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Until two weeks ago.
Now he was in a spin. His wife was demanding custody...occupation of the marital home...and worst of all, Jerry was starting to suspect that her new doubles partner was more to her than a fellow tennis player. What Jerry wanted, he’d told Ella, was not a divorce. What he wanted was to keep his wife and kids.
Jerry wanted his life back.
He was ready to do whatever it took to restore his marriage. But his wife wasn’t playing ball.
“Why won’t she talk to me?” He jabbed his fingers through messed curls, the gold of his wedding ring glinting in the office lighting. “I was doing this for her—for us,” he amended.
Jerry owned a multimillion-dollar investment company. It generated enough income to more than meet the family’s needs for years to come.
“I wanted her—our family—to be cared for,” Jerry was saying. “Not like my mother. My father died when I was ten, a heart attack, and my mother had to scrub toilets to put food on the table.”
“Did you ever explain this to Lois?” Ella asked gently.
Jerry looked at her as if she were an alien from another planet. “Of course not. I didn’t want her to feel sorry for me. I always played down my roots. My mother died the year before I met Lois—there was no need for her to know all that sordid stuff.”
“Do you think she would’ve loved you less if she’d known about your background?” Ella wasn’t a therapist but she’d seen similar versions of this sorry tale played out too many times to count.
A feeling of déjà vu settled over her.
“No!” He looked shocked. “She’s not like that. She’s the kindest woman I ever met. That’s why I love her so much.”
The confusion in his eyes made Ella feel like crying.
Jerry didn’t need a lawyer—he needed someone who could teach him how to communicate with his wife!
A knock sounded on the door. A moment later Peggy peered around the door frame.
“I have Mr. Volkovoy on the line. He says it’s urgent.”
Ella gave her cell phone a sideways glance. There were three new messages since she’d killed that call a few minutes ago. Her heartbeat picked up. Holly. Had something happened to the little girl? And if so, wouldn’t she have heard from Deb first? Drawing a deep breath she told herself not to jump to conclusions. “Do you know what the matter is?”
“He wouldn’t say. But he did admit it wasn’t a medical emergency.”
Holly was okay!
Ella silently blessed her assistant’s unflappable common sense.
“Tell him I’m with a client. I’ll call him back in about ten minutes when our meeting is done.”
Peggy nodded. “I’ll let Mr. Volkovoy know.”
* * *
Yevgeny found himself pacing the vast black marble floor of his penthouse as he waited for Ella to call him back.
He wasn’t sure what childish urge had compelled him to insist it was an emergency. He wasn’t used to women not being available to take his calls—and being left to cool his heels. Yet he suspected he’d behaved badly. How often had he been annoyed by women calling and insisting that trivial matters were crises that needed his immediate attention? How often had that led to him backing out of the relationship?
He didn’t like the idea that he was acting in a similar, irrational fashion.
In truth, the very idea scared the hell out of him.
Not that he was in any kind of relationship with Ella....
When Ella’s call finally came, it came through on his cell phone. He leaped on it.
“You were looking for me?”
Her voice sounded warm and welcoming. He stopped pacing. Something in him responded and he felt the tension that had ratcheted up during his conversation with Dmitri slowly uncoiling. “Yes, I was.” He searched for words.
“I called Deb. She says Holly is fine. Is it Keira—has something happened?”
There was a note of fear in her voice now. Yevgeny squeezed his eyes shut. God. Why hadn’t he foreseen that his stupidity might cause her to worry needlessly? He opened them again and stared out the wall of glass but, for once, the spectacular view failed to register. “No, no, nothing to do with Keira.”
He hesitated.
No, filling her in over the phone about his conversation with his brother was precipitative. He’d talk to her...face-to-face...as he’d planned. Now wasn’t the time to go off half-cocked; too much was at stake.
“Then what’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
He shifted his feet. He could feel himself coloring. He felt like a total idiot. It was not a familiar feeling. Against this backdrop he was going to break the news of what he planned to do? He had to pull himself together, or else he was going to end up alienating Ella forever. And that would not be in Holly’s best interests.
