The Temporary Wife (3 page)

The bell rang, and Molly just about bowled her over to open the door. Meg stepped to the side as Jason was assaulted by forty pounds of squirming five-year-old.

“Uncle Jason!” He caught her with his free arm. “Why do you have flowers?”

He smiled, kissed his niece on the forehead, and stepped inside with Molly clinging to him like a spider monkey. As soon as the door closed, he held the flowers out toward Meg. “For you,” he said. “Thanks for asking me over.”

Stunned and mildly charmed, Meg took the bouquet and stared at him. What was he up to?

“Thank you, and you’re welcome. Come on in; I’ll put these in water.”

As they continued in, he still carrying Molly, the chatter began. “Why did you bring Aunt Meg flowers? Why are you here? Is she your girlfriend? We have a cat. His name is Moe Kitty and he’s nice, but he doesn’t want to wear doll clothes. I like school. My teacher is nice. Kindergarten is soooo easy, and I can count to twenty. Wanna hear? One-two-three-four—”

“Molly, slow down,” he said. “Do you always talk so much?”

By this point they were standing in the kitchen, and Meg looked over to see Molly think about his question before answering. “Uh-huh.”

“Hmmm, well, why don’t we take care of one question at a time, or better, why don’t you tell me about school?”

He settled her on the top of the kitchen island and planted his hands on either side of her hips to keep her safe. Jason was obviously aware that Molly was kinetic.

It was then, when Molly was looking up into her uncle’s face and telling him all about her day, that Meg could see the strong family resemblance. They had the same high cheekbones and dark shiny hair, and a similar spray of very light freckles across the bridges of their noses. And then each of them smiled, and Meg felt her heart skip a beat. They both had beautiful smiles that went right to their clear blue eyes.

Meg fiddled with her flowers before putting them on the kitchen table. She liked the side of Jason she was seeing. The man was a billionaire software developer, so it was nice to see him do something simple, like relate to a child.

Too bad it wasn’t enough.

***

The doorbell rang, and Molly tried to jump off the counter, but fortunately Jason was quicker and caught her. “Pizza’s here!” she called.

Lowering her to the floor so she didn’t break a bone, he started toward the foyer. “Come on, Squirt. Let’s go get the pie. I’m starved.”

Meg reached for her wallet, and Jason couldn’t believe she thought he’d let her pay for dinner.

“I’ve got it,” he said.

“Really, I can—”

“Meg, I’ve got it. You’re not paying.”

He left the room with Molly, and by the time he got back to the kitchen with the pizza, salad, and garlic knots, Meg had the table set. Everything may have looked fine, but she was slamming drawers pretty good, so Jason had a good idea he’d screwed up somehow.

“I can buy dinner myself,” she murmured.

He breathed out and sent Molly off to wash her hands, which left him alone with a pissed-off, cornered woman and her wounded pride. “I’m not going to let you pay. You’re a teacher. Be rea—”

“If you tell me to be fucking reasonable, you’re going to get a garlic knot up your nose.”

It took everything he had not to smile. He really wanted to, but he figured she’d get more pissed off, and that would earn him two garlic knots up the nose. Doing something out of character, he played it safe. “I’m sorry. I’ll remember for next time.”

“Okay.” She looked up, frustrated. “I know it seems dumb to you, but I’m still getting my head around all this. It’s hard for me.”

“You’re independent. I respect that, but the big advantage of being with me is that you don’t have to worry about money. Ever again.”

Meg sank in a chair and pushed her hair away from her face. “I’m marrying for money. God, I feel a little sick.”

“Why? I hate to say it, but it’s not uncommon. And I told you, this is about Molly.”

“Maybe, but I can’t help feeling that your father was right about me.”

“Don’t ever say that.” Jason leaned forward, his muscles tightening in his neck. The tension shot over and around his head and shoulders. He hated that his father made her feel that way. He hated it back then and hated it more now. “You’re doing this for Molly. I know it’s not what you wanted, but try to see the big picture.”

“Right. I have to be
reasonable
. I’m taking one for the team.”

He scrubbed both hands over his face and sat adjacent to her at the table. “If I could think of another way, I’d go there. But I can’t. Their major point when arguing for custody is going to be your marital status. That they are blood relatives who can provide a traditional family.”

“Traditional? Your parents? Are they kidding?”

He chuckled as he agreed. “It’s crazy, I know, but a judge isn’t going to know that they’re completely dysfunctional.”

Meg dropped her head on her arms, and Jason was trying to figure out how he could make this easier when Molly returned, carrying a very large black cat in her arms. The cat was rigid, with his front and rear legs extended while Molly held him around the middle.

“Uncle Jason. This is Moe Kitty.”

“Kitty? He looks like a small panther.” He glanced over at Meg, who was grinning.

