The Perfect Husband (25 page)

And then it came to him. The plan he’d
hungered for. The plan he couldn’t wait to set in motion. The plan
that would mean the end, once and for all, of Isobel-fucking-West
and open the door for another, more deserving Mrs Donnelly, a woman
who would appreciate all he had to offer.

* * *

“Watch out, Mason! I’m coming through!” Ben
shouted, giggling and ringing the bell attached to the handlebars
of his new bike.

Isobel stood beside the swings, idly pushing
Sophie back and forth. She laughed at her son’s antics and shook
her head, her heart filling with gratitude and love. She couldn’t
remember the last time she’d seen such uninhibited joy on Ben’s
face. The fear that had been a constant shadow in his beautiful
green eyes for so many months had disappeared. He looked like an
older version of the little boy she remembered.

Mason neatly sidestepped out of the way and
Ben shot past him, his legs peddling with furious concentration.
Mason’s laughter reached her from where she stood with Sophie at
the swings, across the other side of the small park. She couldn’t
help but smile.

“That’s it, buddy! Go your hardest!” Mason
called out to him. Ben turned and threw him a cheery wave and then
continued biking around the path.

They’d spent Christmas together in Mason’s
home. It had been the best Christmas she could remember and she was
sure the kids felt the same. Their shouts of laughter had filled
every room and there had been a joy in the air that had never been
there before and it was all thanks to the man who even now stayed
close to her son, watching him with a protective eye.

As far as she knew, Nigel still worked at
the hospital, but she hadn’t seen him since the day he’d confronted
her in the car park. She could only hope something of what she’d
said to him had finally gotten through and he’d decided to let them
go.

She and Mason had settled into a comfortable
routine of work and children and down time. It was all so normal
and nice. No. Nice was the wrong word. There was nothing
nice
about Mason. He far exceeded nice.

Nice didn’t come close to describing the
caring, considerate, supportive friend and lover he’d become. The
way he treated her and her children with kindness and respect. He
sought out her opinions on every little thing and genuinely
appeared interested in her response. She’d never experienced that
kind of easy, respectful camaraderie with her husband and now she
couldn’t imagine being with a man who treated her with anything
less.

And then there was the way Mason looked, wet
and tousled from a shower, with just a towel draped loosely around
his hips. She’d have had to be dead not to notice his appeal. His
chest was broad with well-defined muscles. She remembered how it
felt against her breasts.

The memory made her blush, but warmth
tingled low in her core. She moved a little restlessly and wished
they were home. Home. With her family.

Her family.
Is that what they’d
become? Is that what she wanted them to become? Her therapist had
urged her to embrace life again. He’d even suggested she start to
date, and be open to a new relationship; one that was safe and
normal and made her feel good. She hadn’t been able to bring
herself to tell him she had already done that.

Mason was all of those things and though the
thought of completely trusting a man again terrified her, she
wanted desperately to find the courage to try.

‘If you don’t open your heart again, then
your victimization will be complete.’ The words of her therapist
echoed in her head and all of a sudden, she didn’t want to remain a
victim. A surge of determination flooded through her. Dammit, she
deserved a happy life, to be loved and cherished for who she was,
imperfections and all.

“Push me, Mommy! Push me!”

Sophie’s high-pitched squeal penetrated her
heavy thoughts and she blinked and focused on the face of her
beautiful daughter.

“Okay, honey! Hold on tight!” She stepped
forward and pushed Sophie until she once again swung high. Her
little girl screamed with laughter and Isobel laughed. Out of the
corner of her eye, she spied a flash of red. The meaning of it hit
her brain and quickly activated her heart. She gasped and her pulse
took off at a gallop.

A red car. Nigel. Oh, God. He was here at
the park. Mason. Ben. Where were Mason and Ben?

With her thoughts surging in a frenzy of
fear, she looked around in a panic. The red car eased its way along
the street that bordered the park. Isobel stared at it. A moment
later, she breathed a sigh of relief. It was a red car, but not a
convertible. It wasn’t even a Porsche. Just an ordinary sedan with
an elderly couple in the front.

