In the Market for Love

chapter fourteen



Bianca flicked open the brushed silver latches on Jake’s brief case. She knew he took his diary with him to all of his business appointments. He said himself he relied on it so much he was useless without it.

No, it wasn’t in his brief case. She carefully closed the case, leaving it perched on one of the black leather and chrome chairs in his office.

Where was his diary? Surely he must keep it in a prominent position for easy access. She didn’t want to shuffle through his whole desk, leaving an obvious mess in her wake. And she had to make this quick.

A wave of anxiety washed over her with the sudden thought that perhaps Jake had taken his diary with him. The agency receptionist had told her he was in the boardroom and Bianca assumed he’d left his dairy in the office.

“It has to be here,” she muttered.

Glancing across at his computer, she knew that would be no help. The staff used online diaries but Bianca had no idea how to access the system, what passwords Jake might use or if, in fact, he would put details of private dalliances onto a communal system.

It was lucky for her that he preferred an old fashioned hard copy diary. The artist in him liked to doodle and that suited her fine.

Then she caught a glimpse of the diary’s black leather binding under a stack of files. She slid it out and flicked to the current date.

“Rachel, Rachel,” she whispered as she ran her index finger down the page.

Then she saw it. 1pm today. Lunch at Level 41.

He wasn’t sparing any expense. Did he send her flowers as well? Buy her jewellery?

Something about seeing that woman’s name in Jake’s diary in his handwriting sent a bolt of anger shooting deep inside.

How could he do this to her?

She wasn’t giving up without a fight. If this Rachel person was out of Jake’s life, he’d reconsider and return to his original decision about staying together as a family.

Bianca slammed the diary shut and replaced it under the stack of files so he’d never know she’d rummaged through his desk.

That insipid Rachel woman. She’d teach her a lesson. This was too easy, especially since Jake had had left his mobile phone on the desk.

She picked it up, found the woman’s name in the address book, then typed in the message.

Lunch changed to Ruby’s. C U at 12.30. Busy with meetings until then. Mr Porsche.

She smiled at her own cleverness. She liked the idea of using his own words and their precious pet names against him. Jake always used the two letter abbreviation for ‘see you’ so she was particularly pleased with this authentic touch.

“Bianca, is that you?” A woman’s voice called out from behind her.

Her back still to the door, Bianca placed the phone down gently and turned. “Oh, hello Emma.”

“I didn’t know you were coming,” the PA said. “Was Jake expecting you?”

“Just passing on my way to the hairdresser. I wanted to catch him but it doesn’t matter. I’ll see him tonight anyway.”

“Bianca, I don’t think Jake would want you in his office like this.”

“Like what? Don’t be ridiculous, girl.”

Emma’s gaze dropped to the phone on the desk, then back up again. She couldn’t know. She was merely guessing.

What was it with these nasty little women Jake chose? Did this pipsqueak red head who was nothing more than a glorified secretary think she could get one over her?

Bianca glanced down. “He’s got the cutest picture of Connor as his background screensaver on the phone.”

“Yeah, he does,” Emma said. “He’s a gorgeous kid. Looks exactly like his father.”

Bianca pushed past the girl and left. That silly backhanded compliment was a pathetic last ditch effort. Not that it mattered.

She’d sent the text.

* * *

Rachel couldn’t help herself. Walking along George Street past the historic buildings of The Rocks at the foot of the Harbour Bridge, her excitement increased as she neared Ruby’s. She’d seen their chefs on television and had even tried to recreate their dishes but she’d never been anywhere like this.

Jake had asked her to a premier restaurant where he was likely to see clients, business associates and others who moved in his circle. It didn’t matter if it were Level 41 or Ruby’s, Jake wanted her to be part of his world.

She’d not long been seated at the restaurant and was still admiring its sleek modern interior when a flash of brash blond hair caught her eye.

Rachel had seen her before. Bianca Austin.

The woman tossed her bleached locks behind her shoulders. Each step she took as she strode closer was a dagger in Rachel’s stomach. Pain seared through her body but she couldn’t look away.

As Bianca neared the table, a waiter approached her.

She pushed away the menus in his hand. “We won’t be needing those. Bring us two glasses of white wine. Something good. And bring them quickly please.”

Bianca lowered her eyelashes and brushed her chest against the waiter as she edged past. She slid into the chair opposite Rachel, and reached over to place her Louis Vuitton bag by the foot of her chair.

