Luther was barking his head off. She bent and scooped him up in her arms to calm him down, then opened the door, intending to tell Laura she was not welcome in her home.

‘Thank God you’re here!’ Laura cried in pathetic relief, her hands jerking into a trembling gesture of appeal. ‘Please, Chloe, I have to talk to you. I have no-one else to turn to. Tony…’ She broke into sobs, covering her face with her hands, shaking her head in anguish.

Chloe didn’t want to be moved by the other woman’s distress. What happened between Laura and Tony was their business, not hers, and she certainly didn’t want to be involved in it. Yet it seemed too cruel and callous to send her away in this state.

‘You’d better come in,’ she said reluctantly, standing back to give her entry.

‘Oh, thank you, thank you,’ Laura babbled brokenly.

Luther barked at her as she stumbled into the hallway, instinctively picking up Chloe’s dislike of the situation. He started to wriggle in her arms, wanting to get down and check out this visitor to his satisfaction, but Chloe held onto him until she saw Laura seated at the dining table and fetched a box of tissues for her to mop up the tears.

‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ she asked, knowing it was Laura’s preferred drink.

A nod as she snuffled into a tissue.

‘I’m letting my dog go now. He’s sure to sniff around your feet. I’d advise you not to kick him,’ she warned.

‘Wouldn’t do that,’ Laura choked out.

Chloe released Luther, who instantly did as expected. Leaving the little terrier on guard duty, she went to the kitchen, made Laura a cup of tea and herself a coffee, and took them to the dining table. She sat across the table from her ex-personal assistant, who had assisted herself to her employer’s husband, waiting for her to be composed enough to speak.

Laura finally raised a woebegone face and in a despairing voice, said, ‘Tony has abandoned me. Even though I’m having his baby, he won’t give me any support.’

Chloe was shocked to hear this. Despite his lies and infidelity and the nasty burst of temper that had lashed out at Luther, she hadn’t thought him a complete and utter rotter.

‘I can’t get another job. No-one wants a pregnant P.A.,’ Laura wailed. ‘I need help, Chloe. I can’t manage having a baby without help.’

Lots of single mothers had to manage by themselves, Chloe thought, and Laura was definitely not a helpless kind of person, but maybe she was floundering in a trough of depression and couldn’t see a way forward. ‘Do you want me to speak to Tony about this?’ she asked, thinking Laura had one hell of a hide to want that from the injured wife.

She shook her head. ‘It’s useless. He’s furious that I told you, won’t have anything to do with me. Or the baby.’ Tears welled again. ‘I’m sorry I told you the way I did, Chloe, but I was so upset, so madly in love with him, I was out of my mind that night. He was my baby’s father and all I could think of was he had to break from you and marry me.’

Despite the offence to herself, Chloe couldn’t help feeling a little tug of sympathy. The baby did make a difference. Although Laura shouldn’t have been having an affair with Tony in the first place.

And she knew it, immediately trying to justify it, her whole body leaning forward in an appeal for understanding as she rattled on. ‘I tried not to fall in love with him. He was your husband and on every moral ground he was out of bounds to me. I truly struggled against the attraction I felt, Chloe, but he sensed it and played on it. I liked working for you. I didn’t want to give up my job, but I was terribly drawn to Tony and one night when I’d had too much to drink, he seduced me into bed with him. I’m as much a victim of his charming ways as you are. I thought he really did love me and his marriage to you was just a sham to further his career. I’m terribly sorry you were hurt but at least now you’ve got Max Hart so you’ve moved on and up.’

‘I’ve certainly moved on but divorce brings everyone down and having Max as a friend does not mean I’m up,’ she sharply corrected her.

‘More than a friend surely,’ she snapped back, an envious flash in her eyes.

Better value than Tony.

She didn’t say it but Chloe knew she was thinking it, and instantly started bridling against the mercenary aspect of Laura’s outlook. She cut to the chase.

‘Why have you come here, Laura?’

She gave an anguished shake of her head. Her hands fluttered in agitation. ‘I’m out of work. I thought Tony would support me but he won’t and I can’t pay the rent on my apartment. I’m almost destitute, Chloe.’ Her eyes begged for help. ‘I don’t have anyone to turn to. We used to be friends. If I hadn’t been thrown so much into Tony’s company because of working for you…’

Anger stirred. ‘Are you saying your pregnancy is my fault?’

‘No…no…but he did deceive both of us. I thought you might understand and forgive how it was, and for the sake of the baby…please, Chloe…if you could lend me some money to tide me over for a while…just bypass Tony and give me what he should be giving me. You could tell your lawyer what it’s for and he could deduct it out of Tony’s divorce settlement.’

The cash cow…Chloe couldn’t forget that phrase. She wanted no part of this-none at all. Yet there was an innocent baby involved and she was appalled at Tony’s callous dismissal of it. ‘What sum of money do you have in mind?’ she asked, careful not to commit herself to anything.

Triumph…greed…something glittered in the amber eyes that was at odds with Laura’s supposed desperation, although the glitter was quickly swallowed up by another gush of tears. ‘I hate asking this of you…’ She blotted up the moisture with a tissue, blinked rapidly, took a deep breath and gabbled, ‘Maybe a lump sum settlement would be best. I could go away, make a life for my child somewhere else, a more simple existence…’

‘How much, Laura?’ Chloe bored in, hating this scene.

She wrung her hands, looked distracted, then hesitantly, pleadingly answered, ‘If you could write me a cheque for fifty thousand dollars…’

Fifty thousand!

The sheer boldness of it floored Chloe for a moment. Had she been such a walkover person in the past? Apply emotional pressure and she’d buckle to it every time? No mind of her own? Is that what Laura had been counting on?

However, there was still the baby to be considered.

‘I won’t hand out that amount of money, Laura,’ she said decisively. ‘I will talk to my lawyer about your situation and get him to talk to Tony’s lawyer…’

‘But that could take weeks…months…I’m down to the dregs of my bank account now,’ she wailed.

‘I assure you something will be done to persuade Tony into shouldering his responsibility within days,’ Chloe said with steely resolve, rising from the dining table to put an end to the distasteful conversation.

‘He won’t…he won’t,’ she cried, remaining seated and burying her face in her hands.

Luther, who’d also sprung to his feet as Chloe had risen to hers, started barking at her to get up, too. Laura ignored him. Chloe sighed impatiently, shushed Luther and spoke very firmly, ‘I promise you, something will be done about getting child support to you one way or another. There’s no more to be said, Laura.’

‘Oh, please, Chloe…’ She stumbled up from her chair-a picture of wretched despair. ‘Don’t send me away with nothing. I don’t know what I’ll do.’

Was that a threat of suicide?

Luther started barking again, not liking whatever his instincts were picking up.

‘If you could just give me a cheque for five thousand,’ Laura begged.

Chloe didn’t like it but she was troubled enough to go to her handbag and extract five hundred dollars from her purse. She held out the notes to Laura. ‘That’s all I have on hand. It should help enough until other money comes through for you.’

She took the money, though still pressing for more. ‘I could cash a cheque…’