Page 70 of Roark
Roark closed his palm and put the key back into his pocket. “So now I’m rich people. I thought you weren’t judging me by my portfolio.”
“I’m not. I’m judgingusby my lack of a portfolio. Listen, I don’t ever want to feel uneven in a relationship again, and right now that’s what I am. I’m unemployed, and you want to put me up in an apartment and pay all my bills so I’ll be close for us to go on dates, have sex and what else?”
“Continue to fall in love with each other. You forgot that part.”
She was shaking her head now. “No. What I’d be forgetting is myself. Sure, it sounds great: this rich guy is offering to take care of me, so I should hop on that and live the fabulous life. But that’s not who I am. It’s not what I want for myself. And Roark, before I can love you completely, I have to love me. I have to do what’s best for me right now. I hope you can understand that.” She hadn’t given him a chance to understand, because she walked away, leaving him standing there feeling like a colossal idiot.
“Well, that didn’t end well.”
Roark knew the voice and he wished like hell he were the one who’d walked away from this spot. “What are you doing here, Katrina?”
“Can’t I visit my ex-husband? I mean, I didn’t get an invitation to the party, but I’m going to assume that was a mistake.” She walked around until she was standing directly in front of him dressed in a white pantsuit.
“You weren’t invited because my aunt didn’t invite you.”
Her lips pursed at his response, and Roark noted she hadn’t changed much in four years. She was still just a couple of inches shorter than him when wearing heels, her dark eyes still narrowed when she was annoyed and her tone was still cool and aloof. “You really need to check your staff. All I had to do was ask where you were and they told me.” She sighed. “Look, Roark. I really do need to speak to you. We need to clear the air.”
“We absolutely do not. Our marriage has been over for a long time.”
When he tried to walk away, she grabbed his arm. “I was pregnant,” she said. “That first year we were married, I got pregnant.”
If Roark thought his conversation with Tamika had rocked him to the core, this admission had just pushed him over the cliff. He yanked his arm out of her grasp. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“By the time I found out it was too late, I’d miscarried. And then there was no point in saying anything. I wanted another baby so badly, but you never seemed to have the time, or that’s the way I perceived your actions. In these past weeks I’ve been really thinking about that and about how much Maxine wanted grandchildren. I should’ve told you and I should’ve begged you to let us try again. But I didn’t, and I’m so sorry for that.”
“What?” He just couldn’t wrap his mind around what was happening, now of all times. “Katrina, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve had enough. I’ve been through so much in these past weeks, and I can’t believe you’d come all the way out here to feed me some bullshit like this.”
“It’s the truth, Roark!” Katrina was always the one to yell first.
“Okay, fine. It’s the truth. What the hell do you expect me to say about it now? What do you want me to do?”
“I want us to try again.”
Roark couldn’t help it, he laughed. “Are you out of your mind? I mean, really, what on earth is going through your head right now?” He was about to walk away but then he stopped. “It’s the money, isn’t it? You knew all my mother’s stock in the companies would revert to me, Ridge and Suri. That’s why you’re trying to come back?”
“We could have a beautiful child, Roark. Another Donovan. Perhaps a girl named Maxine. We could continue the legacy for your mother.”
“You’re insane,” he told her. “And you’re trespassing. Leave now, and I won’t have security drag you out by your designer shoes.”
“She doesn’t know how to be your wife,” she yelled after him. “That’s why she really left. Because she knows she can’t be what you need. I can give you what you and your mother wanted, Roark.”
“You can go to hell,” he snapped and continued walking away from her.
Tamika had made it to the parking lot when she stopped walking.
What was she doing? Was she really going to just walk away from him? Yes, she was, because she had to. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined she’d fall in love with a millionaire and stay in a place as luxurious as the Dynasty Manor. She hadn’t been one of those girls with the dream of finding and marrying her Prince Charming or of finding a man to take care of her. Tamika had been taught how to take care of herself, how to love herself. Colin had tried to break her down and for a short while she’d let him, but never again. Never, ever again.
Roark would never disrespect her the way Colin had; of that she was certain. But he had a lifestyle, and his family had expectations of him and whoever he married. And she had a life in Arlington. She may not have a job right now, but she had an apartment there and friends.
“You look stunning tonight,” Lily said when she stepped out from behind one of the black SUVs Roark had leased.
“Oh.” Tamika startled, a hand flying to her chest as if that was supposed to stop her now-thumping heart. “Lily, girl, don’t creep up on me like that.”
Lily smiled. “I’m sorry. I was just wandering around and saw you walking alone. Is everything alright?”
Dropping her arm back to her side, Tamika shook her head. “Yes. Everything’s fine. I was just going to go back inside and spend some time with my mother.”
“During a party? Really? You should be out there dancing the night away with Roark.”
