Garrett walked into the restaurant with a sense of coming full circle. This was where he and Bonnie shared their last meal. Of course Georgia G had named it as the place she wanted to meet him tonight. He ignored the paparazzi standing to one side, shouting his name to make him look at them. They were lower than low.
In a day his world had turned around. While Bonnie still remained in the penthouse, he’d moved to another room. He couldn’t in all conscience pressure her to sleep with him when they had this hanging over his head. But now he had what he needed, and he was about to deliver.
After this, it was goodbye Las Vegas, and not before time. His usual sense of itchy feet that came at the end of a project didn’t affect him now. Instead, something else fired him up. A sense of justice being done. Now, after this last act, he would put his plans into motion.
There she was, sitting with her father at the most visible table in the place. Anyone peering through the window or the door would see them, and they were in view of everybody sitting there. People were already busy with their cell phones.
Georgia wore a semi-sheer black dress––on second thoughts, drop the semi––with what appeared to Garrett’s untrained eye to be a swimsuit underneath. The dress fitted her like a sheath, conforming to her abundant curves precisely so she might as well have not bothered.
Her father, who also acted as her manager, stood to greet him, his hand outstretched.
Garrett shook it briefly. Lando Gasparo rarely appeared in public, especially with Georgia, but anyone who dealt with her would meet him sooner or later. He managed her career and coordinated her appearances. Georgia’s fans knew about him, because she referred to her “best Papa,” in her vlogs and broadcasts. Few people knew how close they were, or how much he impacted what she did. He approved every boyfriend, real or fake. It was telling that he’d chosen to attend this meeting in person, especially since it was so deliberately public.
Father and daughter were expecting a capitulation, and ultimate victory.
“Now,” said Gasparo, steepling his fingers. “What kind of engagement ring are you giving Georgia? It has to be photogenic. A solitaire is too simple, so we thought maybe a big ruby with princess diamonds either side. But of course, it’s up to you.”
Garrett raised a brow. “Jumping a few steps there, aren’t we?”
Gasparo gave a rough, rumbling laugh. The man smoked too much if he had a laugh like that. “We might as well start the campaign now. You got the results of the paternity test. The baby’s yours.”
Right on cue, the food arrived. Garrett eyed his plate balefully but didn’t pick up his knife and fork. “Yes, let’s get down to business.” He gave them a bland smile. “One of my conditions is honesty. I want to know what I’m dealing with. So how did you manage it?”
“Manage what?” Gasparo’s innocent expression didn’t fool Garrett one bit, but he’d keep the killer blow until the end.
“To get hold of my contract with Bonnie.”
“Oh, that.” Gasparo waved his hand. “Can we say it mysteriously arrived in the post?”
Garrett already knew how he’d got it and his PA would be looking for a new job in the morning, with no recommendation from him. “Mysteriously? With no return address?”
Georgia took her turn. “Oh, please, we all know who sent it. Your team isn’t as leak-proof as you think.”
He already knew that. Jane had been very careful, hand-delivering the contract, and leaving no proof of what she’d done. Despite her care, he knew she had conspired to push Bonnie off the scene. From the spoiled cottage cheese to her cold animosity to his wife, Jane had been the culprit. He had enough evidence to be certain of that. She hadn’t been careful enough.
Before he’d entered the restaurant, he’d set his phone to record, so verbal confirmation would do, in the unlikely event that Jane decided to sue him for unlawful dismissal. He wanted her out.
He turned to his would-be fiancée. “Tell me who sent you the contract.”
Georgia gave him a petulant pout. “Do I have to?” At his nod, she said, “It was Jane Fletcher. She’s one of my biggest fans. She knows more about my life than I do.” Her girlish giggle somehow penetrated to every corner of the restaurant. She was completely on point, her appearance perfectly designed as the wronged lover about to graciously forgive her straying ex and draw him back into the fold. “When I hooked up with you she sent me a wonderful email. I wrote back, of course, and told her I couldn’t wait to meet her. It’s always wonderful to meet a fan in person.”
“I’m glad you think that way. Maybe you’ll give her a job after I fire her.”
Gasparo grinned. “She’s collateral damage. Like your soon-to-be ex-wife. Poor Bonnie. She won’t even get the money, will she? When the contract became public, the confidentiality clause was broken. It doesn’t matter who leaked the contract, I believe the wording was if the contract became publicly known, it was void. I wonder if she realized that when she signed it?”
Garrett seethed. “That isn’t your business.”
“Don’t tell me you paid her off! That wouldn’t make for good business, would it?” Gasparo poured himself a glass of the champagne bearing silent witness to their negotiations.
