Too Good to Forget

Chapter 2

Fifty minutes later, she stepped from Marcus' private elevator and walked into his absent secretary's front reception area.

The Whitfield's Grand's thick carpet muffles her footsteps as she continued to Marcus' office. Feeling liked she'd swallowed ten pound of lead, and with her mouth as dry as flour, she approached his slightly open doors along the left wall of the reception area.

She heard Marcus' voice, raised in a heated argument with two other voices she didn't recognize.

"Gandfather" Marcus said, "You're making assumptions that have no basic fact".

"Don't take that tone with me", barked his grandfather."And don't talk to me about facts. My sources are impeccable."

"Your sources are wrong."

"She may as well have you fitted with a nose ring, the way you let her lead you around."

Were they discussing her? Coleen's pulse picked up speed.

"You're in so deep" said the other male voice."You don't even notice other women."

"I'm not in deep William," Marcus ground out. "But even if I were, whomever I choose to notice is no concern of yours."

"The hell it isn't." snapped his grandfather. "would you get out of your pants and think for a minute? whether you deserve it or not, you're a Whitfield, and everything you do reflects on us. I won't have you making a mess of things like your idiot father did."

"Keep my father out of this," Marcus warned in a low and dangerous tone.

"You need to cut the chit off before you get in over your head. Before you make mistake you can't fix."

"I'm not cutting her off just because you think it's time." she heard Marcus say. "I decided when we're over, not you."

"As long as you do decide, I don't give a rat's ass when it happens. Sleep with her for another twenty years for all I care, just don't make the mistake of thinking she's wife material," said his grandfather in a flat, and authoritative voice. "If you learned nothing from your father, learn that."

"She doesn't have what it takes to be a Whitfield's wife," intoned William. "She never will."

"Who said she even wants to be a Whitfield? " Marcus shot back, sounding more irritated than she'd ever heard him. "she'd be a fool not to," warned William. "Penniless nobodies never understand they're incapable of belonging in our world. You, more than anyone, must realize that."

"You're using protection, aren't you?" his grandfather continued.

"Get out of my office." When Marcus' anger turned cold, his relative would be smart to heed the warning.

"Don't tell me you trust her?" sputtered his grandfather, oblivious to the danger. "He trust her!'  he exclaimed in audible disbelief. "Damn it, you're smarter than this! What if she gets pregnant?"

"She wouldn't."

"She knows I'd never bring another Whitfield in to the world."

"Like that would stop her"

''It would,'' Marcus snapped." She respects my boundaries, just like I respect hers."

Mr. Whitfield dismissed his grandson's claim with a patronizing grunt. ''All women want commitment. How don you not know that?''

''Coleen is different.''

She'd thought she was, too. But she'd been wrong. She'd ended up loving him despite her vows not to.

''She's smart enough to make you believe it,'' said William.

"I'll give you that."

''And she's got legs that go for miles,'' added his grandfather. ''So I can understand a bit of temporary blindness. But enough's enough. You're risking too much with that trash.''

''You're done here,'' Marcus bit out. ''I suggest you leave now.''

''This isn't over,'' William said, his voice moving closer to Coleen. Desperate not to be seen, Coleen ducked behind the open door, squeezing silently between wood and wall while the Whitfield's passed by..