The Lost Seal: A Seal Romance

by Bell, Victoria

  He shook his head at the ridiculousness of the thought. There was no way Elena was on the Cut, under his nose.

  She was trying to recover her dignity somewhere, avoiding signing the divorce papers.

  I will know soon enough where she is, he thought. And soon this will all be behind us.

  The afternoon sun caught highlights of auburn in her dark hair, and as Aaric stood at his window, Elena sat on the window seat of the airy eat-in kitchen, also lost in memories.

  It had been three months, but the sting was as fresh as the minute Aaric had looked into her face and told her they were going through with the divorce.

  I was so stupid, she thought mournfully. Willfully blind. You knew he was playing a game with you. He needed you for those magazine interviews, for his immigration status. He would have said anything to keep you from blowing everything, and he did.

  But she could not help but remember the nights of animalistic lovemaking, the sidelong glances he gave her.

  He bought a kidney for my father on the black market for Christ’s sake. He didn’t need to go that far to keep me where he wanted me, and yet he did.

  “Honey, are you all right?”

  Elena turned and looked at the gangly man at the kitchen counter. She nodded quickly.

  “Would you make me tea, darling?” she asked, and he smiled broadly.

  “Of course!” he agreed, pulling the kettle from the stove. “But I must admit, Elena, I am surprised you have kicked your five coffee a day habit and replaced it with peppermint tea.”

  “It’s better for the breath,” Elena replied lightly, rising from the seat. It was her favorite place in the house, despite its intricate and ornate rooms. She could still see the water from that spot in the kitchen, a view her bedroom no longer afforded her.

  “Your melancholy will fade,” he told her gently, placing the mug of steaming tea at the table.

  “Will it?” she asked, turning her head. She had to wonder about this man who seemed unperturbed about acting as her rebound.

  Is he so desperate for company that he would open his house to a woman just escaping a bad marriage – from Aaric Buckley no less? He has to know that only drama is waiting for him in the long run.

  But Professor Adler seemed to think Elena Buckley a prize, one whom he had no intention of releasing, despite her cautions.

  She often replayed the words he had said on her last day of class in her mind; “I just meant that if I had a wife as beautiful as you, I would never let her out of my sight.”

  “I am a grown man, Elena. I have been through worse than an angry divorce,” he assured her. “I just want to ensure that you are done with Aaric Buckley before I invite you to live with me.”

  Deflated, Elena considered her options. Until she signed off on the divorce, she had no available assets to use – not without Aaric tracking her whereabouts. She didn’t want Aaric to find her, not until she was sure she knew what she was going to do but the clock was ticking.

  The problem was, Elena wasn’t sure she was ready to give up on him. He had shown her his propensity for kindness and love. He was not all callousness and cruelty. There was something more to him, something she wanted to capture desperately.

  She kept those thoughts to herself as she quietly moved into David Adler’s quaint but modest house in Miami, each day hoping to catch a glimpse of her husband.

  It was a perverse game she was playing with herself. She never wanted to see him again, and yet she longed for his face every single day.

  You are pining for a man who played your heart like a banjo for two straight years, biding his time in a business deal. Call him, sign the papers and move on with your life already, she told herself every day, but she couldn’t bring herself to pick up the phone.

  When she did toy with her new burner cell, it was to contemplate sending him a scathing text, asking him how he could do that to her.

  She had left the cell which Aaric paid on the bed of their master suite. She had left everything behind except those Levis and Lulu Lemon shirts she had worn into the marriage. It was what she had come into the relationship with after all.

  I lived twenty-seven good years without ever being screwed over by a man, she thought, swirling her spoon in the tea. And when I finally gave up my heart, I got burned in every possible way.

  She had opened a separate account for her parents; the two million put in there for them to handle at their leisure.

  When Elena had first left Fisher Island, she went directly to them, telling them that she had left Aaric and not to ask questions.

  “Why? What he do?” Angela demanded. “He beat you?”

  “No! Mom, of course not!” Elena scowled. “Why would you ask something like that?”

  Leave it to my melodramatic mother to assume something like that, Elena thought dryly.

  “Then why you leave? Marriage is forever, Elena. You kids, you get married and divorce like underwear change. You go back and make it work!” Angela insisted, and Elena swallowed the desire to spit forth the entire sordid story.

  “I can’t mom,” she said. “He doesn’t love me. He never did.”

  Angela’s brown eyes filled with compassion as Frank made a commiserating noise.

  “No, Bella, no,” the cooed in unison.

  “In every marriage, you think your husband doesn’t love you, but you talk, you work things out together. Don’t leave, cara mia,” Angela told her. “You go back and talk to Aaric. You want me to talk to him?”

  “No mom I don’t, and this isn’t just a fight. He never loved me. This isn’t something we’re going to overcome.”

  “He loves you,” Frank told her, grasping her hands. “I could see he loved you the first day you brought him. And what man finds a kidney for just any woman’s father? He loves you, trust an old man. He may not show it well, but I can see it.”

  Miserably, Elena shook her head, tears spilling down her cheeks.