“As I said, that’s not your concern.”
“Why don’t you take Georgia’s hand and beg her forgiveness?” her father suggested. “Let the people get their pictures?”
He ignored Gasparo’s instruction and addressed Georgia directly. “Are you pregnant?”
She nodded, misery swimming in her eyes. He could almost feel sorry for her.
“Whose child is it?”
“Yours.” But she bit her lip, as if transmitting doubt.
He had to be careful what he said. For all he knew she was planning on broadcasting their tête-à-tête, or more precisely, their tête-à-tête-à-tête. He wouldn’t be the only person here with his phone switched to record. “We never slept together, so you know the baby isn’t mine.”
Her eyes rounded. Ah, so he was right. She was planning on broadcasting edited parts of the conversation. She’d no doubt frame it as a romantic reconciliation when she graciously forgave him and announced their future happiness to her adoring fans. Well, he was prepared to broadcast everything, so he could show where she’d made cuts. “You can’t have forgotten, Garrett darling.”
“No,” he assured her. “I haven’t forgotten anything. The baby isn’t mine because we never had sex.” That should be clear enough.
“What about the paternity test?”
“The man I sent took two samples.”
Georgia gasped. Hadn’t she realized that?
“I sent my sample to a different laboratory. One I could trust implicitly.” The one at the Phoenix Agency. They could do DNA testing, and the results had come quickly. The father was unknown. “It will tell a different story to the one you faked. So, Georgia, it’s your word against mine, and the best way to resolve it is to have it tested under clinical conditions at a new laboratory. What do you think? Should we do that?”
He and Murray had found out plenty, with the help of the Phoenix Agency. Once they’d put their suspicions in motion, they’d discovered enough information to prove all they needed to know. All but one matter, and he’d put that in the hands of the authorities.
“So let’s finish this, shall we? Georgia’s baby isn’t mine. You released a confidential document to the press. You got Jane to slip an extra page into the contract I had with you, a page I never saw. She faked my initials.” He scraped back his chair, getting to his feet. “And you employed someone to kill my wife.”
Their faces drained to white. But he hadn’t finished.
“For that last point, you’ll have to answer to somebody other than me.”
As he left the restaurant he nodded to the two cops standing just out of sight. “They’re all yours.”
Earlier in the day, he’d gone to see Bonnie, and shown her what he’d discovered. The case was done, and now they could carry on with their arrangement. Assuring her their contract still held, he’d asked her if she could be ready to leave for San Antonio the next day.
The penthouse was in that state of careful tidiness that he’d had it when he arrived.
The stuff she’d strewn over the place was gone. Garrett stormed through the place, hardly believing what he saw. She’d left her new clothes and the jewelry only taking what she’d arrived with. When he’d found her wedding rings on the bedside table, he knew what she’d done.
The apartment was back to the pristine perfection it had been before she’d arrived in his life. Garrett had made a startling discovery. He hated the place that way. He’d enjoyed coming in at the end of the day, stripping off his tie and talking with her or taking her to bed. The aching void in his life told him how empty it had been before Bonnie.
Turning his mind to the matter at hand was more difficult than it used to be. Bonnie was in his thoughts day and night.
With the rings, she’d left a letter.
Dear Garrett.
I’m glad it’s over, and I’m glad I was able to help you. But there’s no reason for me to stay now, is there? The contract you signed with Georgia is null and void, and since ours went out to the media, so is ours.
But I fell for you.
Love doesn’t have compartments. It can’t be filed away when you’ve done with it. I can’t live like that, so I’m going home.
I don’t want to see you slowly cutting yourself off from life and other people, and I won’t stay to witness it. If you go back to the Phoenix Agency, you won’t be any further forward than you were when you left.
Please talk to your family, and find out if you can mend your bridges. If you want to do anything for me, do that.
You can divorce me without my being there. I looked it up. It’s easy, all you have to do is take a trip to Reno.
Thanks for the adventure.
I love you, Garrett.
Bonnie.
He should leave her to live her life now. He would, he swore to himself. But he’d make a few things easier for her. She wouldn’t accept anything he gave her directly, but he had other methods.
A month after she’d gone Garrett realized that feeling he had about his wife would never, ever go away, and he’d have to learn to live with it. He hadn’t gone back to San Antonio, but had stayed on, finding excuse after excuse to stay in the last place he’d been truly happy. He’d taken her suggestion and opened up relationships with his family once more. Elliott was coming over this weekend, to see if they had any place to go together.
Then he received a visit from the police that left him cold.
Terrified. Not for him. For Bonnie.