Needed: One Convenient Husband(17)

The twins gave him a pitying look.

Sophie sat back in her chair as if the case was concluded. "A marriage  of convenience where you sleep with Eva? Sounds like a real marriage to  us."

* * *

Eva rushed to her doctor's appointment only to find her last  consultation had dragged on so long she had missed it and had to wait  for an emergency appointment. Stomach churning, not least because she  hadn't stopped to get any lunch, she sat down to wait.

At three o'clock, she finally got in to see Dr. Evelyn Shan, an elegant  Indian woman with an impressive list of qualifications and a daughter,  Lina, who had been a good friend of Eva's in her last year of school.

After a couple of minutes of catching up about Lina, who now lived in  England, Eva finally managed to get to the point of her visit.

Evelyn's eyes widened ever so slightly at Eva's request for  morning-after and contraceptive pills, before she began asking a crisp  series of questions. "I'll prescribe the morning-after pill, and you  need to take it today, as soon as possible. The results aren't one  hundred percent, and given the time in your cycle..."

She scribbled a prescription. Eva, feeling about six inches tall,  folded the piece of paper and placed it in her handbag. As she hurried  out to pay for the consultation, her phone vibrated.

She took the call from Luisa Messena, Kyle's mother. Feeling frazzled,  she agreed to meet Luisa, Francesca and Sophie at a nearby café in a few  minutes, although she was certain "coffee" was a euphemism for what was  about to take place. As much as she loved the Messena women and enjoyed  their company, they were, each in their own way, formidable. It was  also a fact that the twins knew about the clause in Mario's will.

She paid and filled her prescription at a chemist then hurried to the  café. Sophie and Francesca were grinning like a couple of cats that had  gotten the cream. Luisa hugged her with an odd smile in her eyes.

Feeling dazed that all three women seemed quite relaxed about the quick  marriage, Eva ordered sparkling water. She intended to sip some now  then cap the bottle, place it in her bag and, as soon as she got a  chance, take her pill. She didn't want to risk taking the pill at the  table, because she was pretty sure that if she took out the pack, the  twins would recognize the medication and all hell would break loose.

Half an hour later, just as she was making her excuses to leave,  Detective Hicks called. They needed to get into her house to dust for  fingerprints, and they needed her to meet them there now.                       
       
           



       

After quickly explaining about the break-in to Luisa, Sophie and  Francesca, she got up to leave, but Luisa wouldn't hear about her going  on her own and insisted on calling Kyle.

She beamed as she disconnected the call. "He's more or less finished for the day and will drive you to your house."

Feeling just a little bit frantic because she needed a few minutes  alone to take the pill, Eva found herself strolling across the road to  Kyle's bank, an imposing old building with several floors and a plaster  facade in a tasteful shade of mocha. She stepped through antique  wood-and-glass revolving doors into the hushed echoes of a large  reception area with marble floors and very high, intricately molded  ceilings. She had been in the bank on a number of occasions before, but  always with Mario.

Kyle stepped out of an elevator, and her heart did a queer little leap.  He was dressed in the same suit she had seen him wearing that morning,  after she had gotten out of his bed, but he looked...different. Maybe it  was the understated richness of marble floors and pillars, the diffused  light that shimmered through fanlights over the doors, but in that  moment he looked utterly at home in the opulence and wealth of the bank  and every inch the urban predator.

An hour later, they left her house, locking it behind the police team.  After the short drive home, where they were changing for dinner because  they were eating out, Eva finally made it to a bathroom.

Setting her bag down on the vanity, she took the morning-after pill out of her bag and read the instructions.

She needed to take the pill in the first twenty-four hours. She checked her watch. She was within the time.

Relief making her a little dizzy, she filled a glass with water, popped  the pill in her mouth, took a mouthful of water and swallowed.





Nine

Ten days later, Eva walked into her office to find Jacinta rushing out,  her normally magnolia cheeks bright pink. "Anything wrong?"

"Nothing." Jacinta waved her clipboard. "Just needed this. I must have  left it in here by mistake. Oh, and some man called to see you. I  actually found him in your office when I came in with coffee and shooed  him out. I noted down his number on the pad beside your phone."

Frowning that someone had walked into her office while she'd been  having a fitting for her dress at Sophie's shop, and without an  appointment, Eva checked out the number, which was unfamiliar.

Eva sat down behind her desk. It was then she noticed that her handbag,  which she'd left behind because Sophie's shop was just down the street,  was gaping open. Mario's will was tucked inside where she had left it,  but she couldn't remember it being folded open at the second page.

Feeling unsettled, she refolded the will and replaced it in her bag. It  was ridiculous to think that the person in her office could be Sheldon  Ferris. Picking up the phone, she rang the cell number noted on the pad.

A male voice picked up, and her stomach plummeted as she recognized her stepfather's voice. "What were you doing in my office?"

"Now, what way is that to talk to a relative? Especially with a wedding coming up."

The veiled threat in his voice made her tense. "You married my mother for a couple of years. That doesn't make you a relative."

"I suppose, now you're an Atraeus, and rich, you've got no time for the family you left behind-"

"If you want money, you can forget it." As far as she was concerned,  Ferris had only ever been with her mother to benefit himself. He had  lived off her sickness benefit and run up enough gambling debts that  when her mother had died there had been nothing left.

There was a small silence. "You're not going to get rid of me this  time." He mentioned a figure that took her breath. "If you don't want  your story splashed all over the tabloids, you'd better pay up."

In that moment Eva noticed a message sitting on her blotter, from  Detective Hicks, to the effect that they hadn't been able to make a  positive ID on any fingerprints other than her own. She didn't care, she  was now sure in her own mind who it was that had broken in. "That was  you in my house the other night, wasn't it?"

The click of the disconnected call in her ear was loud enough that she  wrenched the phone away. With shaky fingers, she set the phone down in  its rest.

Sheldon Ferris. He popped up in her life at odd intervals, usually  wanting money. Mario had frightened him off the last time, but Mario had  failed to tell her what leverage he had used. All she could hope was  that the fear of a police investigation would be enough to scare him  off.

With the pleasure of trying on her wedding dress drained away by the  nasty call, Eva deliberately tried to recapture her optimistic mood by  checking through her wedding file.                       
       
           



       

Predictably, Kyle had not been happy when he'd discovered that Eva had  not booked a registry office wedding and that she had involved Kyle's  family in almost every aspect. Eva, on the other hand, had felt it was  important that his family were involved, not least because in a more  distant way, they were also her family.

She had invited the Messena clan to her last wedding, which hadn't  happened, so why would she not invite them to this one, especially when  Kyle was the groom? It just hadn't made any kind of sense to cut family  out and in the process cause hurt.

It still felt faintly surreal that she was actually getting married,  and that the toxic clause in Mario's will would be neutralized in just  two days' time.

Two days until she became Kyle's wife.

The speed with which the wedding was approaching made her feel  breathless and just a little panicky, which was not her. Usually she was  in control and organized. She lived and breathed detail and was  superpicky about every aspect of a wedding, which made her good at her  job. She also had a huge network of contacts thanks to her family and  her modeling days. She had thought twelve days was enough time to  organize a small, intimate wedding, but it seemed the universe was  working against her.

She'd fought tooth and nail over venues, food and music, and she was  losing sleep. To cap it off, none of her bridesmaids of choice were  available on a Thursday. Even Sophie and Francesca had had prior  commitments that meant that, while they could come to the wedding, they  just did not have enough time to do all the bridesmaid things. She was  starting to get desperate. The way things were going, the wedding would  take place in a registry office.