“Yes, he does. And he’s all ours,” Meg said.

“He used his box,” Molly said. “I cleaned it.”

Meg shook her head. “Did you wash your hands after?”

Molly froze and looked back and forth, from one adult to the other. She put the cat down and left the room without saying a word.

“I guess we got our answer,” Jason said.

He watched Meg’s mouth turn into a gentle grin. She truly loved the child, and it was obvious Molly returned all the affection. “She’s never boring. Kind of like Grace.”

That was the truth. His sister was never boring. In fact, when they were teenagers, he never understood how the conservative, preppy Meg got along with his Goth sister. But she did. They were inseparable.

“Can I ask you something?” Her voice had gotten small again. It did that when she was upset or frightened.

“Sure. Anything.”

“Why weren’t you at the funeral? How could you not go?”

It hit Jason that no one would have thought to tell her what had happened to him. His family would have had no reason to even acknowledge Meg’s presence, much less explain anything, which was why, when the will was read, the family was so blindsided.

To them, Meg didn’t matter. She never had, and now he was treating her as a pawn in the war he and his sister had started with his parents.

“I was in Asia, in Taiwan, and I couldn’t get home.”

Her eyes hardened. “Couldn’t get home? You probably have a fleet of jets at your disposal. It’s not like you had to fly standby.”

“Not exactly a fleet, but the day Grace died a typhoon hit, and with the flooding, the power outages, and the damage at the airport, I couldn’t fly out. I couldn’t get out for almost a week.”

“Oh.” She swallowed. “Oh . . . I didn’t . . . There was . . . No one told me.”

“I figured. I was frantic. I couldn’t do anything, and I knew . . .” He looked her square in the eyes. “I knew there were people here who needed me. But I was stranded.”

She dropped her eyes, and he knew Meg’s big, sloppy heart felt his pain. It was who she was. And he could see, when she fixed her eyes back on his, that she was thinking about how much she missed Grace. How much they both missed Grace. “That had to have been horrible for you. I mean, you had no one.”

“I survived.” He kept his gaze on her, didn’t budge. This was too important. “Look, I want Molly to be secure and safe, and I think you’re the best person to raise her. It’s what my sister and Mark wanted. I’m too busy with work, and I wouldn’t know how to deal with a little girl like you do. We’ll get married, and I’ll have everything set up so when we separate you won’t have to worry about anything.”

“If we’re married, I can see there’d be some safety in numbers, but when we separate, what’s to stop your parents from doing this again? What’s the plan?”

This was as good a time as any to drop the second part of his idea on her. “Before we get married, we’re going to put her funds in a blind trust, managed by my brother.”

“A blind trust?”

“My brother will be the trustee, controlling the investments, and neither of us will have access to it. That should deflect the argument that you’re after the money.”

“That’s a nice thought, but I doubt it’s going to change Josh’s or anyone else’s mind about me.”

“True enough, but putting the funds with him is about Molly, and it will shut him up. He’ll do the right thing with the trust.” Jason rubbed a hand on the back of his neck. “He can be an asshole, but I trust him with this.”

“Okay, then what?”

“Then we adopt Molly.”

Chapter 4

The dark wood paneling in the conference room was sort of a cliché. But this whole situation was evolving into just that: a cliché. A struggling woman who needed to be saved by a wealthy man. It nauseated Meg. The lawyer was placing papers in front of her, and Jason, who was trying to be supportive, was right next to her, explaining everything that was happening. He’d already signed everything. Now it was her turn.

“There are a few different contracts,” he began. Jason’s voice, which was normally deep and steady, was shaky. She was surprised to realize he was nervous about this. “This is a standard prenup. It gives you a percentage of my income, a portfolio, the house, and half of anything we acquire during the marriage . . .”

Meg nodded. A house, money, things. The Campbells were always about things.

“The prenup is the document we’ll tell everyone about. No one will think it’s out of the ordinary that one of these was executed, just that it’s so . . .” He stopped midsentence.

“So what?” Meg leaned toward him.

“So
generous
. You’ll do well in the divorce.”

“Perfect. Just what I’ve always wanted. A fabulous divorce settlement.”

Meg signed or initialed where she saw the little Post-it notes and instructed herself to keep breathing. After the appointment here, there were errands to do, and then they were going to see the families. Neither side had any idea what was coming.

Meg felt like she was taking part in a series of emotional ambushes. She ended it with Grant last night, and that was horrible. All she’d said was, “I can’t keep seeing you because I’m getting married.”

Grant hadn’t accused her of cheating on him, but it’s obvious that’s what he thought. She’d hurt him, and after he brought her home, Meg had cried all night, because he didn’t deserve to feel like a castoff. Once he found out
who
she was marrying, she’d be branded as an opportunist—throwing over a nice guy for money. The damage to her reputation would be epic.

