The Billionaire's Weekend Bride (10 page)

He remembered what Sonia said. It was nice not to be arguing and the fatigue at faking all night, and wanting Sonia to feel the way he did, took its toll. He was tired.

Damian couldn't make it to the bedroom and he didn't have the energy to explain to Max how he was feeling about Sonia. If he was honest he couldn't explain it to himself. These were not feelings he'd had before. And while trying to make himself drop off to sleep, all he could think about was her and had to remind himself that out of her own lips she'd told him: this was all just business.

   ***

Sonia barely slept all night. She kept tossing and turning and dreaming of fighting with Damian and then having make-up sex in the back of the chauffeur driven car, his hotel room and under a seductive light in her bedroom. Because of the almost sleepless night, she woke late the next morning and had to hurry to get ready.
This was it,
she kept thinking to herself, this is the last time she'd see Damian and the feeling wasn't good.

“Aren't you even going to have breakfast?” Bibi said to her when she heard the door buzz for Sonia. Damian was waiting downstairs.

“No time,” Sonia said as she breezed out. Maybe she'd grab a pastry after the meeting. She couldn't think about eating anything. She needed this final chapter on her life to be well and truly closed.

She and Damian barely spoke as they sat in the back of the taxi. Neither wanted to instigate another heated conversation before such an important meeting. Sonia was feeling light headed from not having eaten. She always grabbed something for breakfast, like clockwork, every day. But today her stomach was in knots and she was on an emotional knife's edge.

Sonia also noticed that Damian barely touched her. During the time he'd pretended to be her husband, he'd have a gentle hand in the small of her back, but not today. She would have to stop herself missing his touch.

They entered the Merriman's Manhattan hotel and were asked to follow a member of staff to the board rooms on the top floor. They were situated in the older part of the building. The floor in the corridor was marble and Sonia's heels clicked and echoed as they walked. There were old paintings on the walls and behind them was a thin window looking out onto the busy street downstairs. It had plush, red drapes tied to either side. Ahead was the boardroom.

“So much history here,” Damian said as he looked around the corridors. Sonia looked at him and realized that what they'd shared would soon be history, too.

At the end of the corridor, Mr. Merriman opened up the double doors onto the boardroom and had a huge smile on his face.

“Damian and Penny,” he exclaimed. “You made it.”

“How could we not?” asked Damian as the two men shook hands energetically. Damian allowed Sonia to enter the room first and slowed down when he saw a room full of people – including Mrs.  Merriman. Sonia smiled but Gloria Merriman did not smile back. Mr. Merriman extended his arm to introduce the people at the table.

“These are my shareholders,” Mr. Merriman said. “Soon to become ex-shareholders, of course. All going to retire once the new owner of the Merriman hotels makes them rich men and women.” There was a rumble of laughter around the large table. Damian smiled, too, but noticed that Merriman hadn't introduced him to everyone in the room.

At the end of the table was a swarthy looking businessman whom Damian recognized by reputation alone. He was an investor who took over companies and sold them on. Damian couldn't understand why he was there.

“You look confused, Damian,” Joseph Merriman said. “No need to be. Please, you and Penny – take a seat.”

Damian held a chair out for Sonia and they sat at the large oval table. Damian looked at the space on the table in front of Mr. Merriman to see if he'd brought the contracts to sign. There was nothing there. Nor were there any papers in front of any of the shareholders. Mrs.  Merriman was sitting beside her husband and looked intently at Sonia.

Mr. Merriman cleared his throat.

“I told you from the start how much honesty, family and integrity meant to me, Damian,” he began.

“Yes, of course, and I'm completely on board with that. We are aren't we, Penny?” He put a loving hand on Sonia's and gave her a smile. She nodded in agreement with Damian. And though it felt good to have the comfort of his touch in a room full of strangers, she sensed the chill in the air. Something was wrong.

“So,” said Mr. Merriman. “In that case, I wonder if you could tell me how it was my wife came across a news item, one that has been seen by millions of people on at least three news channels on Tuesday night of this week?”

“Which news item?” asked Damian. He looked at Sonia because Mr. Merriman was staring right at her.

“Maybe your wife, Penny, could explain this to us.” Mr. Merriman nodded to someone who turned down all the lights in the room and then at another person who was operating an overhead projector. Instantly, there was a picture on the screen that confused both Damian and Sonia until she saw the front of the sleazy bar she had worked at on Monday and Tuesday night.

