“Of course. Shall we meet here? I bet you haven’t seen many of the sights since you’ve arrived.”
Chloe shook her head, and they arranged a time to meet. Bowen insisted on paying the bill, and she let him. With her thoughts in turmoil, she walked back to the Jeep. While Bowen had no proof that Gaelan was involved in his wife’s death, what he'd revealed to her was damning enough that Chloe should probably leave Widow's Cliff. But then she remembered Sophia. Surely she couldn’t leave her with such a man. No, she told herself firmly, it’s my responsibility now to look after Sophia.
She didn’t doubt Bowen’s story. It fit with all she knew about Gaelan, although she had to admit it wasn’t much. But it was good she had met Bowen when she did. She had to admit that, despite her misgivings earlier about Gaelan, she had allowed herself to fantasize. More than once she had thought with a woman’s love he might change, might start to feel something for Sophia, for herself. Really, she had been behaving like a lovesick schoolgirl who’d read too many romances. From now on she would think of him as her boss, nothing more.
She climbed into the Jeep and turned the key in the ignition. It made a few grinding noises, then nothing. She swore under her breath and leaned her head against the steering wheel. Now what? Sophia’s class would be over in fifteen minutes. How would they get home? Knowing it was useless, she turned the key again. The result was the same.
Suddenly there was a sharp knock on the window. Startled, she looked up. It was Bowen.
“Problems?” he said.
Chloe rolled down the window. “It won’t start.”
“Oh, no! It’s going to be tough to find someone to fix it on a Friday afternoon.”
“Great,” she said in exasperation. “I’ve got to pick up Sophia.”
“Come on, I’ll drive you home. You can call a garage tomorrow.”
She thought for a moment. Maybe Windy’s nephew could take care of it. She could ask Windy to call him later. “Okay, thanks a lot.”
It wasn’t until they were parked in front of the church where Sophia’s class was being held that Chloe suddenly saw the flaw in her plan. “Sophia,” she said suddenly. “Isn’t she going to recognise you?”
“I doubt it. I haven’t seen her for four years.”
“But you look like her father.”
He shrugged. “Don’t worry. They say everyone has a twin somewhere. Just go get her - everything will be fine.”
And it was. Sophia did a slight double-take at seeing Bowen but on deciding that he wasn’t her father didn’t remark on the likeness. She had more important things to talk about. One of the students had brought in his puppy, and Chloe was regaled with a moment-by-moment description of the puppy’s antics.
They drove along the coast. On their left was a rock cut, and signs warned of falling rocks. On the right, a guard rail marked the edge of the shoulder and the beginning of a rocky descent to the ocean. They were about five miles out of town when the clouds finally let go and the rain came down in a sudden torrent. Bowen cursed and slowed the car down to a crawl. “It’s freezing on the road,” he said, straining to see through the downpour. “I just suddenly remembered why I hate this bloody province - winter ten months of the year.”
Taken aback by his language, Chloe suggested they find a spot to pull over until the worst of the rain had passed. She looked behind her to check on Sophia and was horrified to see that the girl had taken off her seatbelt and was leaning over the back of her seat. “Sophia!” Chloe said sharply. “Put your seatbelt back on!”
“I want to show you my picture of the puppy. It’s in my backpack.”
“You can show me when you get home. Please sit down and put on your seatbelt.”
Just then Bowen cursed again, and Chloe wheeled around to see a truck coming toward them, swerving from side to side as the driver struggled to keep it on the road. Everything else happened in a blur. Bowen slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel hard to the left, and Chloe saw the truck, the rock cut, the ocean, the sky whirling around them as if their car was a spinning top. Sophia screamed in the back of the car, and Chloe turned in her seat. Straining against the momentum of the spinning car, she reached for Sophia, praying the child would not be thrown through the windshield, and waited for the crash...
* * *
“Mon dieu, Gaelan!” Marcus said in exasperation from behind his desk. “You are going to wear out the carpet with that infernal pacing. Not only that, you haven’t heard a single word I’ve said to you. Now sit down and tell me what is going on.”
