He rinsed the pan and dried it. Blanche was old and frail now, but she didn’t want to have a housekeeper around even though he’d offered to pay for one.
“So tell me about Ceinlys,” Blanche said, starting the coffee machine. It gurgled. “I didn’t want to ask right in front of Vanessa, but is she really divorcing Salazar?”
“Yes. It’s true.”
“My land. I can’t believe it. They were meant to be together forever, even with all those mistresses of his.”
“Everyone thought that.”
“What changed?”
He shrugged. “I have no idea. Iain might know, but he didn’t say.”
“Well, no need to probe. I just hope it’s not too stressful for the kids, especially your lady out there. Stress is terrible for pregnant women. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you this, but be extra gentle with her. Pregnancy hormones are brutal.” Blanche frowned. “I hope she can take some decent time off work. Lawyers work too much.”
“Don’t worry. She’s on a special case at the firm.”
“Really?” Blanche cocked her head, and Justin cursed inwardly. He never had been able to put anything past his mother. “Would that have anything to do with you?”
“Well.” Justin cleared his throat. “It might.”
“Justin. Does she know?”
“No, and she doesn’t need to. It’s not like it’s going to affect her career there. This was during the time she wanted to keep our relationship quiet and secretive.”
“Weren’t you already married at that point?”
“Yes, but it didn’t matter. She didn’t want anyone to know we were a couple.”
“How very odd,” Blanche spoke slowly. “Did she tell you why?”
“Something about wanting a partnership on her own merit, not based on who she’s married to.”
“Do you believe that?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Your Aunt Annabella is a lawyer, and it took her thirteen years to make partner, and you know how smart she is.”
Justin nodded. Not just smart, Annabella had graduated from Yale Law with honors.
“Vanessa’s a bit too young—she’s been with the firm for, what, about ten years?”
“Yeah.”
“The chances of her getting a partnership are very slim, and soon everyone will know she’s pregnant anyway.” Blanche tapped neatly trimmed nails on the Formica counter. “I’m sure there’s another reason.”
A frown tightened his forehead. He’d wondered, but he’d chosen to accept Vanessa’s decision at face value. But his mother was right. “Why would a woman want to keep something like that a secret?”
Blanche poured herself a cup of strong coffee, black, no sugar. She didn’t offer any to Justin; he never drank it late in the evening. “Maybe to surprise somebody? Or maybe because you don’t expect it to last? I didn’t tell my parents about your father until he actually proposed. I couldn’t believe he’d want to marry a girl from a lower middle class family when he could have had any woman he wanted.”
“But we’re marr—” Even as the words left his lips, it hit him. In Vanessa’s experience, marriage didn’t mean commitment and respect and love. It was a peculiar sort of trap that forced two people to stay with each other when they might be happier apart.
But she can’t possibly think our future will resemble her parents’. He’d never done anything to make her believe he’d be like Salazar.
Blanche put a hand on Justin’s sleeve. “Sometimes a woman needs reassurance. Maybe you should tell her how you feel.”
“How did you know?”
“Oh, a mother’s intuition. You’re too proud, and as much as you want to believe you’re not like Barron, you are very much like him from time to time. You’re waiting for her to tell you first, aren’t you?” Blanche took a slow sip of her coffee, her eyes on his. “A successful relationship is not like a business negotiation. Sometimes you have to make the first move, show your cards.”
Justin nodded, more than a little perturbed by her observation. Was he really treating the marriage like a business arrangement? And more importantly, did Vanessa really expect it to fall apart? Justin was a firm believer in the power of both positive and negative thinking, of self-fulfilling prophecies, and it took more than one person to make a marriage work.
Chapter Twenty-Two
It definitely took more than one to make a marriage work.
Justin feigned an interest in the latest financial reports from Sterling & Wilson as they flew back to L.A. the next day, but he knew something was wrong. Vanessa had been asleep by the time he’d returned to their bedroom the night before, and since then she’d been aloof, maintaining a physical distance from him.