Starting Over (14 page)

Alex watched, a
lump in his throat, as he realized he would never get the
opportunity to see Eve play with their own child. He could have had
it all if he’d made different choices, tried harder to find a
balance that would have made both of them happy. He’d faced facts
too late to save his marriage, and he would live with that regret
forever.

“Sorry”—the
young mother approached them with a smile—“we didn’t mean to
interrupt.”

“No problem.”
Eve smiled at the pretty little girl with blond ringlets. “I had
fun. Are you enjoying your stay?”

“We’re having a
great time,” the young man said, scooping his daughter up as his
wife retrieved the ball. “Beautiful place you’ve got here.”

“Thanks.” Eve
beamed with pride. “It belonged to my aunt. I hope the construction
didn’t disturb you. We’re in the midst of an expansion
project.”

“Not at all,”
the young woman said, squeezing her daughter’s hand. “They were
kind enough to put us on the opposite side of the inn, so we
haven’t heard a thing. Well, we should be on our way. We’re going
to build a few sandcastles and go for a quick dip before we put
this little one down for a nap.”

“Have fun,” Eve
said, grinning when the little one held out her arms. Eve pressed
kisses to both of her hands while her daddy tried to rein in the
wiggling toddler. “I can’t wait to see your sand castle,
princess.”

Watching them
walk away, Alex didn’t know what to say. He knew he would never
forgive himself if he let the opportunity slip past without voicing
his sorrow. When they’d married, he promised to make all of his
wife’s dreams come true, and he failed her. “I’m sorry I wasn’t
honest with you, Eve.”

She watched the
family pick up the plastic toys they’d left on the beach earlier.
“What do you mean?”

“I wasn’t ready
to be a father. I should have told you that when you started
talking to me about trying to have a baby.”

She looked up
at him, suddenly pale. “Why didn’t you?”

“I was afraid
of losing you.” With nothing left to lose, honesty came easily.

“So you were
willing to have a baby you didn’t want just to make me happy?”

Sighing, he
laced his hands behind his head. “I wanted to have a family
someday, but my business took me away so often, it never felt like
the right time.”

“You could have
just told me how you felt.”

“You were so
excited about having a baby. How was I supposed to tell you I
didn’t feel the same way?”

“I don’t know,”
she said.

“I guess it’s a
moot point now. I just wanted you to know how sorry I am for the
mistakes I made.” He set the envelope in her lap. “Here are the
divorce papers. James called in a favor, so it’s official. You’re a
free woman.”

“I am?” She
licked her lips, looking at the envelope as though she was afraid
to open it.

“That’s what
you wanted, right? To move this along as quickly as possible?” Alex
got a sinking feeling he may have rushed things. Perhaps he should
have given it more time in case she changed her mind. “Are you
okay?”

“Yeah, I’m
fine.” She gave him a fake smile he recognized right away. “I guess
I’m just a little surprised, that’s all. You, uh, didn’t have to
come all this way to give me these. Our lawyers could’ve taken care
of it.”

“I know.” He
stared at the waves, jealous of the boaters wasting away the day
while he tried to redefine a life that didn’t make sense anymore.
“I felt I owed it to you, to us, to see this through to the end.”
The end
. That’s what it was, and no matter how much he may
wish things could be different, he had to accept the reality of
their situation.

“I appreciate
that.”

He faced her,
sketching her exquisite face with his eyes, so he wouldn’t forget a
single feature. Pulling her into his arms one last time was
bittersweet. Holding her again felt so good, but knowing it would
be the last time ripped him apart. “I love you. Just remember that.
If you ever need anything, call me, and I’ll be here.”

A sob escaped
as she buried her face in his neck and clung to him, but she didn’t
respond.

Alex was on his way
out the door the following Monday morning when his mother and
sister appeared on his doorstep. He’d buried himself in work ever
since he returned from the inn a few days ago and he hoped to be
able to do the same again that day. It was the only thing that
helped him forget. “Hey, I was just on my way into the office. Can
this wait?” He hoped they would give him the benefit of cutting
their visit short.

