Page 42 of The Baby Behind Their Marriage Merger

‘Well,Ididn’t,’ Jude snapped back.

‘Not now,’ the senior bodyguard snapped, and Jude cursed himself for losing his cool and control. He placed his hand on her back and propelled her forward. He turned to look at her face, grimacing when despair shot across her face and anguish settled in her eyes. They could discuss the hows and whys later; right now they had to get out of there.

They hit the outside doors and Jude let out a sigh of relief when he saw the two black SUVs parked in the pick-up zone.Excellent.He ducked into the SUV first, climbing across the bench seat to make space for Addi, and when she failed to climb in after him he whipped around to see her veering left and sliding into the second SUV.

And, since the press corps had followed them out of the terminal onto the pick-up zone, his only choice was to let Cole’s private security drive them away in separate cars.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ADDIBEGGEDTHEbodyguards to drop her at her cottage and, when they told her they had orders to take her to Jude’s Franschhoek residence, she pitched a fit. She didn’t want to go there with him, and if they took her anywhere against her will it would be kidnapping.

After some quiet, undiscernible conversations, Addi noticed the change of direction of the car and within forty minutes she was in her house, pacing the space next to her kitchen table. It was mid-morning, the girls were at school and she assumed Lex was with Cole. She had the house to herself, and she desperately needed the quiet and the space.

She needed time to think, to plan, to pick her shattered heart off the floor and reinsert it into her chest. She knew Jude had trust issues, and understood why he couldn’t open up and trust anybody, but his first instinct when he’d seen the press had been to blame her for the news about their secret marriage getting out.

He hadn’t been prepared to consider other options, nor consider alternatives to how the news of their marriage could’ve been leaked. His first instinct had been to assume she was to blame.

But what hurt even more, what had her wanting to curl up in a ball and howl, was that he considered her to be as vengeful and vicious as Marina and Jane, that she was vindicative enough to seek pay-back for a mistake he’d made and apologised for. That he didn’t rate her higher than the two women who’d betrayed him cut her to every bone.

Standing in her kitchen, Addi finally accepted that he would never trust her, and without trust he could never love her. Not the way she needed him to.

They’d spent so much time together, weeks of laughing, loving and confiding, but their supposed closeness meant nothing to him, it didn’t make a jot of difference. She’d been hurt before, by Joelle and Dean, but nothing hurt as much as Jude’s instinctive, absolute distrust.

Addi pulled out a chair from under the dining table and dropped into it, resting her throbbing head in her hands. What were they going to do now? How was she going to handle this?

And, she thought, picking up her head, where was her luggage? A bodyguard had taken her laptop and handbag from her when they’d surrounded her at the airport and he’d slid into the same vehicle as Jude, assuming that was where she’d go. As a result, she didn’t have her phone or her laptop and had no means of communication. Thank goodness they had a code system on the front door and their gate, as well as being able to open it with a remote, or else she wouldn’t have been able to get into the house.

Addi stood up and walked around the table to switch on the kettle. She needed a cup of tea and to think, and it would help if she could stop crying. Yes, a little part of that was shock. Being half-blinded by camera flashes and deafened by shouted questions had not been a fun experience. And that guy popping up in front of her had scared her, so she had a right to feel shaky. She would be fine after a cup of tea and a few deep breaths.

Getting over the fact that Jude didn’t trust her, not even a little bit, that he thought her treacherous, would take a lot longer.

Addi poured water over a teabag and frowned when she heard her front door open and close. She hastily rubbed her fingers over her eyes, picking up tears and wiping them on her dark-green skinny jeans. Lex was back and, while she was looking forward to reconnecting with her sister, she’d wanted a little more time to compose herself before they spoke. Lex would’ve seen the papers and would have questions about her marriage. She also needed to tell her about the baby and the custody battle, and she wanted to be calm and in control when she did so.

Addi waited to hear her footsteps coming into the kitchen, for her to call out, but when neither happened she frowned and, picking up her cup, walked into the hallway...to see Jude standing there, her suitcase at his feet. He held her laptop bag and tote bag in a tight grip.

She most certainly wasn’t ready to deal with Jude Fisher. ‘What are you doing here and how did you get in?’ she demanded.

He kicked her suitcase with the side of his foot. ‘Delivering your stuff. If you’d got into the same car as me, I wouldn’t have had to follow you here,’ he shot back, looking angrier than she’d ever seen him.

‘Ineverasked you to do that. And you didn’t answer my question about how you got into my house.’

‘I called Lex. She gave me the code. She also bombarded me with questions about our marriage and what we thought we were doing.’

‘Well, I wasn’t the one who asked for secrecy, was I?’ Addi retorted.

Jude grimaced as he placed her laptop bag on top of her suitcase and hung her tote bag up on a hook behind her door. Addi heard the strident ring of her phone coming from the handbag.

‘That’s probably her now,’ Jude told her, removing his leather jacket.

‘What did you tell her?’ Addi demanded. She’d lose it if he’d told her about the baby. He knew how important it was for her to tell Lex that news herself.

Jude gave her a sour look. ‘Nothing. I told her you would answer all her questions.’ Jude placed his hands on his hips and looked around. ‘Are we going to fight in your hallway?’

Addi narrowed her eyes. ‘We might as well,’ she told him.

‘Why are you so mad atme?’ Jude demanded. ‘And why did you get into another car?’

Seriously?Had he really asked her that? ‘You accused me of leaking the story!’ she yelled. ‘You said that I revealed our secret!’

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