His Best Mistake

by Lucy King

  The sound of a key being inserted into the lock of his front door jolted Jack from his thoughts, and he inwardly groaned. Only one person had access to his apartment and it was the one person he could really do without having to face right now. The door slammed and then came the sharp taps of footsteps crossing his wooden floor.

  “So here you are,” said Cora, tossing her handbag on the coffee table then crossing her arms and glaring down at him with disapproval.

  Unable to deal with his sister’s frostiness and censure on top of everything else that was hammering away at him, Jack dropped his head back against the sofa cushion and closed his eyes. “Where else would I be?” he muttered.

  “Considering it’s Dad’s birthday today, how about The Ivy?”

  Damn. Jack winced and pinched the bridge of his nose, yet more guilt spearing him in the gut. “I forgot.”

  “Clearly,” said his sister witheringly. “We tried calling you. You didn’t pick up.”

  “My phone was on silent.”

  “Why?”

  “Things on my mind. I’ll call them in the morning to apologise.” It seemed he’d been doing a lot of that lately. “How was the meal?”

  “Delicious,” she said. “You were missed, although not by me, I hasten to add. Have you been drinking?”

  “Yes.”

  “How much?”

  “Not nearly enough.”

  “Why are you sitting the dark?”

  Hearing the click of a switch and sensing she’d turned a lamp on, Jack sighed, opened his eyes and sat up. “Look, if you’ve come to give me a hard time, Cora, would you mind leaving it for another day? I’m not sure I can take it right now.”

  His sister frowned and dropped into an armchair. “Are you all right?”

  “Not particularly.”

  The frown deepened, and concern – which he really didn’t deserve – filled her face. “Are you ill?”

  “No.”

  “Then what’s wrong?”

  What wasn’t wrong? Just about every area of his life had imploded and the weight of it was crushing him. The guilt was eating him up and wrecking his peace of mind and it simply couldn’t continue. However devastating the fallout, he had to come clean. Cora would find out sooner or later anyway because despite the up-in-the-air way things with Stella had been left and however they sorted it out, he was going to be part of this baby’s life.

  Aware that he was about to badly hurt someone he loved, feeling sick about it and wishing he was drunker, Jack said, “Stella Grant is pregnant.”

  Cora jerked back as if she’d been slapped and she blinked. She swallowed hard and sat up a fraction straighter. “Oh. Right. I see. Gosh. That sucks. Especially for her. I mean, who would ever want a shit like Brad to father their child?”

  “It’s not Brad’s.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Not Brad’s?”

  “No.”

  “Wow. Well. That’s a relief, I guess. But she really is something else, isn’t she? So whose is it?”

  “It’s mine.”

  For several long seconds Cora just stared at him, a frown beginning to crease her brow as confusion flickered across her face. “What?” she said, giving her head a quick shake as if to clear it of something that didn’t make sense.

  His throat tightened and his stomach turned, the alcohol inside it burning like acid. “The baby’s mine.”

  “Yours?”

  “Yes.”

  “But how –?” she said, utterly bewildered. “I don’t understand…” And then came the moment that realisation dawned and Jack had never hated himself more. “Oh my God,” she breathed. “You bastard. How could you?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “When?”

  “The day I went to see her in Scotland.”

  “You didn’t tell me.”

  “No.”

  “It’s been a month.”

  “I know.”

  “Have you seen her since? All this time have you been seeing her behind my back?”

  “No,” said Jack. “I haven’t seen her or spoken to her until this morning when she came to tell me she was pregnant.”

  “No wonder you let her off scot-free. Is this why you’ve been so distant recently?”

  “Yes.”

  “Right.”

  Cora fell silent then, ashen, shaking, and Jack just didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t make this better. A moment later she swallowed hard and got to her feet. “Excuse me,” she said, her voice thick. “I need to take a moment.”

  Feeling as if he was being stabbed in the heart with a thousand tiny needles, Jack watched her go into the kitchen and heard the sound of the tap running, a glass being filled, and he downed another glass of whisky, wishing he could rewind time. His sister had always been there for him, and he’d repaid that loyalty by sleeping with her enemy. After nearly thirty years of looking out for her and trying to protect her as far as he could, he’d let her down and hurt her. It was the second time in his life he’d failed someone he loved and the guilt was overwhelming.

  When Cora came back and sat down, Jack looked at her warily, just about managing to keep a lid on all the stuff churning around inside him. For the first time in for ever he couldn’t read what she was thinking. Her face was chillingly devoid of any kind of emotion. He wondered if they’d ever recover from this.

  “Well, I must say, you’ve got to hand it to her,” said Cora. “Pregnancy is quite a move.”

  “It’s not a move. It was an accident. And very probably my fault.”

  “Sure,” said his sister with a cold, disbelieving laugh. “Of course it was. I know what you said about her and Brad, and I know you believe her, but I don’t. Not one little bit. She’s a lying bitch and she’s hoodwinked you. So what are you going to do?”

  “I asked her to marry me.”

  Cora’s eyes widened with shock and incredulity and absolute horror. “Why the hell did you do that?”