“We need to
talk,” Marianne said. “This is important.”

Tonya looked
uneasy, barely able to look him in the eye as she crossed the
threshold.

“Fine, but we
have to make it quick. I have a mountain of work to plow through
today.” He looked at the pot of coffee his housekeeper had left on
the kitchen table when she’d served his breakfast. He’d barely had
a bite and hoped she didn’t notice him shifting the scrambled eggs
around on his plate. He would sell the house soon. Living with
Eve’s ghost around every corner was killing him. “Would you like
some coffee?”

“No, thank
you,” Marianne said, smiling tightly. She gripped her designer
purse, sinking her nails into the soft leather. “Maybe we should
have a seat though.”

“What the hell
is going on?” Alex asked.

Tonya linked
her arm through his. “Let’s just sit down and talk this out.”

“Talk what
out?” he demanded. “What the hell are you talking about?”

His mother
preceded them into the great room. She perched on the edge of a
chair, looking as though she was waiting on a root canal. “You know
how much I love you.” She looked him square in the eye. “Everything
I do is because I have your best interests in mind.”

Alex didn’t
like where she was going. His mother wasn’t the dramatic type. If
she felt the need for that kind of build-up, the news had to be
bad. “Just tell me already.” He looked from his mother to his
sister, who had claimed a seat on the loveseat. “What is it?”

Marianne took a
deep breath before she said, “I sold the company.”

Alex felt his
ears ringing as a rushing sound moved through his head. “You did
what?” He was certain he’d heard her wrong. She would never have
sold his father’s company, the business they’d collectively poured
their heart and soul into for the past three decades.

“Please try to
understand,” Marianne said quickly, “I did it for you. I saw what
it was doing to you, having to choose between your marriage and
your father’s business. So I took the decision out of your
hands.”

Alex paced as
he tried to process the news that his mother had just robbed him of
his sole reason for hauling his butt out of bed every morning. On
paper, his mother was the sole owner of Bolton Industries, but
everyone knew Alex ran the show.
Now what
? “I can’t believe
you would do this without even talking to me. What the hell were
you thinking?”

“I told you. I
was thinking of what was best for you and Eve. Maybe now you can
put your marriage back together. You’ll have all the time in the
world to spend together. Once you’ve got your marriage back on
track, you can start another business doing anything you want,
anywhere you want. You could easily have a home-based business,
maybe at the inn, so you could help Eve run things there.”

“I can’t
believe this,” Alex said, running a hand through his hair. His
mother had mapped out his life without any input from him. Without
knowing it was too late to save his marriage.

“Alex, we got
an incredible offer, too good to refuse. We’ll split the money
three ways, obviously,” Marianne said, darting a nervous glance at
her daughter.

“Mom and I
talked about this and decided it was for the best,” Tonya said.

“You two talked
about it,” Alex said, gesturing between them. “You two—who have
never invested a day building that company—decided this was for the
best? I gave everything I had, lost everything that ever meant
anything to me because of my commitment to that company, and you
didn’t think to talk to me about it?”

“We knew you
would object out of some misguided sense of loyalty to your father.
He wouldn’t have wanted this for you, honey,” Marianne said
gently.

“You think he
would have wanted you to sell the company he spent his life
building?” Deals of that magnitude didn’t come together overnight.
It had been in the works for a while, and his mother and sister
hadn’t said a word to him about it. He didn’t know which betrayal
hurt more: withholding information that would change the course of
his life or pulling the rug out from under him when it was too late
for him to try to stop them.

“It didn’t
happen that way,” Marianne said, her composure slipping. “They came
to me with this offer over a year ago, but I told them we weren’t
interested in selling. When I saw what this company was doing to
your marriage, I knew I had to do something to help you. This was
the only thing I could think of. Please don’t be angry with
me.”

Alex was so
angry he couldn’t see straight. He didn’t know who deserved his
rage more: his mother for going behind his back, his sister for
keeping it to herself, or him for not seeing the signs that they
were up to something. “Who bought it?”

