by Margaret Way
His mouth twisted in disgust. “You’re talking to the wrong guy, Megan. Far from remarrying you look like you’ve been living rough. What is this, a bid for money? I don’t have money, Megan.”
“Your precious Olivia does.” Again the jealousy and venom spilled out. “Harry Linfield was worth millions and millions.”
“All of which is tied up.” Jason had no trouble telling the lie. “Not that that’s relevant. You’re the last person in the world Olivia would give money to, if you’ve decided on a spot of blackmail. Olivia wouldn’t give money to me, either. All these years later she still feels I betrayed her.”
“You did, though, didn’t you, Jason sweetie?”
It was said with a good deal of bravado, but Jason fancied he heard a note ring false. “I’m pretty damned slow but I guess that could be a lie as well?” He stared at her, waiting for her response.
“It’s the truth, pal,” she retorted swiftly, sitting up straight. “I was a virgin, don’t you forget it, Natalie is your kid.”
He continued to study her with brilliant assessing eyes. “I think I’d kill you if you were lying to me, Megan.”
“I’m not lying to you, sweetie.” She fell into her raunchy pose again. “Tali’s your kid. You look great by the way, sexier than ever!”
“You’re not,” he said coolly. “So you’re wasting your time with all that flashing.”
“Too bad!” She shrugged. “A lot of the time it works. Anyway, I don’t want to take the kid off you. I’m sure we can work something out.”
“Like what?” It was shocking but conclusive DNA match-ups sprang into his mind, even as he struggled to reject the smallest possibility Tali wasn’t his.
“I want to see her again, mind you.” Megan tried to assume a motherly demeanour, but her eyes were cold. “Sweet little thing! I suppose she’s grown into a holy terror. She was heading that way. I never heard a kid give more cheek!”
“I call it spirit,” Jason corrected with quiet contempt. “She was trying to defend herself against a bitch of a mother.”
“Oh dear!” Megan attempted a jibe.
“Have you no love in your heart for her?’ Jason asked. “Has life taught you nothing?”
“It’s taught me I’m on my own.” Megan nodded her head with so much vehemence it bounced. “The big love of my life is me. I’ve had a tough time. Men are such bastards. Strangely enough that doesn’t include you, Jason, honey. I have to say it, you’re a real gentleman. I think I still love ya. How is that possible?”
“You don’t love me, Megan. You don’t even know me. If you’re in trouble I can give you a little money, that’s all. You can’t stay here. You can’t upset Tali. I won’t have that.”
“I’m her mother nonetheless,” Megan said pointedly. “I’m not done with her or you at all! The thing is I have a yen to be respectable, Jason. The last guy I was with treated me like a slut. I’m done with that. I’m thinking maybe a quarter of a million bucks?”
Jason’s laugh was harsh. “You want a quarter of a million to be gone? And when that runs out? What then?”
Megan swung her legs to the floor. “I promise you I won’t ask for more, Jason,” she said earnestly. “I thought I might get myself a job on the Gold Coast, maybe at the casino. I’m good at handling money. The Gold Coast is pretty ritzy. I might find myself a rich good-looking guy.”
“Then you’d better let your hair go back to its original colour and put on some weight,” Jason advised. “You don’t look good, Megan. I’m not trying to be cruel. I’m telling you, you have to start looking after yourself. You have to stop putting yourself in dangerous situations. Do you ever contact your parents?”
“Hell, why would I want to do that?” Megan exclaimed, running a defensive hand through her spiky hair. “They don’t give a damn about me. They never did. Maybe Mum did a bit but she was powerless beside Dad. How I hate him. And Sean.”
“I’m sorry, Megan,” Jason said. “I wish your home-life could have been better for you but you have to take responsibility for your own actions. You had a daughter. You had a husband who stood by you.” I don’t know for how long, Jason thought but didn’t say.
Megan waved a dismissive hand. “I know you tried, Jason, but you couldn’t love me.” She pressed the balls of her palms to her eyes. “Why couldn’t you love me?”
“Megan, I hardly knew you. We weren’t at all close. I loved Olivia. I’ve always loved Olivia.”
