Page 8 of Lie for a Million

She touched the pocket where she’d put the doctor’s card. The stakes were high—all or nothing. But the sooner she knew the truth about her baby, the sooner she could move forward with some kind of plan.

She would call the doctor tomorrow.

CHAPTERTHREE

Darrin Culhane was checking out a porn site on his desktop computer when he heard the front door open. He closed the screen with a click of the mouse. His wife had returned from shopping.

Moments later, Simone walked into his office and collapsed in the client chair. She looked damp and exhausted, strings of blond hair clinging around her pretty face. Her pregnancy was already beginning to show. The limp yellow sundress she wore was splitting a seam at the waist. Or maybe she was just gaining weight. Darrin hoped not. He couldn’t abide heavy women.

“Did you find what you needed?” he asked her.

She sighed. “The pharmacy didn’t have my antacid pills. I had to settle for Tums. But there was a sale on chocolate fudge ice cream, so I bought two half gallons. I put them in the freezer. Heavens, it’s hot out there!” She fanned herself with a ranching magazine she’d found on the desk. “Oh, I saw Lila’s car parked in front of the restaurant. There’s no mistaking that white Porsche. I can’t believe she could get a brand-new one so soon after her old one was wrecked.”

“It’s called good insurance.” Darrin glanced away, avoiding her gaze. He’d had a hand in the wreckage of his stepmother’s last car. That damned FBI agent had almost nailed him for it. But his mother had used her confession as a bargaining chip to keep her son out of prison.

Then Madeleine had turned out to be not only innocent but dying from a brain tumor. He should have guessed something was wrong from the erratic way she’d been acting. At least when she passed she would leave him with a pile of money. But as long as Lila possessed the house and stables, the money would never be enough.

Especially not for Simone.

“What were you doing while I was out?” she asked.

“I was going over the notes from my mother’s attorneys. I’ll be conferencing with them next week to update the case against Lila.” The paperwork had come up on Darrin’s monitor screen when he clicked out of the porn site.

“Do we have a court date yet?” she asked.

“Not yet. But that’s not up to us. It’s up to the court.”

“Well, can’t you do something?” she demanded. “Talk to the judge. He was a friend of your father’s. Surely he can do you a favor.”

“That isn’t how the system works. There are rules—”

“So bend the rules. You said we would raise our children in that house. You promised me you’d fight to get it for us.”

“I’m trying, Simone. I really am.”

Darrinhadtried. But his plan to sabotage Lila’s car and make her death look like an accident had failed and almost gotten him arrested. He’d kept the story from his wife for her own protection as well as his. But at times like this, he was tempted to tell her the truth.

“Well, you’re not trying hard enough.” Simone was on her feet now. “I want to be in that house by the time the baby comes. If we can’t get a court date, then we’ll have to go after Lila. I know she’s sleeping with that no-account horse trainer of hers. If we could catch them at it and threaten to expose her—”

“Do you really think she’d give up the house and stables to protect her reputation? You don’t know Lila. She’d laugh in your face.”

Simone’s breath made a huffing sound. “Well, then, we’ll have to dig a little deeper, won’t we? That FBI man is coming back to take up the murder case again. If we could prove that Lila and her lover conspired to kill your father, they’d be behind bars and the house would be ours. We wouldn’t have to wait for the court.” She tugged her sundress down over the slight bulge of her belly. “We’re going to need help. What about Mariah? She knows everything that goes on in that house. Would she spy on Lila if we asked her to?”

Darrin weighed her words. When it came to proving Lila’s guilt, his wife was like a dog with a bone in its teeth. Most of her suggestions were impractical. This time, however, she might have come up with something.

“That’s not a bad idea,” he said. “Mariah might help us as a favor, especially if we offered to reward her. But she’d be even more willing if my mother asked her. Mother’s bought Mariah’s loyalty over the years. Mariah would do anything for her.”

“So go ahead and call her. Do it now. We don’t know how much longer she’ll be alive, do we?” Simone flounced to the door, where she turned back to face him. “I’m going to get some ice cream before I watch my game show. Do you want some?”

Darrin shook his head. The pressures he was dealing with had triggered a gnawing pain in his gut. Maybe he was getting an ulcer. Ice cream might help. But what he really wanted was a shot of bourbon.

“I mean it, Darrin,” Simone said. “Call your mother now. For all we know, we could be planning her funeral tomorrow.”

And counting our inheritance.

She didn’t say it, but he knew what she was thinking. He was thinking the same thing. When Madeleine passed on, the ranch’s cattle operation, her condo, and her stock investments would be left to her two children. Even after splitting everything with Jasmine, his inheritance would make him comfortably wealthy. But only with the house and stables could he and Simone becomethe Culhanes, with all the power and prestige the name implied. He knew what had to happen. But why couldn’t Simone let him handle things his way, like a man? The pressure was getting to him.

“Well, don’t just sit there.” She walked back to the desk and hovered over him. “I’m waiting. Go ahead and call her.”

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