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But another thought intruded, another gut-churning question demanding to be answered: ‘Why am I here, then, organising a wedding that you never had any intention of holding? Were you just trying to pretend to Monica that you actually cared about her happiness? Or did you somehow think, in your twisted mind, that sleeping with me was how you intended getting even with my brother?’
He flinched and growled out his response. ‘Does it actually matter?’
She decided it didn’t. But she’d be damned if she’d give him the satisfaction of running away. ‘I hate you for what you’ve done to your sister. I hate you for the way you’ve treated Jake. Most of all I hate you for what you’ve done to me.
‘But, mark my words, this wedding is going to happen,’ she said with a resolve tapped from a well she didn’t know she possessed. ‘Something awful happened all those years ago, yes, but I don’t believe that Jake could have done what you say he did—and I’m going to prove it. And then that wedding is going to go ahead right here, right under your nose. And you’re going to suck it up!’
She wasn’t leaving. Somehow as Daniel stared blindly out at the pristine view of sea and sky, that one piece of information filtered through the morass of his mind and settled like a feather in the foreground. In a day when everything that could possibly have gone wrong had gone wrong, at least he’d salvaged that.
She wasn’t leaving.
He wasn’t even sure why it was so important. She’d been going to leave some time anyway; it had been inevitable from day one. But it was strange how the concept of her departure had gone from something he’d treated as a cold inevitability to something he’d been happy to avoid every time Fletcher had turned down the latest offer. Because the sex was so good?
Must be.
Although it might take some doing, getting her back in his bed after today. Damn. What a waste.
He turned and sighed. Did she really believe this wedding could go ahead after what he’d told her about her brother? She was either blindly loyal or blindly stupid, yet in a way he could almost admire her devotion to her brother. Wasn’t it how he felt about Monica? He’d do anything for her.
Except stand by when she married Jake Fletcher.
The call came when he was back in his room, and because it came from Jo he picked up. If something was happening in Hawaii, he needed to know. ‘What’s up?’
‘I doubled the offer. Thought you should know.’
‘What the hell for? I told you to wait.’
‘Because you’ve got to get rid of him! He’s scum, Dan, you know that. You don’t want him marrying your sister. Isn’t it bad enough that right this minute he’s probably screwing her?’
‘Shut up, Jo!’ He didn’t need to hear the words. He didn’t need those pictures in his head.
‘She’ll be banged up, just like that other one, if you don’t get rid of him. I’m just trying to do my job.’
Are you? Daniel wondered, one hand massaging his pounding temple. If he didn’t know better, he’d think Jo was more interested in railroading this wedding than he was, when it was he who had the issue with Fletcher.
Then again, it was probably just Jo’s overactive loyalty kicking in again. After all, he’d seen the damage Fletcher had inflicted upon him before. No doubt he didn’t want to have to scrape him off the floor again.
‘Okay, Jo. The four million is offered now. Let it go at that. But don’t make any more offers without my okay. Got that?’
‘What happened?’ Sophie cried when her brother picked up the phone, ‘He thinks you killed his fiancée; he thinks you got her pregnant. What happened that day?’
‘Sophie, hold on. I have to change phones.’ She heard the rush of movement, the echo of a second connection before the first clicked off, and the sound of a door being shut before her brother picked up again, his voice low. ‘Sophie’s dozing. I don’t want her to hear.’
‘Maybe you should tell her. Maybe you should tell all of us. I told Daniel I didn’t believe him, but it’s too awful. I can’t fight this battle for you, Jake. I thought I could smooth the waters between you, but he hates you, and the way he tells it I can’t see a way through. Please tell me it’s all a lie.’
‘Sophie, I’m sorry. I should have told you. Believe me, I wanted to, but how can I when I don’t know the whole picture myself?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I should have said something, but it’s hard for me. Even now…’ Down the line she heard the rasp of his breath, as though it physically pained him to have to remember. ‘I survived the accident but I was in a coma for two months. I still get flashbacks and nightmares, but I still can’t remember clearly what happened just before the crash.’
