Читать книгу The Wrong Wife - Eileen Wilks, Eileen Wilks - Страница 11

Four

At 5:20 Gideon started clearing off his desk. He put the rolled seismic section he’d been studying into the stand behind his desk and shut down the computer. After a brief hesitation he put his working disk in his desk drawer, which he locked. He wouldn’t take any work with him today. Cassie was waiting.

When he reached for his coffee cup he noticed the framed photograph that had sat on his desk for the past six months, a token that had reassured him daily of how close he was to his goal. How close he’d thought he was. The painful bewilderment that had ridden him for the past five days, ever since Melissa’s phone call, rose again to tighten his throat.

He couldn’t very well keep the picture of his former fiancée on his desk now that he’d married another woman, could he? Gideon picked up the picture.

Six months ago, when he and Melissa had become engaged; her parents had given him this studio photograph of their daughter, framed in silver. He held it in his hands now, feeling the weight of that heavy frame, staring at the lovely, poised woman in the pale blue Chanel suit who was supposed to have become his wife.

Why hadn’t she wanted him?

It should have been perfect. They never argued, and their tastes were almost identical. They’d agreed on everything from music to movies to where they would live and what kind of house they would live in. Oh, they’d had a minor difference over the wedding itself. They’d agreed that the sanctuary at St. Luke’s was the only possible place for the ceremony, but St. Luke’s was the most fashionable church in the city. The sanctuary had been booked up on weekends for the next two years. Gideon had put his foot down. No way was he waiting more than six months, as Melissa had urged at first. In the end, she’d agreed to a weekday ceremony. At least she had told him she agreed. How could he be sure of anything now? She’d also told him she wanted to marry him. and she hadn’t meant that.

Slowly Gideon opened the back of the frame and slid out the glossy photo. He unlocked his desk, opened the. bottom drawer and pulled out a photo album.

The album had been cheap to start with—a dull green binder with gilt trim stamped into the vinyl. Now, many years and much handling later, it looked shabby and completely out of place in the elegant office.