Unforgiving by Patricia Haley

Author:Patricia Haley [Haley, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2015-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 29

Joel was reeling. He drove aimlessly through downtown Detroit without a legitimate destination. Time stood still, and all sounds were drowned out. He replayed in his mind Madeline’s vicious retraction of her support for his candidacy. Then he remembered his mother’s words of wisdom, how she’d told him not to trust Madeline. He was shocked to realize that she was right. Joel drove slowly, his fury rising and mostly directed at himself. How could he have been so gullible? He should have been prepared for Madeline retracting her offer. Yet he hadn’t been. She’d completely blindsided him.

He wanted to wipe out this fresh failure as it clawed at him. His foot was itching to press the gas pedal hard against the floorboards and keep it there until he rolled into Chicago. The itching intensified as he fought against it. Joel maneuvered his car onto the shoulder of the road and put the gear in neutral. He had to clear his head in order to function.

An hour later Joel shuffled into the house, too dazed to spend a second in his office attempting to concoct a plan B. Instead, he’d go upstairs and hibernate in the guest room, hoping to block out his circumstances for the evening. He climbed the stairs gingerly. As Joel reached the landing upstairs, he noticed through the partially open door that Zarah’s light was on indicating she was probably awake. He was tempted to dart past and avoid seeing her. That was his initial instinct, before concern kicked in and directed Joel into her room. He found his wife reclining on a side chair, reading a book.

“It’s good you are home,” she said. “I didn’t know where you were. You’ve been gone a long time.”

“I’m home now,” he said. Joel didn’t want to relive the trauma he’d suffered earlier. The wounds he’d suffered were too raw for him to discuss the details glibly, particularly with someone who had no means of helping him fix the setback. “Can I get you anything?” he asked, anxious to get to his room and sulk in private.

“Nothing.”

“Call me if you need me.”

Joel was leaving the room when Zarah called out, “Wait. I must share a bit of news with you.”

He wasn’t particularly excited about more news. With the way his day was going, he suspected more bad news was on the way, and braced for the worst. “What is it?”

“I’m selling Tamara the West Coast division.”

Joel scratched behind his ear with his index finger. “Excuse me?” He couldn’t possibly have heard her correctly.

“I’m selling the West Coast division to Tamara. It is most important to her, and as her friend, I choose to honor her request.”

Joel cackled uncontrollably. It was official. This was arguably the worst day of his existence. “How could you betray me too? You know I didn’t want Tamara to get her hands on the division. She’s spiteful and reckless. How could you?” he asked.

“It is my right to make the decision. It is best to let her move to California and start her business.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.