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“I’m only a couple of months along,” Diana murmured. “It’s a bit soon to be talking about it.”
Frank was watching her with an assessing look. “We could make it work. A few weeks off is no problem. I’d rather have the most talented surgeon.”
Coburn put his fork and knife down on his plate. “It’s not happening, Moritz. I know how your underlings work. I will not have my wife running from the OR to the delivery room.”
I will not have... She turned to look at her husband, fury raging through her. Not even the white-hot anger sizzling in his blue eyes could stem the desire to strangle him.
The silence at the table was deafening. Diana looked at her mentor. “You’ll have to allow us some time to discuss.”
He inclined his head. “As I mentioned, I have to put a name forth by next week latest. I’m sure your husband will see this as the opportunity it is. I take on one surgeon every two years. That’s it.”
Coburn said nothing. Carole moved the conversation along. Diana reminded herself her husband was a barely functioning human being right now, but it was no use. She wanted to kill him.
She had contemplated turning the fellowship down because of him. Because he was more important to her than a job. But she was not and never would be a possession. She’d spent her life allowing her father to make her decisions for her. Coburn was not going to take on that mantle.
After dinner, Coburn’s customer suggested liquors at the bar. Coburn declined and escorted her out of the building. She waited silently at his side while the valet retrieved the car. When the young man brought the Jaguar to a halt in front of them, Coburn held her door open, waited while she slid in, then slammed it shut behind her.
She waited until he had gotten in and put the car into gear before she spoke.
“I was thinking about turning the job down. That’s why I hadn’t responded to him. I knew you needed me more than I needed the job.”
He pulled out of the driveway. “If you really believed that, you would have turned it down.”
“It’s more complicated than that, Coburn.”
“It’s not.” He yanked the car over to the side of the road and put it in park. “Goddammit, Diana, I thought we were getting somewhere. That we were finally being honest with each other. That we had the partnership I had always dreamed of. When all along you were keeping this from me.” His gaze pinned her to the seat. “When did he ask you?”
Heat singed her cheeks. “A few weeks ago. But it wasn’t the right timing to bring it up.”
He threw his head back against the seat. “So you said nothing. You allowed me to be blindsided tonight by Frank Moritz, who took great pleasure in putting me on the spot. Who made me look like a complete fool in front of a client by not knowing my wife had been offered a prestigious fellowship.”
“It’s your fault. If you weren’t so crazed about my job, I would have told you and this never would have happened. As it was, I was doing everything not to set you off like a powder keg.”
“So now it’s my fault?” He turned and rested his gaze on her. “It doesn’t excuse the lack of honesty.”
She bit her lip, trying to be the reasonable one here. “I should have told you. But you can’t unilaterally make decisions for me like that. I won’t have it.”
“And I won’t have you taking that job. It will consume you, Diana. There won’t be any room left for me or our baby.”
It was the ultimatum that did it. “I guess that revelation in the Virgin Islands about the importance of my job was just talk. Do you have any idea how amazing this opportunity is? Frank Moritz was short-listed for a Nobel Prize. Working with him would put me on a world stage. Cement my career as a pediatric surgeon.”
“I’m not saying it isn’t a great opportunity. I’m insanely proud of you. I always have been. But this is not the right timing for us. It will kill what we’ve built.”
“What will kill what we’ve built,” she countered, “is if I continue this role I’ve been playing forever. I have spent the past three weeks attending every boring benefit you’ve asked me to, lunching with Jack Nieman’s wife, who is a total piece of work just like him, by the way. I have played the perfect CEO’s partner to the hilt. And I have done it willingly because I love you, Coburn. Because I know you need me right now. But I will not have you treat me like this, no matter how stressed you are.”
