The Master Player

CHAPTER TWELVE

ON the Saturday before the last week of shooting the show, Chloe finally found a place she was happy to rent. It was a small terrace house, situated on a street that ran parallel to Centennial Park. She didn’t care that it was old and in need of some modernisation in the kitchen and bathroom. It was functional-two bedrooms upstairs, enough living space downstairs, with a small, enclosed backyard so that Luther didn’t have to be kept inside all the time-and being right across the street from the park was ideal. It was also close to the shops she knew from living at Randwick.

It was a huge emotional wrench, leaving the children’s house, saying goodbye to the three E’s, who had contributed so much to her comfort while she was staying there, moving away from the daily intimacy with Max. She was glad to have Luther’s company, staving off the loneliness she might have felt, though she occupied herself very busily during the first week after the move, arranging her belongings in her new accommodation, acquiring the furniture she needed, having a dog door inserted into the door to the backyard and teaching Luther how to use it.

Max dropped by most evenings to see how she was getting on, bringing her flowers and gourmet treats from Elaine’s kitchen. They invariably ended up in bed together, which was the best treat of all to Chloe. He only had to look at her and her whole body started buzzing with anticipation for the sexual connection between them.

Sometimes they didn’t make it upstairs to the bedroom. Like when he brought her a bunch of the most gloriously scented yellow roses and he took the one she’d held up to her nose and caressed her skin with it; her cheeks, her neck, down the V-neckline of her shirt, undoing the buttons, brushing it over the swell of her breasts…he’d hoisted her up on the kitchen bench and had incredibly erotic and exciting sex with her there.

He was a fantastic lover. Chloe had a losing battle on her hands, fighting to keep him at any distance from her heart. He made her feel so beautifully loved, so wonderfully cared for. Had he treated all the women in his life like this, or was she more special than the others? He’d said she was special. The tantalising question was how special? Enough to want her with him for the rest of their lives?

They started going out together. They went to parties, to charity functions, to the theatre, ballet, opera, walked the red carpet together at a film premiere. They were the talk of the town-the television baron coupled with the star of his latest hit show. Max handled the red-hot interest with practised ease. Chloe simply glowed her pleasure in his company. It wasn’t difficult. She loved being with him and didn’t care what anyone else thought.

However she did refuse one request from him, that she hostess a dinner party at Hill House. Somehow that was too much like being a pseudo-wife. Fulfilling that role was too close to her secret yearning to be his lifetime partner. She wouldn’t let herself pretend. She was finished with pretence.

In fact, she shied away from returning to Hill House at all, knowing it would tug at her heart, make her wish it was her home. It had been hard enough to leave. She didn’t want to feel that wrench over and over again.

Max grew frustrated by her turning down his invitations to join him there. ‘You liked Hill House. You liked the three E’s. They liked you. They miss you, Chloe,’ he argued.

He didn’t say he missed her. Max wasn’t into revealing any weakness in himself. There were no cracks in his self-contained armour. She had to learn to be self-contained, too. ‘It’s your home, Max. I don’t belong there,’ she quietly asserted.

He frowned. ’You don’t have to belong. What’s wrong with visiting?’

She shook her head. ‘I can’t go back. I have to move on in my own way. You see me as much as you like, don’t you? We go out a lot together. Doesn’t that satisfy what you want from me in our relationship?’

He stared at the appeal in her eyes for long, nerve-tearing moments. ‘Your choice,’ he finally said with a grimace that seemed to mock himself.

Much to Chloe’s relief, he didn’t raise the issue again. He arranged dinner parties at restaurants. She didn’t mind being his partner on these occasions. It was not the same as being his hostess at Hill House.

The rest period before shooting the next set of episodes for the show was almost up when Chloe received an unexpected and highly unwelcome visitor at her terrace house. It was a Monday morning and she’d just done a load of washing and was about to have a coffee break when the doorbell rang. Luther raced down the hallway, barking at the noise. Probably a delivery person, Chloe thought-Max sending flowers. Nevertheless, she took the precaution of looking through the peephole in the door to check.

Her heart instantly contracted with shock.

Laura Farrell was on her front porch. She was standing side-on, the baby bump clearly visible, outlined by the formfitting grey skirt and grey-and-white top she wore. Her long brown hair fell lankly forward, hiding much of her face. Her shoulders drooped. As Chloe was still coming to terms with the identity of her visitor, Laura turned, reaching out to press the doorbell again, her face devoid of make-up and her amber eyes leaking tears.

