Betrayed: Keeping her in the Dark Vol. 3 (2 page)

“No, I will tell you why it is a thing!” I was shouting a little too loud now and I could feel my wet hair dripping down my back.

 “The wedding ring is very significant. It is a symbol to the world that you are married. It’s a symbol of your love and respect for me and by wearing it you show that love and respect to the world!” He got out of bed and ran his hands through his hair. 

“Norah, please, I know the significance of the wedding ring. But if you really think the only way I can show the world how much I love and respect you is by wearing a ring, then you are out of your mind!” I picked the towel off the floor and tried to ring some of the water out of my hair. I walked with a lot of attitude back to the end of the bed. 

“Out of my mind?” I yelled. 

“Yes, but let me explain.” He held up his hands in his defense. “My father, whom I loved very deeply left me his glasses, two pairs of cufflinks and his wedding ring. I do not wear any of them. I don’t think that means I have any less love or respect for him.” He put his hand over his heart. “I keep those mementos in a cherished place and I think that is really enough!” He was raising his voice now. 

“Okay, first of all, your father left you a whole heck of a lot more than those three things. Second, you have them in an old cigar box sitting on the bookcase in your study, and third...” I paused to think of a third thing. “How would you feel if I didn’t wear a ring?” He shook his head and then looked back up at me with an angry look in his eyes. 

“Don’t start, Norah. Don’t start this tit for tat thing. Don’t start playing a game you know you can’t win. I don’t want to go round and round with you about this.” His face was starting to turn red and so was his chest. 

“I’m not about to do the tit for tat thing. I love my wedding rings and I intend on wearing them. What I would like to know from you is how are people supposed to know you’re married if you don’t wear a ring?” I walked a little closer to him. He slammed his hand down on the bed and it made a loud noise. 

“Oh for God’s sake, Norah! Everyone I ever met in my whole life was here in our backyard to watch us get married! I invited my gardener’s parents and even 2
^nd
cousins from my mother’s sister’s family who I had only met 3 times in my life! And if they weren’t here at this one, they were at the wedding we had in San Diego where you invited every person you have ever met in your entire life. I danced with a woman who said she was your Aunt, but your mother doesn’t have any sisters!” He was getting angry now. Sometimes I liked to see him get angry. When Liam was angry he was very hot.

“A ring doesn’t mean anything, wearing it, or not wearing it, doesn’t make me any less married to you. I wore the thing for six months and I am done wearing it now. That’s it. End of discussion.” I lowered my head and he stepped closer to me. He touched my chin lightly with his fingers and raised my face to look at him.

 “I love you so much, Norah. You are my wife, and I married you twice just to make sure.” He gave me a light kiss on the cheek. “I spent a large sum of money to have three hundred of my friends and business associates watch me marry you. Fifteen thousand of which was spent on the beautiful Vera Wang dress you wore and I had the pleasure removing later. I dropped another large sum of money at the ‘Ford Ranch and Garden Estate’ in San Diego, so two hundred of your closest friends and family could attend and another ten thousand more on yet another exquisite Vera Wang gown. Both of which are just hanging in your closet now.” I started to say something but he was on a roll with his accounting.

Money was everything to Liam. Money equaled love in his opinion. So recounting just how much he had spent to marry me was important to him, so I let him finish.

“I paid another very pretty penny to travel the Caribbean and parts of Europe with you for our month long honeymoon, when I would have much rather just stayed with you at a Bed and Breakfast in Paris.” 

“I never want to go to Paris again!” I couldn’t help myself. He held up his hand to me. 

“I know. And I didn’t complain, and I’m not complaining now. Because I would gladly spend the two million dollars and do it all over again just so I could have the honor of calling you my wife.” I wanted to make a snarky comment about how he had paid more for the weddings than he had for me, but I knew better. Liam didn’t like me to talk about his purchasing me. It was in the past and that is where he wanted it. 

He pulled me closer and put his hands on the sides of my face. “Norah, my darling wife, I love you so much that if you had wanted the reception on the moon, I would have done all in my power to get it for you. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you…except wear this ring, so drop it please!” 

