When Zane’s mother thrust a sandwich under his nose, he forced it down. It was like trying to swallow sandpaper. Only the strong coffee brew that followed managed to help.
Fifteen minutes ago, he’d been sprawled on the lawn. Now, his parents flanked him at the kitchen table, the room suddenly small and suffocating. Neither said a word but constantly gave each other ‘the look’. He had to get this food and drink down and explain—fast. He needed to be on the next flight to Boston.
It surprised him that he was feeling much better since breaking down on the lawn, though the nourishment might be helping. A man’s body and brain didn’t work well when the total number of hours since last eating ran into double figures.
Sliding his chair back, he went to sit on the other side of the small kitchen table so he could face his parents as he spoke. He took one of each of their hands and squeezed.
“I need to tell you both that I love you.” He turned to his father first. The frown that burrowed deeper into his father’s brow was definitely his doing. “Dad, I know you’re not my biological father but—”
His mother gasped and shoved her chair back. In her haste it toppled over and the metal rim vibrated on the tiled floor. “Zane, what are you talking about?”
He turned to face his distraught mother. “I want to make it clear that Dad will always be my father.” When he faced his father again, he added, “I need you in my life, Dad. I always will.”
Instead of getting angry at her denial, instead of flaring up, Zane was at peace. She didn’t need to lie anymore and it was okay that she had. Whatever reasons she had for leaving Boston, he was an adult now and could take care of himself from here on in. He needed them to understand he wanted nothing to change between them or to jeopardise their relationship.
“Mum, sit, please.”
She sighed and righted her chair. When she sat down, Zane reached for both her hands and clasped them firmly in his. “I didn’t go to Hawaii. I lied to you and I’m sorry. I went to Boston with my girlfriend, Ella.”
Her eyes widened at his words and her fingers pinched his.
“The photo you have in the china cabinet. That’s you and Ella’s mother. She never did die in a car accident, did she?”
His mother shook her head as tears spilled over their hands. “What have you done, Zane? Oh, my God, did you go to Boston to find Ella’s father?”
Not daring to break eye contact, he nodded. “Yes,” he whispered, “and it was a mistake.”
“Why? What did the bastard do?”
His father slid his chair closer to his mother’s side and strung an arm around her shoulder, gently kneading her muscles.
“We arrived back this afternoon to learn that Catherine, or Cate as we know her, was arrested. There’s only one person who would’ve alerted the police to her whereabouts.”
“Oh, my poor Catherine. She’ll always be Catherine to me.” She rested her hand against her breast while gazing into the distance.
Zane held his breath, waiting for her to say something. Within seconds, her face snapped back in his direction, her trance broken.
“She would’ve had no idea how he found her. Does she know?”
He let out the breath he was holding, relieved she hadn’t fainted. “Yes. One of Ella’s sisters had suspected Ella was lying about going to Hawaii and made Ella promise to leave a copy of her travel plans in a sealed envelope in case of an emergency. When the police arrived for a Catherine Van Der Meeliko, Ella’s step-siblings discovered the truth of where we’d been. It wasn’t too hard to figure out who to blame for Catherine’s arrest.”
His mother rose and walked to the kitchen sink, leaned against it and stared out into the dark night.
“Mum?”
She didn’t move or turn around.
“I also know you were once married to someone in the Savro family, and that they’re Boston’s version of the mafia.”
She wrapped her hands around her waist, as though warding off a chill. Without turning, she said, “Your grandfather and father are both dead. I thank God for that every day.”
Dead? Okay, I’ll deal with that later.
“Mum, I need to leave for Boston straight away. Ella is being her usual stubborn self and is insisting she go alone. She ended our relationship tonight, well, at least tried to, but I have every intention of following her. I don’t want her confronting her father alone. He’s a dangerous man.”
She turned. “My God, Zane, he’s evil, but then so was your father.”
She pushed away from the sink, came back to the table and gripped the back of her chair, her knuckles white in the fluorescent light. “I have a lot to explain, don’t I?”
Zane rested his elbow on the table and cushioned his chin in his palm. “The only thing I want to know is if Dad has always known the truth?”
