“Torri? Are you all right?” It was Vic, right behind her. He sounded worried.
“These aren’t my clothes, okay?” she waved at the silky blouses, short skirts, and expensive handbags she never would have bought. “They belong to some other woman. Chuck moved some other woman into my place!”
At that moment, she heard the distinct sound of a key in the front lock and then the door downstairs swinging open.
Twenty-Five
“Quickly, turn off the lights and hide!” Vic hissed at her. “I’ll camouflage us if I have to, but it’s better to be out of sight.”
Torri turned off the closet light and they crouched in the semi-darkness, both trying to control their breathing. The closet door was the kind with a Louvered wood design, so she could look through the wooden slats and see what was going on in the bedroom.
After a minute, she heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs and Chuck’s voice saying,
“I know I left it in here somewhere…” He appeared in the bedroom and began looking under the pillows and through the bed clothes.
“I can’t believe we had to come all the way back home just because you forgot your stupid phone!” a familiar voice answered.
Stalking into the bedroom behind her husband was Amanda, his secretary.
Torri bit her lip to keep from shouting at the two of them as they searched the bedroom for Chuck’s phone. Was this who he had been cheating on her with? This little blonde bimbo who couldn’t even get his paperwork and filing right and spent all day working on her manicure? At least that was what he had always complained to Torri. And here he had been seeing her behind Torri’s back! But for how long?
“Look, Manda baby, just let me find it and we’ll go,” Chuck said. He was a big man with a bit of a beer gut and thinning brown hair on top. He was wearing a gray suit and Torri thought he looked like he had put on a few pounds since the last time she had seen him—which was months ago.
“We’d better not miss our reservations at Equinox, Chuckie!” Amanda said sulkily. “I’ve been wanting to go there for months and now that your crazy wife is put away, we finally don’t have to sneak around to go places!”
“Now, babe—in the last three years, have I ever messed up date night?” Chuck grabbed her around her skinny waist and laid a smacking kiss on her bright pink lips.
“Not so far you haven’t, but there’s always the first time.” She fluttered her eye lashes at him, letting him know she was kidding.
Three years? Torri felt even sicker. All this time she’d been certain her husband was bowling—she’d even gotten him a new bowling ball for his birthday last year and he’d acted like he loved it! And what about that stupid trophy? And the weekend trip to new Mexico?
“Speaking of your crazy wife, I saw the divorce paperwork downstairs,” Amanda said, frowning as she watched Chuck resume his search for his cell phone. “When are you going to get her to sign so you can file it? Don’t forget, you promised we’d be married by the end of the year.”
“Take it easy, babe—Dr. Burrows has to get her to sign the first set of papers to start with—then we can move ahead with the divorce, once the money’s in my name.”
Money? What money? And what other paperwork? Torri wondered. Then she remembered that Dr. Burrows had said something about paperwork that Chuck wanted her to sign. At the time she’d thought it had to do with insurance forms but maybe not…
“Just think of it…five million dollars—and all for us!” Amanda giggled and fell back on the lacy lavender bedspread, kicking her feet in the air. “I can’t wait to get that Hermes bag I’ve had my eye on forever!”
“Well, technically four point five, after Dr. Burrows gets his cut,” Chuck corrected her. He laughed. “You know, I always thought Torri’s grandpa was crazy, playing the market like he did. But the old coot really made some good investments before he died. Thank you, Grandpa Pete!” he yelled and Torri realized that he was drunk—or very close to it.
“You shouldn’t have offered him so much,” Amanda pouted. “You should have kept the whole five million for us, Chuckie!”
“Had to give him some reason to work with me,” Chuck pointed out. “Besides, he’s the one who has to put up with Torri and her crazy night terrors every night for the rest of her life. Anybody who can do that deserves half a million dollars in my book. Oh look—I found it!”
He held up the cell phone triumphantly and grinned at Amanda.
“Finally.” Amanda jumped off the bed and straightened her skirt. “Are you ready to go? I don’t want to be late!”
“Ready,” Chuck echoed. “Come on—let’s get going, babe.”
They left the bedroom, switching off the lights behind them.
Torri watched them go from the confines of the closet, feeling so many emotions it was hard to contain them. She felt sick and sad and angry and betrayed.
Her whole marriage was a lie and apparently it had been for some time.
Twenty-Six
“Torri…” Vic began and then didn’t know what to say. He was appalled by what they had just witnessed. Not only had Torri’s mate taken up with another female, he was also planning to defraud her financially and leave her in the mental institution for the rest of her life.
Torri looked stunned and he didn’t blame her. He couldn’t imagine treating any female the way her own mate had treated her. It was heartless and wrong—even Vic, an artificial organism, could see that.
“Torri,” he began again. “If you need to talk…”
“What is there to say?” she asked dully, looking down at her hands. Even in the near total darkness of the closet, Vic could see the tears running silently down her cheeks.
“There is much to say—when you’re ready to say it,” Vic said, frowning. Seeing her upset and in pain gave him that tight feeling in his chest again. He was angry for her and he wanted to comfort her at the same time, but he wasn’t quite sure how to go about it.
“You know, I didn’t even know about the money?” she whispered. “I was so broken up after my Nana’s death that I begged Chuck to go meet with the lawyer about her will—I felt like I just couldn’t deal with it. He went, of course—I guess that’s when he found out she left me so much.”
“He didn’t tell you anything about your inheritance?” Vic asked.
She shook her head.
“He just said she left me her log cabin—you know, the one I always take you to in our dreams?”
Vic nodded sympathetically.
“It’s a beautiful place,” he murmured.
“Yeah, well—Chuck wanted me to sell it. Now I’m glad I didn’t.” She sniffed. “After everything is over, at least I’ll still have a place to live.”
“I don’t understand how he could take another mate when he was still mated to you, though,” Vic said, frowning. “I confess I am very confused. Don’t humans form any kind of bond that keeps them from straying away to other potential partners?”