“Okay. I agree the no ring thing doesn’t mean we aren’t any less married. But it is symbol. And it’s fine if you don’t want to show the world.” I stepped away from him because what I was about to say was going to upset him. “So I in turn am going to change my last name back to Chandler.” He snorted like he was laughing. “Because I think Norah Chandler sounds so much better than Norah Hastings.” I turned my back to him and started to walk to my side of the bed. 

“Okay, let’s all return from Never land, because we both know that isn’t going to happen!” His voice was stern and I could tell he was gritting his teeth. But I acted as if I didn’t hear him. 

“I would have to change all my business cards and that will be a pain.” I was tapping my fingers to the side of my face.

 “Norah!” Liam raised his voice. 

“The business’s name is ‘Hasting’s Events’, but I guess I could just live with that, right?” I turned back to face him like I was asking what he thought. 

“Norah, stop it! You aren’t changing your name back and we both know it. Let’s drop this, please. Surely, there are better arguments to be had?”

He was gripping the comforter and flexing his biceps. I decided to give him a break, besides I was tired. 

“Fine.” I shrugged my shoulders and climbed in my side of the bed. He leaned back and raised his eyebrow. 

“What do you mean, fine?” he was confused. Poor guy. I never made it easy for him. 

“I mean fine. You win. Let’s go to bed.” He kept looking at me like he was confused. 

“Really? I win? Just like that?” he asked and raised the covers on his side in frustration. 

“Yes. The Americans retreat. Get in bed,

I’m tired.” I lowered myself in the bed and moved my feet back and forth. He started to climb in his side of the bed. 

“Okay. Well I don’t know how I feel about that….and I’m quite positive this is going to come back to haunt me.” He slid his body close to me. 

“It might,” I huffed. “You’ll just have to wait and see.” I rolled on top of him and pressed my body against his. “Now if you are not going to wear a ring to represent our marriage, maybe you should show me right now that I am still your wife. Because I could forget without a ring to remind me.” 

I had three ‘reminders’ that night. 

Chapter Two

Liam

I really thought Norah was going to give me more of a problem about the ring. I didn’t think my argument about my father held much weight but it was the best thing I could come up with at the time. I just didn’t like wearing jewelry. It wasn’t for me. It was nothing against Norah or my love for her. I just didn’t want to wear a ring. When she said I had won the argument, I knew she didn’t really mean I had won the argument. 

The next morning I fully expected another argument, but I didn’t get one. She didn’t mention it while we ran on our treadmills, she didn’t mention it while we showered and then brushed our teeth side by side, and she didn’t mention it while we ate breakfast. She wasn’t silent either. 

We chatted a little while we ran, she eagerly went down on me in the shower, and we talked about the days ahead of us while we ate. I really thought she was going to say something with her smart mouth the entire morning but she didn’t. Either she was truly over it and wasn’t going to make it an issue, or she was thinking and planning her attack. Either way, I was just going to have to sit back and wait until the bomb dropped. 

I sat at the kitchen table and waited patiently while she finished her conversation on her cell phone. I swear that company can’t run without her. I guess that is a good thing…for her. 

“I’m sorry. I know we said no phones at the table but it seems Brenda is having some trouble with the Witherspoon wedding arrangements and can’t seem to get anything done without my help.” She slid her chair across the floor to get closer to the table and reached out for her glass of orange juice. 

“How is she going to manage without you?” I asked as I poured myself some coffee. The wedding was in Italy, but I couldn’t get away and even though it had been almost a year since
he
took her from me, I didn’t want her out of my sight. Letting her go to work and have her own life was hard enough. I wasn’t about to let to travel without me. 

She shrugged her shoulders while she buttered her toast.

“I don’t know. I hate that I can’t be there for our first big event,” she looked up at me as she took a bite. Her eyes were sad and pleading with me. 

“Norah, I said no. I can’t. Don’t you understand? It’s just too soon.” I wiped my mouth and walked to the kitchen with my plate. Rosa took it from me and I stood there with my arms crossed. 