“Olivia! I’m sick of hearing about her,” Megan said wearily. “Wouldn’t you think she’d have found someone else by now?”
“How do you know she hasn’t?” Jason asked tonelessly, unwilling to expose Olivia.
“Because she bloody well loves you,” Megan said.
“Did you hate Olivia?” Jason asked.
“What do you think?” Megan sneered. “Everyone loved Olivia. No-one loved me.”
“So what did you do?” Jason moved closer, standing over her.
“What do you mean?” Megan pulled back in her armchair.
“Did you plan what happened that night? That night I can never remember.”
“Don’t be daft!” she snorted. “You made love to me, Jason. You were so beautiful. That body! Then when you were done you slept like a log.”
“More like a coma.”
He was looking at her oddly. “I didn’t plan anything, Jason.” Megan allowed her voice to crack. “It just happened. Now I want a life and you have to help me. Because if you don’t,” she paused to threaten him, “I swear I’ll take Natalie off you and break your heart.”
When the phone rang Olivia was almost afraid to answer it, afraid it might be Carlo De Luca at the other end, that he might want to speak to her. After the wonderment of last night, the putting aside of all her anxieties, they came crashing back. She picked up the receiver, said hello, and just as she feared, Carlo De Luca’s attractive voice answered with some intensity. “Olivia, I must speak to you. Leanne will be ringing later to thank you for last night, but that’s not what we need to talk about. I know it’s hard. You’re the innocent party in all this but you know, don’t you?”
The accusation was unmistakable. It hung heavily on the line. She did indeed know. Momentarily Olivia squeezed her eyes tight. “Help me, Carlo. What are we talking about?” she decided to stall.
“We’re talking about Natalie, Olivia,” he answered bluntly. “She’s the living image of my sister Gina at the same age. You know what that means, don’t you? She’s mine.”
For what seemed like an interminable time Olivia couldn’t find words.
“What do you want me to say, Carlo?” she asked finally. “I saw a resemblance of course. More to you than Gina— I haven’t seen Gina in years. I was just dumbfounded.”
“You were dumbfounded?” Carlo interjected, his voice rising. “What do you think I was?”
“Carlo, I’m sorry,” she said. “Sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry for us all. You must realize Jason believes Tali to be his. He loves her. I think if you took her off him it would kill him.”
“Olivia, she’s mine. You understand what that means, don’t you? She’s my flesh and blood. My mum and dad are her grandparents. Gina’s her aunt. Have you any idea how my mother would react if she laid eyes on Natalie? She’d be devastated then terribly, terribly angry. Not with you or Jason but Megan! That miserable lying little bitch.”
Olivia looked around her hurriedly to be sure Tali was still upstairs watching her video.
“Why did she do it?” Carlo groaned.
“She mightn’t have known,” Olivia suggested unhappily, lowering her voice a notch.
“Olivia, you can’t believe that!” Carlo responded, disgusted. “Okay Megan and I had sex. Only once in the back of my car. Never again. But I can assure you of this. She was no vulnerable little chick randy old me picked up, much less a virgin. She knew exactly what she was doing.”
“She couldn’t have, Carlo,” Olivia found herself defending Megan. “She got
pregnant.”
Carlo sounded utterly exasperated. “Listen, she told me she was on the pill. I had condoms anyhow. I remember particularly, because she also told me she was never going to be stuck with a kid. She was adamant about that as though kids would never be on her agenda. Obviously something went wrong—I bet if she thought about it she’d have identified the cause. She must have forgotten to take the pills religiously or she had a fairly severe stomach bug and the pill went straight through her.”
“What is it you expect me to do, Carlo?” Olivia asked, her mind grappling with these new implications.
Carlo didn’t hesitate. “We all have to meet,” he said. “I’ve seen my daughter, Olivia. It was meant to be, I truly believe that. Now there’s no turning back.”
“So what are you saying?” Olivia asked, afraid of what all this would do to her life. “You expect me to organise a meeting here?”
“There, anywhere. It can’t be here. My parents would be shocked out of their minds. I have to break it to them and to Leanne fairly gently.”