Chloe jerked back from the peephole, her mind reeling with confusion as well as shock. Why would a weeping Laura Farrell come to her doorstep? She couldn’t possibly hope to be rehired as a personal assistant after such a flagrant betrayal of trust and the vicious verbal attack at the launch party. What on earth did she expect to gain by coming here? Forgive and forget?

Not in a million years, Chloe thought as the doorbell kept ringing, sending the message that Laura Farrell was not about to give up and go away. While part of her inwardly recoiled from facing the woman again, another part insisted on putting a decisive end to whatever was on Laura’s mind-affirmative action. She was no longer the old Chloe who had been brainwashed into avoiding any form of confrontation. She’d learnt how to handle a lot of things since being with Max.

Luther was barking his head off. She bent and scooped him up in her arms to calm him down, then opened the door, intending to tell Laura she was not welcome in her home.

‘Thank God you’re here!’ Laura cried in pathetic relief, her hands jerking into a trembling gesture of appeal. ‘Please, Chloe, I have to talk to you. I have no-one else to turn to. Tony…’ She broke into sobs, covering her face with her hands, shaking her head in anguish.

Chloe didn’t want to be moved by the other woman’s distress. What happened between Laura and Tony was their business, not hers, and she certainly didn’t want to be involved in it. Yet it seemed too cruel and callous to send her away in this state.

‘You’d better come in,’ she said reluctantly, standing back to give her entry.

‘Oh, thank you, thank you,’ Laura babbled brokenly.

Luther barked at her as she stumbled into the hallway, instinctively picking up Chloe’s dislike of the situation. He started to wriggle in her arms, wanting to get down and check out this visitor to his satisfaction, but Chloe held onto him until she saw Laura seated at the dining table and fetched a box of tissues for her to mop up the tears.

‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ she asked, knowing it was Laura’s preferred drink.

A nod as she snuffled into a tissue.

‘I’m letting my dog go now. He’s sure to sniff around your feet. I’d advise you not to kick him,’ she warned.

‘Wouldn’t do that,’ Laura choked out.

Chloe released Luther, who instantly did as expected. Leaving the little terrier on guard duty, she went to the kitchen, made Laura a cup of tea and herself a coffee, and took them to the dining table. She sat across the table from her ex-personal assistant, who had assisted herself to her employer’s husband, waiting for her to be composed enough to speak.

Laura finally raised a woebegone face and in a despairing voice, said, ‘Tony has abandoned me. Even though I’m having his baby, he won’t give me any support.’

Chloe was shocked to hear this. Despite his lies and infidelity and the nasty burst of temper that had lashed out at Luther, she hadn’t thought him a complete and utter rotter.

‘I can’t get another job. No-one wants a pregnant P.A.,’ Laura wailed. ‘I need help, Chloe. I can’t manage having a baby without help.’

Lots of single mothers had to manage by themselves, Chloe thought, and Laura was definitely not a helpless kind of person, but maybe she was floundering in a trough of depression and couldn’t see a way forward. ‘Do you want me to speak to Tony about this?’ she asked, thinking Laura had one hell of a hide to want that from the injured wife.

She shook her head. ‘It’s useless. He’s furious that I told you, won’t have anything to do with me. Or the baby.’ Tears welled again. ‘I’m sorry I told you the way I did, Chloe, but I was so upset, so madly in love with him, I was out of my mind that night. He was my baby’s father and all I could think of was he had to break from you and marry me.’

Despite the offence to herself, Chloe couldn’t help feeling a little tug of sympathy. The baby did make a difference. Although Laura shouldn’t have been having an affair with Tony in the first place.

And she knew it, immediately trying to justify it, her whole body leaning forward in an appeal for understanding as she rattled on. ‘I tried not to fall in love with him. He was your husband and on every moral ground he was out of bounds to me. I truly struggled against the attraction I felt, Chloe, but he sensed it and played on it. I liked working for you. I didn’t want to give up my job, but I was terribly drawn to Tony and one night when I’d had too much to drink, he seduced me into bed with him. I’m as much a victim of his charming ways as you are. I thought he really did love me and his marriage to you was just a sham to further his career. I’m terribly sorry you were hurt but at least now you’ve got Max Hart so you’ve moved on and up.’

‘I’ve certainly moved on but divorce brings everyone down and having Max as a friend does not mean I’m up,’ she sharply corrected her.

‘More than a friend surely,’ she snapped back, an envious flash in her eyes.

Better value than Tony.

