Chapter
Twenty-one
Kate
“So is that it? We’re done?” Jonathan asked Louis, looking surprised. “You don’t need anything more from us now?”
He laughed and raised his eyebrows at me.
“Well, I need you to say ‘I do’ of course, but apart from that we’re done.” He started to pack away his folder. “I have a team that I work with, so if you can’t find me on the day, look for anyone with this badge.”
He held it up and we both nodded, nerves making a knot form in my stomach as he stood up and reached for Jonathan’s hand.
“Good luck, and I’ll see you on Saturday.”
“Thanks.”
He kissed me on both cheeks.
“Take care of this one,” he said to me, pointing at Jonathan. “Don’t be fooled by his predator status in the business world. He really does have a heart.”
He winked and watched him leave the room, excitement suddenly replacing the feeling of fear and sickness.
“We’re getting married in two days!” I said excitedly. “I can’t even begin to put that timeframe into perspective.”
“You’ll be Mrs. Davenport before you even know it,” he said pulling me into him and looking down at my face. “I just know that you’re going to be the most beautiful bride anyone’s ever seen.”
“I bet you say that to all the women.”
He laughed and kissed my forehead before stepping backwards and looking down at his watch.
“Don’t you have to pick up your dress in forty minutes?”
“Shit!” I grabbed hold of my bag and jacket on the chair, running over to the door before stopping and turning back to him, dropping everything and running into his arms again.
He held me close to him.
“I can’t believe this is it,” I whispered against his shoulder. “I can’t believe the next time I see you will be when I’m walking down the aisle.”
He ran his hands up my back and pulled away from me.
“I need you to understand something very important, okay? I need you to promise me something.”
I nodded, a touch of fear forming in the pit of my stomach.
“What is it?”
“Promise me that no matter what happens between now and Saturday, you’ll still marry me.”
“Jonathan…?”
“Promise me,” he demanded. “I want to hear you say it.”
“I promise,” I said hesitantly. “It sounds like you know something I don’t. You’re scaring me.”
“Everything I’ve done since I’ve met you has been with you in mind. I just want you to remember that.”
“But…”
The intercom on his phone sounded, and Helen’s voice interrupted us.
“Sorry, Jonathan, your eleven o’clock meeting’s here!”
We both looked at the phone and he bent to answer it.
“Okay, thank you. Tell them to take a seat.” He turned back to me, lifted my hand, and kissed it. “Go and get your dress, Kate. I don’t want you to think about anything else from now on other than how much I can’t wait to take it off you on Saturday night.”
He picked up my bag and jacket and handed them to me.
“I’ll see you at the altar, Kate Williams.”
“I’ll be seeing you too.”
I left his room, my mind clouded with thoughts running in overdrive, and as I rode the elevator down to the ground floor I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was somehow preparing me for a surprise that was to come. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if it was really something that I wanted to know.
I finally got outside and squinted against the winter sunlight, looking around to see if I could locate James, and just as I saw our car, someone stepped into my way and blocked my view.
"Kate?" she asked.
I looked at her, trying my best to go through my memory banks and put a name to her face as her closeness made me step back from her.
"And you are?"
She laughed slightly and looked around us.
"You don't know me, but I'm Jonathan's ex..."
I walked past her, exasperated with all the attention our pending nuptials were garnering.
"Thank you, I'm sure you mean well, but I just don't want to know." I walked briskly towards the car, but she followed me, hot on my heels.
"So, you're willing to marry a man without knowing everything there is to know about him?"
I stopped and turned to her, hoping not to draw any attention from workers passing us by.
"Look, I don't know what you want," I said between gritted teeth. "But in a couple of days I'm going to marry him regardless of what you have to say, and there isn't anything that you or anyone can do about that, okay? I don't want to know what the hell it is that you've got to say about him. I love Jonathan, and nothing you're about to tell me is going to change that."
She nodded and clapped her hands sarcastically.
"Bravo, bravo. Is that the speech you've rehearsed for when people call you out for being a gold digger?"
I turned and walked away from her, wishing I hadn't stopped to give her the time of day, but she followed like a nasty mosquito by my side.
"Fine, believe what you want Kate, but how can you trust a man who's destroyed so many women? I was with him only moments before he was with you. How can you tell that it's you he really wants and not a replacement for me?"
I took a deep breath and stopped in my tracks, almost making her bump into me.
"I don't know your name, but if he wanted to be with you, where is he now? Why is it my finger he's put the ring on? Why not yours?"
She nodded.
"Fair point, but were all in this together, Kate. We're all woman he's just discarded and moved onto the next with. I don't want you to make the same mistake I did and live to regret it. I trusted him just like you do, and look where that left me? I'm here watching him get married to someone else, when really it should have been me."
She looked behind me, noticed something, and hurried the rest of her words.
"If you want to talk, call me, okay? Call me on this number." She handed me a small card. "Call and ask me anything, and I'll make sure to help you as much as I can."
"Why?" I asked. "What's in it for you?"
"I just want to make sure no one else suffers."
I took the card from her outstretched hand just as James came up by my side and took my arm.
"Miss, the car's ready."
He looked at the woman, and his eyes narrowed slightly as she smirked.
"Still doing Jonathan's dirty work, James?" she said. "Don't worry, I'm going now."
She looked at me one last time.
"Don’t forget to call me, Kate. We’ve got to stick together, remember that."
She disappeared into the crowd of people, and James guided me towards the car.
"You're best to destroy that card," he said, pointing to it in my hands.
"Why? What's so special that Jonathan doesn't want me to know from her? So special that you had to come out and rescue me?"
He shook his head as he opened the passenger door.
"She's a trouble maker, Miss. She always has been. I wouldn't put any more thought into it than that. Shall we go?"
I took a final glance along the sidewalk in the direction that she'd disappeared before looking down at the card.
It had the name Shelley Gardener written across it in large letters, and as I let her words sink deeper into me I knew there was only one thing left to do.
I saw James' eyes in the mirror watching me intently as I ripped the card into a dozen small pieces.
I trusted Jonathan with my life, and there wasn't a woman in this world that was ever going to change that.