Unconditional (17 page)

Rinah turned as she reached for the door handle and spat back at him, “Don’t bother coming home tonight! I’d be tempted to pour hot grits on your ass!” The door slammed loudly in her wake.

Dominic knew he deserved her reaction to his hateful words. He hadn’t even meant it. Around Rinah his famous cool was non-existent. The request for a divorce and custody of their children had not been planned.

When he had first been given the package of pictures, he’d gone numb with shock. He had been too angry to feel anything. A swift perusal of each picture had been enough. He couldn’t endure looking at them for any great detail. The acts captured were graphic and explicit, not something he could stomach seeing his wife engaged in with another man. His immediate thought was to destroy Fielding. He hadn’t let himself think of Rinah.

No, that had only come when he’d glimpsed her beautiful body in that red suit. The shock of lust had hit him hard, shattering his illusion of cool. She had been exquisite. He’d been gripped with an overwhelming need to reclaim her, put his stamp on her. But then that pissed him off all over again. He hated that he still loved her so much even after seeing those pictures, after being presented with the evidence of her infidelity. Then he’d wanted to lash out at her, to hurt her as much as he was hurting at the knowledge of her betrayal.

With her in front of him, he had tried masking his true feelings with anger. That had worked too well. He had let the volatile emotions control him and he’d thrown down the gauntlet of a divorce.

But she’d planted the seed that maybe this scene had been staged and he had been manipulated. He clutched his fist with stony resolve. He hated being made a fool of. One way or another, he would uncover the truth. Either his marriage was still salvageable, or he would end it swiftly and completely, as he had threatened. He walked back into a nearly deserted restaurant. Victor stood, waiting for him.

“Sorry that you had to go through that, man. But I keep telling you, those people are not like us.”

“Victor, you and I have been friends for a long time. If I find that you’ve had anything to do with this, I’m going to bury your ass!”

“What? How could I know she would be here with her lover?”

“How do you know that they’re lovers?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” the other man asked in disbelief. “So how are you going to play this? Will you send her back to Trinidad? Divorce her? What?”

“I think that this is none of your damn business. I don’t have time for this shit right now. See you later.” Dominic made sure to compensate the owner generously for the use of his office and for their uneaten lunch. He then contemplated how to uncover the truth in the fastest time possible.

Chapter Twelve

D
ominic was not
having a good day. His frustration was at an all-time high and no one was safe from his wrath. The silence on his floor of executive offices was absolute. Everyone was afraid to even breathe, for fear of garnering his explosive attention.

At the moment, Ruth, his secretary and administrative assistant, was suffering the brunt of it. Ever since he’d returned from the restaurant a few hours ago, his temper had been as volatile as that of a wounded bear.

“I’ve not been able to reach him, sir.” Ruth murmured quietly.

“How hard could it be to find Neo? You have his mobile, his home, and office numbers. When did you become so incompetent?” Dominic roared at the stunned woman.

And she had every right to be shock. In the ten years she had worked for him, he had never spoken to her in such a manner. Sure, he was a demanding boss, exacting, never tolerating inefficiencies or incompetence of any kind. However he was also known for always being fair. Today was the exception. He wanted this situation sorted and the man who could do that quickly was missing in action.

“Look, Ruth, I’m sorry. This has been a difficult day and I’m not handling it well. But that’s no excuse to take it out on you. Can you try to reach his secretary again? I’ll call his cell.” He ran his fingers through his hair, dragging the strands into an unkempt array.

He was aware that the entire office was abuzz with speculation on the state of his marriage.

I don’t give a
fuck!

“His secretary advised he’s out to lunch. He would be accessible in a few hours,” Ruth continued bravely.

Dominic knew those words were code for “out on a covert assignment”.
What the fuck does Uncle Sam need
now?

“Call her back and ensure she understands the urgency of my request. I want to speak with him as soon as he checks in. On second thought, once you get her on the phone, I’ll speak with her.” Neo had been guarding Dominic’s wife for months. Rinah was right about one thing: if she was having an affair, Neo would know about it.

He watched Ruth scurry out of his office as if the fires of hell were at her back. He should feel some remorse for his temper but he couldn’t make himself care about that. He couldn’t eat or even think of his business since the moment he’d seen those offensive photos. Not even during their previous separation had he had any doubt about getting his marriage back together, but this situation was one he had never envisaged. Despite Rin’s claim about the photos being false, he couldn’t bring himself to look at them again in order to investigate their authenticity. Nor could he stand the thought of letting anyone else look at them. One of the photos showed Fielding taking her from behind. He shuddered in disgust at the remembered image.

He was certain that if the photos were fake, the techies in Jaden’s employ could easily tell him. But he couldn’t turn them over for investigation. He couldn’t stomach the thought of anyone else seeing them.