  “He doesn’t love me, dad. I promise. We…we didn’t marry with pure intentions.”

  Angela snorted contemptuously.

  “You think I marry your papa for love?” she demanded, and Elena stared at her open-mouthed.

  “Mom!”

  “Tell her, Frank,” Angela urged. “Tell her the truth.”

  Franks shrugged his feeble but wide shoulders.

  “We hated each other,” he told his only daughter. “I wanted to kill her big mouth every time she talked.”

  “Oh, and he liked to look at skirts. My hand, it was tired from hitting his stupid head all the time. He slept with one woman too many, and I tell him next time I chop it off.”

  Frank’s nod was one of the agreements, and Elena was dismayed.

  “Then why the hell did you get married?” Elena asked, shocked by the revelation.

  The elder Mancinis shrugged together.

  “Our parents tell us we marry and we marry. It was old world, cara. We did what our parents say. Not like here, not like now,” Angela grumbled. “We respect our parents.”

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Elena mumbled. “You two take care of each other. You love each other!”

  They nodded together.

  “Of course we do, cara,” Frank replied. “Because love grows even in places it wasn’t at first. But you must nurture it.”

  Fresh tears filled her eyes, and she hung her head.

  “He doesn’t love me, dad. He wants a divorce,” she whispered. “He doesn’t feel any love, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

  She buried her face in her hands and began to wail as her parents comforted her. There was nothing they could say to make it better, nothing to stop the stabbing pain from piercing her gut.

  “Are you okay, Elena?”

  David’s voice brought her back to the present, and she shook her head.

  “I’m really tired,” she told him. “I think I’m going to lie down.”

  He nodded, rising to pull out her chair for her and Elena slipped up
the stairs toward their shared bedroom.

  As she stepped into the strange, wallpapered room, she was suddenly overwhelmed by the difference between David and Aaric.

  David is a perfect gentleman, intelligent and eager to please. Aaric is an ass. A misogynistic, arrogant jerk off who strung you along. A man who somehow bettered and ruined your life simultaneously.

  Elena slipped under the heavy quilt, relishing the warmth despite the humid Florida air in which she was encased.

  You will call Aaric when you wake and tell him you’ll sign the papers. And when you have finished signing the divorce papers, you will take your money and move away from Miami. Maybe see if you can find a retirement home in another state for mom and dad if they want to leave. If not, I will try to stay close enough to fly back and forth once a week.

  Closing her dark eyes, she allowed her palms to caress her slowly growing stomach, pain, and humiliation filling her throat.

  And I will take this baby where Aaric will never know about it.

  Chapter Eleven

  They stared at each other for the first time in almost four months, each trying not to look the other in the eye.

  Aaric slid the papers across the table.

  “There are stickers where you need to sign,” he told her, his voice gruff with emotion.

  Elena did not answer, her own eyes trained on the table before her. She seemed to be detached from everything going on around her.

  “Elena? Are you well? You seem so pale,” Aaric implored, finally looking at her face. She was waxen in complexion, but she had gained an almost imperceivable amount of weight. He supposed a layperson wouldn’t have noticed the change, but he had memorized every inch of his wife in the two years they spent knowing each other intimately.

  How did I get any work done when she was in the house? He wondered, awestruck by her beauty. She was the loveliest woman he had ever laid eyes upon in his life.

  Just focus on what you came here for, he told himself sternly. Get the papers and get out of here.

  But he could not tear his eyes from her face. She seemed to have lost the vitality in her essence.

  And I did that to her, he realized, a hot bile rising in his throat. It was too late for regrets; he knew that.

  The previous afternoon, Bradley Collier had called him with the news – he had found Elena. It was already old information as earlier that morning; he had been shocked to answer a call on his private cell phone from Elena herself.

  “I’m ready to sign the papers,” she had said flatly, and Aaric forgot to breathe.

  “Elena? How are you? Where are you?” he demanded, his words flowing forward in a rush of emotion.

  “Can you meet me tomorrow?” she asked as if he had not spoken.

  “I – yes. What time? Where?”

  “Miami Beach. South Pointe Beach is fine. Coco’s Café, one o’clock.”

  She disconnected, leaving Aaric staring at the phone in his hand.

  When he looked at the number, he saw she had called from a private line.

  I could call Collier and have him trace it, he thought but what would be the point? She had agreed to meet him.

  When Collier called that afternoon, he had more interesting news.

  “I have located Mrs. Buckley,” he told Aaric. “But I don’t know if you want to approach her alone. It might be better if I deal with her.”

  “She called me this morning,” Aaric replied scornfully. “So whatever you have to say is invalid.”

  Collier’s white eyebrows shot up in surprise.

  “Did she?” he asked. “What did she say?”

  Aaric scowled at the private investigator.

  “The nature of my conversations with my wife is none of your concern. Did you get an address for her?”

  “Yes, Mr. Buckley which is why I am suggesting that you lay low. She is living with a man.”

  The news struck Aaric like a blow to the face.

  “What? Like a roommate?”

  Bradley cleared his throat.