She didn’t say it but Chloe knew she was thinking it, and instantly started bridling against the mercenary aspect of Laura’s outlook. She cut to the chase.

‘Why have you come here, Laura?’

She gave an anguished shake of her head. Her hands fluttered in agitation. ‘I’m out of work. I thought Tony would support me but he won’t and I can’t pay the rent on my apartment. I’m almost destitute, Chloe.’ Her eyes begged for help. ‘I don’t have anyone to turn to. We used to be friends. If I hadn’t been thrown so much into Tony’s company because of working for you…’

Anger stirred. ‘Are you saying your pregnancy is my fault?’

‘No…no…but he did deceive both of us. I thought you might understand and forgive how it was, and for the sake of the baby…please, Chloe…if you could lend me some money to tide me over for a while…just bypass Tony and give me what he should be giving me. You could tell your lawyer what it’s for and he could deduct it out of Tony’s divorce settlement.’

The cash cow…Chloe couldn’t forget that phrase. She wanted no part of this-none at all. Yet there was an innocent baby involved and she was appalled at Tony’s callous dismissal of it. ‘What sum of money do you have in mind?’ she asked, careful not to commit herself to anything.

Triumph…greed…something glittered in the amber eyes that was at odds with Laura’s supposed desperation, although the glitter was quickly swallowed up by another gush of tears. ‘I hate asking this of you…’ She blotted up the moisture with a tissue, blinked rapidly, took a deep breath and gabbled, ‘Maybe a lump sum settlement would be best. I could go away, make a life for my child somewhere else, a more simple existence…’

‘How much, Laura?’ Chloe bored in, hating this scene.

She wrung her hands, looked distracted, then hesitantly, pleadingly answered, ‘If you could write me a cheque for fifty thousand dollars…’

Fifty thousand!

The sheer boldness of it floored Chloe for a moment. Had she been such a walkover person in the past? Apply emotional pressure and she’d buckle to it every time? No mind of her own? Is that what Laura had been counting on?

However, there was still the baby to be considered.

‘I won’t hand out that amount of money, Laura,’ she said decisively. ‘I will talk to my lawyer about your situation and get him to talk to Tony’s lawyer…’

‘But that could take weeks…months…I’m down to the dregs of my bank account now,’ she wailed.

‘I assure you something will be done to persuade Tony into shouldering his responsibility within days,’ Chloe said with steely resolve, rising from the dining table to put an end to the distasteful conversation.

‘He won’t…he won’t,’ she cried, remaining seated and burying her face in her hands.

Luther, who’d also sprung to his feet as Chloe had risen to hers, started barking at her to get up, too. Laura ignored him. Chloe sighed impatiently, shushed Luther and spoke very firmly, ‘I promise you, something will be done about getting child support to you one way or another. There’s no more to be said, Laura.’

‘Oh, please, Chloe…’ She stumbled up from her chair-a picture of wretched despair. ‘Don’t send me away with nothing. I don’t know what I’ll do.’

Was that a threat of suicide?

Luther started barking again, not liking whatever his instincts were picking up.

‘If you could just give me a cheque for five thousand,’ Laura begged.

Chloe didn’t like it but she was troubled enough to go to her handbag and extract five hundred dollars from her purse. She held out the notes to Laura. ‘That’s all I have on hand. It should help enough until other money comes through for you.’

She took the money, though still pressing for more. ‘I could cash a cheque…’

‘No. I’ve promised to act on your behalf and I’ll keep my word. That’s it, Laura. I want you to leave now.’

Chloe headed off down the hallway to open the front door. Luther stayed behind to bark at Laura until she followed. Which she did, weeping so noisily, Chloe felt it was a deliberate attempt to weaken her resolve. Though it might not be. She hated this. It was churning her up, making it difficult to cling to her sense of rightness in how she had acted.

Laura paused in the doorway to start pleading pitifully again.

‘No, stop!’ Chloe cried, completely out of patience. ‘Don’t come here again, Laura. I won’t be swayed into doing any more for you.’

Amazingly, her screwed-up face suddenly smoothed out. The leaking eyes flashed fury. She lashed out, not the slightest wobble in her voice. ‘What are a few measly thousands to you when you’re feathering your nest with Max Hart’s billions? Next to nothing!’ The vicious tone turned into wheedling. ‘This is so bad of you, Chloe, sending me off with a pittance, not caring about the baby…’

Luther growled and jumped at Laura’s legs, making her scuttle onto the porch away from him. Chloe immediately shut the door and locked it, breathing a grateful sigh of relief. She bent and scooped the little terrier up in her arms. ‘Good dog, saving me again,’ she crooned, petting him lovingly as she headed for the backyard, wanting as much distance as possible between her and Laura Farrell.

