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Jade looked up suddenly. ‘It’s not for you, Grace, it’s for the foundation.’
‘Ah, but,’ she said, replacing her drained bone china cup onto its saucer with barely a click, ‘who is it who supports the foundation if there are insufficient funds? The clinic.’ She pointed one tapered red fingernail at her chest. ‘Meaning me.’
‘But the foundation has plenty of capital. The Gala alone must have set us up for two years of operation. I can’t see you having to bail it out any time soon.’
Grace held up one hand. ‘All the same, Jade, if something does happen, it’s me who will have to foot the bill. That million dollars will be a welcome buffer, given the clinic has had a few unforeseen expenses lately.’
Jade’s ears pricked up. ‘You haven’t mentioned this before. What kind of expenses?’
‘Oh, I wasn’t going to bother you with any of this. They’re just annoying little things, really—one or two little cases. Someone who wants to sue me in some ridiculous claim to do with their surgery, somebody else claiming negligence—and the lawyers want me to go for settlements.’
‘More cases?’ Jade side-stepped the sofa and sat down alongside Grace. ‘Oh, how awful for you. They must think you’re an easy target. Maybe just for once you should go to court—fight them this time. It can’t be good if you always settle—people will learn to expect a pay-out for everything.’
Grace patted her hand. ‘Thank you. I insisted we fight too! But the lawyers think it’s best to keep everything as quiet as possible. They don’t want the clinic brought up in court—they think it would be bad publicity all round.’ She shrugged. ‘And, seeing they’re the experts, I can’t really argue with them.’
‘But if it means always shelling out money to make these people go away, how long can you continue doing business that way? And what will it mean for the expansion plans for the clinic? Will they still go ahead?’
‘Oh, yes. But only with the Mayor’s help. He’s agreed to take over the building contract and give us a good deal. I’m just so lucky he’s standing by me through all of this. I really don’t know what I’d do without him.’
Every muscle and organ inside Jade seemed to clench and roll at the mention of that word. Why couldn’t he just leave Grace alone? She was going to end up hurt, and badly, when she found out what the Mayor was really like. And now she was tying herself to him for a year or more while the contract works were carried out.
Grace would have to discover the truth for herself at some stage. Or was Jade going to have to tell her?
‘Maybe you should put it off for a while?’ Jade suggested tentatively. ‘Maybe wait until these cases are cleared up and out the way before you commit to any more expenditure.’ And to the Mayor.
‘Oh, there’s no need for that. It’s all organised—the Mayor’s taken care of all that. Now, before I head off to bath and bed, I want to know—you are going to that dinner tomorrow night?’
She sighed. ‘I don’t know, Grace. I’m not even sure I believe him. If he’d wanted to give the foundation a cheque for so much money, why didn’t he tell us at the Gala? We could have announced it then and there. Why wait until afterwards?’
Grace shrugged as she stood up. ‘If he’s willing to donate that much money, let him set the conditions. It’s only dinner after all.’ She looked down, her eyes shrewd, to where the younger woman was still sitting. ‘Or do you think he expects more for his money than just dinner? Are you worried he wants to sleep with you?’
Jade felt herself colour. Not so much because of the question but more at Loukas’s words, playing over and over in her mind in stark and brutal relief. Do you really think I would pay one million dollars for what I could have had for free?
She swallowed, dropping her eyes. ‘He assured me it was just dinner.’
‘Then you have nothing at all to worry about. And, let’s face it, it’s only if he expects you to take your clothes off and he sees your scars that you have a problem. We don’t want him asking for his money back, do we?’