Gaelan didn’t answer but instead went to the window and looked out over the city of Montreal. Marcus’s office was on the fortieth floor of the glass-and-steel building that housed Byrne’s Enterprises. The floor-to-ceiling windows afforded an excellent view. The building marked the edge of the modern city, and below them the old city with its labyrinth of cobbled streets and stone buildings stretched between them and the harbour still peppered with the remains of the winter's ice. Gaelan liked this view, liked to think of the river flowing out of the city toward the ocean and his home on Widow’s Cliff. It was a grey day, but as yet there had been no rain.
“Come on,” Marcus urged. “Tell me what's going on. You’ve been here since Monday, shutting yourself up in your office, but as far as I can tell, you haven’t done a stitch of work.”
Gaelan turned and looked at Marcus as if to say just who’s the boss here anyway?
In his bespoke Savile Row suit, Marcus actually looked more the part of the boss. Gaelan on the other hand hated suits and instead wore a creamy wool shirt and jeans. He refused to wear a tie on any occasion, and his business acquaintances knew it was useless to print black tie on his invitations - he would dress as he pleased. It killed them too that Gaelan could carry off a shirt and jeans with the elegance of a tuxedo and turn the head of every woman in the room.
“You’ve also been avoiding me,” Marcus said. “You haven’t even told me how you made out with Sophia’s new tutor.”
“How I made out?” Gaelan hooked his thumbs into the belt loops of his jeans and leaned a shoulder against the glass. “Then I guess I was right in thinking you were more interested in finding me a girlfriend than Sophia a teacher.”
Marcus grinned. “Well, how did I make out then?”
Gaelan turned his attention to the view. His eyes were full of dark emotion. “I don’t know whether to thank you or to fire you,” he said.
“Then you like her?” Marcus asked, sounding pleased with himself.
“Who wouldn’t?” Gaelan said. “She’s gorgeous, sexy, smart, and already she adores Sophia. But I can’t drag her into the mess I’ve made of my life.”
“Come on. Doesn’t love always find a way?”
“Maybe in songs and movies, Marcus.”
“Look, just level with her. Tell her the whole story. Colleen, Sophia, Bowen.”
“I'm not sure even I know the whole story, Marcus.”
“Is that why you're here? Accept it, Gaelan - get on with your life. You deserve it."
Gaelan shrugged. Marcus made it sound so easy.
"So, where is that brother of yours now anyway?” Marcus asked.
“I don’t know. He’s not in Greece anymore. The number I had for him is out of service.” Gaelan had also tried calling a number in Italy, but there had been no answer. He wondered if he should tell Marcus that he might have a lead, but then decided against it. Marcus was right - he should just get on with his life. After all this time, his theories were starting to sound a little crazy.
He suppressed a sigh and returned to the problem of Bowen. “Bowen was probably chased out the country by some irate husband. But he’ll show up, he always does, whenever the money runs out. And I have this bad feeling he’s overdue for a visit.”
“I don’t know how you put up with the guy. Surely he could be wealthy in his own right by now.”
“He has been, several times over. I know it, I wrote the cheques. But money runs throu
gh his fingers like water. I guess being an international playboy is expensive.”
“Sounds like a lot more fun than working too.” Marcus got up from behind his desk and went to the drinks cabinet. “Scotch? It’s Friday afternoon. I think we call it quits. If that’s okay with you, boss.”
“I think we can allow that,” Gaelan said with one of his rare laughs. He went and sat on the leather couch, putting his feet up on the coffee table. It was a relief to talk about it. Marcus brought back the drinks and took an armchair across from Gaelan. “I think Bowen still thinks he’s on the stage. But now he writes his own dramas with himself as the poor misunderstood hero at the centre.”
“He’s good at it too,” Marcus said. “I’ve always wondered if Colleen might have been his victim rather than anything else.”
“Well, you can stop wondering. She had just as big of a part to play as he did. Colleen was no victim. Two of a kind, that pair. Now, every time I meet a woman, I wonder if Bowen is waiting in the wings, setting me up, like he did with Colleen.”
“Have you told Chloe about Sophia?” Marcus asked.