The intercom on his desk buzzed.

About damn
time!

He strode across the room and sat heavily in his chair, and engaged the call.

“Sir, Ms. Bianca Darville is here to see you.”

“I told you to cancel all of my appointments. I don’t want to talk to anyone today except Neo!” He disconnected the call abruptly, in total annoyance.

He lifted his head suddenly as the door to his office was forcefully thrust open, and his gaze immediately collided with the dark, angry stare of Bianca, his wife’s best friend.

“Sir, I tried to stop her.”

“That’s all right, Ruth; that is your name, right?” Bianca inquired smoothly. Ignoring the stunned look on the other woman’s face, she swung her angry gaze back toward Dominic. “This will only take a minute.”

Dominic was not fooled by that calm statement. From the seething anger apparent in her body language, Bianca was out for blood—apparently his.

“Should I call security, sir?”

“No. Give us a minute, Ruth, but as soon as you make contact with Neo, please put him through.” He watched as his secretary cautiously closed the door behind her.

“Now, Bianca, what has brought you here in such a state?” he inquired.

“You bastard! It wasn’t enough you broke her heart when you left her for that woman, when you weren’t there for the birth of your daughter, and then you ruthlessly pursued her until she was back in your bed? But you had to humiliate and threaten her with taking her children away from her?”

Dominic almost laughed out loud at Bianca’s stance. She really thought she could take him on. She was so angry that she was practically screaming at him from across the room.

He grimaced from the discomfort to his ear. It was a good thing the walls in his office were sound proof.

“Bianca, what in our association made you think I give a fuck about your opinion?” He raised his eyebrow with an air of boredom.

“You arrogant prick! I’ll tell you why you should care what I think! I’ve just spent the last two hours listening to your wife pouring her heart out. She’s broken with the pain you continue to inflict on her. I was finally able to convince her to leave your ass and sever all ties with you!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Gone was the apathetic attitude, or any trace of benevolence he might have felt because of this woman’s relationship with Rin.

I hate bitter, meddling
women!

“Here are the papers I have drawn up to begin proceedings for your divorce. They were done months ago when Rin first came out of the hospital. You’ll see she has already signed them and I think we’ve been more than fair on your visitation rights. She told me you wanted full custody, but you’ll understand, of course, that proposal was far from equitable.” Bianca placed the documents on his desk as he refused to take them from her.

“Get out!” he said, finally. “Get out and take those damn papers with you. Don’t fuck with me, Bianca! Stop meddling in my wife’s life. I assure you that if you push this further I will ensure you never again work as a lawyer in this country, or any other, for that matter.” He stood.

Dominic was so filled with rage, he watched with satisfaction as Bianca took an involuntary step backward. She swallowed, as if bile was rising in her throat.

“You can’t threaten your way out of this, Dominic.” Apparently regrouping, she stiffened her spine bravely and stood her ground. “Whether you like it or not, Rin wants a divorce now and there’s nothing you can do to stop her from getting it. Sure, you can delay the process, as divorces are notoriously slow in the Bahamas, especially if contested. I just went through mine. Rin can wait, but can you? Will Flavia wait around for you to play this cat-and-mouse game with us?”

He didn’t like hearing this shit at all. Sure he’d been the first to threaten divorce, but he knew it would have taken a long time before he would have acted on it. He silently glared at her, letting her feel the full weight of his escalating rage.

“Rinah is mine.
My
wife!” Bianca’s dark chocolate skin looked clammy and dull in response. “Don’t test my patience, Bianca! If there is nothing else, please get the hell out of my office.”

“Dom, you don’t have a choice about this. Those papers will be filed. You can’t stop that.”

“Don’t make me have you physically removed.” The softly worded request made her stiffen. He gritted his teeth and tried another tack.

“Rin is my life. Asking me to consent to a divorce is asking me to cut my heart out of my chest. I can’t do it.” He softened his tone to almost a whisper.

Bianca’s eyelids lowered, as if she couldn’t confront the pain in his voice and eyes. “You two are hopeless. I don’t know what to say, except she can’t take much more of the conflict between you, Dominic. You have to set her free before you damage her irrevocably.” Bianca turned and exited his office, leaving the divorce papers on his desk.

The presence of those documents made him realize just dysfunctional their marriage had gotten. His gaze returned to them again and again. They taunted him, teased and stroked his temper. It all became real! He was like a caged animal pacing back and forth in his office, wanting to act, but didn’t have the information to do so.

He punched Rinah’s mobile number into his phone and impatiently waited for her to answer.

“Yes, Dominic, how may I help you?”