Her head was throbbing and her insides felt all twisted up. So many times in the past she had given in to whatever was being demanded of her, needing to end this awful inner turmoil, but she didn’t feel bad about not giving in to Laura. This was Tony’s fault, not hers. Tony’s responsibility. Laura’s, too. It was wrong that she should be expected to fix the situation.

Although she would call her lawyer and set up a meeting with Tony. One way or another, he had to be made to give his child appropriate support.

Max parked his Audi outside Chloe’s terrace house at Centennial Park and wished once again she was still living with him at Vaucluse. He’d liked having her on hand, liked the sense of going home to her. He knew it was important to her to be independent of him, knew he should be pleased about it for her sake, but it didn’t please him.

It pleased him even less when he went inside and listened to her account of Laura Farrell’s visit and the outcome of it with Chloe involving herself with Tony Lipton again. It was pointless telling her she shouldn’t have given any money to Laura. The baby was the big issue with Chloe. Max suspected it was always going to be a big issue-one that would inevitably separate them if he didn’t rethink his life.

‘Anyhow, I told my lawyer I wanted urgent action on this and he’s set up a meeting with Tony in his office tomorrow,’ she finished with a grimace of distaste. ‘It’s going to be horrid but I can’t just forget it, Max.’

‘No,’ he agreed. ‘It will play on your mind until it’s settled. But don’t assume Laura told you the truth, Chloe. There’s something very fishy about her story.’

Like a lot of emotional pressure for the big handout-a very clever piece of manipulation that Chloe might have fallen for a few months ago, the kind of manipulation Laura would undoubtedly have seen used on Chloe by both Stephanie Rollins and Tony.

She laughed. ‘Luther didn’t like the smell of it, either.’

Max smiled. ‘I made a good choice, getting him for you. Worth his weight in gold.’

‘Absolutely!’ She wound her arms around his neck, her lovely face tilted up to his, eyes shining pleasure in his gift. ‘You have a happy knack of getting everything right, Max.’

He slid his arms around her waist, drawing her closer. ‘Would you like me to go with you tomorrow? Help sort things out with Tony?’

‘No. This is something I should do myself.’ Her mouth curled into an ironic smile. ‘I can’t expect you to protect me forever.’

The urge to do precisely that was very strong. Max found it difficult to back off from it. Probably his intense dislike of her ex-husband was driving it. He didn’t want Chloe meeting with the slime. Yet the encounter with Laura Farrell had definitely demonstrated she could no longer be influenced into doing anything she didn’t feel was right. She was no-one’s fool anymore, and he had no right to fray her confidence in handling a situation which she saw as her business.

‘Besides, I should be perfectly safe in my lawyer’s office,’ she insisted.

‘True,’ he conceded. ‘I’m worried about when you leave it. If Tony turns nasty…’ No mental strength could fight superior physical strength. Chloe needed him to protect her.

She frowned, fretting over the very real possibility that Tony could try physical force on her until a solution struck. ‘I know. I’ll call Gerry Anderson, ask him to take me to the lawyer’s office and bring me home. Gerry’s a very good security guard.’

An independent solution.

Little by little she was separating herself from him.

Soon she wouldn’t need him at all, although wanting him was still strong. He made sure it would stay strong, pouring every bit of his sexual expertise into their love-making later in the evening. Afterwards she cuddled up to him with a satisfied sigh and murmured, ‘You know, Max, I’m not with you because I want to feather my nest with your billions. You don’t think that, do you?’

‘No, I don’t. Never would with you, Chloe.’

She snuggled down contentedly, accepting his word without question.

Max knew he couldn’t buy her.

Wouldn’t want to, either.

Her heart and mind were now geared to making the choices that felt right to her-running her own race.

To keep her he had to make himself her choice.

The hell of it was he wanted her to share everything with him, wanted to share everything with her. Running his own race into the future looked very empty without her at his side. Even Hill House felt empty without her there to come home to.

Max had never thought of his life as dark. A deep sense of purpose had driven it forward from nothing to everything he wanted. But Chloe lit him up inside with her lovely, shining, artless personality and all he had valued in the past-the brilliance of his achievements-lost its gloss compared to what she made him feel.

The plain truth was he didn’t have everything he wanted.

Chloe was slipping away from him and he wanted more of her.