“My sister looks desperately unhappy,” Eric continued. “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I don’t like what I see. She’s changed and something tells me you have everything to do with that.”
“Maybe she’s finally growing up,” Devon said tightly. “Her family hasn’t done her any favors by coddling her and shielding her from the world around her.”
Eric gave him a look of pure disgust. The cold fury emanating from the younger man slapped Devon squarely in the face. It pricked at Devon and aroused an instinctive need to defend himself. The idea that his marriage was being picked apart by this outsider roused his ire even as a voice in the back of his mind whispered to him to listen.
“Her family loves her just like she is,” Eric bit out. “She is cherished and adored by us all. She is appreciated for the beautiful, warm, loving person she is and we’d damn well never try to change her. Anyone that would doesn’tdeserveher.”
He spun around and stalked toward the door but then he stopped and turned back to Devon, his lips curled into a snarl. “I don’t know what the hell kind of deal you struck with my father but he was wrong. Dead wrong. You weren’t the right man for my sister. The right man would know and appreciate what a gift he’d been given. I’m putting you on notice right now. I’m watching you. If Ashley isn’t more herself in very short order, I’m coming after you with everything I’ve got. I hadn’t planned to take over the business for my father, but if the choices are having you as a part of the family and making my sister miserable or me sucking it up and taking over myself, I’ll do it.”
Devon’s lips thinned but he acknowledged Eric’s ultimatum with a tight nod.
With another dark look, Eric stalked out of the door.
Devon stared out his window in brooding silence after Eric’s abrupt departure. Then he stared down at his phone, suddenly afraid to make the call he’d planned just minutes before.
It also occurred to him that she hadn’t called him at work in weeks. Not once. No more silly Tinker Bell chimes that amused his coworkers to no end. Not even a mushy text message like she’d done so often before.
He hadn’t given it much thought. Things had been so busy after the wedding, with William wanting to move into retirement and the new resort going up, as well as the endless planning sessions for the future.
He’d honestly just forged ahead, hoping that with time, Ashley would get over her initial upset and see that things really hadn’t changed that much between them. But a sick feeling settled into his stomach as he realized—truly realized—that everything had changed. And most notably,shehad changed.
A ping sounded, signaling the intercom, and Devon raised his head irritably. Now his secretary wanted to talk to him? Giving him a heads-up on Eric’s arrival would have been nice. But he forgot all about his irritation when he heard what she had to say.
“Mr. Carter, your wife is here to see you.”
Adrenaline surged in his veins.
“Send her in,” Devon demanded, rising from his seat.
Ashley hadn’t ever set foot in his office. Not even when they were dating. She’d called him. Texted him. Sent him sweet emails. But she’d never actually come into his building.
He was striding across the room, fully intending to meet her, when the door opened and she hesitantly walked in. He stopped abruptly, taken aback by the starkness of her features. She was pale, her face was drawn and her eyes were heavy and dull.
An uneasy feeling crept up his spine as she stared back at him.
“Are you busy?” she asked in a soft voice. “Have I come at a bad time?”
“Of course not. Come, have a seat. Would you like something to drink?”
He was suddenly nervous and he hated that feeling. Somehow she’d managed to completely upend his confidence. Much like she’d upended his life.
She shook her head but took a seat on the small sofa in the small sitting area of his office. “I needed to talk to you, Devon.”
It was only natural that any man hearing those words from his wife would dread what followed. But coming from Ashley, they seemed so…final.
“All right,” he said quietly. He took a seat across from her and studied the tiredness in her eyes. Those rich, vibrant eyes looked…bleak. Without hope. That was what he’d been reaching for. What had eluded him about the way she looked. He caught his breath, suddenly filled with an impending sense of doom. She looked…hopeless, and Ashley was nothing if not eternally optimistic. Had he ever considered such a thing a flaw? He was ashamed to say he had. Now he just wanted it back.
“I’m pregnant,” she said baldly. There was no emotion. No accompanying excitement. No flash of joy. Frankly, he was bewildered by her reaction.
“That’s wonderful,” he said huskily.
But her expression said it was anything but wonderful. She looked as though she was battling tears.
“I can’t do this anymore,” she said in a choked voice.
Alarm blistered up his spine and rammed into the base of his skull. “What do you mean?”
She rose and it was all he could do not to tie her to the damn sofa because he had a sudden sense that she was slipping away from him in more ways than one.