“Don’t ever send a divorce lawyer to my fucking office!” he muttered, pacing and getting more agitated. The sound of her voice sent shivers of awareness down his spine. “What’s the rush? Couldn’t you deliver the message yourself, instead of sending your friend? Come tell me to my face that you want a divorce! Until then, I don’t believe you!”

“I have nothing left to say to you. Any communication between us can be handled through my lawyer, and that’s Bianca. If you don’t like her approach, then that’s just too bad. The message she delivered was more important.”

Her cool reply before disconnecting the call only made him more pissed.

Incensed beyond reason, he stalked out of his office to the parking lot. He was in his Ferrari and roaring through the busy streets of Nassau to her downtown office before common sense could prevail. In the slow-moving downtown traffic, he was forced to calm down considerably. By the time he arrived at her office and charmed the young receptionist into letting him into the inner sanctum unescorted, much of his rage had abetted. He took little notice of the stunned faces of the lawyers and administrative staff he passed in the process. His focus was simply on getting to his wife as soon as possible.

Rinah had just ended a telephone call with Bianca, who warned her that Dominic would play hardball and was not willing to discuss any terms of divorce with her. Now that she had escaped his office with her career still intact, Bianca felt nothing but dread on the prospect of taking on the mighty Dominic Stone in court. She promised to brazen it out for Rinah. But she wasn’t very confident that her nerves could handle that man’s death glares.

Rinah wanted to laugh at Bianca’s description of Dominic as a mad dictator, but her situation was too serious, too painful for any hilarity.

She gave a violent start as without warning, the man most dominating her thoughts entered her office. Slamming the door behind himself, he strode toward her desk with indolent grace. He slumped nonchalantly into the chair in front of her desk and looked at her with an emotionless gaze.

“Do you think this attempt at first strike will bolster your chances of convincing me of your innocence?” he inquired softly.

His voice, his presence was such a shock to her equilibrium, Rinah couldn’t immediately answer. His unwavering silver regard made every nerve ending in her body clamor to awareness. Taking slow, deep breaths, she fought to quell the churning desire that gripped her. Her response to him was completely inappropriate, given the acrimony between them.

But giving into her need for him was not an option. If she hoped to convince him of her wanting a divorce, she had to stand firm now and convince him of the sincerity of her request.

“I think nothing of the sought.” She couldn’t help her breathlessly response. Closing her eyes to block out the intensity of his gaze, which seemed to look into her very soul, she continued calmly. “I’m simply tired of the fighting, the distrust, and doubts. I want peace, Dominic. I want things between us decided, one way or another. I need my life back, without the never-ending drama!”

Rinah swallowed and opened her eyes to gauge his reaction to her words.

“Our marriage is just drama to you?”

He didn’t move a muscle, nor could she read any expression in his eyes. He seemed so distant. But his cool, more than anything, helped her to go on.

“Yes, that’s what it has become. I’ve nothing more to say. I’m sure Bianca has said it all. You can discuss whatever concerns you have with her. This,” she used hers hands to indicate the both of them, “isn’t getting us anywhere.”

“Did you sleep with him?” His calm voice and unwavering regard gave no hint of what he was thinking. Nothing of what he was feeling was evident.

Rinah didn’t pretend ignorance of what he was asking. She was simply nonplussed by his audacity. He was the one who was openly sleeping with someone else and repeatedly refused to answer questions when asked. But getting angry, again, at his double standard would get her nowhere.

“You’re not listening to me. If I slept with him or not is not relevant anymore. Here’s what is:
I
want a divorce,” she said simply. The sharp pain to her chest was immediate and debilitating. Her body stiffened in denial, anguished at the thought of losing him completely, indefinitely.

“However, for the record, I have always loved only you.” Her voice seemed harsh in the thick tension-filled silence of the room. Dominic looked as though he was ready to explode. “But we can’t go on fighting. Every hateful word, suspicion, and discord is killing me.” she whispered hoarsely. Refusing to let the threatening tears fall, she stiffened her resolve to do what needed to be done. Her brain knew what was best for her, but it was taking her heart a long time to catch up.

She waited for a few seconds as he absorbed this, and knew the exact moment when he believed her. He, too, looked shell-shocked. His big body jerked visibly, recoiling and rejecting her solution for their future.

She reached blindly for her bag, needing to leave before giving into her heart’s desire.

Dominic didn’t immediately react and give chase. He was still processing the enormity of his error in judging her. He didn’t know how long he sat there…seconds? Minutes? He had no idea. There was no excuse for his treatment of her. While he’d been preaching blind, unconditional trust, he hadn’t been willing to give her the same. He stood, knowing he had to find her and beg for her forgiveness. Not just for today, but for the many months she’d suffered Flavia’s vicious attacks. Just then, his mobile rang. He took a few seconds to note the number on the display before taking the call.