How Cat Got a Life by Tatiana March Read Free Book Online Page A

everyone else. I caved in to pressure, and for the next ten years I paid for my mistake.”
    “Oh Brock,” Cat said in an aching whisper, but he didn’t turn around.
    “I tried my hardest to make her happy. Money was always a problem because of the medical bills, and I had to take all the overtime I could. In the end it just wore me out. I felt almost as much relief as grief when she died.” He turned to her now, pain burning in his eyes. “I swore that I’ll never put myself in a position again where I’m expected to marry someone just because I’ve slept with her.”
    Pity unfurled inside her. The only way of soothing his pain Cat could think of was to share her own miserable history.
    “I gave up my job when I was twenty-nine to nurse my mother who had cancer. She died two years later. I took a holiday after the funeral. I’d done rock-climbing at college, so I did an outdoor activity course. Dalton was fourteen. He was on the same course, and we were paired on climbs. Despite the age difference, we hit it off. Dalton is an enchanting mix of high intelligence and old fashioned good manners and naïve innocence. He introduced me to his father. I was swept off my feet and three weeks later we were married. Tim, my late husband, hadn’t told me he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He’d tricked me into marrying him. I had told Dalton that I’d nursed my mother, so Tim knew I could handle caring for someone about to die, and he knew I got on well with his son. He married me so he would have a companion for the final stages of his illness and someone to take care of Dalton after he was gone.”
    “When did you find out?”
    “He told me on our wedding night. Partly to explain why he was impotent, and partly because he’d had a pang of ill conscience and thought he’d give me a chance to back out.”
    “Why didn’t you?”
    “How could I?” Cat exhaled a tired sigh. “Dalton’s mother died when he was small. He had no relatives who could take him in. I couldn’t just walk away and leave him to care for his dying father and then be shut away in a children’s home.” She tried to smile at Brock through the haze of tears. “Or maybe I was just too used to being needed, too afraid to resume my life after my mother passed away. Whatever the reason, I chose to stay, but I felt chained into a marriage that didn’t give me anything it was meant to. I have absolutely no desire to get married again. And if I ever do, I’ll insist on sleeping with the man beforehand to make sure he can satisfy my needs.”
    She slid down from the table and straightened her skirt. “And now, I suggest that you take me home. I won’t be in tomorrow. You can tell Karen and Walter goodbye from me.”
    Brock gave an awkward shrug. “I have to be at court tomorrow. You’ll be safe from my presence in the office, in case you want to drop by.”
    While he drove her back to the hotel, Cat sat in silence beside him, her back rigid and her face expressionless. Only when she got to her room did her composure crack. She threw herself on the bed and burst into bitter tears of humiliation, frustration, and loneliness.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Four
     
     
    “I hear Brock took you to the concert at the library last night.” Karen bit into a chicken wrap. “The town’s all agog.”
    Cat stirred milk into her coffee. Unable to suppress her sense of duty, she had come to work as usual, knowing she wouldn’t need to face Brock. “There’s nothing much to be agog about,” she replied. “My stepson bullied him into asking me. Dalton is petrified that I’ll cling to him and stop him from enjoying the debauchery of student life. He thought Brock might be a suitable distraction.”
    “That he certainly is—a distraction.” Karen rolled her eyes, something she liked to do when words failed her.
    Cat managed a smile. All night, she’d battled to regain her equilibrium. Her nerves still grated raw, and her hands didn’t feel