She wrapped her arms around his dad’s neck and placed a kiss on his cheek. At the same time his father lifted a hand to cradle his mother’s cheek. “Yes. He was my saviour all those years ago, my soul mate. I have no regrets about what I did.”
His father twisted in his chair and smiled at Zane’s mother. It pushed the ache in his chest up his throat. They had that special connection. He wanted it too and would do anything to make things right so Ella would take him back.
“Now, since I have plenty of explaining to do, I’m coming with you. We’ll have enough time on the flight to talk.”
His father jumped up out of his chair and faced his wife. “Are you sure? Is it safe?”
She took a deep breath, reached for his hands and took them in her own. “It’s time Zane met his grandmother. She’s still alive and the only person I regret leaving. She had a difficult life with a vicious and dangerous man. The day he was shot in a drive-by shooting was one of her happiest. She might have shown respectful mourning to the rest of the family, but she’d made it obvious to me, as only a battered wife could, how relieved she was. My life with her only son was no better.”
How had his father died? There were hundreds of questions he wanted to ask, but his priority was to book another flight. He’d started thinking of all the things he needed to do, including getting a good night’s sleep, when his father spoke.
“Well, I’m coming too. I’m not letting my family loose in some mafia-run city.”
Zane smiled for the first time in many hours. He tried to remember when he’d smiled last and was instantly transported back to the airport, when he’d kissed Ella as they waited for their luggage.
A kiss that had happened a lifetime ago.
Ella’s alarm sounded in the early morning as darkness shrouded the house. She stumbled out of bed and landed on her knees with a thump when her leg caught in the sheet. If anyone wanted to see evidence of how well she’d slept that night all they needed to do was look at the tangled mess of sheets on her bed. She’d tossed and turned relentlessly but must’ve eventually dozed off because when the alarm had beeped, she’d been sound asleep.
She rose from the floor, rubbed her right knee and made her way to her mother’s room. Luke had volunteered to drive her to the airport to make the four thirty a.m. flight, but she wasn’t going anywhere without a good luck talisman. Weirdly, with her thoughts stewing all night, she had dreamed of carrying the little blue box with her to Boston for good luck. Yep, it made no sense now that she was awake, but she couldn’t rid the idea. She needed all the luck she could get.
With Luke and her sisters upset and angry, she had to fix this any way she could. She had no clue what to do, but her mother needed to know she was there and close. There was no way she would leave Boston without her. She would never be able to face her family again if her mother remained behind bars. As for Zane, well … she wasn’t going there. It would be better if he moved on. She didn’t doubt this whole process of saving her mother would be messy and draining, and she needed every ounce of courage she could gather to make it through each day. God alone knew how many days it would entail. She had no family to call on for support in Boston, except for her biological father, and she would rather stab him to death.
Now, with the aid of a chair, she reached into the same wardrobe she’d cleaned all those months ago. She quickly removed the blankets and assortment of things her mother kept up high. Each item landed with a loud thud, the noise resounding through the quiet house. It would wake her sisters, but too bad. She needed some semblance of a goodbye or hug from them before she left—anything to sustain her on the return journey to Boston and everything that waited for her.
Luck would then play a big part in what happened after that.
Within seconds she held the cardboard box. She carried it to her mother’s bed, switched on the lamp and dumped the contents of the box on the new quilt. She grabbed the blue box and clutched it to her chest, then switching off the lamp, she left to dress and maybe run a brush through her hair. Her luggage, still packed, would return to Boston with her. She didn’t care what she looked like when she arrived.
It frightened her the way her thoughts had turned. She’d never considered herself a violent person or questioned what she’d do in a situation where saving her own life might mean taking someone else’s. But the anger which coursed through her organs gave off severe warnings. She didn’t question the need to hurt her biological father. The urge to hurt him ran hot in her blood. She’d already imagined winding her hands around his neck and tightening her grip until he relented and squashed the stupid charge he’d concocted all those years ago. Anyone who knew her mother would never doubt she was of sound mind. It was laughable to even say it.
Ella now had a better understanding of her mother’s motives from twenty-five years ago. All that would’ve mattered to her mother was her and her child’s safety. How could anyone punish her for that?
Ella had plans. Oh God, how she had plans.
But, first, she had to get there.