The picture on the screen showed a gang of police officers forcing their way into the bar in the background. In the foreground was a news reporter, a woman wearing a mustard colored scarf around her neck, tucked into her jacket. Her hair was blowing in the wind and she was looking over her shoulder at the bar behind her, at the scene with the police officers before turning back to the camera to speak:

This was the scene outside the Blue Pirate, tonight, when police were called to raid a bar they have suspected for weeks was the center of a drug ring. As well as the raid to find Class A drugs, the owner has allegedly been known to pimp prostitutes from this very bar
...

Sonia's blood ran cold. She had no idea that the chaos of that night had been televised. She never once saw it on the news and neither had she seen in a newspaper. Looking up at the expression on Damian's face, he had no idea about it either. But then she remembered – there had been cameras.

The reporter continued.

Right now, the police are inside making their arrests. The press don't have permission to enter but we understand that the police have warrants and are targeting the owner of the bar, Mr. Hal Meadows. He apparently graduated from being a pimp on the street to buying this bar. But, as far as the New York City police department are concerned, he continues to pimp women and girls and plays a large part in the alleged drugs ring.

She looked over her shoulder again before continuing:

We see the police have already made some arrests
.

“I don't understand what I'm seeing here, Joseph,” Damian looked at him, confused.

“Keep watching and you'll see.”

At that precise moment the image of Sonia in her cutoff jeans and skimpy t-shirt, showing more flesh than any hooker on the street would show, being dragged out of the bar by a police officer, was flashed across the screen. She shielded her face from flashing lights but it was very clearly Sonia and the technician froze the picture right on her face.

“Penny?” the voice from the corner came from Mrs.  Merriman. “What were you doing in that bar? Do you mind explaining?”

Sonia was speechless and the lights came up. She blinked several times to make her eyes adjust and found every shareholder staring right at her.

Damian turned to Sonia.

“What am I seeing?” he said to her in a quiet voice.

“It's not what you're thinking, Damian,” Sonia said.

“And what am I thinking?” He clenched his teeth.

“You think that because of this, you were wrong about me. You think I'm one of the hookers, don't you?”

Damian swallowed and did not answer.

“Mr. Hedley?” Merriman said after a frosty silence. He stood up. “Who is this woman? Am I to believe that you hired a prostitute to pose as your wife to fool me into thinking that you believe in family values?”

“First of all,” Damian said after swallowing hard, “let me just say that Sonia is not a hooker. I don't know where you got this and what the story was about – or why she was there.” He stopped and turned to look at Sonia. “Why were you there, Sonia?”

“Oh my God!” Sonia scraped her chair backwards before rushing to the door. She opened it and bolted as fast as she could.

“Mr. Merriman,” Damian said, standing too. “I have to apologize. I know it was wrong of me to pretend to be married. I wanted to strike the deal with you.”

“At any cost?” Merriman glared at him.

“I didn't want to lie. This has gotten completely out of hand. I wanted the hotels and I know I'm the best person to take them over. I see you have the owner of Hooperman Investments sitting here. You'll be making a big mistake handing your hotels to them. They'll never keep the business operating the way it is now. Believe me. I know what I'm talking about. They'll mess with your whole ethos, re-brand and then sell. But Mr. Merriman, I would never do that. I swear to you that to carry on the Merriman legacy was always my intention.”

“And I'm supposed to believe you after you parade a prostitute in front of me and my wife? Bring her to my hotel! Bring her to my home!” Joseph Merriman was fuming.

“Like I say,” Damian said in a measured voice. “This has all gotten out of hand. I wanted you to see I was the best person for the job by my words and actions. You forcing this family values business down my throat put me in a difficult position. I may not be married but I know what I'm doing, Mr. Merriman. And I know I could have made this a business you could continue to be proud of. Asking Sonia to pose as my wife, well, we all know that was stupid and wrong … but, I thought it was the only way to convince you I was a sure bet.”

“But you lied, Mr. Hedley!” Mr. Merriman's face turned red.

“I know that and I'm sorry.” Damian held both hands up. “So, you'll really be handing your hotels over to Hooperman Investments?” Damian shook his head in disgust.

“At least their company is honest,” said Merriman.

Still staggering to find the right words, Damian turned to him. “You're making a big mistake, Mr. Merriman. And if you think that shaming a girl who was doing me a huge favor, in front of a room of strangers proves a point to me, then I'm glad we no longer have a deal.”

