The Billionaire's Temporary Bride (Scandal, Inc #3)(77)
"No need to explain," Callie said. "Let me know when you two are back in DC. Is everything going well?"
"Yeah, it's fine. I have to run though," Charlotte said.
So Jack was meeting this mystery woman in North Carolina. The only question was how soon Charlotte could be there too.
***
By the time Charlotte turned onto East Wind Drive, she wasn't sure what to think. It was warmer in North Carolina than she had expected, and the low January sun broke through the clouds as she looked at the large houses that loomed above the dunes.
Save for one house with lights on over the porch, the whole island seemed deserted. On her long drive from the airport, Charlotte had been alone with her thoughts. She had run through every possible scenario on that drive. She tried to think of why Jack would leave with no warning, why he'd lie about where he was going, what he could possibly have been hiding about her that he wouldn't tell her before he left.
Again and again she came back to the same answer: there was someone else. Charlotte clung to the desperate hope that she was wrong.
Charlotte tried to imagine what the woman on the phone looked like. If Jack was in love with this other woman, why couldn't Jack have asked that woman to marry him? Why was he hiding her? None of it made any sense.
Charlotte racked her brain for any clue as to what other reason would lead a man to keep a secret cell phone that only called one woman, but it only added up to one thing. There was someone else.
Charlotte couldn't bring herself to believe it. It wasn't like Jack had been sneaking away to make secret calls on a nightly basis. The two of them had barely been apart. Whatever it was it had to be something else.
By the time she reached 2248 East Wind Drive, Charlotte's head was spinning. She needed to know more before she confronted Jack. Instead of pulling into the long driveway, Charlotte kept going and drove up to the next house. It stood dark and empty like the others she had seen, and she doubted anyone would notice she was there.
Charlotte reached over and grabbed the binoculars out of her bag. It was time to see why Jack had come all this way. The cool ocean wind swirled around her as she stepped out of the car, and she thought back to the morning she and Jack had watched the sunrise at his family's house on the Cape.
She tightened her grip on the binoculars and walked toward the beach. Within a few minutes, she was high enough up the dune that she could see the back windows of 2248. She lifted her binoculars and focused them.
Jack was pacing back and forth. Charlotte's heart sank. He was talking to a woman who walked up to the window and looked out toward the water.
So that's her, Charlotte thought. That's who he's been hiding.
The woman was beautiful. She had olive skin and a flawless complexion. Even from a distance, Charlotte could see that she was thin with perfect hips and full breasts. She looked like she had been ripped from the pages of a swimsuit magazine, the kind of woman only a man like Jack could have. Charlotte felt like such an idiot.
Then she saw something else. Jack turned and someone else entered the room. A young boy, maybe seven or eight years old, walked over to the woman and gave her a hug. He must have been the woman's son. His skin was a bit paler than hers and his eyes— Charlotte froze — his eyes were deep blue.
There was no mistaking those eyes. She was sure this was Jack's son.
Chapter 29
Charlotte's hand trembled as she watched Jack through the window. She adjusted the zoom on her binoculars slightly and looked back down at the boy standing next to him.
Why am I such an idiot? she wondered. Of course he was hiding something like this. I should I known the whole time that something was wrong. Guys like Jack don't just fall for women like me. He's been using me from the start.
She dropped her binoculars to the sand with a dull thud, but she didn't hear it. The only thing she heard was the buzzing of her anger in her ears.
Charlotte wasn't going to waste another minute pretending to be Jack's wife, she decided as she marched across the dune. He deserved to know she had figured out what he had been hiding.
Her anger grew with each step. She thought of everything he had said to her. She thought of the way he had held her the night before and the way he had looked at her that morning before he had left. Little by little her resolve diminished. Maybe there was some explanation. Maybe he had a good reason for not telling her. Maybe she should just ask him what was going on.
No, she assured herself, you're going to march up to that door and tell him it's over.
The closer to the house she walked, the tighter Charlotte's stomach knotted. She had carried a vague nausea since first realized what the secret phone must have meant, but the idea of finally confronting Jack made Charlotte's stomach seize suddenly. She fell to her knees near a tuft of long beach grass and retched until she felt strong enough to approach the front door.
The buzzing in Charlotte's ears had quieted enough for her to hear how the wind whipped against the house as she stood on the steps. She wondered if anyone inside had seen her tromping through the sand like an idiot. She rapped her knuckles against the plain wooden door as hard as she could. She wanted Jack to hear how angry she was. She wanted him to see the look of betrayal in her eyes. She wanted him to know how much he had hurt her.
"Charlotte?" Jack said as he opened the door. He looked worried, and his cheeks were flushed. "What the hell are you doing here? Get inside." He reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder.