrina in the past. Before you got engaged. But I draw the line when things get serious between a couple. It’s true, I was hugging Sabrina, but I was only comforting her.”
Daniel’s forehead furrowed. “Comforting?”
“Didn’t she tell you how people in the village were treating her? She was thrown out of Lisette’s lingerie store. The owner was downright nasty to her. Sabrina was in tears. All I did was try and get her out of there in one piece. And of course Linda misconstrues it to mean something else. You should know that she only spews venom!”
Daniel raked a hand through his hair, relieved on one hand, concerned on the other. He should have anticipated that people in the village wouldn’t be kind after they’d read the article. But that somebody had actually thrown Sabrina out of a store, seemed to go too far. “Why
didn’t Sabrina tell me?”
“She probably didn’t want you to go down there and make a fuss.”
Paul was right. Daniel would have gone to the shop and given the owner a piece of his mind. “Sorry, man.”
“No harm done. Now that everything’s fine again, wanna join us for a beer and some crab legs?”
Daniel shook his head. “Nothing is fine.”
Both his friends stared at him expectantly.
“Sabrina left me. She called off the wedding.” Daniel dropped onto the bench next to Paul and put his head in his hands.
“Why?” Jay asked.
“She doesn’t want to ruin my life, and as long as the article is out there and hasn’t been retracted and exposed as a lie, she thinks she’s destroying my life and my business.”
“How so?” Paul wanted to know.
“Brian Caldwell came to see me to let me know that he and his father are pulling out of the deal because of the scandal. They don’t want to be associated with me anymore.”
“And Sabrina knows about it?” Jay asked.
“She was there when it happened.” Daniel rested his chin on his hand. How could he ever live without Sabrina? She was his life, his everything.
Jay rubbed the back of his neck. “Listen, I know I shouldn’t say this, but under the circumstances . . . if you’re not getting married, what are you guys gonna do about the baby?”
Daniel’s head whipped back up. “What baby?”
Jay pulled back. “Oops.”
“Jay, out with it!”
“Well, I promised I wasn’t gonna tell you, but . . . ” He sighed. “Maybe I’m wrong and the test was negative. But I saw her at the OBGYN’s office with her friend Holly, and once a woman goes to see an OBGYN, chances are she wants to confirm a pregnancy, because her home pregnancy test was positive.”
Sabrina could be pregnant? Was it possible?
Daniel jumped up from the table. He had to stop Sabrina from doing anything foolish.
23