But Meg said nothing. She put the what-ifs out of her head and focused on what was in front of her.
Take one for the team.

“This next contract is a separate agreement. It’s a little of everything, including possible custody arrangements,” Jason said. “This is between us.”

“I don’t understand the need for a second document. What’s in something like this?”

“It helps if things are spelled out. Especially regarding Molly. It basically says that we’re to function as a family, be faithful, agree to certain conditions.”

“Conditions? What conditions?”

“Well, we talked about exclusivity, not seeing other people to keep up appearances. You’ll need to break it off with the man you’re seeing.”

“I already did.”

He acknowledged her with a nod. “You should know I haven’t been with anyone steadily for a while.”

“Okay, but I don’t know why we need paperwork when these conditions, as you call them, are pretty obvious.”

“It’s good to have things in writing. It protects everyone.”

Her mind flashed back to his earlier words. “You said something about a house. We have a house?”

Jason nodded. “We’re going there later. We have an appointment with the interior designer.”

Meg felt a grin tease the corner of her mouth. “An interior designer?”

“Yes.” Jason looked up from one of the documents. “She’s excellent. I think you’ll be pleased.”

“Really? You’ve worked with her before? Because, I don’t know, Jason . . .” Meg waved her hand around. “I’d want to see her portfolio before we make a commitment.”

“Her portfolio? Meg . . .”

Meg examined her nails, putting on her best attitude for her soon-to-be husband. She glanced over and saw he was trying to think of something to say, and she’d stunned him speechless. She’d challenged him, and Jason the Magnificent wasn’t used to being challenged.

“I can assure you that her credentials are impeccable. She did my apartment in the city, my offices . . .”

Meg couldn’t stand it anymore. She exploded in laughter, which was just what she needed, because if she didn’t laugh at what was happening, she’d have time to think about how her life would never be the same. The life she’d made for herself.

Jason’s lips pressed tightly together, and his eyes narrowed. Meg willed herself to stop so he didn’t get really pissed. But Jason only shook his head and shot a crooked grin in her direction.

“I guess I deserved that for being a pretentious ass.”

“Just a little,” she said, chuckling. “Where is this house of ours?”

“Cold Spring Harbor.”

Meg loved Cold Spring Harbor. Sandwiched on the North Shore between two busier towns, it had a beautiful main street and wonderful schools. It was an expensive, exclusive hamlet that felt like a small town. Molly wouldn’t even have to change schools.

But suddenly, the fear hit. Fear of the changes she was facing, of the loss of her independence. And it wasn’t jitters. Plain and simple, Meg was afraid of losing everything she was. She felt the burn in her eyes and blinked hard, but a tear escaped, rolled off her cheek and plopped on the paper, spreading out, just like everything she was feeling.

Jason reached for the tissues that were in a pretty wooden box at the center of the large conference table and handed her one. “What’s wrong? Gwyneth is a wonderful designer. You can do whatever you want in the house.”

Meg sniffled and dabbed at her eyes, but the tears kept coming. “This isn’t about the designer or the house. I don’t know why I’m crying.” Fingering the pen on the table in front of her, Meg took a deep breath. As much as Jason was trying to make this easy, she felt the despair flood her heart. Her life was gone. She’d hurt Grant, she was going to hurt her family. Everything she knew was going to be gone.

The tears came faster, and Meg hated that she couldn’t control her emotions. She wrapped her arms around herself, and a moment later, Jason’s arms were around her, too. Pulling her in, he pressed her head against him and whispered into her hair. “Please don’t cry, Meg. Please.”

“Grace didn’t have to live this way. Why do I?”

“We’ll keep things as simple as possible. Are you going to keep working?”

She nodded. Sniffled. “I want to. If everyone at school doesn’t hate me.”

Curled against him, she felt calmer. His hand ran rhythmically up and down her spine, and his warmth took away the chill that had been with her for days. “No one’s going to hate you. I can’t think of anyone who hates you.”

“Your brother. Your parents. Grant.”

“Grant was your boyfriend?”

“Uh-huh. I liked him a lot.” More tears leaked out because she was sick that she might have hurt him, that she might have lost a good man for this “marriage.” “You’re not seeing anyone?”

“No one serious. Not like you.” His breathing was deep, his heartbeat steady. “We’ll be okay, you know. We always got along.”

“We’re different people, Jay. Going back isn’t an option.”

“True. We’ll have to move forward with what we have. Do our best to be friends and make a home for Molly.”

Meg leaned back and examined his face. He was so handsome, her heart did a little jump every time she looked at him. At first glance, he may have looked like your garden-variety pretty boy, but if you looked closely, there was nothing ordinary about Jason at all. His bone structure was regal, his skin perfect, and his hair soft, but it was when you looked in his eyes that you saw the fire. Inside him was a supercomputer, an intelligence that was logical, focused, and could best be described as a force of nature. It never stopped, and when he was growing up, Jason had had to learn to deal with all the noise in his head. It hadn’t been easy.

