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“You’re barely picking at your food,” he stated.
“Please forgive my husband’s rudeness, it seemsmyaccident affectedhisbehavior,” she said sending smiles around the table.
“We heard about that,” Gale, the wife of the company’s president they were trying to attract, said gently. “It must have been frightening.”
“I’m afraid Wyatt and my family took the worst of it,” she said. “I remember very little of what happened thankfully but Wyatt and the others had to deal with my car being found in the river…he’s been a bit overprotective since.”
“Smart man then,” Gale’s husband, Kent, laughed. “A wise man always cherishes the woman he loves.”
“Which is why he chose the ballet for tonight,” Gabby told him with a smile and laugh that told everyone she was fine. “Wyatt can’t stand sitting through one but I adore them and tonight’s was wonderful. Haley would have loved it…”Damn, damn, damn, flew through her head when she realized what she’d just said. That was the last time she tried to help things simmer down.
“Who’s Haley?” Wyatt asked leaning over to whisper into her ear.
“An old friend from college…we’d go to the ballet together since my other friends didn’t enjoy them,” she said hurriedly to him. “What did you think of it Gale?” she added covering up the momentary pause in conversation.
“I agree with you it was wonderful,” Gale said and the conversation returned to normal.
Wyatt kept shooting glances her way as the evening wore on and for once, she couldn’t decipher what they meant. When they arrived home, she knew things could go one way or another, either he asked her again about Haley or he didn’t.
She had finished changing out of her dress and into her silky nightwear shorts and top when he walked in, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned against the doorframe.So much forthe not, she thought as he continued to watch her. She kept her mouth shut, not wanting to be the first to make a move and finally he conceded.
“Who’s Haley and why haven’t you talked about her before?” Wyatt inquired.
“I told you; she was a friend from college. I haven’t thought about her in years. We had some friends in common but she was older and once she left we grew apart.”
“Why bring her up tonight then?” he asked not believing her completely.
“I didn’t consciously do it Wyatt. I was trying to steer things away from the accident…”
“Your mugging you mean,” he interrupted her with.
“Yes, my mugging,” she sighed as a light shudder ran down her spine. “Do you know why I can’t remember any more of it? Because I don’t want to Wyatt. They said I wasn’t raped and that’s all I care about. So when you started going off on me I knew it was the white elephant in the room and I dealt with it. Trying to change the subject I immediately went back to something pleasant, the ballet, and it brought older ones I’d been to, to mind, ones that included Haley. Can we please drop it now?”
“Drop what Gabby? Haley, or the mugging?” he asked closing the space between them and staring down at her. “It’s not Haley you’re scared of talking about, is it? It’s the mugging. Why are you running from it? It did have something to do with the embezzlement, didn’t it?”
“No, I swear on my mother’s life it didn’t,” she stated as his hands closed over her arms gently. She turned her head away and let out a true release of her emotions as the thoughts of what happened that day played through her mind. She wasn’t lying to him, Donald’s attack didn’t have anything to do with themoney Haley had taken, it had to do with Haley and Jess and her helping them escape.
“What’s going on in that head of yours Gabby? You look haunted,” he said lightly.
“What’s going on is that every time I close my eyes I see them…except I don’t see them,” she admitted, at least this part she didn’t have to lie about and if it made him feel sorry for her that’d be even better.
“You’re not making sense Gabby.”
“When I close my eyes, try and sleep, I see their shapes but I can’t see their faces. I can remember what happened, a little more comes back to me each night and all I want to do is go home and curl up next to my mom, or have my dad hold me and I can’t because of you,” she said letting her frustration out. “Do you know what it feels like to be terrified and not be able to talk about it or in my case not have to talk about it but still find some small piece of comfort?”
“Everything’s always my fault isn’t it?” he said letting go of her and stalking away. “Even when it’s not, it is, how do you manage that Gabby? You steal millions from me, from the people who work for me and yet I’m the one who gets punished. If we hadn’t been taking the company public, I would have happily sent you straight to jail.”
“You wouldn’t have though, would you, Wyatt?” she inquired with a knowing smile. “You wouldn’t then and you won’t now…I could leave you tomorrow and you wouldn’t do a damned thing about taking the information to the police.”
“I wouldn’t have to Gabby; all I would have to do is tell your family and mine. Maybe that’s exactly what I should do though,” he returned. “Think how disappointed they’ll be Gabby, what would they say if they knew you stole so much from me?”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she said stalking over to him and glaring into his eyes.
“Try me Gabby, you step one foot outside of our arrangement and the first person I’ll tell will be your mother. How much comfort would she be willing to give once she knew you were nothing but a conniving little thief?”
“As much as it took to show that she still loved me Wyatt, she’s a mother, she’ll be disappointed but she won’t stop loving me.”
“You have an answer to everything, you just have to have the last word, and it’s all about you, Gabby. Not anymore, I am sick of playing the role of evil dictator while you get to run around as an injured party. You’re not the victim in this Gabby, you started it with your theft, and I am done letting you skate by. You have two options Gabby, one, tell me where my money is or two,” he paused sending her a look that told her she wouldn’t like what he was about to say. “Well two might incidentally be preferable right about now…two, is we change the terms of this marriage.”