  “It seemed right.”

  “And?” she said, and held her breath.

  “She said no.”

  “Thank God for that. Having her as a sister-in-law would be deeply unpleasant. Although I’m surprised she didn’t bite your hand off. Does she know how much money you have?”

  “She’s not after my money.”

  “So you think.”

  “I suggested we move in together for the duration of the pregnancy, but she said no to that too.”

  “She’s not being very cooperative, is she?”

  “Not particularly,” said Jack with a frown.

  Cora shrugged. “So you just leave her to get on with it and move on.”

  “I can’t do that,” he said, and it was one thing in this whole mess that he did know. “It tears me apart to know that I’ve hurt you about as badly as I possibly could, and I’ve felt guilty about what happened every minute of every day, but I just can’t ignore this. I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry, Cora, but I just can’t. If anything happened to her and the baby I don’t know if I could bear it.”

  As the moments ticked by, he saw the rigidity of his sister’s face soften minutely and a tiny crack appeared in the ice. “No. I can understand that,” said Cora flatly. “I suppose.”

  “Will you be all right?”

  “Will you?” she countered, pointedly looking at the near-empty bottle.

  “Eventually.”

  Finally Cora got to her feet. “Look, Jack,” she said, picking up her bag, her expression still pretty unforgiving. “This has all come as a massive shock and it’s way too much to process at the moment. I need some time. And right now, I can’t be here. I’m in danger of saying something I might regret for ever. So I’ll be in touch.”

  And with that, she put her bag over her shoulder and left.

  *

  “So you’re the woman who slept with my fiancé and is now pregnant with my brother’s baby.”

  Stella’s first thought, as she stared at the beautiful brunette standing on her doo
rstep with her hands on her hips and loathing in her eyes, was that this was clearly Cora Maclean, who’d obviously found out about everything. Her second was that, yes, that tagline sounded every bit as hideous as she’d imagined. And her third was, oh, how she wished she’d never answered the door because she really wasn’t prepared for this.

  She’d been running on her treadmill – for the first time in years – when the bell had rung. Initially she’d ignored it and had merely turned up the volume on her phone because she was just hitting her stride and feeling better than she had in days. But it had rung again, this time for longer, as if indicating that the caller wasn’t going anywhere, and so with a sigh of frustration she’d switched off the treadmill and hopped off.

  She didn’t like to think about the sight she presented. She was wearing tatty old leggings and a baggy grey T-shirt. She could feel sweat beading her brow and heat in her cheeks. She was a mess, and just to highlight her sorry state, Cora was looking stunning in a gorgeous knee-length leather coat and skinny jeans, her make-up and hair immaculate. Not that it mattered one jot what either of them was wearing, of course, but a suit of armour would have been her preferred choice because Stella had the feeling she was going to need the protection.

  “Cora,” she said, plastering on a smile and holding the door back. “Come in.”

  Cora swept past her, throwing her a filthy look as she did so.

  “Tea?” Stella offered, heading into the kitchen, aware with every step that Cora was right behind her. She could feel the other woman’s eyes boring into her back like lasers. “Water?” she added over her shoulder. “Or something stronger?”

  “No, thank you,” said Cora, sitting down at the table and looking as if she’d been just invited to sup with the devil. “I don’t want anything from you except to know what the hell you think you’re playing at.”

  Hmm. Which bit? Stella leaned back against the counter and wished she could down a double gin and tonic. “What exactly are you talking about?” she said.

  “I saw Jack last night,” said Cora icily. “He told me about the two of you. What happened in Scotland. He also told me you were pregnant.”

  “I see,” said Stella, thinking it would have been nice if Jack could have warned her.

  “Imagine my shock.”

  “It can’t have been any greater than mine.”

  “Really?” Cora said, raising a disbelieving eyebrow. “Pregnancy wasn’t part of the master plan? Forgive me for being just the teensiest bit sceptical.”

  “I did not trap your brother into this,” said Stella, her eyes narrowing a fraction.

  “No?”

  “Why would I?”

  “Why would you trap my single, billionaire brother into a relationship? I honestly have no idea.”

  “He came on to me,” said Stella, and it had probably been his condom that had failed, so in actual fact she could well be within her rights to wonder if it hadn’t actually been the other way round.

  “I find that hard to believe,” said Cora scathingly. “Especially since he described you as rather average and nothing special.”

  Had he? thought Stella with a wince. Ouch. Still, it didn’t matter what Jack thought of her. Much. She’d had enough of this. Cora was clearly furious and hurt, and she had every right to be, but she didn’t have the right to take it out on her. Stella could hardly go into details about that night at the cottage, but what she could address was the elephant in the room that was Brad.

  Pushing herself off the counter, Stella took the seat opposite Cora and fixed her with a steady look. “Before we go any further,” she said, “I’d like to get something out of the way.”

  “What?”

  “I’m truly sorry for what happened with Brad, Cora, but I didn’t know about you. I really didn’t. He was the one who asked me for my card and then rang me up to ask me on a date. I asked him if he was single, and he said yes. He played me like a piano and I fell for it.”

  “Right,” said Cora sarcastically.