“And what of Leanne?” Olivia couldn’t control the fact her voice came out sharply. “How do you think she’ll react to a ready-made step-daughter?”
There was a short pause on the line. “She mightn’t be all that happy,” Carlo ventured slowly. “But no-one, even Leanne, is going to stop me. As it happens Lee thought Natalie was adorable.”
“She thought Tali was Jason’s you mean,” Olivia retorted with considerable irony. “Jason thinks Tali is Jason’s. What about Jason, Carlo? Try to remember him. Jason has taken wonderful care of Tali for nearly seven years. Now he’s supposed to let her walk out of his life? What about Tali? Have you really thought it through? She loves her daddy.”
“I’m her daddy, Olivia,” Carlo replied as though that was all that needed to be said as perhaps it was. “I’m thinking of all the things you’re talking about. Don’t you think I’ve considered the massive upsets? But I told you. I’m not turning back. Natalie is my child. Child of my body. She’d be instantly recognisable to my family. We’re all caring adults here. We have to work on this. We have to make the transition as painless as possible. I’m not suggesting for a minute we’d ride rough shod over Jason and his feelings. For such a smart guy I can’t believe how he let Megan put it over him.”
“Are you saying she did it deliberately?” Olivia asked, absolutely appalled.
“Of course she did,” Carlo said with conviction. “You had to know Megan had a crush on Jason. Hell, they all did. All the girls. But he never looked at anyone but you.”
“He must have slept with Megan at least once,” Olivia said weakly.
Carlo’s oath was low and violent. “If I hadn’t gone away to study I’d have been able to have a word with Jason. I’d have told him Megan Duffy was a lying, manipulative little so and so. My guess is she not only tricked him into marrying her, he mightn’t have had sex with her at all. The gossip was he was drunk but I never saw Jason Corey drunk. He’d always have a few drinks with us guys but he’d never go overboard. Remember how Jason was everyone’s hero? He’s a genuinely great guy. He never made a damned fool of himself like me. My guess is someone got to take care of him. He was at Sean Duffy’s birthday party, wasn’t he? Hell, how did the two of you get mixed up with that family? It could have been Megan, I wouldn’t put it past her.”
Olivia shook her head in sick disbelief. “If what you’re saying is true, Megan did a terrible thing. She denied you the truth. She lied to Jason. She shattered Jason’s and my plans. Would you have married her, Carlo?”
Carlo answered truthfully. “No. Probably both of us would have been better off. But she’d have had my support, my family’s support, we’d have found a way. My mother would never abandon her grandchild. Or me, no matter what I did. That’s why I’m saying now, we have to find a way to make this work.”
“And what of Megan? You really don’t see her as a complication? I’ve had bad vibes about Megan. What if she turns up again? What if she sees some angle she can work? She’s indisputably Tali’s mother. Even allowing for the extraordinary resemblance and your gut feeling I would assume DNA samples would be needed to conclusively prove paternity?”
“Of course,” Carlo responded, his tone clinical. “But I know they’re not needed. If you need time to speak to Jason—seeing you together last night there’s no doubting you still love and need each other—maybe we can organise a meeting tomorrow some time. But this must be decided before Leanne and I go back to Brisbane. Can I leave it with you, Olivia?” he asked, a deep plea in his voice. “You’ve had a rough deal, but as fate would have it, you’re the one caught in the middle.”
It was almost lunchtime before Jason returned. Olivia moving out onto the front terrace to greet him was immediately struck by his pallor. He was white beneath the deep tan.
Olivia took a deep breath until she thought her lungs might burst. “What is it? Is everything okay?” She grabbed for his hand, held it, staring up into his face. “Jason, what is it?” Inexplicably she felt like she was being taken back in time to the day when he told her he couldn’t marry her.
“I’ve got some bad news, Liv,” he said. “Megan’s back.”
Despite her fears Olivia felt such shock for a moment she couldn’t speak. “Of course she’s back!” Finally she exploded. “She’ll never go away. She wants to spoil things for us forever! What does she want?” she demanded.