She remembered summer nights when they were teenagers that they would take off to an empty field on the estate. It was fairly secluded and overlooked the beach. They’d lie on their backs and count stars and talk about their dreams. For him, computers were like art. He saw machine language and circuitry like van Gogh saw paints. Meg loved listening to him on those quiet nights. The stars were overhead, the water lapped at the shore, and he shared himself with her. He knew about everything and he talked about what he could do to make the world better. He’d hold her on those nights, his strong arms wrapping around her and protecting her from an outside world that wanted to pull them apart. They were going to save the world together and love each other forever.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

Meg couldn’t tell him, of course, but she could come up with a variation. Something that wasn’t quite the truth, but wasn’t a lie, either. “I was wondering why you aren’t married or at least involved with someone.”

It was his cue to release her and sit back in the chair. “The company’s gotten huge, and I work all the time, sometimes eighteen hours a day. There’s not a lot of time for anything else. It’s my whole life.”

“It’s a big enough company that you could delegate some things, couldn’t you?”

“I guess, but work is really what I’m all about. I never had time for anything more than casual relationships.”

Casual,
Meg thought.
As in, “these are women I sleep with.” Nice.

Clicking the pen, Meg started flipping through the second stack of papers and initialing in the appropriate spaces. There was one section on visitation with Molly, and it looked like after the divorce, he was leaving any visitation schedule to her discretion. “You don’t want something more formal when we have to decide on custody of Molly?”

“I figured I’d leave that up to you. I trust you.”

That was good, because with everything that had happened in the past, she was having a hard time trusting him, even though, at this point, Jason was all she had.

Meg finished signing the papers and set down the pen. It was done. “You’re sure they’re going to back off?”

“They won’t have a choice once the adoption gets started.”

“I don’t understand why they’d want a small child at this stage of their lives.”

Jason stood and held her coat while she slipped her arms in the sleeves. A paralegal gathered the papers, nodded, and left the room. “It’s not like they’d raise her,” he said. “She’d just be in the house.”

“So why do this? I mean, what’s the benefit . . .”

Then it hit her. It hit so hard, Meg had to hold the back of the chair to keep herself from falling. “Oh, my God. It’s about the money. They don’t want me to have the money.”

He hesitated, obviously disgusted at his parents. “Probably. I don’t know what’s going on. It could be more complicated than that.”

“Complicated? How?” The fact that his parents’ objection to her had to do with money made perfect sense. It always had to do with money.

“Something my brother said the other day got me wondering if my parents are as wealthy as they appear.”

“I don’t understand. How could they not have money? There’s so much of it.”

Jason held the door as they stepped into the hallway and walked toward the elevator. “My parents don’t have any money of their own. My mother hasn’t worked a day in her life, and my father is the CEO of the firm, but he doesn’t really work. He golfs. My brother runs the business, and I’ve gotten some hints that there are problems. Problems caused by my father.”

“Okay, so all the trust funds you guys have? I’m confused.”

“My grandfather started an investment firm and became a millionaire multiple times over. Then he branched out into private equity. The company is worth billions. He started setting up the trusts when my dad was born and then when we were born. He set up Molly’s when Grace was six months pregnant because he was dying. All he wanted was for us to be secure, but he still expected us to put in an honest day’s work. Josh, Grace, and I made our own money. I haven’t touched my trust since I left school.”

“I remember your grandfather. He was a nice man.”

“I don’t know where the hell my father came from. He’s not happy unless someone else is miserable.”

Without knowing what made her do it, she reached for his hand, and Jason held on as they stepped into the elevator. The words were just words, but the tone, the sentiment behind them, made her sad for him. Jason was close to his siblings, Grace especially. He must have been feeling her loss in ways Meg couldn’t understand.

“Meggie.” God, he hadn’t called her that since she was sixteen. Her insides went all soft just hearing it carried in his deep baritone. “I’m not cut out for marriage, not a real one. I work too much, and the way I live my life isn’t conducive to raising a family. I know that. But I will do my best so this isn’t hard for you.”

She dropped his hand and turned toward him, but the warmth lingered. “That’s such bullshit.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m going to talk to you like an old friend, Jason, so take this the way it’s intended.
You
decide the kind of life you’re going to lead. No one else. If you want a family, you’ll have one. You’re the smartest person I know. You’d make it work.”

“Do you think I’m making up my crazy hours?” He wasn’t angry, but once again she’d challenged him, and Jason didn’t like to be challenged. Meg was glad. He needed his buttons pushed.

“No, I don’t think you’re making anything up, but I think you’re hiding behind work to avoid having a life.”