Page 34 of The Baby Behind Their Marriage Merger

Thandi nodded and walked out, closing the door behind her.

As soon as she was out of hearing, Addi yanked her mobile out of her bag and dialled Jude’s number. It rang for an interminably long time before going to voice mail. Swallowing down a growl of fury, she dialled the number again, and this time it cut off immediately, suggesting that Jude had killed her call. She knew he was in an important meeting at Fisher International, but her issue was more crucial thananythinghe was dealing with.

After looking up Fisher International’s number, she dialled and asked to be put through to Thabo. Jude’s right-hand guy immediately picked up his phone. ‘Addi, how are you? How was Zanzibar...?’

She cut him off. ‘I can’t talk, Thabo. I need to speak to Jude.’

‘Not possible, Addi. He’s in an important meeting and can’t be interrupted.’

Addi ground her teeth together. ‘You get in there and tell him to take my call. Right damn now.’

‘Addi—’

‘Thabo,do it! This is crucially important, okay?’ Addi shouted.

She heard Thabo’s assent and gripped the bridge of her nose as she waited to be connected. If Jude chose to ignore her, she didn’t know what she’d do. She didn’t have the time to go to Fisher International herself and get back to this office by the time they closed. If Jude didn’t take her call, she might lose custody of the girls before they even started the process.

‘Addi, what is the problem?’ Jude’s voice was sharp and irritated in her ear. ‘When I ask not to be disturbed it’s for a damn good reason! I have the chairman of—’

‘I don’t care!’ Addi interrupted him, her voice rising. ‘What I do care about is that I am at my lawyer’s offices. There’s a hearing they need to attend tomorrow morning on my behalf, but because you haven’t paid them their retainer nobody will attend and I might lose custody of the girls on a technicality.’

‘Jeez, slow down, I didn’t get most of that.’

Addi ground her teeth together. ‘Simply, you didn’t pay my lawyers and the custody of the girls is at risk.’

Silence greeted her and it took a while for Jude to speak. ‘But I did pay...’

His words drifted away and then she heard his low curse.

‘Imeantto pay them and it slipped my mind,’ he admitted. He cursed again. ‘I can’t believe I did that.’

Addi felt tears gathering in her throat and she swallowed them down. Then she swallowed again.

‘I’m so sorry, Ads,’ Jude told her. ‘Look, I’ll do a transfer right now,’

She forced the words up her throat. ‘A deposit might only take a day or two to appear in their account, which will be too late. I need cash or a credit card. And I need it here in an hour.’

She heard the breath Jude released. ‘Okay. Wait there. I’ll send Thabo with the company credit card.’

Thabo with the company credit card.Right. After messing up, and putting her sisters in jeopardy, Jude couldn’t even make the effort to leave his office and his meeting to come here himself, to rectify his mistake. He’d told her how important his business was but, up until this point, it’d never quite sank in. Fisher International was far more important than her, than her family.

He’d married her for his business, so why was that a surprise? But somehow she’d thought that maybe, just maybe, she’d come to mean more to him—silly her.

She was racking up the stupidity points, wasn’t she?

‘Ads...are you there?’ he asked.

‘Sure,’ she replied in a cold monotone. ‘Thabo and the company credit card.’

‘He’ll leave now and will be with you in forty-five minutes.’ Addi heard his instructions to Thabo and could easily imagine Jude handing over the credit card, hearing him saying something about Thabo taking his SUV and that he’d pay any speeding fines Thabo racked up.

‘He’s left the office, Addi,’ Jude told her.

‘Okay.’

She heard his sigh. ‘Look, I am sorry. I messed up.’

‘Yes, you did,’ Addi told him before disconnecting the call.

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