She sucked in a deep breath of air and eased
it out between tight lips. It wasn’t Nigel. It was just a red car.
It was all right. They were all right.
It wasn’t Nigel…

Mason jogged up beside her, Ben not far
behind, on his bike. She saw the frown on Mason’s face and the
concern that clouded his dark eyes.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “You look like you
just saw a ghost.”

She drew in another breath and offered him a
shaky smile. “I’m fine. I-I thought I saw Nigel, but it was someone
else driving a red car. I’ll be okay. It just…shook me up.”

Mason nodded, his expression filled with
understanding. “It’s normal to react like that, Belle. It’ll take
time to heal, to trust yourself enough that you can ignore the
triggers, to forget the fear and pain and feel safe again.”

She nodded and was grateful when he closed
the distance between them and drew her in close for a hug. She
leaned against him and breathed in deeply of his unique scent. With
a soft sigh, she looked up at him.

“Thank you. For everything. For believing in
me, for giving me strength, for caring.”

His eyes darkened with emotion. “I love you,
Belle.”

She held his gaze. Her heart pounded. The
air around them grew charged. “I… I love you, too.”

His eyes widened in amazement. A moment
later, a grin split his face in two. “Do you mean it? You love me?
You really
love
me?”

She smiled and nodded and laughed and cried.
Until that moment, she hadn’t realized it was true. Somehow,
somewhere along the way, she’d fallen in love with this beautiful,
gentle man and she couldn’t believe how right it felt.

She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him,
long and lovingly on his lips. His arms tightened around her and he
matched her kiss for kiss. Their tongues entwined, their passion
grew until both of them came up gasping for air.

“Mommy and Mason are kissing,” Sophie sang
from her position on the swing.

“Do it again!” Ben cheered, smiling
hard.

Isobel laughed along with Mason and it felt
more than good. She wanted to cherish the feeling and hold it close
to savor over and over again. And then she remembered she didn’t
have to. This was the start of her new life, a life where love and
laughter flowed freely. A life where she felt safe and protected
and cherished, along with her children.

She turned back to Mason and kissed him
softly on the mouth. “Let’s go back home.”

His eyes lit up with happiness and he smiled
his beautiful smile. Bowing low, he swept off his ball cap and
waved it with a flourish.

“Your wish is my command.”

* * *

A few days later, Isobel turned up the car
radio and sang along with the up-tempo song playing through the
speakers. She moved her head to the beat and even tapped the
steering wheel. The kids giggled and chattered cheerfully from the
back seat. It was early, but the sun was already shining brightly
and the day promised to be a good one.

Since declaring her love for Mason she’d
never felt happier. Right now, she felt as free as a bird. She
almost believed she could soar up into the clouds and drift
aimlessly across the perfect, clear sky, counting each and every
one of her blessings. Her therapist was right. Embracing life and
love and all they had to offer was the best thing she’d ever
done.

If there was an occasional dark moment when
she’d remember the way it had been with Nigel, she’d quickly and
deliberately force it aside. She refused to let her past destroy
her or intrude in any way on the peace and tranquillity of her
existence and the joy she’d found with Mason.

Mason.
Just the thought of him set
her heart racing and she’d only just left his side. He’d been
rinsing dishes as she’d kissed him good-bye and hurried the kids to
the car. The fact that she’d see him at the hospital in an hour or
so made her feel all warm and gooey inside. While they hadn’t gone
out of their way to announce their relationship to their
colleagues, neither had they kept it a secret. She no longer saw a
need to.

Okay, she was still legally married to Nigel
and he continued to work at the hospital, but she wasn’t prepared
to let either of those things stand in the way of her happiness.
She’d contacted the lawyer and set the divorce proceedings in
motion and though she’d never wanted to break up her marriage and
her family, her situation left her with no other choice.