Damian rushed out of the room. He knew he had to go after Sonia. He ran all the way down the stairs and down to the reception area. Of course there was no sign of her and he kicked himself for letting her go and not chasing after her straight away.

Out on the street he looked up and down, desperately hoping to see her storming away but he couldn't see her anywhere. He cursed under his breath and hailed a taxi. He thought she must be at least half way to her apartment by now and didn't think for one second she would want to see him – but he had to try.

CHAPTER 7

About twenty minutes passed by but Sonia would not press the buzzer and let Damian in. He tried other apartments but no one was entertaining the idea of letting a stranger into the building. Not even the great Damian Hedley could charm these people. Just then, thankfully, someone arrived at the building. Damian tried to act casually and not look like a complete stranger to the woman returning home with her groceries. She was loaded with bags.

“Here, let me get that.” The charm worked on her and Damian was in the building at last. He rode up in the elevator with the woman, still carrying her bags. She lived on the first floor and chatted the entire time. Without looking back at him, she left the elevator, expecting Damian to follow behind with her bags.

Damian did his best to not lose his temper and drop the bags on the floor. She had done him a big favor after all. Instead, he smiled nicely and walked to her door.

“If you wouldn't mind just leaving them on the kitchen table that would be wonderful,” She said and continued into her apartment. Damian followed behind. In the kitchen, a cat tried to spring at him from the top of a kitchen cupboard but the woman caught hold of the moggy in mid-flight.

“Naughty, Doodles,” she exclaimed. “That's not how we treat a Good Samaritan.” She smiled kindly at Damian and followed him as he hurried to the door again. “Can I at least offer you a cup of coffee?” she said.

“No, no,” he replied, already in the hall. “You never have to repay a Samaritan. We love to help.” He ran back to get in the elevator but it had already been called and on its way upwards, without him.

He ran to the stairwell and decided the stairs would be quicker. He'd wasted enough time. By the time he got to Sonia's apartment he was out of breath and perspiring but desperate to see her. Still, she would not answer the door.

“Sonia! Sonia, please.” He banged several times with his fist. “Answer the door. I'm not going to leave here until I see you. My flight leaves tonight. I can't go like this. I can't.”

He continued to pound the door but there was no response until a very angry Bibi came to the door.

“If you don't leave this building in the next five seconds, I'm going to call the police,” she said, staring daggers at him.

“Bibi, please. I need to talk to Sonia. Did she tell you what they did to her?”

“What
they
did to her. You were the one who got her into this mess.”

“How can you say that? I didn't take those pictures and I certainly didn't encourage her to get mixed up in bar full of drug users.”

“Oh, I see,” Bibi said. “So you want to blame
her
for this?”

“I'm not blaming anyone. The Merrimans could have handled it better.” Damian was out of patience. “But forget them and their hotels.”

“Why? Aren't the hotels what this is all about?” Bibi screwed up her eyes. “I get it. You stayed behind and you spun them a line didn't you? I bet you sold Sonia out and still managed to make some kind of a deal. That's just typical. You come out of this smelling of roses and Sonia is back to square one. In fact, it's worse than that. How is anyone going to give her a serious acting job with all that crap on the news?”

“It happened on Tuesday, Bibi,” Damian said. “It's old news. No one would have seen it.”

“The Merrimans did.”

“I don't have an answer for that. I just need to see Sonia. I can't get the look on her face out of my mind.”

“Really? She ran out of there but you didn't run straight after her. You stayed to make sure you got that contract and let her come home alone after being humiliated by a room full of snobby suits.”

“They don't know her,” he said. “She'll never have to see them again. What does it matter?”

“If you can't understand what she's going through, mister, then you really don't have a right to see her at all.”

“I think I do,” he protested. “I care about how she's feeling right now and I need to talk to her. Why can't you see that? I can't leave it like this.”

Bibi pursed her lips together and looked Damian up and down as if he was diseased. “Well, you just missed her.”

“What?” he spluttered. “When?”

“Just seconds before you came banging on my door, she left. Now the five seconds I gave you are up. I'm calling the cops.”

“Don't bother.” He looked down and shook his head from side to side. Backing away with his hands in submission, he breathed the words: “I give up.”

Bibi closed the door with a bang just to punctuate his departure.

Bibi walked to the kitchen. “Don't worry,” she said to Sonia. “I got rid of him – finally.”

