The Perfect Husband Read Free Page B

marital status was none of his concern. She’d married
Nigel. They had two kids. Mason’s marriage might have ended badly,
but he’d never purposefully set out to break up someone else’s
marriage—no matter how badly he wished he could.
    He’d spent the best part of a decade trying
to forget about her and now, without knowing it, he’d relocated
from his hometown a half day’s drive away to the very hospital
where she worked. The irony wasn’t missed on him and it was
something he’d have to get his head around.
    He wished he’d known beforehand that she was
a nurse at the Sydney Harbour Hospital. He would have headed in the
opposite direction. Hell, he could have applied for a job in far
North Queensland and visited with his parents every now and then.
It would have put him more than a thousand miles away from the
woman who still haunted his dreams.
    If he tendered his resignation now, he’d
appear ludicrous. Today was his first day on the ward. Questions
would be asked and even more considered in private. It would set
his career back further than he cared to think. The Sydney Harbour
Hospital was the most prestigious hospital in the country. People
vied for jobs there like children fought over favored toys. No one
accepted a position and then passed it over the very first day they
started.
    No—resigning his position wasn’t an option.
All he could do was steel his heart against the woman he loved and
push aside any hope he had of making her his. He had to steer clear
of Isobel Donnelly, no matter how strong his feelings still were.
In fact, that was even more reason to stay the hell away from her
altogether. Nothing good could come of yearning for another man’s
wife, and especially not the wife of Nigel Donnelly.

CHAPTER
THREE
     
    Dear Diary,
     
    I am losing myself. I am terrified one day
I’ll look into the mirror and see a complete stranger…a woman I no
longer recognize. I am being pulled under, into the dark, silent
depths and each time I manage to resurface and snatch a breath, I
am pushed down again.
    I am slowly dying from the inside out and
don’t know what to do, or even if anyone cares. It’s surreal how
much I loved my husband in the early years of our marriage and yet
now, I am frightened by his touch.
    He has become a stranger to me and one of
whom I am scared. There was a time when I felt safe and secure in
his arms. Now I can’t imagine ever feeling safe near him again…
    * * *
    Isobel pulled her car into the driveway of
her impressive North Shore home. Although it wasn’t on the water,
she could glimpse the harbor between the leafy trees that lined the
lower shore. The rendered brick façade, painted in a modern shade
of gray, sat comfortably beside its similarly grand neighbors’, but
right then Isobel was way too tired to appreciate it.
    After completing a double shift, she could
barely drag herself from the car, but knowing Nigel would be
waiting for her to get home before he could leave for work, she
collected her handbag from the seat beside her and slowly got out.
She climbed the stairs to the porch and the usual sense of dread
began to grow. She’d hardly stepped through the front doorway
before he started in on her.
    “What the hell took you so long? I’m going
to be late because of you!”
    Even though she’d anticipated such a
welcome, his narrowed eyes and the angry red flush that stained his
cheeks took her aback. It was only a little past seven. He still
had at least twenty minutes before his normal departure time. She
couldn’t understand what he was so worked up about, but she held
her tongue as she’d learned to do so well. She turned away and
placed her handbag on the table that stood against the wall in the
hallway.
    “Don’t ignore me, Isobel.” He grabbed her
arm and spun her around to face him. She gasped in alarm at the
menace in his eyes.
    “Where have you been?”
    “I told you, I’ve been at work.”
    “Who were you working with?”
    She