  “No, sir, like a lover. The man was her former ethics professor at Florida International University. A David Adler.”

  Aaric wracked his brain for any mention of such a professor, but he could not recall Elena telling him anything about any of her teachers.

  Or maybe she did, and I just didn’t hear her, he thought, ashamed. God, I am such a prick.

  He wondered how long the affair had been going on.

  “Give me the address, Collier.”

  Aaric jotted the information down on a piece of paper on his desk and hung up the phone.

  He stared up at the ceiling for a long while, debating his next move.

  She’s been found and is ready to sign the papers. You got what you wanted. Right?

  Yet as Aaric stared at her face, he could see that it was not what Elena wanted.

  Why did she finally agree to do it? Does this mean she’s over me? Maybe she wants to marry the teacher?

  “Elena, are you happy?”

  He immediately regretted his question as she whipped her head up and glared at him.

  “Happy?” she echoed. “Happy? You played me for a fool. You strung me along like a puppet for two years. That doesn’t bode too well for the old ego, Aaric.”

  “I didn’t play you, Elena,” he sighed. “We had a deal. You got overly invested.”

  “And you let me!” she shrieked, slamming her fist against the table. “You are the most heartless, selfish son of a bitch I have ever met in my life!”

  The other patrons glanced at the couple in shock and Elena immediately lowered her voice, her dark eyes focussed on her soon to be ex-husband.

  “That is irrelevant now anyway. Just stop pretending you give a shit about how I’m doing,” Elena snapped. She picked up a pen and scrawled her signature in several spots.

  “How long will I have to wait for your money to come through?”

  Aaric examined her silently.

  I have really hurt her. She is cold, removed. Will she ever be the same?

  She pushed the papers back across the table.

  “Well?”

  “Well, what?” Aaric asked, a lump forming in his throat. He would be lying to himself if he said he hadn’t missed Elena in the past months. He had been sure that in her absence, he would be grateful to have his sanctuary back but Fisher Island had been stunning lonely with her gone. Aaric had not realized how much she had contributed to the household. With her bright aura gone, there seemed to be a darkness in the sunny house.

  “Come home with me,” Aaric heard himself say suddenly and Elena stared at him, her mouth agape.

  “You must think I’m a complete idiot,” she said in disbelief. “Go home with you for what? What else do you need? You got your citizenship.”

  “Come home with me and stay,” Aaric told her earnestly, his eyes filled with yearning. “I’ve missed you, Elena. The house is empty without you.”

  He knew that he was speaking to her in truths. She had affected him more than he had been aware and he could not bear the thought of going home alone.

  I will spend the rest of my days wondering where she is and what she’s doing, he thought, a slight panic filling him.

  “You are a piece of work, Aaric. Just take your paperwork and get out of my sight,” she snarled, rising. “You have my banking information. When can I expect money to be deposited?”

  “I can get you money today,” Aaric replied, shaking his head.

  When did she become all about the money? Have I rubbed off on her so much?

  Aaric couldn’t reconcile the icy woman sitting before him as the same sassy, tongue in cheek girl who had spent the last nine years knowing.

  If she has changed, I have no one to blame but myself.

  “Have a nice life, Aaric,” Elena said, turning to walk away.

  “Elena!” he called after her. She stopped but did not turn, waiting for him to speak.

  “I – I didn’t want things to end like t
his.”

  She abruptly spun and smirked at him caustically.

  “The problem with you, Aaric, is that you don’t know what the hell you want. You want to claim everything but want the responsibility of nothing. You do it in business and personally. When everything goes ass up, you just throw money after it to fix the problem instead of doing the right thing in the first place. You deserve yourself. Do yourself a favor and stay with yourself. Don’t drag anyone else into your egomaniacal little world.”

  Aaric watched as she walked out of his life, one last time, her words reverberating around in his head.

  I have to let her go, he thought miserably. She is far too hurt. There is nothing I can say or do to make this right now. Maybe over time, she will learn to forgive me…

  Aaric knew that he was indulging in a fantasy.

  Elena was gone.

  And he had let her go.

  “Please, Elena, don’t go!” David cried, standing helplessly in the doorway. “What can I do to make you stay?”

  Elena felt a wave of regret sweep through her as she turned to look at her professor turned temporary lover.

  You used him the same way Aaric used you, she thought miserably. You would never have done something like this before this stupid fake marriage. That man has brought out the worst in you.

  Elena held her hand up at the taxi and turned back to walk up the steps toward David.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, dropping her single bag on the porch to embrace him. “But I should never have come here.”

  “Of course you should have!” David beseeched, his voice cracking. “You needed to get away from Aaric, and I was here to help you.”

  “I don’t love you, David,” she said sadly, watching his face twist into pain at her words.

  “You will grow to love me,” he cried and the words stabbed into Elena.

  I thought the same thing about Aaric, she thought bitterly.

  “No,” she told him firmly. “I won’t.”

  She grabbed her bag and hurried down the steps toward the taxi, slipping into the backseat. She did not look at David as the cab pulled away from the curb.