Yes, well, its been fun, hasnt it? Teddy was moving outside the door, ready to leave. Well have to do this again sometime.
Sarah gripped the edge of the sink. I dont think so. Never.
Teddys voice grew louder as he leaned against the bathroom door. Austin raised a gem in spite of himself. Good night.
After the outside door to the suite closed, Sarah splashed some of the cold water on her face and neck. She stared at her reflection in the light-studded mirror. She didnt look any differentstraight blond hair, slightly askew around her face. Big green eyes framed by the tiny lines of worry shed earned in her twenty-seven years. She was as frustratingly petite and tomboy-ishly slim as shed always been.
But there was something different about her. Something hollow in her expression. A weariness of the world that came from a lesson learned too late.
I need to get out of here.
Before something so useless as tears could take hold, Sarah scrubbed her face clean, zipped up the back of her dress and fastened her strappy sandals around her ankles. She fished her keys from her purse, put her ear to the door to make sure she was alone and pushed it open.
Go home, she advised herself. Go home, regroup, pretend this never happened. No, call Dad and tell him he and I are done. She crossed the Persian rug with a more purposeful stride. Theres not a damn thing he can say to make this one right.
Austin Cartwright was a sick man. His gambling addiction had cost the family plenty over the years. College funds, the dissolution of her parents marriage, a deep rift between father and brother. Trust.
Still shed persevered. Austin Cartwright was her daddy. The man whod carried her on his shoulders as a little girl. The man whod taught her how to fish, how to hammer a nail, how to keep a box score at a baseball game. Hed taught her how to have fun. Sarah remembered having fun when she was little. Shed had fun without second-guessing the motive behind an activity, without doubting the sincerity behind the companionship.
Long after her mother had left Austin to protect her son and daughter from his illness and the resulting moods and dangers, long after shed learned that gambling was an addictionnot unlike drug or alcohol abuseand that it diminished her fathers reliability and tainted his love, shed tried to help him. Sarah had tried to keep him in Gamblers Anonymous, tried to steer him away from the casino hed practically rebuilt with his own hands. Shed tried to be patient, tried to listen, tried to be tough with her affection.
Shed continued to be there for a man who was difficult to love.
But this was too much.
This was the ultimate betrayal.
This one she couldnt forgive.
And shed been too blinded by her need to crash out and take a break from the heavy responsibilities of her devotion to even see it coming.
Her father had sold her to repay a gambling debt.
Sarah Cartwright knew exactly what she was worth to her father now. Two-hundred-and-sixty-thousand dollars and a clean slate to start betting the odds all over again.
Yeah, Dad, were done. I cant forgive you this
She jumped as someone pounded on the outside door. Teddy? Teddy!
The womans shrill voice stopped Sarah in her tracks. Damn. Her escape was cut off. No way could she handle a confrontation right now. No way did she even want to be seen anywhere near Teddys suite.
I know you have another woman in there. Its that slut
But Sarah was already running in the opposite direction. A suite of rooms had to have another exit, didnt it? A back door? A service elevator? A dumbwaiter? Hell, shed open a window and dive into the Missouri River at the base of the floating casino if that were the only way to get out of this humiliating predicament without being seen.
Sarah opened a door with shuttered panels. Walk-in closet. She closed it and moved on. She found a connecting door with a dead bolt and turned the lock. A matching door greeted her on the other side. The angry, unhappy womans voice faded into a terse, hushed conversation with someone else outside in the hall. Sarah didnt try to make out any words or identify the speakers; she was focused on her escape.
Once the second bolt slid aside, she pushed open the door and discovered a second suite, mirroring the office and living quarters of Teddys rooms. There was a second bathroom, a second closet, a second office. That meant thered be a matching exit. Sarah ran to it.
Dont throw yourself at him. A mans voice, deeper than Teddys but tinged with the same articulate accent, spoke in soothing tones outside the door. Theres a difference between passion and possession.
Damn! How crowded could this supposedly private wing be at three in the morning?
Sarah backpedaled, looking for another option. Any option.
The man was talking to a woman out in the hall. The same woman who had shouted at the other door. Her anger spent, the woman sniffed back tears. But I love him. You know, the money doesnt really matter. I just want himI want us to be a family.