Still, Rachel couldn’t move.

What was going on? Why was this woman here?

“Hello, Rachel,” Bianca said.

Her voice stuck in her throat. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced.”

“No.” Bianca raised her finely arched eyebrows. “Jake doesn’t usually introduce me to his other women.”

“What?”

“In case you haven’t worked it out, darling, Jake’s not coming. It’s just me and you.”

Obeying Bianca’s instruction to be quick, the waiter placed two glasses of wine on the table as the women sat in silence. Rachel stared at the cutlery. She felt the woman’s eyes searing through her and couldn’t bear it any longer.

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” she asked.

Bianca took a long, slow sip of wine. “Maybe you should tell me. I’m not the one fooling around with someone else’s husband.”

“I beg your pardon. Not so loud. I don’t want the whole world to hear. I am not fooling around.”

“Oh yes you are, honey. You might think it’s serious but I guarantee what you’re doing is fooling around. I could use more explicit words to describe it but I’m too much of a lady.”

“Why are you here?”

Bianca’s eyes narrowed as she leaned across the table. “To tell you, in no uncertain terms, to keep your dirty little hands off my husband.”

“Your husband?”

Fear flooded Rachel with that word. Husband. After everything they’d been through, the misunderstandings, the arguments, could it be possible that he was still her husband in every sense of the word?

“Yes, my husband. We’re married so there’s no other name for him. Not one I can use at the table anyway.”

“He said you were separated.”

“Did he now? Well, he’s used that one before but look at this.” Bianca raised her left hand, a thick gold band and an enormous solitaire diamond sitting on her ring finger. “That’s a wedding ring. He might not wear one but I do. Every day.”

“Really?”

“Did he tell you we’ve got a child?”

“Yes,” Rachel said. “Connor.”

“Don’t you dare say my child’s name again. Our son is the most important thing in the world to Jake. Much more important than you. He’d never do anything to jeopardise that relationship.”

She was right. Jake had hung in there this long for Connor’s sake and that wasn’t about to change. He had his priorities straight and would choose his son over anyone and anything.

“I’ve been to your house,” Rachel said. “He told me you lived under the same roof but separately. Not as man and wife. I saw the part of the house where he lived. I can’t believe he would…”

“Lie to you,” Bianca finished. “Because that’s one heck of a lie. And you believed that story?”

“He said it was for his son, to keep the family under one roof for the child.”

Hot tears burned at the back of Rachel’s eyes. Her world was falling apart and she didn’t know what to believe.

As she looked at Bianca, Rachel saw a woman who was desperate to protect her marriage and her family. She could think of no other explanation for her behaviour.

Bianca took another sip of wine. “I’m sick of his affairs and I don’t want you going near him again. Do you understand?”

“Affairs?”

“Yes, affairs. Plural. Did you really think you were the first? Get in line, honey. You’re probably about number twelve. You weren’t the first and you won’t be the last. There’ll be some other floozy after you and I’ll deal with that when it happens but right now, you’re the one I’m talking to.”

Rachel opened her mouth to speak but all that came out was a pathetic splutter. Was she so naïve to have believed she was something special to Jake?

The air was sucked out her lungs. Each short, futile breath she took drew more oxygen than she could breathe in. Her chest became a vacuum, her ribs barely able to resist the force of the outside world pressing upon her.

“Do you really want him after all this?” Bianca asked. “Are you really that desperate that you’d break up a family, ruin the life of a small child? Because I’m telling you, stay away from my family.”

Rachel couldn’t do this to the little boy in racing car pyjamas. Jake wouldn’t do it to him either. That was the one issue on which he wouldn’t compromise. Nothing she could say would change that.

Glass in hand, Bianca leaned back. “Face it, honey. It’s over. Believe me, you don’t want to take me on. You don’t stand a chance.”

Her legs trembling, Rachel stood. She placed her hands on the edge of the table for balance. There was nothing left.

She’d been alone before.

But not like this.

* * *

The ring of Rachel’s mobile phone was like an alarm clock waking her from a dream. But it wasn’t a dream. She was walking along George Street away the restaurant, away from Bianca and away from Jake.

She blinked against the sunshine, raised her eyes, and noticed how bright it was. Strange, she hadn’t noticed before but now it was very clear.

Rachel dug her phone out of her bag as she’d done countless times before, only to see Jake’s name flashing on it.