“I didn’t even ask again. You said no, and I do understand. I think you are over working the whole caveman aspect, but I do understand.” She nestled her face into my neck and tried to get me to uncross my arms so she could get closer to me. I pulled her away from me and made her look me in the eye. 

“I just got you back. I know it has almost been a year, but it doesn’t feel like that to me. I can’t even think about losing you again, Norah.

I will lose my mind. I’m not trying to be an asshole about this, I’m really not.” She nodded as if she understood but I knew she was still upset. 

She went to finish dressing and I went to the study to gather my things. We met at the door and she adjusted my tie. 

“Someone I know has a birthday coming up,” she sang her words. “I wonder who that could be?” she gave me a sexy little grin. 

“Norah, I don’t want anything for my birthday. I haven’t celebrated it in years.” 

“But thirty is a milestone. We should celebrate…oh, oh, oh, I could plan a party!” she was tapping her hands against my chest like it just occurred to her that she was a party planner. 

“No. Absolutely not. I don’t want a party. I don’t want anything…except you.” I pulled her closer. “How about you and I go away for a weekend? That would be a great birthday present.” I kissed her slowly and tried to tangle our tongues. 

“Well that sounds nice, but my husband can’t bear to be without his work for a weekend. So I can’t imagine where we would go?” She chuckled. 

“It’s just this weekend, Norah. I can’t get away this weekend. I have a big meeting on Saturday and a business brunch on Sunday. I can’t miss it. But I can go away another weekend.”

“Oh, oh, oh,” she was jumping up and down like a little girl. “Can we go to Florida?” she asked. 

“Florida? That sounds very exotic. Where is that near the Cayman Islands?” She rolled her eyes. “Norah, when I say I want to go away for the weekend with my wife, it means I would like to somewhere tropical and exotic so I can watch you walk on the beach in a little bikini.” I kissed her nose. “Let’s talk about this later. We’re both going to be late.” 

“Oh, you just can’t wait to get to work so you can see ‘Charlie’s Angels’,” she joked. 

“Norah,” I huffed at her. 

“Do they say ‘Good Morning, Liam’, all in unison?” she had her cocky smile on her face. 

“Does it bother you that I have 4 secretaries, Mrs. Hastings?” I put my hands around her waist. 

“No I guess not,” she put her hands on my face. I gave her another kiss and then we went our separate ways. 

It was hard letting her go every day. The nightmare of what happened to her still haunted me. I couldn’t help but worry whenever she was out of my sight. 

John was still her driver and I had hired another bodyguard named Winston to be with her at all times. He didn’t follow her into meetings or to the bathroom or anything like that. Winston was like the Secret Service, you really didn’t notice him, but he was always around. 

I spent a lot of time looking for the right person to trust with my most precious possession. Winston graduated from MIT and was in the Marines for four years. After he was medically discharged for a cartilage problem in his knee, he was recruited by the FBI, where he worked as a field agent for another two years, before he was again recruited by the Secret Service. He served as a Secret Service agent for eight years and was working private security for a billionaire CEO in the states when I found him. It took some convincing on both our parts, but he has proven himself very trustworthy. 

Knowing Norah had these two men with her made it easier for me to do my work, but I still worried. It could happen when she least expected it. It could happen when she was out with her girlfriends and trying to dodge their protection. It could happen even if they did everything right and followed all my rules. It could still happen. He was still out there, so I knew it could happen again. 

Tracking Nick Meyers had become an obsession of mine. I didn’t tell Norah about it, in fact I never talked about it at all. Speaking his name in my house wasn’t allowed. I hadn’t forgiven nor had I forgotten. I would make him pay for what he did to my sweet Norah. 

He disappeared after I found him in New York. His flat in London went up for sale and a few of his homes in the states had either been sold or deserted. All of his credit cards had been closed out as well. The only thing he managed to keep was the two percent of shares he owned in my company.

Just a little reminder that he was out there somewhere. But everything else disappeared with him. He was gone.

 Until I found him again in a little town in India. He was living in a small beach house and driving a jeep. He looked like he was enjoying life as a beach bum. He had let his hair grow out a little and had a scruffy beard. He also had two blondes that seemed to adore him.