“Bracor,”
Marianne said, lowering her head when he glared at her.

“You sold out
to our biggest competitor knowing how much I despise them for all
the underhanded stunts they’ve pulled over the years? I don’t
believe this.” If he didn’t work off some of his edgy energy and
force himself to take a few deep breaths, his blood pressure would
put him at risk of an episode he didn’t need.

“They promised
me they would keep all of our employees, Alex. I thought of
them.”

“What about me,
Mom? Did you ever consider the fact I might need this job?” Alex
curled his hands around the edge of the baby grand piano he’d
bought for Eve. He dropped his head as he tried to quiet the noise
in his head. His life was spiralling out of control, sucking
everything that mattered to him into the vortex, and he felt
helpless to stop it.

“I told you,
we’re going to split the proceeds from the sale. Your share will be
almost a hundred million dollars. You don’t ever have to work
again.”

“You don’t get
it, do you?” Alex lifted his head to look at his mother. “That job
was the only thing I had left.”

“What are you
talking about? You have Eve. It’s not too late to save your
marriage.”

“My marriage is
over.”

“Don’t say
that,” Tonya said. “It’s not over as long as you’re legally
married. As long as you…” She narrowed her eyes when she saw her
brother’s expression. “Oh my God, you haven’t signed the divorce
papers, have you?”

“Yeah, it’s
official,” he said, trying to swallow his bitterness. “I’m a free
man.”

“Oh no,”
Marianne said, tears springing to her eyes. “I had no idea. I was
trying to help.”

Alex shook his
head, not even trying to mask his disgust. “If this is your idea of
helping, I’d hate to see what you’d do if you wanted to hurt
me.”

***

Eve listened to
her doctor’s instructions about prenatal care while her mind
wandered to Alex’s comments about having a baby. She hadn’t been
able to get them out of her head all weekend. Dan was right. Alex
hadn’t wanted a baby when they were married. He certainly wouldn’t
want one now that they were divorced.

“Do you have
any questions, Mrs. Bolton?” the attractive, young doctor
asked.

Eve knew she
should correct her. She wasn’t Mrs. Bolton anymore, but the large
diamonds still adorning her left hand said otherwise. She decided
to keep her marital status to herself for the time being. She would
have to tell her doctor she was a single parent, but she couldn’t
bring herself to do it when she was still trying to process the
news herself. “No, I think you’ve covered everything, Dr.
Jefferson. But if I think of anything, I’ll call your office.”

“See that you
do,” she said, standing. “You can schedule your next appointment
with my receptionist. Have a lovely day, and congratulations.”

“Thank you,”
Eve whispered. The cell phone in her cross-body purse vibrated. She
considered ignoring it, but if it was a problem at the site, she’d
rather deal with it right away, so as not to delay the contractors.
She frowned when she saw Marianne’s number. “Hi, Marianne.”

“Oh, thank
goodness I caught you,” she said, sounding winded. “Have you seen
Alex?”

“Not since last
Friday. Why?”

“Oh, that’s
what I was afraid of.”

Marianne
sounded on the verge of tears, and Eve suddenly felt her pulse
throbbing in her throat. “Is there a problem?”

“I’ve made such
a mess of everything,” Marianne said, sniffling. “He hates me.”

“Why don’t you
calm down and tell me what happened?” Alex and his mother had
always been close. She couldn’t imagine Marianne doing anything bad
enough to damage their relationship irreparably. “It can’t be that
bad.”

“I sold the
company without telling him.”

Eve was too
stunned to respond. Her mind raced with the implications of
Marianne’s decision. The company was Alex’s life. Coupled with the
divorce, losing it would destroy him. “Why would you do that?”

“I did it for
you.”

“For me? What
are you talking about?” She hated to think Alex might hold her
responsible for taking away his livelihood.

“I knew the
company was the biggest obstacle between you and Alex finding your
way back to each other.” She sounded desperate. “I knew you had to
stay there and run your aunt’s inn, and Alex felt he had to stay
here and run the business. I thought if I took the business out of
the equation…”