âYOU didâ¦what?â
Kaylaâs features paled as consternation meshed with disbelief, then magnified into a sense of dread.
âYou think it was easy for me to go to Duardo Alvarez and beg?â Defensive anger rose to the surface, and something elseâ¦rage.
Jacobâs words fell with hammer-like pain, and for a few brief seconds she hovered between retaliatory anger and despair.
Duardo Alvarez.
The mention of his name was enough to send ice slithering down the length of her spine.
Bad boy made good, now billionaire entrepreneur with homes in several major cities around the world.
Her ex-husbandâ¦and the last person on earth likely to help her, or her brother.
âWhy in hell would you do that?â
âI had no choice!â Jacobâs expression revealed a torment that twisted her stomach muscles into a painful ball.
Oh, dear God.
The last time sheâd seen her ex-husband had been at her fatherâs funeral. A deeply sorrowful occasion with few genuine mourners, several curiosity-seekersâ¦and sheâd been too stunned with shocked grief to do anything other than act on autopilot.
She hadnât had contact with Duardo since. Didnât want any.
âDammit, Jacob! How could you?â
He didnât answer. But then he had no need.
And right now there was no time for further argument or castigation. In nine minutes she had to catch a train into the city. Or be late.
Kayla caught up her jacket, slung the strap of her bag over one shoulder and turned towards him. âWeâll continue this discussion later.â
Jacob offered a slip of paper. âDuardoâs number. Call him by midday.â
Hell would freeze over first.
âPlease.â Jacobâs eyes were dark, desperate, and she pocketed the number.
âYou ask too much.â Way too much. More than she could give.
Without a further word she left the small two-bedroom walk-up for the hard inner-city pavement in one of the cityâs less salubrious suburbs. Old terraced houses lined the street, each in various stages of decay and neglect.
A far cry from her former life.
Five years ago the Enright-Smythe family had numbered high among Sydneyâs rich and famous. Kayla, at twenty-two, held a degree in business management and had took out a handsome salary for a token position in the âfirmâ.
A member of the âyoung social-setâ, she attended every party in town, spent an outrageous sum on clothes, travelled, and was seen on the arm of a different man every week.
Until Duardo Alvarez entered the field.
In his mid-thirties and cloaked in sophistication, on the rise within the cityâs financial sector, his youthful past hinted at association with the shady underbelly of NewYork.
He was everything Kaylaâs parents didnât want for their only daughter.
All the more reason, in her year of tilting at windmills, coupled with boredom, for deliberately setting Duardo in her sights.
He excited her. So, too, did a sense of the forbidden. Winning him over became a game. Holding him off took enormous self-restraint. She succeeded, and in a moment of sheer madness she accepted his proposal to fly to Hawaii and marry him.
Seventy-two hours later the marriage was over.
Courtesy of Benjamin Enright-Smytheâs ultimatum and her motherâs deathâ¦a heart attack which put Blanche Enright-Smythe into Intensive Care and took her life.
A tragic loss for which Benjamin attributed the blame to his daughter, referring privately and publicly to the marriage as Kaylaâs folly.
Her fatherâs denunciation speared a stake through Kaylaâs heart and left her racked with guilt at the thought that her whirlwind marriage might have contributed to Blancheâs death. Confidante and friend, Blanche had always been there for her, frequently acting as a calming buffer between two clashing personalitiesâ¦Benjaminâs arrogance and Kaylaâs defiance.
In the devastating numbness that followed Blancheâs funeral, she stood at her fatherâs side, comforted Jacob and somehow managed to get through each day. Wanting, needing the comfort of the one man who could help ease her griefâ¦her husband.
Medical results indicated Blanche had been dealing with heart disease for some time, evidence Benjamin refused to accept in his demented quest to wreak revenge on the man he blamed for Blancheâs death.
It proved a heart-wrenching time, with divided loyalties whittling away at Kaylaâs emotional heart. She was painfully aware of Benjaminâs fragile mental state and Jacobâs need for comfort and stability.
How could she give her personal life priority at such a time?
Yet how long could she expect Duardo to be patient? Benjaminâs ultimatumâLeave this house, and youâll never be welcome inside it againâalmost tore her in two.
Family. Something her mother had considered to be sacrosanct.
Except Benjamin was hell-bent on denigration, dredging up written proof that acquisition of the Enright-Smythe empire was part of Duardoâs agenda. And that Kayla had merely been a pawn in his game plan.