How dare he? She held the phone as it rang two more times, then stopped as the call was forwarded to message bank. Let him leave a message. It was the least she expected of him.

She shoved her phone back into her bag and headed for the office.

There was nothing left for him to say.

* * *

Later that day, Marcus phoned Rachel’s office.

“Is Samantha really at meetings for the rest of the day?” he asked. “Or does she just not want to talk to me?”

“The reason I picked up her phone is because she’s away from her desk,” Rachel said into the receiver. “She’s not here.”

“Can you tell her I called?”

She pursed her lips to stop herself from saying something she’d regret. Marcus had slept with Samantha, then refused her phone calls, yet now he wanted to contact her. This didn’t make sense. It also wasn’t her problem.

“She told you what happened, didn’t she?” he asked.

Rachel rolled her eyes. “It’s really none of my business.”

What was it with these men that they treated the women in their lives so badly only to decide later to make amends?

“I may have upset her,” Marcus said.

Rachel felt increasingly uncomfortable with the conversation. “I’m not the person you should be talking to.”

“I don’t think Samantha wants to talk to me after what I did. I was horrible to her.”

“That’s between the two of you.”

“I need to make it up to her.”

“Well, you’d better make it good.” The words shot from her mouth before she could stop herself.

“That’s it. You’re right. Also, did you know Jake’s been trying to reach you?”

Of course she knew.

The prospect of seeing him again filled her with dread but she wouldn’t back down from their business meetings.

She’d show him she was better than him. Stronger. More determined.

He didn’t have her backbone. His life was built on a bed of lies but she wouldn’t stoop to his level to exact some petty revenge.

It was her campaign and she was not going to let him ruin two years of work when the project was on the verge of coming to fruition.

She’d speak to Jake when she was ready. When they needed to discuss the campaign. Other than that, there was nothing left to talk about. She didn’t owe him an explanation and he didn’t deserve one.

Rachel had been through far worse than this and had the strength to get through this current ordeal. Compared with the past tragedies of her life, in the long run, this one was barely going to rate a mention.

And after the campaign was finalised, she’d never have to see him again.

* * *

Rachel closed the boardroom door behind her. “What do you think you’re doing here? You can’t come barging into my workplace. Haven’t you heard of telephoning?”

Jake leaned against the table, arms folded. “Don’t give me that. I didn’t bother trying to phone you again. There’s not much point when you won’t take my calls.”

“If you call me at work about the campaign, I’ll speak to you. As long as we stick to business, we’ll get along fine.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I told you. Stick to the campaign and I’ll take your calls.”

A muscle in Jake’s jaw flinched. “Why didn’t you come to lunch? I waited for you. I didn’t know what happened to you. Still don’t.”

Anger simmered inside her, not to mention disappointment. He was so convincing at playing the injured party. An excellent actor.

“You can’t work it out?” she said. “Are you going to try to tell me this has never happened before?”

“You know, I thought you might apologise or that you might have had a very good reason for standing me up. I couldn’t imagine what it could be but I thought there has to be some rational explanation for all of this. It was so unlike you.”

Rachel was outraged. “You thought I might apologise? I don’t believe this. You want to know why I stood you up? I had lunch with your wife instead. You remember her, don’t you?”

A furrow formed in his brow. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What were you doing with Bianca?”

“She told me everything. I know you’re still married and you live together. I know there have been other women before me but it’s got to stop now. I’m not some play thing you can toy with and then throw away. I have feelings too, you know. And I am not going to have an affair with a married man.”

His mouth fell open, his eyes narrowing. “Is that what Bianca told you?”

“She told me to stay away from her husband. And that’s exactly what I plan to do.”

He paced the narrow strip of carpet between the boardroom table and the wall. “It’s starting to make sense now. She’s worried. She knows I’m leaving her. And she’s desperate. Can’t you see?”

“All I see is a married man. You.”

“She doesn’t love me,” he said. “She only loves my money. She doesn’t want to give that up and that’s why she went to see you.”

“Is that what she did last time? And the time before that? How many other women were there?”

Jake’s eyes were daggers. “There was no last time. Bianca’s never done anything like this before because there haven’t been any other women. I’ve been on the odd date since Bianca and I separated, but there hasn’t been anyone important in my life. Until now.”

Rachel’s lower lip quivered. She hated being reduced to a trembling mess.

“That’s why she went to see you,” he said. “Because you’re a genuine threat to her, to the thing she wants the most. Money.”

