Many Shades of Gray (40 page)

“Do you think that hasn’t occurred to me? His parents gave him nothing when they were alive except money. The one thing he wanted more than anything was love. He got that from me. Simon trusts me. No matter how angry he may get with me, he trusts me to be honest with him.”

“But…”

“No buts. Do you want to take that from him? I’m his constant. I’ve been his constant his entire life. His father…his father,” he said, ignoring Janice’s raised brow, “made me his godfather. Simon has had enough hurt to last him several lifetimes. He’s lived with his parents’ faults and even if he doesn’t like the legacy, he knows who he is. Do you think I would ever try to take that away from him?”

“Don’t you want to know?”

“What difference would it make? I couldn’t love him more than I do. It would only hurt Simon. And I will never be the one to hurt him.”

“But you’ve told me how.”

He frowned at her. “If I thought for a moment that you would hurt him with this information, the things Simon has done thus far would seem like child’s play.”

“Another warning?” Janice asked.

“Another promise.”

“Rest easy then, Harold. I love my husband. I want to save my marriage.”

“Good answer,” Harold said, kissing her cheek as he rose to get the door. “Now let’s enjoy lunch. This is a first for us.”

“It is a first.” Janice sat across from the old man and marveled at his love for Simon. He’d gone an entire lifetime not finding out if Simon was his son for fear of hurting him and in mentioning spousal abuse he’d given her the weapon with which to fight. Simon understood her fighting. For some crazy reason they both reveled in it. Now she knew what to do. She was determined her marriage would not end with a whimper. If it ended, then it would end with a bang.

Harold walked back into the office, smiling at no one in particular. He put his feet up on his desk and waited. He knew Simon Kohl so well. He knew he was dying to know what had happened. This time Harold would make Simon come to him.

It didn’t take long for him to get his wish. He heard the heavy footsteps on the thick oak flooring seconds before he heard Simon’s voice. He braced himself and waited.

“Well, is she coming home?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why the hell not?”

“She didn’t like your offer.”

“How does she plan to pay the hotel bill?”

“She isn’t. I took care of the bill and I told them to charge whatever she needs to me.”

Simon’s mouth dropped open. “Why did you do that? Are you crazy?”

“I’m not crazy, which is exactly why I did it. Your wife is six months pregnant and I will not see her on the street. If that is your choice, it isn’t mine. Besides, you told me to protect her.”

He watched while Simon paced angrily around the room, tearing his finger through his hair. “What did she say?”

“She said she loves you.”

“Why are those words so easy for her to say now? I waited forever to hear her tell me and now she says it to anyone. I don’t get it.”

“Maybe you don’t have to get it. Maybe you just have to accept it, maybe you should just ask for her forgiveness and forgive her for whatever you think she may have done.”

“I can’t forgive her. She slept with Tommy.”

“She didn’t, Simon. She told me she didn’t. It was just as I thought. Janice dropped her bracelet there and Tommy brought it to you to bait you.”

“I don’t believe her. She always loved Tommy. I forced her to love me.”

“God, man, wake up! You can’t force anyone to love you. You forced her to acknowledge her feelings for you, but you didn’t force her to love you. You have to get over that. If you’re trying to repeat your parents’ life you’re doing a damn good job of it.”

“Well, my father never had to compete with another man for my mother’s love. She slept around strictly for the sex. He never had to worry whether he was my father. He told me she didn’t start until way after I was born. So as you can see, Harold, there’s a lot of difference between my father and me.”

Harold pulled his feet from his desk, closed his eyes, and thought of his conversation with Janice. Simon had no idea how closely his life paralleled his parents’. He hoped Janice would find a way to make him believe in her love. Hell, he hoped when the two of them were done with their mud fight that she still loved him. Simon needed her in his life more than he was willing to admit. He was being a stubborn child, so afraid that he couldn’t have the one thing that would make his life complete that he was ruining things himself to ensure that no one else would.

* * *

Janice took a deep breath. She remembered a couple of movies where the woman had framed the man for abuse. But in both movies the woman had injured herself. Janice wasn’t into inflicting physical pain on herself. How was she going to frame Simon?

She pushed in the number that would connect her with her husband. She hadn’t called him in over two weeks. What if she were wrong? Maybe he wouldn’t give a damn. Maybe he wouldn’t even come. She held her breath and waited and at the sound of his voice the tears came and they weren’t fake. Must be her hormones. Thank God for them, she needed them right now.

“Hello,” Simon bellowed.

“Simon, there’s something wrong. I don’t know what. I’m scared,” Janice whispered and began to cry in earnest.

“I’ll call your doctor.”

“No, Simon, I just need you.”

“Hold on, baby, I’m coming.”

She hung up the phone. He did give a damn and she’d put her plan into motion. She wondered for a moment if she could just let it go when he got there, just go into his arms and tell him she was sorry. But that wasn’t the way war was waged. War was waged to win. She had to win her husband’s respect to save the two of them.

* * *

“Something’s wrong with Janice or the baby,” Simon said to Harold as he ran out of Harold’s office. “I’ll call you later and tell you what’s going on.”

Harold watched his godson run from the room, then crossed to the window and watched Simon climb into his waiting limo, glad that he wasn’t driving himself. Harold didn’t want him having an accident.

At least Janice had gotten her stubborn husband to do something that Harold had been unable to do. She’d made him come to her. That was proof that he loved her still. God help both of them. No one else could ever put up with them.

* * *

Janice lay on the bed waiting, wondering if she was making a mistake, wondering if it would backfire on her. Her hands were sweaty and her pulse was racing. When her phone rang she knew without a doubt it would be her husband.

