she’d made it sound as if she didn’t want children. But was that the truth? Or was it a rationalisation of where her life was heading, fast past that age where it was easy for a woman to conceive, especially without a partner?
Charles was only guessing, of course. Renée was like Ali, never revealing much about her private life. Presumably she did have a love life, but what kind and with whom Charles had no idea. All he knew was that she always showed up at the races alone. And she never cancelled on a Friday night. Unusual for a woman.
There again, Renée was an unusual woman. An enigma. A rather intimidating enigma. Charles pitied any man who ever fell in love with her. No man wanted to be intimidated by his woman. They wanted a woman who could make a man feel good about himself, the way Dominique did.
Aah…Dominique. She was very much on his mind tonight. Ali could command they leave their personal lives at the door but Charles couldn’t do that just yet. His love for his lovely wife was all too new, and all too consuming.
He patted the jewelry box in his jacket pocket before he sat back down again, his stomach tightening in pleasurable anticipation of that moment when she opened the lid and saw the necklace. He couldn’t wait to put it on her, to see how it looked.
The next two hours dragged, his play deteriorating further. Ali shook his head at his many mistakes. Renée smiled wryly and Rico scowled.
“What am I going to do with you, Charles?” Rico said when the night’s poker was over and the two men rode the lift together down to the ground floor. Renée had already gone ahead, always the first to leave after play was halted, usually around midnight. Tonight it had been twelve-thirty, due to their late start.
Charles laughed. “I’ll do better next week,” he said, thinking that by then he might have the worst of his lust out of his system.
Not that he said that to Rico. Rico would pounce on the word lust, and claim he’d been right all along; it was just the promise of sex which had bewitched and entrapped him.
But Charles knew that wasn’t the case. It was only natural that he and Dominique were still going through that phase when they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Unlike most newlyweds these days, they hadn’t been living together before their wedding. Hell, they hadn’t even kissed!
“Did you mean it when you said you and Dominique weren’t waiting to have children?”
Rico’s question surprised Charles. “Why would I lie about something like that?”
“But you haven’t actually gotten her pregnant yet.”
“No. She’s on the Pill for now. But she’s coming off it next month.”
“I honestly don’t think that’s a good idea, Charles. You should wait at least a year before you take such a big step. Get to know your wife a bit better first. You hardly know the girl, after all.”
Charles’s forbearance over Rico’s negative attitude towards Dominique began to wane. “I know all I need to know,” he replied tautly. “Look, Rico, I realise you don’t like Dominique. You probably think she’s a fortune hunter, but—”
“You’re wrong,” Rico interrupted, his expression grim. “I don’t think she’s a fortune hunter, my friend. I know she’s a fortune hunter.”
CHAPTER THREE
CHARLES whirled, his fists balling by his sides. “Now, look here, Rico, I’m warning you. Stop this once and for all. Just because Jasmine took you for a ride, doesn’t mean that Dominique’s doing the same to me. My wife loves me. Renée’s right. You’re jealous.”
The lift doors opened on the ground floor and Charles gave Rico one last uncompromising glare. “I suggest you apologise before we leave this lift or you can consider our friendship over,” he pronounced angrily.
Rico looked more concerned than apologetic. “I’m sorry. More sorry, Charles, than you can ever imagine. But I can’t let you be taken for a fool. And I can’t let you go ahead and blindly have a baby with that woman. I have proof of what I’m saying. Hard and fast proof.”
Charles’s head jerked back in shock before more anger rushed in. “Proof? What kind of proof?” he challenged heatedly.
“Irrefutable proof.”
“Such as?”
“The kind supplied by a very reputable private investigator. Facts and figures. Taped conversations with her ex-flatmates in Melbourne, people she’s worked with, men she’s slept with. You’re welcome to hear them for yourself whenever you like. And to see the written report. Your wife is a fortune hunter, Charles. Make no bones about that. She openly admitted to her flatmates during her years in Melbourne that her aim in life was to marry money. You became her target after things with her previous marital candidate fell through and she made the move to Sydney.”
Charles tried to swallow the huge lump which had filled his throat but it was stuck there.
“He was her last boss,” Rico swept on mercilessly. “Jonathon Hall, a reasonably successful celebrity sports manager. Though not as rich as his lifestyle indicates, which is why he ended up marrying money himself. Apparently, Dominique was livid when he dumped her. She told one of her girlfriends that the next time she wouldn’t go for a guy with Hall’s looks and charm. She’d try for someone older who didn’t think he was God’s gift to women, someone who’d be oh, so grateful to have a girl like her even look at him twice.”
Charles wanted to cry out, to scream that none of this was true. Dominique loved him.
But Rico was ruthless in his exposé of his beautiful bride’s true nature. “Dominique isn’t even her real name. It’s something plain like Joan or Jane. I can’t remember which. She changed it to Dominique when she first came to Melbourne from Tasmania when she was nineteen. Which reminds me. Her parents weren’t both killed in a car accident, either, like she told you. Her mother died of cancer when Dominique was eighteen, but her father is still very much alive. Lives in a small town on the West Coast, works as a manager in one of the local mines. She’s a liar and a fake, Charles, in every way.”
The blood began to drain from Charles’s face. He vaguely saw horror in Rico’s eyes and realised he must look as shattered as he felt.
“Gee, Charles. Don’t go collapsing on me. Hey, man, I didn’t realise how much you loved her till this moment. I thought it was just infatuation. Man, you look terrible. What you need is a stiff drink. Come on, let’s go get you one.”
Charles let Rico propel him into a nearby bar, prop him up on one of the stools there and order him a brandy. He downed the drink in two quick gulps and let Rico order him another.
The brandy soon did its work and blood began slowly seeping back into his brain, his inner despair momentarily overlaid by a confused curiosity. He swivelled on the stool to face Rico once more.
“When did you find out all this?” he asked shakily. “Not before the wedding, surely.”
“No. I hired the PI whilst you were on your honeymoon. The full report only came in yesterday.”
“But why, Rico? Why would it even occur to you to do such a thing?”
“One
