A New Foundation by Rochelle Alers (philippa perry book txt) 📕

talk to him. She didn’t have to wait for his reply, and he said he would available later that afternoon to meet in the library.

Taylor walked in the direction of the small ballroom that he’d set up as a temporary office and stopped when he heard Sonja’s voice coming from the library. The door was slightly ajar, and he was caught completely off guard when he saw Sonja in Dom’s arms. Not only wasn’t it her scheduled day to work outside the condo, but he hadn’t expected to see her embracing the caretaker.

Taking long strides, he made his way to the ballroom and closed the pocket doors as scalding fury gripped him and he struggled to draw a normal breath. Taylor did not want to believe the woman with whom he’d fallen in love, slept beside every night and made love to was having an affair with another man. When she came in on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays he rarely saw her because she tended to work behind closed doors. However, he was aware that after she’d completed several crates Dom would return them to the cellar and bring up more.

He paced the length of the ballroom, pounding his fist into his hand when he’d wanted to punch something hard to make him forget about the emotional pain threatening to explode into unrestrained anger. Taylor sat on the stool near the drafting table, staring at the plans he and Robbie had designed on the computer and revised several times before they were finalized and printed. He lost track of time, then stood and walked out of the ballroom to talk to Dom.

He saw Dom kneeling near a flower bed, pulling out weeds. “We need to talk.”

Dom rose and met his eyes. “What about?”

“I want you to stay away from Sonja.”

The green eyes narrowed like a cat ready to attack. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Taylor chose his words carefully. “I don’t want you anywhere around her when she’s working in the library. Meanwhile, I’ll have someone else move the crates.”

Dom crossed his arms over his chest in a gesture mirroring defiance. “Have you forgotten that you’re not my boss? You don’t pay my salary, therefore I don’t have to take orders from you. But if you want me to stay away from Sonja, then I will. Not because you say so, but because I don’t want to make trouble for her.” Turning on his heel, he walked away, leaving Taylor staring at his back.

Taylor cursed to himself—raw, ugly, frustrated curses because Dom was right. He wasn’t his boss, and it wasn’t incumbent upon him to pay the man’s wages, therefore he couldn’t fire him. However, he did pay Sonja; he decided to wait until later to confront her.

Sonja couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The man she’d pledged her future to had accused her of cheating on him with another man. It was history repeating itself. “You saw something you probably shouldn’t have seen and jumped to the conclusion that I was seeing another man. Maybe you should have come into the library instead of accusing an innocent man. What happened to trust, Taylor!” She was screaming but no longer cared. “Remember I told you that I value trust over love? I believed once we agreed to live and sleep together that we would trust each other.” She threw up both hands. “You’re no different from Hugh because he, too, didn’t trust me.” The tears she’d held at bay fell, and she backed away when Taylor attempted to touch her. “Don’t! I have to get away. Even if it is just for a few days.” She swiped angrily at the tears streaming down her face and walked over to the closet to take out a suitcase.

“Where are you going, Sonja?”

“I don’t know. I’ll find out when I get there.”

There weren’t that many places she could go aside from her parents’, and her aunt and uncle’s. She thought about Viola and quickly changed her mind. Taylor was her brother, and there was no doubt she would side with him.

She opened drawers and threw clothes in haphazardly before going into the bathroom to gather a number of personal items and products. Sonja closed the bag, grabbed her tote off the chair and went downstairs. She didn’t know if Taylor was following her as she opened the door and walked out into the late-afternoon warmth. It wasn’t until she’d left the complex that she decided to drive to her parents’ house and spend time there to clear her head.

Sonja knew they were away, but she had the keys and the code to the house’s security system. It was almost laughable. When she left Hugh she’d run to her mother. And now she was doing it again. There was something about sitting on the porch and staring at the lake that she found therapeutic. She planned to spend the weekend there, and when she returned she would continue with her project. Once it ended she would move on to the next one.

Taylor sat in the family room staring at the flickering images on the flat screen. Night had fallen and he hadn’t turned on any lights. If it hadn’t been for the sound of the television the house would’ve been as quiet as a tomb. He’d blown it. Jealousy had reared its ugly head, and he’d accused the woman he loved passionately of sleeping with another man. It had taken her almost two minutes to reply to his accusation, and during that time he’d felt triumphant because she hadn’t thought he knew. His victory was short-lived when she told him there was nothing going on between her and Dominic, and what he’d witnessed was a friendly hug between friends. It was when she told him he was the same as her ex-husband that it was apparent he’d done something that made her distrust him. Taylor decided to give Sonja a few days to cool off before calling