“Baby, are you sure you don’t want me to call an ambulance?”

It was Simon’s worried voice and it made fresh tears come. “No,” she answered. “I only want you; I’ll be okay until you get here.” Janice sobbed in earnest. Her words to her husband were true, she did want him, but just admitting that to him was not the way to go. She had to play this out.

“Don’t try to talk. Keep your phone open so I can hear you, okay?”

“Okay,” she whispered and lay on the bed sobbing, knowing her husband could hear her, knowing she was crying for them.

* * *

It was killing Simon to listen to Janice cry. He’d not expected tears from her. She always fought back. He was surprised that she hadn’t. He was feeling like a heel, a foolish heel, a foolish, jealous, suspicious heel.

It seemed to take forever for the chauffeur to get him to the hotel and finally when he arrived, he burst out of the car and raced toward the elevator, praying that his wife and child would be safe. “Open the door,” he said into the cell phone. “Baby, open the door, I’m here.”

Janice heard him and got up and opened the door. Then she locked it behind him, ignoring the curious look in Simon’s eyes.

“What’s wrong?” he said coming to her, holding her close to his heart. His heart was beating so fast. It had been way too long since he’d held his wife, since he’d touched her. “Baby, I’m so sorry, I’ve been such a fool.” He forced himself to gently push her away in order to examine her. He turned her this way and that. She looked up at him, smiled and moved a step away and his heart melted from her smile.

She stared at her husband thinking how good it had felt to be in his arms. She missed him, but if she went home now it would be on his terms. She had to even the playing field before she returned home. Suddenly, Janice screamed as loud as she could and Simon fell back alarmed

With more speed than she knew she had, Janice begin flinging crystals bowls and vases across the room, breaking glass after glass. She picked up the phone, dialed the front desk and screamed for help while throwing more glass to the floor.

Simon stood back, stunned, as his wife seemed to be going through some kind of fit. He watched as she tore at her hair, her clothes, and then it hit him. He was being set up. He laughed. So she was fighting back.

He sat in a chair to watch, ducking the flying glass and admiring what she was doing, surprised that she’d not thought of it sooner.

In a matter of minutes keys were being shoved in the lock. Janice looked at him, smiled, and slid to the floor a millisecond before the manager rushed in, saw her there, and reached for the phone to call the police.

Simon didn’t protest. Why would he? There was a pregnant woman lying on the floor, the room was destroyed, and he was the only other person in the room.

Several more employees rushed into the room, grabbing wet towels to revive an acting Janice. By the time the police arrived, the place was pure pandemonium and she was crying for all she was worth, her eyes red and bloodshot, her wild mane of hair even wilder because of her tearing her hands through it. She wore torn clothing and there were even red marks on her face, though he knew he sure as hell hadn’t touched her.

Without asking him a question, the officer roughly pushed his hands behind his back and handcuffed him a little too tightly, probably anxious to make a big arrest, happy to have bagged a billionaire.

Paramedics arrived and he watched while the men gently lifted his wife, his unhurt wife, from the floor and placed her on the stretcher to take her to the hospital for observation.

Simon was ready for the hordes of cameras that greeted them when they came out the door. He saw his chauffeur coming toward him and shook his head. There was no reason to get his employee involved. He saw Janice crying as the cameras were aimed in her face. “He didn’t do anything,” he heard her moan. “It was all a misunderstanding.”

She was very good Simon had to admit, very thorough. She wasn’t filing false charges. It didn’t matter that she was going to the hospital and he was going to jail. They would both be released in a matter of hours.

Simon accepted the rough shove of the officer pushing him into the car. Hell, if he had really hit his wife he would deserve the rough treatment. He glanced out of the window of the squad car toward his wife. He’d gotten to hold her and she’d held him in return and he’d felt her tremble against him. She was safe and their baby was safe. That was all that was important, nothing else mattered.

* * *

Janice could only pray that what she was doing would not boomerang. Simon knew what she was doing. She’d seen the gleam of respect in his eyes as he became aware of her plan. And he’d made no move to protest, offering only, “No comment,” to the paparazzi.

She’d have to admit that it felt good fighting with him again. And it felt good that he was getting a taste of his own medicine. Let him see how all that bad press, true or not, hurt you. Janice wasn’t foolish enough to think that with the money he had they would keep him for long, and she wasn’t going to be foolish enough to file false charges.

When she had been meticulously checked out and it was determined that neither she nor her baby was at risk, she was released. When the officer who had remained at the hospital with her asked if she wanted him to drive her back to the hotel, she said yes.

The penthouse had been cleansed of all broken glass. The manager was so apologetic that she actually thought he was going to cry. The room was filled with fresh fruit and flowers and she was told that the next week the bill would be comped. She argued that it wouldn’t be necessary, feeling guilty for the lie she’d told. But the manager wouldn’t hear of it. “Thank you,” she murmured. “I don’t think I’ll be here too much longer. And she didn’t think she would be.

* * *

Simon stayed in jail several hours longer than he thought he would. His wife being pregnant was one of the reasons. The hatred policemen held for wife beaters even filtered to the prisoners. Simon could hear the murmuring. When he was finally released, he said a silent thank you.

When he returned home, Harold was waiting. “Is she home?” he asked.

“No, she went back to the hotel.”

Simon looked away. He’d thought Janice would at least move back home and get a restraining order and make him have to be the one to stay in the hotel. He was a little disappointed. “I thought she was going to have me kicked out.”