As for Lana, he’d sort all this out before telling her. It was the right thing to do.
After all his accusations, he owed her that much.
Lana’s heart plummeted when Matt called to say he would be working late. He’d been aloof ever since Saturday night. Why had she mentioned having more children? She must have scared him off.
Sure, he was good with Megan but clearly he didn’t want more children or a longer marriage to her. And clearly he wasn’t about to fall in love with her. She should have kept quiet and been thankful he was a good father to Megan and a good, if temporary, husband to her.
He didn’t come home until after ten that night. She’d given up and gone to bed, pretending to be asleep when he entered the bedroom and took a shower, then slid na**d between the sheets, where he rolled over and went to sleep.
She wanted to say, “Hold me. Don’t push me away like this,” but what would be the use? She didn’t want any man holding her against his will.
Somehow Lana managed to get through the next day at work without giving away her feelings. And then Matt took her home before saying he was going back to work. He kissed Megan goodbye, even gave her a quick kiss, but avoided looking at her and left.
Lana wanted to cry. It was obvious now what was going on. Her suggestion of more children had definitely driven him away—right into the arms of another woman.
Oh God. How could she continue to live with a man who was cheating on her? Would the next step be that he didn’t come home one night at all? How long before it became a regular occurrence?
Like her father.
The thought panicked her, but somehow she held herself together. At least she knew she was prepared for the worst, and that gave her an inner strength.
He didn’t make love to her that night either, not that she expected he would try. And if he had tried she certainly would have told him what she thought of him.
After the third night of his dropping her at home and saying he had to go back to work, Lana’s heartache was overtaken by an escalating anger. So, he was working, was he? Perhaps she’d just go down there after Megan was in bed and check if that was true.
And if it was?
One step at a time.
At seven-thirty she asked Ruth to babysit Megan, then hopped into her own car and drove back to the office.
She parked in the underground car park, which was well lit but deserted, rather than drive around to the front entrance where the security guard would be.
With a shaky hand she punched in the code to access the gate to the car park, her heart trembling a minute later when she saw that Matt’s car wasn’t there. She should go home right now, yet something forced her to go upstairs and check for sure that he wasn’t working. She wanted no doubts about any of this.
All seemed quiet as she rode the elevator to the eighth floor. She was vaguely aware of its being eerie here, but her thoughts were on Matt and what she would find.
Or not find.
The door opened with a ping. And Lana’s eyes widened at the scene before her. There seemed to be people everywhere, some men in suits and a couple of policemen. Alex and Nick were there and had turned to look at her, but she couldn’t see—
“Matt!” she said, rushing forward with intense relief when one of the men moved and she saw Matt standing there.
He suddenly saw her and he scowled. “Lana! What are you doing here?”
She rushed up to him, putting her hands on his arm, needing to touch him. “I thought…” It didn’t matter now. “Matt, what’s going on? Are you okay? Is someone hurt? What happened?” She fired the questions at him, unable to stop herself from babbling.
“It’s Irene. She—”
“She’s been hurt? Oh my God!”
His mouth flattened in a grim line. “No, she’s not hurt, Lana. She’s our thief. The police are here to arrest her. She’s in my office, but they’ll soon be taking her down to the police station.”
Lana tried to take in what he was saying. “Irene stole the money?”
He nodded. “I discovered another amount missing on Monday and decided to set a trap for her.”
Just then Irene came out of Matt’s office in handcuffs with a policeman. “You’ve got no proof I did anything, Matt.”
Matt pointed to the potted plant on the filing cabinet. “It’s all on tape, Irene. I’m not stupid, you know. I put a camera behind the plant.”
She lifted her head. “I’ll see you in court, Mr. Valente,” she spat as they took her to one of the elevators.
Lana watched the exchange, stunned by Irene’s changed demeanor, even as she registered one fact. Matt knew all this on Monday and hadn’t told her. He’d kept it to himself.
For a few minutes she just stood there as the elevator doors closed with Irene inside.
“Lana, why—”
She rounded on him. “How could you, Matt?”
He frowned. “What’s the matter?”
She lifted her chin. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
He opened his mouth to speak, then suddenly seemed to realize they had an audience. He took her by the arm and marched her into his office, where he shut the door behind him and stood in front of it.
“Now listen to me, Lana. I was trying to protect you.”
“From what?” she scoffed. “Irene?”
His mouth tightened. “Yes. You have to admit she isn’t the person we knew her to be. She has a gambling problem.”
That wasn’t good enough.
“I would have been right there beside you helping to trap her. I don’t know what she could have done to me.”
“She could have lured you away on some pretext or other. She could have hurt you.” Something flared in his eyes. “I didn’t know what she was capable of. I couldn’t take that chance.”
Okay, so he had a point but…
“The thing is you didn’t trust me enough to tell me. You trusted Alex and Nick but not me.”
“Alex and Nick are—”
“Family?” she snapped.
“No, I was going to say they are management. I had to let my brothers know what was going on.”
She understood that, too, but…
“You’re missing the point, Matt. You accused me of stealing a great deal of money, yet you couldn’t even ask me to help you trap the real thief? And then you let me believe that…” She trailed away.