Sonia who had been sitting at the kitchen table, was clutching a damp tissue. She dabbed at her eyes again. She had been shaking and she'd had to force herself to stop sobbing loudly when she knew Damian was at the door.

“Thank you for getting rid of him,” she said as Bibi sat down beside her. “I don't want to ever see that man again.”

When Sonia ran from the boardroom, she had rushed out onto the street, not even able to see properly through the tears. Very quickly, she was able to jump into a taxi that had stopped in front of both her and another woman who had called it at the same time as she did. Sonia, in a panic to get away, practically dragged the poor woman out of the way to get into it. She had blurted out the word, “sorry”, but she just had to get away.

She realized how rude she'd been. There was no need to rush away from Damian, anyway, was there? As her heels clicked with speed along the marble corridor away from the boardroom, there had been no sign of him following her. Down in the hotel foyer there were still no sign of him chasing after her to see how she was either.

As far as she was concerned, after seeing the newsreel, his face told her what she wanted know – that he thought she really was a prostitute after all.

She was ashamed. She had caught the look on Mrs. Merriman's face, too. She'd looked smug, pleased with herself because she'd obviously remembered why it was she'd seen Sonia's face before.

Sonia had fooled herself that Mrs. Merriman had actually liked her. Okay, so she had been the fake Mrs. Hedley, the adoring new wife, but she was sure there had been some kind of connection. But she was wrong to believe that was true. Mrs. Merriman looked down her nose at her, too.

“I feel so cheap,” she said to Bibi.

“Don’t. You have nothing to prove to those people. They don't know you and they have no right to judge you, either.”

“I know that. I know I shouldn't care what they think but I can't help it.” She dried another stream of tears away.

“But that's not all you're crying about, is it?” Bibi put an elbow on the table.

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. You're feeling this twice as bad because of what you think Damian thinks of you now,” Bibi said. Sonia stopped sobbing and looked at her friend.

“Oh Bibi, what is wrong with me? I knew that once he'd done his deal, Damian would fly out and I'd never see him again. I'd made up my mind I'd be strong and move on, but if you saw Damian's face when he saw that report. It was there in his eyes, even if he says he doesn't think I'm a hooker, I could tell that the news item changed his mind. I felt terrible about him thinking that way about me – believing I was some sort of tramp. After all we've been through, that's the one thing that just breaks my heart.”

“Come on, Sonia. You heard what he said. He stuck up for you. He told the Merrimans it wasn't true.”

“But do you think he's really convinced or was there doubt in his mind? You didn't see the look on his face when he asked me what I was doing there.”

“You know what I think,” Bibi said, scraping her chair closer and hugging Sonia. “I think that because he came all the way here, he must know the truth. You wouldn't have seen him for dust if he truly believed
that
about you. Now come on, Sonia. We've been through this. You have to stop crying, you'll make me start. It was your choice to not pursue a relationship with Damian. And that's how it's going to be. Especially now. So, you see, it turns out the way you wanted.”

“I know,” Sonia said. “But I never thought he'd leave here with the wrong impression of me.”

“Honey, if you're that concerned about what he thinks, there is a way you can change that.”

“What do you mean? It's too late now.”

“It's not too late. He's still in New York. You could go to see him and you could put the record straight. If you want to be completely convinced he knows the absolute truth about you, go and tell him why you were there that night and how you took that job in all innocence.”

Sonia pulled herself up from the table. She was unsteady on her legs and felt weak. She still hadn't eaten all morning and her blood sugars were low.

“I want to tell him the truth. But right now I'm just emotionally drained. I'm not even sure what time his flight is and when he'll be leaving for the airport.”

“I'm sure you've got time to catch your breath, Sonia. Compose yourself, eat something. Even have a little rest. In fact,” Bibi said rising and putting an arm around Sonia, “you go to your room and lie down. I'll fix you something to eat and then you just sleep. Once you're awake, have a clear head, then you do what you need to do to make yourself feel better about this whole fiasco. Okay?”

“Okay, I'll do that. Thanks, Bibi, I don't know where I'd be without you.”

Bibi gave her a big hug and led her to her bedroom.

After eating, they sat and carried out a postmortem of the whole week of events. But in the end, Sonia was positive she needed closure and wanted to see Damian a final time before he left.

“And I'm coming with you,” Bibi said. “But for now, you just rest.”

Sonia lay her head on the pillow and complete exhaustion made her fall into a deep sleep.