  Ignoring it, Stella continued, “When you called me on New Year’s Eve and told me who you were it was like my life exploded. The man I’d been seeing for three months had lied to me and cheated on me. He didn’t just betray you, Cora, he betrayed me too and he wasn’t even mine.” She paused to give herself a moment to absorb the faint stab of hurt and regret she was expecting to strike her in the heart, but it didn’t come. The only thing she felt was relief at being able to finally get this all off her chest properly. “There is no way I’d ever deliberately set out to steal a man off anyone,” she continued, feeling a bit giddy at the idea of genuinely being over Brad. “Being the other woman is not a role I’d ever willingly seek. Engagement and marriage are things that mean something to me. You have no idea how much I’ve wished I never met that low-life bastard.”

  “Prove it.”

  Stella started. “What?”

  “You must have texts,” said Cora, her chin up, eyes flashing. “And voice mails. So prove it.”

  “Fine.”

  She got up to fetch her phone, thanking God that she’d had the foresight not to delete the correspondence she’d had with Ben/Brad, and handed it over to Cora, who scrolled through the texts and listened to the messages, her eyes widening and her face growing paler with every passing second.

  By the time she was done and had handed the phone back, Stella almost felt sorry for her.

  “Whatever,” said Cora with a shrug, clearly not about to give in just yet despite the overwhelming evidence, at which point Stella’s sympathy evaporated. “I’m not here to rehash that particular past. I’m here to talk about the present. More specifically, this.” She waved a hand in the direction of Stella’s abdomen.

  “What about it?”

  “Jack also told me last night he’d asked you to marry him and you turned him down. Apparently you won’t move in with him either.”

  “That’s right,” said Stella with a firm nod.

  “Why?”

  Stella stared at her. Surely it didn’t need explaining? “What do you mean, why?”

  “I think he’s insane, obviously, but he’s only trying to do the right thing.”

  “I understand that,” she said, “and it’s admirable, really it is, but I don’t need him to do the right thing. We hardly know each other.”

  “And what about what he needs?” Cora said bluntly.

  “What about it?” she asked, genuinely baffled because Jack didn’t seem to need anything. He seemed as self-sufficient as she was.

  Cora stared at her for one long moment, her face hardening and her eyes narrowing. “Wow, you really are a bitch, aren’t you? And to think for a moment there I was actually prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

  In the face of Cora’s contempt, Stella felt her own temper surface, because hang on a moment, what was going on here? Yes, she got that she wasn’t Cora’s favourite person in the world, but even so, that seemed a bit much. “That’s really not fair,” she said hotly. “This isn’t the nineteenth century. We don’t have to get married just for the sake of the baby.”

  “No, but you could at least try and make the whole thing a bit easier for him.”

  Cora’s voice was as sharp as a whip, and anguish flashed in her eyes for a second, and the odd combination made Stella stop. Think. And then wonder if there was maybe something she didn’t know.

  “OK,” she said after a moment. “Clearly I’m missing something here. What is it?”

  “Only a sensitivity chip.”

  “Why would I need a sensitivity chip?”

  Cora stared at her in horrified disbelief. “Well, I’d have thought that the fact that Jack’s wife died as a result of complications arising from pregnancy would make you have at least some sympathy for what he must be going through right now, but what the hell would I know?”

  The words hit Stella’s brain like bullets, each one practically taking her down. At first she could hardly make sense of them, but then they
sort of shuffled into order, and, oh dear God, his wife? Jack had been married? And she’d died? While pregnant? “When?”

  “Four years ago.”

  “I had no idea.”

  “Really,” said Cora coldly.

  “I didn’t. He never said anything. We haven’t exactly had much of a chance to chat.”

  “And you haven’t googled him.”

  “No.” Well, she had a very little bit initially, but she hadn’t read about that.

  “Of course you haven’t,” said Cora. But Stella wasn’t paying her much attention. She was too busy turning inside out at the thought of what Jack must presumably have gone through then and what he might be going through now. The pain. The memories. She could hardly imagine it. This whole situation must be hell on earth. “How can he stand it?”

  “I can’t even begin to think,” said Cora. “All I know is that whatever he’s asked you to do he’s probably asked because he’s trying his best to protect you and the baby.”

  “I wish he’d explained,” said Stella, thinking that if only he had she’d never have left him there like that at the station. She’d at least have considered his requests instead of dismissing them out of hand. She’d never have told him he was the problem.

  “Look,” said Cora, cutting into her thoughts and snapping her back to the present, “I don’t particularly like you – that much I think is obvious. But the situation is what it is, and this is basically Jack’s worst nightmare. So if you can bring yourself to think about him for a moment, go easy on him.”

  “I’ll try.”

  “Thank you.” Cora stood up and looked down at Stella, her expression maybe a little less Arctic than when she’d arrived. “In other news,” she said, hoisting the strap of her handbag over her shoulder, “you might like to know that I also learned last night that Brad’s location has been narrowed down to a spot on the Costa del Sol. I’m off to Spain tomorrow to go and confront him. Is there any special message you’d like me to pass on?”