“What do you think?” Jason gave a hollow laugh that vibrated in his chest. “Money.”
Olivia’s silver eyes flashed. “You mean if we give her money she’ll leave us alone?”
“So she said.”
“And who could believe her? She’s lied and lied and lied. We’d give her money and she’d only come back. I don’t like the idea of being blackmailed.”
“She’s not blackmailing you, Liv. She’s blackmailing me.”
“Where is she?” Olivia felt her nostrils flare with anger.
Jason turned his head. “She’s in the car, with instructions to stay there.”
“She has the hide to show herself here on Havilah? To me? I’ll be having a word with your ex-wife, Jason,” Olivia told him furiously. “How could you bring her here?”
“She’s demanding to see Tali,” Jason said, a hard tone to his voice.
“And you said she could?”
Jason bristled. “She can do an awful lot of harm, Liv. She is Tali’s mother and she’s saying she wants her back. The courts treat mothers better than they do fathers—I don’t believe I’m in a position to refuse her. I don’t want to upset you any more than you are already. I’m very uncomfortable with the whole situation but I’ll see what Tali has to say about this. If she wants to see her mother I’ll take them both back to my place.”
Olivia felt her anger swelling again. “Last night, Jason, you told me you loved me, that you’d never stopped loving me, that you wanted us to be together for always, that this time we’d actually go through with a marriage. Now you’re telling me that Megan Duffy, the cause of so much heartache is here in the estate car?”
“What did you want me to do, run over her?” Jason asked in a kind of anguish. “She’s Tali’s mother, Liv. A pretty terrible mother but a mother all the same and she’s a damned good actress. She could get it together to convince the Family Court she should at least share custody.”
“But she’ll go away if we give her money?” Olivia was trying very hard to stay in control. “How much?”
Jason’s jaw tightened. “A quarter of a million.”
Olivia laughed. “Now there’s a measly amount for little Megan Duffy to ask for! Why didn’t she go for a full million?”
“You’re used to money, Liv,” Jason pointed out. “A quarter of a million would be a great fortune to Megan. Then again I haven’t got a million I could part with.”
“No, but I have.” Olivia felt exceedingly angry. “She knows that. She knows we’re back together. She knows Harry was a rich man.
She knows I’ve inherited. Was she waiting for you when you got home?”
Jason sighed deeply. “She was.”
“In your home! I’m surprised she wasn’t in your bed.”
“Give it a rest, Liv,” Jason warned.
Olivia didn’t seem to catch the warning. “This is my worst nightmare come to life!” she fumed. “I can’t stand here talking about this. I’m going to have a word with Megan Duffy. You go find Tali. She’s out on the loggia working on a jigsaw puzzle—she wanted to have it done before you arrived.”
“What are you going to say, Liv?” Jason looked anxious.
“Leave that to me.”
The crisp, decisive note in her voice reminded Jason of Harry.
“This is one confrontation that’s been a long time coming.”
Jason had parked the four-wheel drive in the shade of the poincianas in full, glorious bloom. Waves of spent blossom were lying on the grass and on the hood of the car. “Get out, Megan,” Olivia said, using the sort of voice she reserved for the most rebellious student. “We’re going for a little walk.”
Megan got out. She was wearing a short sundress, yellow with sprigs of orange flowers, no makeup, her hair bleached yellow and gelled into a style that didn’t flatter her small, thin features, yellow thongs on her feet. “So how’s it going, princess?” she asked insolently, showing a side of herself Olivia had never seen.
Olivia contemplated her out of eyes that were cool, almost pitying. “Once upon a time I thought I liked you, Megan. No one else liked you, which should have given me pause, but no, I tried to help you. I thought you’d had an unhappy home life and you could do with a friend. I even asked you to be my bridesmaid. Of course you were a lot prettier then, Megan. What have you done to yourself in the meantime? You obviously haven’t been eating and that porcupine hairstyle doesn’t suit you.”
Megan looked up at the taller Olivia and glared. “So okay I’m going to change it—we all can’t look like you. I’m here to see my daughter. Any objections?”
