An Engagement in Seattle - Debbie Macomber [61]
She walked for hours, trying to sort through her emotions, and eventually gave up. She was in too much pain to think clearly.
She didn’t cry. Not once. She figured this numbness was her body’s protective device.
It was well past dark and she’d wandered into an unsafe area of town. She finally realized she had to make her way home.
When she reached her building, the security man looked surprised to find her arriving so late. He greeted her warmly and held open the heavy glass door for her.
The elevator ride up to her apartment seemed to take forever, but it wasn’t long enough. Soon she’d face her husband.
She’d barely gotten her key into the lock when the door was wrenched open. Alek loomed above her like a bad dream.
Eleven
She saw the same signs in Alek that she’d seen in Roger. The indignation. The hurt, angry look that she could believe such a terrible thing of him. As if she were the betrayer. As if she were the guilty one.
Roger had turned the tables on her with such finesse she didn’t realize what was happening until too late. Julia studied her husband and if she didn’t know better would’ve believed with all her heart that he’d never betray her.
“Where have you been?” Alek demanded. “I’ve been worried sick.”
“I went for a walk.”
“For five hours?”
She moved past him. “I should’ve phoned. I’m sorry, but I needed to think.”
Alek followed her. “Why didn’t you come to me yourself? Instead you sent Jerry.” His voice revealed his pain. “I don’t deny talking to Roger Stanhope, but at least give me the chance to explain why.” “You can’t deny seeing him since we have the evidence,” she responded lifelessly. “You called him, too, from the lab. We know about that, as well.”
If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. “I called him because I wanted him to stay away from you. He wouldn’t listen. Our meeting at Henshaw’s was an accident, he was arriving just as I was leaving. He taunted me, said he could have you back anytime he wanted. He said other things, too, but I don’t care to repeat them. Ask the man you hired to take photographs what happened that day. Stanhope and I nearly got into a fistfight.”
Julia desperately wanted to believe that he was telling the truth about his motives. Her heart yearned to trust him. But this was like an old tape being played back again and the memories it brought to the surface were too compelling to ignore.
“That man Stanhope is slime. I won’t have him anywhere near you,” Alek said heatedly. “If you want to condemn me for protecting you, then you may. But I would rather rip out my own heart than hurt you.”
He was saying everything Julia longed to hear. She pressed her hands to her head, not knowing what to do. “I have to think.”
He nodded, seeming to accept that, but he was hurt and she felt his pain as strongly as her own. Rather than continue a discussion that would cause them both grief, she showered and dressed for bed.
Alek appeared in the doorway to the guest bedroom when she’d finished. “Anna left you some dinner.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You’re too thin already. Eat.”
“Alek, please, I’m exhausted.”
“Eat,” he insisted.
Julia’s appetite was gone. She’d thrown up her lunch and hadn’t eaten since. Unwilling to argue with him, she went into the kitchen, took the foil-covered dinner plate warming in the oven and sat down at the table.
His sister had cooked veal cutlets, small red potatoes and what looked like a purple cabbage stir-fry. Even after sitting in the oven for hours, the food was delicious. Julia intended to sample only a few bites to appease Alek and then dump the rest in the garbage disposal, but she ended up eating a respectable amount of food. When she’d finished, she rinsed off her plate