She looked at the framed wedding picture of her standing beside Chase with an awkward smile on her face. He had thought displaying it was silly, but she disagreed. What if someone dropped in unannounced and looked around?
The real reason she’d wanted to put the photo on the dresser was so that she would feel married. She liked looking at it, looking at him, her husband. At least he was her husband... for now.
♥♥♥
Chase didn’t go to work on Monday... or Tuesday. He stayed in his tiny apartment and drank until the news of his impending divorce stopped hurting, until he was numb. Katie was walking out of his life and taking his daughter with her, probably the only child he would ever father. He considered taking her to court and fighting for his rights, but they had a deal. She even had a signed contract to back her up. The baby was supposed to be hers to raise in any way she saw fit. He was a man of his word. If she wanted the baby but not him, he wasn’t going to get in her way. It seemed to him her only regret was that Phillip was not the father.
He just wanted to be alone.
When his mother barged in late Tuesday afternoon, he was annoyed, but not surprised. With a look of disgust, she stepped over empty vodka bottles to open the curtains wide. Bright sunlight hit him in the eyes. He put up a hand in self-defense and groaned deep in the back of his throat.
“What are you doing home on a work day?” she demanded to know.
“None of your business.”
“Oh, but it is.” Her hands went to her hips, and she tapped her expensive shoe. “Literally, it’s my business, and I’m not going to let you run it into the ground just because you’re having a bad day.”
“Try bad week.”
She sighed. “What is the problem? Maybe I can help.”
“You? Help?” He scoffed. “You’re a big part of the problem.”
“Pardon? What are you accusing me of now?”
He reached for the half-empty bottle of vodka on the coffee table, but his mother moved it. “My marriage is over. Okay? I’m sure Poppy will want to throw a party. Make sure she doesn’t invite me or I might rip her throat out.”
Evelyn shook her head. “You messed up your marriage already?”
“How could I have a good one after seeing what a mess yours was?”
“There is no such thing as a perfect relationship, Charles.”
Chase stood on legs that felt like rubber, and he pointed an accusatory finger at her. “You married my father for his money, and that’s why I don’t trust women.”
The blood drained from her face, and her mouth fell open. “Is that what you think? Is that what you thought all these years? I loved your father more than anything.”
“Then why did you cheat on him with so many men?”
She returned to the large window and gazed at the street below. “When I first married Theodore, I was a silly little thing with too many romantic notions taken from books and films to know what I was doing. He worked from first light until it was dark six days a week, and I was alone without anything to do but pine for him. He hired maids and a cook, a gardener and a driver, and I had nothing to do with my time, not even a hobby.”
Chase rolled his eyes. “Why didn’t you get a job?”
She laughed without humor. “Your father didn’t want me to work. He wanted the perfect trophy wife, someone to parade around at society functions, someone to host his parties and smile for the cameras. He would have been appalled if I had tried to play secretary for him like your Katie. She’s a lucky girl.”
“She doesn’t seem to think so.” Before his mother could question him on the details of their split, he forced her to return to her own past. “What about the affairs? If you loved Dad so much, why did you cheat on him repeatedly?”
She shrugged rail-thin shoulders beneath a designer cardigan. “Maybe I was trying to get his attention. Maybe I just needed to feel loved. After you were born, I thought Theodore would hang around the house more to be close to his son, but he kept working. Deep down, I was wishing he would just have an affair. I could have dealt with another woman, but his mistress was the company. He loved his business, not his wife.”
That bit of news acted like a wake-up call to Chase. Maybe he didn’t work from dawn to dusk every day anymore, but he left Katie alone an awful lot. He told himself he was doing it for his family, building a life for them, but he had to admit that might not be the entire truth.
“Don’t screw up what you have with Katie. It’s special.”
“I’m afraid it might be too late for that advice.”
His mother’s eyes glistened. “Tell her how you feel, Charles. A woman wants the words. She wants to know she’s the most important thing in her man’s life.”
“Do you really think that will work?”