The Magnate's Tempestuous Marriage

Or was she?

It was becoming clear to Scott that maybe he didn’t know his wife at all!

Shaking his head, he brought up Sarah’s number, expecting that it would be turned off as it had been all weekend. It wasn’t, but it was engaged. Who was she talking to? Cory? Or her sleazebag lover? On top of that, where was she? Still at Cory’s place, probably.

Scott didn’t hesitate, knowing that he couldn’t sit there in his office, stewing over things. It was time to face Sarah again, and to insist on knowing where he stood. Grabbing his suit jacket from the coat stand in the corner, he dragged it on then hurried out to where Cleo was sitting behind her desk, frowning at her computer screen.

‘Have to go out, Cleo. Things to do. Cancel any appointments I have this afternoon and take the day off. You deserve it.’

Cleo glanced up and sighed. ‘You’re not going to do anything foolish, are you, Scott?’

‘Not today. I did that just over a year ago.’ When he’d married a girl he didn’t really know, a girl who was an enigma in this day and age.

Because Sarah had been a virgin when he’d met her.

As he hurried down to the basement car park Scott began to wonder with some of his old, well-earned cynicism towards the opposite sex if she’d had a secret agenda in keeping her virginity so long. Now that he thought about it through less rose-coloured glasses, how she’d got through high school then university untouched, along with two years backpacking around the world, was beyond credibility. Unless she’d always wanted to marry money, and had seen her virginity as the perfect weapon to ensnare the right rich sucker. Namely him.

Scott had come across quite a few gold-digging females since he’d made it big in the mining world, but none of them had been virgins. Not even close.

He hadn’t questioned Sarah’s inexperience at the time; had accepted her explanation that she’d been wary of the opposite sex for a long time because of her cheating father. He’d also eagerly swallowed the added seductive reason that till he came along, she’d never met a man who’d made her really want to have sex with him.

Not that she’d used the word, sex, at the time. She’d said make love with. Naturally. Nothing crude about Sarah. She was the epitome of femininity, her large liquid blue eyes windows to a soul that seemed as pure as it was incapable of deception.

More fool him. They said love was blind. Well, they were right, he thought angrily as he jumped into his Mercedes and gunned the engine. But he wasn’t blind now. And he wanted answers. Lots of them!

CHAPTER TWO (#ud76f25cd-23d5-5509-8131-e5faadd195a8)

‘ARE YOU SURE you don’t need me to drive you over there, sweetie?’ Cory said. ‘You might need help to carry things. I can easily take the afternoon off work. We have flexible hours here.’

‘Thanks for the offer, Cory, but I would rather do this by myself.’

‘And you’re quite sure Brutus won’t be there?’

Sarah winced at the new nickname Cory had given Scott. Not that it wasn’t appropriate. The man was a brute to do what he had last Friday night, all under the guise of passion. Her stomach curled at all that she had allowed, and enjoyed. That was the worst part. How much she had enjoyed Scott’s ravishing of her entire body. Her face flamed at the memories of the humiliating noises she’d made, the way she’d pleaded with him not to stop.

When she’d found out the next morning that he’d acted out of jealousy and revenge, her shock had quickly changed to fury.

‘You don’t honestly think he wouldn’t have gone to work, do you?’ she said bitterly. ‘Trust me when I say only an atomic bomb landing on him would keep Scott away from his precious office on a Monday morning.’

‘From what you told me, last Saturday morning was a little like an atomic bomb going off.’

Sarah was not a girl who lost her temper easily. But when she did...

‘I can’t tell you how mad I was!’

‘You don’t have to, sweetie. I saw for myself when you arrived at my place. You were spitting chips. Till you started crying, that is. For a while there over the weekend, I thought I might need a life jacket.’

‘Please don’t try to make me laugh, Cory. That man has broken my heart. What he did was unforgivable.’

‘Why? Because he acted like a lot of men might have acted? When I found out Felix was cheating on me I was hotter for him than ever.’

‘But you didn’t love Felix and I wasn’t cheating on Scott!’

‘But it looked like you were...’

Sarah groaned. ‘I know. I know.’

‘I think you should call Scott and explain why you were at that hotel with your lawyer friend. After all, from what you told me those photos were pretty damning.’

‘And then what? Scott says sorry and we just go on to live happily ever after? I don’t think so, Cory.’

‘Ah, I forgot. You’re a Scorpio. They never forgive or forget. By the way, has it crossed your mind to wonder who might have sent those photos in the first place?’

Sarah sighed. ‘I’ve thought of little else all morning.’

‘Someone you work with perhaps?’

‘No one comes to mind.’

‘It has to be someone who hates you. Or hates Scott, more likely.’

‘It could be the same person who told Phil those rumours about Scott and Cleo,’ Sarah speculated.

‘You’re absolutely right,’ Cory said excitedly. ‘I told you from the first that it had to be some kind of set-up. Otherwise how could he or she have been at the right place at the right time to take incriminating photos of you and Phil at that hotel? That’s far too coincidental. I think it has to be someone you work with, Sarah, someone who saw you leave together that lunchtime and followed you.’

‘But who?’

‘Search me, sweetie. But I do know that if you let this destroy your marriage, then that person has won.’

‘It’s Scott who’s destroyed our marriage,’ Sarah bit out. ‘The bottom line is he didn’t truly love me, or trust me. He jumped to conclusions and didn’t give me the chance to explain. He didn’t care how I would feel because he doesn’t really care about me. I can see now that I was only ever a trophy wife to him. Arm candy to be trotted out at social functions, with the added bonus of sex whenever he felt like it. When he’s home, that is. Which has become less frequent during the last six months. I actually thought he’d cut his business trip short last Friday so that he could be with me on our anniversary weekend. What a fool I was in more ways than one.’

‘Wow. You’re still very angry with him, aren’t you?’

‘You can say that again. Look, I must go. The cleaners would have left by now and I want to be out of the apartment before Brutus gets home.’

‘You’re calling him Brutus now,’ Cory pointed out drily.

‘Yes, well, if the cap fits he should wear it.’

‘You do realise that hate is the other side of love.’

‘Oh, yes. I certainly do. Have to go, Cory. I’ll see you tonight.’

‘I’ll bring home Chinese,’ he offered. ‘And some nice wine.’

‘That would be lovely. Thank you.’

Tears pricked at Sarah’s eyes as she hung up. Cory was a dear friend. And so kind. Whatever would she have done without him this last weekend? Sarah didn’t have a lot of friends, her few girlfriends from high school having drifted away after she left school and went to university. The same thing happened after her poor mother died at the end of her first year of university. Unable to study—or grieve properly—Sarah had taken off to go backpacking around the world. By the time she returned to Sydney University two years later, her earlier student friends had also moved on. Her own fault, Sarah accepted, having not kept in touch via social media, depression dogging her footsteps for such a long time, especially during the first twelve months of her backpacking getaway. Europe remained a blur, nothing of the incredible sights she’d seen touching her soul or brightening her life. She’d gone from city to city in a fog.