He raised his voice, so unlike him. “Because I told her I’m divorcing her. I didn’t want to tell you like this, damn it. I wanted it to be a celebration, not an argument. It’s true. I’ve already spoken to my lawyer about the divorce. I’ll give you his number. Call him if you don’t believe me.”

“I don’t want to do that.”

A pang of guilt shot through her. She’d been all too quick to believe Bianca but at the time she couldn’t imagine what other motive the woman would have except to save her marriage.

She tried to think. She’d been to his house. There were no photos of Bianca in his wing of the house, no sign of any female presence. And everything that Jake said made sense. All the pieces of the puzzle fit together.

He raked a hand through his hair. “I’m telling you the truth.”

Then it was as though a light bulb went off in his head as he reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out his black leather wallet and flashed it open. “Rachel, you’ve got to believe me. Look. In my wallet.”

“A picture of Connor,” she said.

He pulled out his son’s photo. Behind it lay a carefully cut out, black and white head shot of Rachel that looked familiar.

“Where did you get that?”

“From your company prospectus. It came with your initial proposal to the agency. I cut it out and kept it because it’s the only picture I’ve got of you. I keep it with my photo of Connor.”

He stared at the two images. “The picture’s been put back upside down. I think someone’s been through my wallet. I can guess who. There’s something else.” He spoke slowly, almost as though he were embarrassed. He unfolded a piece of paper from his wallet and handed it to her. “I knew I wanted you from the first minute I saw you but I didn’t even know your name. I left this note on your car because it was the only way I could get in touch with you.”

“There was no note on my car.” Rachel thought back. “No. There was a fine or something under the wiper.”

He pointed at the paper in Rachel’s hand. “It was this. When I found out we were going to be working together I didn’t think this would go down very well so I took it off your car before you had a chance to see it.”

A gentle warmth swelled inside her as she started to feel that things might somehow turn out for the best. She’d spent all this time analysing and thinking with her mind and now she’d reached the point where she should start listening to her heart.

It was time to trust her instincts.

“Jake,” she sighed. “My picture. The note. I don’t know what to say. Well, I do know one thing. It’s probably as well you snaffled that note away. You should be a bit embarrassed about it.”

“Maybe I am.”

Rachel’s lips curled to a nervous smile. She could have burst into an uncontrollable giggle or burst into tears but as Jake’s hands reached towards her she did neither. He rubbed his hands along the bare skin of her forearms, inching slowly towards her and she was overcome with the feeling that this was meant to be.

They both had their secrets and demons but it was all out in the open. They’d

dealt with their issues and the time had come to enjoy each other’s company.

The ring of Jake’s phone shook Rachel from her reverie. Instinctively, he reached into his pocket for his phone, then shook his head.

“No, take it,” Rachel said. “We are both supposed to be at work, after all.”

He looked at the name flashing on his phone, a furrow forming in his brow. “Actually, I do need to take this call.”

As he turned away from her, she heard snatches of conversation. “Connor… Where is he? Sorry, why was he crying? I’m on my way.”

Jake’s lips were pursed, his expression stern.

“Is Connor okay?” Rachel asked.

“He’s upset but he’s fine. That was his teacher. Something’s wrong. Bianca didn’t collect Connor from school so he’s still there. The teacher’s going to wait for me.”

“Jake, are you okay?”

“I have to go.” He planted a swift kiss on her mouth and called out to her on his way out the door. “I’ll come and see you tonight. At your place.”

And as Jake left, all the hope and promise Rachel had felt minutes before, evaporated and left her body.

He didn’t even have the time to finish their conversation and it didn’t matter that he was leaving her feeling like an emotional catastrophe. He couldn’t properly explain what was happening or take the time to hold her and make her understand.

It would always be like this. He would always put his child first and Rachel couldn’t begrudge him that. Connor was his son. He loved him. Of course he had to look after him.

Jake had said he was getting a divorce but Rachel knew all too well that a crisis only brings a family together. His child meant everything to him. He’d think things over and return to his original decision to give Connor the family he deserved.

She also knew with startling clarity that she could never compete with Bianca. She would always be in a more powerful position than her. She was the mother of Jake’s child.

Rachel slumped down onto one of the boardroom chairs, resting her chin on one hand. She couldn’t break up a family. And after everything Jake had been through, he wouldn’t do that either.

He already had too many women in his life.

And only one child.