CHASING TROUBLE

Caroline didn’t waste any time. Forget packing. Clothes were replaceable. Chucking her passport and Charlie’s into her handbag, she secured the bag over her shoulder then hurried to the nursery to pack a change-bag for Charlie. Thankfully, the ground floor was empty and she was able to carry Charlie and their bags to the garage without being seen. The keys for Nicholas’ showroom of cars were hanging up and she pressed them all until the one with the baby seat in it flashed. She strapped a still-sleeping Charlie into it before unclipping and carefully removing the seat.

Her hope of being miles away before Nicholas noticed they were missing was foiled a minute later when footsteps crunched behind her.

“Where are you going?”

Almost jumping out of her skin, Caroline spun around to find Nicholas walking towards her. He scanned her slowly, taking in the guilt blazing on her face to the protective way she stood before their sleeping son. She couldn’t have known the garage was alarmed. The moment she’d set foot in it, an alert had gone to his phone. He’d watched her every move.

“Where are you going?” he repeated icily.

She just stared at him, her face now the colour of an overripe tomato.

The faint sound of a phone buzzing broke the tense silence that developed.

“Are you not going to answer that?”

Throat moving, she slowly pulled her phone out of her handbag and put it to her ear. “Hello,” The one-sided conversation in which she made the odd noise of acknowledgement was over in less than a minute. She kept her eyes on his face the entire time. He didn’t think she blinked once throughout it.

Nicholas folded his arms across his chest and clenched his jaw. “Speak to me. Tell me what’s going on.”

Her eyes closed. When she snapped them back open, she said in a tone that turned his blood to ice, “I’m going home.”

Now he was the one to stare without blinking. Every part of his body tightened, his lungs squeezing into balls. She was leaving him. He could see it in her eyes. He’d sensed it while watching her hurried movements in the garage. Caroline was leaving him. Her flustered guilt had been replaced with a calm defiance he recognised from the weeks following his return. Her controlled demeanor was at complete odds with the turbulence Nicholas now found himself fighting. Hadn’t he always known this day would come?

“And when were you planning to tell me?”

“I was going to send you a message.”

“A message?” Red-hot rage pulsed through him, burning through his brain. He fought to stop it echoing in his voice, speaking through gritted teeth. “You were going to leave without a single word of warning?”Content rights by NôvelDr//ama.Org.

“Yes.” She would have let him worry. Let him put out a search for her. Let him imagine the worst.

Clamping down on the rising rage that swirled with something else, something indefinable but which felt like a weight was pressing against his heart, he said,” You have a reason?”

Contempt flashed in her eyes. “Oh, yes.”

“Do you want to share it with me?”

She looked at her watch. “Not really. I have a car coming.”

“A car…” He gave a quick, humorless laugh. “You have been busy.”

“I’m going to my parents, so if you’re thinking of trying to stop me leaving, you’ll have them to deal with.”

“I wouldn’t stop you leaving, Care,” He let his gaze fall to the car seat and the child sleeping in it she was shielding with her body. “Our son, though, is a different matter…”

She showed not the slightest hint of intimidation at the menacing words he’d deliberately left hanging. Stepping slowly to him, she folded her arms across her chest, mimicking his stance.

Her words were delivered quietly but with absolute precision.” I’m taking Charlie home with me. To my family… To his family. To the people who have loved him since he was in my belly. And if you think you can stop me then you will learn just how dirty I’m prepared to fight.” Her face tilted. “But I think you know that-after all, isn’t that your reason for marrying me? To guarantee your access and rights to our son?”

To see the color drain from Nicholas’ face stoked the fire in Caroline’s belly. So her instincts had been right. She’d not misunderstood what she’d heard. His body language confirmed it. She understood his reasons immediately. Understood every little part of it. And she also understood he’d lied to her. His proposal had never been about giving Charlie a stable family. It had been all about Nicholas, the dirty, cruel, unconscionable bastard.

Moving her face as close to his as she could get without actually touching him, she summoned every muscle in her face to form a smile. “I heard everything… I decided to join you and your father as you asked me to earlier. So I came and I heard what you were saying. You see, the truth is I wasn’t prepared to give you the satisfaction of knowing just how hurt I was when you left…. My feelings for you… They were that intense,” She nodded for emphasis.” I couldn’t sleep at night and when I found out that I was pregnant, It became even worse,”

Nicholas’ guts fisted. The punch it made rippled straight through him.

Still speaking in that same, calm, quiet, matter-of-fact tone, she continued, “I’m sure I would have got through that naturally with time, but funny enough, the one thing that helped me cope with the hurt was also the pregnancy,”

She patted her stomach and widened her smile. His already cold body chilled to the marrow. “It’s a real shame you missed out on the pregnancy. You never got to see my belly move or feel him kick. You missed out on the morning sickness too but I’m willing to bet you’re glad about missing that part. It’s funny, but only this morning I was thinking how much I would love us to have another baby and thinking that this time you could share in all of it. Not yet-I was thinking in around a year’s time.” She lifted her shoulders and pulled an ‘oops’ face.” That was a bit silly of me, wasn’t it, what with you planning to serve me divorce papers then?”