It was like her therapist clarified: It
wasn’t Isobel who’d made their lives so unbearable that she had to
walk out the door. She’d left in response to Nigel’s actions and in
the end, it had been a matter of life and death. She truly believed
if she’d stayed, he’d have killed her. And as much as she’d never
wanted her children to come from a broken home, the thought of
leaving them motherless was even worse. The thought he might not
have stopped with her was too unbearable to contemplate.

In the end, there had been no other decision
to make and she was grateful for the therapy and for Mason for
helping her to see it the way it was. It would take a long time
before she stopped looking over her shoulder… Who knew? Maybe that
instinctive reaction never went away? But she was determined to get
a hold on it and not let the fear get in her way.

Now she wove through traffic on the way to
the daycare center to drop off Ben and Sophie. The two chatted in
the back seat as she approached a set of traffic lights. They
switched from orange to red ahead of her and she eased her foot off
the accelerator. Slowing down, she glanced in her rear view mirror
and her heart leaped into her throat. A red car pulled in behind
her.

She drew in a deep breath and did her best
to slow her pulse. Despite all the pep talking, she was still as
skittish as ever. It was just a red car. There were thousands of
them in the city. She needed to stop being so jumpy every time she
spotted one.

Still, she flicked on her indicator and
eased into another lane. She couldn’t help the need to put a little
distance between them. It was silly, but the urge was too strong to
ignore. She’d discuss it with her therapist at her next appointment
and ask for some strategies to deal with it. For now, she’d give in
to the need to move as far away from the vehicle as the traffic
would allow.

The lights turned green and Isobel pressed
down steadily on the accelerator. She’d always been a careful
driver and she refused to become the cause an accident just because
she’d been spooked by a red car. She drew in another breath and
forced it through her dry lips, telling herself to relax. The sound
of a throbbing engine beside her caused her to glance across.

Nigel sat behind the wheel of his cherry-red
Porsche, sneering at her. Isobel’s stomach dropped to the floor.
Almost instantaneously, fear, thick and visceral clawed at her
belly and throat. She snatched desperate breaths and tried hard to
focus on the road. A moment later, he disappeared from sight and
she wondered frantically where he’d gone. She glanced again in the
rear view mirror and found him.

He sat so close behind her, if she braked,
he’d run into her tail lights. She tried to keep her pace steady
while she worked out what she could do. Nigel would guess where she
was going this time of the morning and would know the children were
also in the car.

What would she do if he followed her to
the daycare center and confronted her as she got out of the
car?
It was normally a busy time, with lots of parents coming
and going. She didn’t think she was under any physical threat, but
she could do without a nasty argument, especially in front of their
kids.

Perhaps he wouldn’t follow her… Perhaps he
just wanted to give her a fright—because he could. It was so
typical of Nigel, she could believe that was his intent. She prayed
she was right and that sooner or later, he’d tire of the game and
go his own way. He was dressed in his usual suit and tie. She
assumed he was also heading into work.

That thought didn’t rest easily with her,
either, but it had been weeks since she’d seen him. She could only
hope he wouldn’t confront her in the hospital car park again. Her
gaze strayed to her handbag where it lay on the front passenger
seat. She wanted to call Mason, but she didn’t dare take her
concentration off the road. She wished for a moment that her old
Magna had Bluetooth, but there was no point wishing that way
now.

The traffic had thinned as she wound her way
through the suburban streets, but with Nigel still close behind
her, she was forced to stay focused. He gunned his engine behind
her again and this time, he was close enough that she could see the
expression on his face. His eyes were wild and unfocused and he
appeared to be laughing at her. He caught her eye in the mirror and
slowly ran his index finger from one ear to the other in a slicing
motion across his throat.

Her blood ran cold at the implicit threat
and she jammed her foot down on the accelerator. The car leaped
forward, hurtling down the road. Her breath came faster and faster.
As if sensing the tension in the car, Ben and Sophie fell silent.
Nigel matched her pace, just inches from the back of her car. She
pressed the accelerator down further and gripped the steering
wheel.