Gaelan shook his head. “No. But she made it pretty plain to me on the first day that she thought I was a terrible father.”
Marcus laughed. “And so you are.”
Gaelan laughed too but hollowly. Thank God for scotch, he thought just as his cell rang. He took it from his pocket and put it to his ear without checking the display. “Gaelan Byrne,” he said.
There was a rush of words at the other end. It was impossible for Gaelan to make them out, although he did recognise Windy’s voice.
“Slow down, Windy! I can’t understand a word.”
“Oh Gaelan, it's Sophia! There’s been an accident, a car accident on Cliff Road! She was with Chloe. Oh, Gaelan, I’m so worried! Chloe phoned me from the hospital. Sophia’s unconscious, and they don’t know how bad it is.”
Gaelan felt himself go cold. “Where is she?”
“St. Agnes’s Hospital in St. John’s. Chloe’s with her.”
“Chloe’s alright?”
“Yes, but she’s pretty upset.”
“I’ll fly out tonight. You get your sister to stay with you, okay?”
There was a pause, and Gaelan pictured Windy nodding into the receiver rather than answering.
“Try not to worry,” he said, knowing such words were useless. After telling her he would call her from the hospital, he shoved the phone back into his pocket.
“Come on, Marcus. You have to drive me to the airport. I have to fly back to St. John’s immediately.”
Marcus was already on his feet, grabbing his coat from the hook beside the door. Gaelan put on his own long black coat, and the two of them were down the elevator and to the car in minutes. “What happened, Gaelan?” Marcus asked as they almost ran.
“It’s Sophia,” Gaelan explained. “There’s been a car accident. I don’t know how bad it is, but Windy says Sophia is unconscious.” Gaelan was amazed by his own fear for the child. This was the second time in a week he’d been scared into recognising his feelings for someone. Only Chloe hadn’t been hurt, and Sophia was. Maybe seriously. Maybe even fatally.
As soon as got to his jet at the airport, he dropped down into his seat, impatient for takeoff. He had taken only his cell with him, but not his briefcase let alone a laptop, and he sat with his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his long black coat, willing them not to shake.
The flight was a bad one as the plane rocked with turbulence, but Gaelan was oblivious to it. He stared out the window without even registering the threat as the pilot brought the plane up through the black clouds. All he could think of was Sophia. He thought of the times she had wanted his attention and how he had walked away from her, refusing to be the father she needed. And she had no mother - not that Colleen had been much of a mother, but he certainly hadn’t won any awards as a father lately. Not since Colleen had told him... He uttered a prayer that he might have a second chance.
The pilot came on over the intercom and announced the landing. It was two degrees Celsius in St. John’s and raining. The flight had taken less than two hours, but it had seemed forever to Gaelan. He ran out though the gate, grabbed the first cab outside the terminal, and ordered the driver to take him to St. Agnes’s.
* * *
Chloe was sitting next to the bed holding Sophia’s hand when Gaelan stormed breathlessly into the room.
Chloe jumped from her chair, anxious to relieve the look of fear on his face. “She’s going to be okay,” she said in an urgent whisper. “She’s just sleeping now.”
“Thank God!” he said with relief. He leaned over the sleeping girl and kissed her gently on the forehead, water dripping from his coat and hair onto the white sheets and the girl’s equally white face.
She stirred without opening her eyes. “Daddy?” she whispered.
“Yes, it’s me, Sophia. Everything is going to be okay.”
She nodded. “I’m going to go to sleep now, okay?”
“Yes, I’ll see you in the morning, honey.”
Chloe watched as he stroked Sophia’s hair for a moment, wondering how she could ever have thought that Gaelan Byrne did not love his daughter. It was just a shame it took a near tragedy to make him show it.
The doctor came into the room, and he and Gaelan spoke quietly next to Sophia’s bed. Everything was going to be okay. Only a mild concussion. Sophia had been lucky.
Suddenly Chloe felt a wave of exhaustion wash over her. For a moment she wondered if she were going to faint, and she leaned back against the door for support. The last few hours had been horrific, and she could hardly remember the details of the crash. The sound of squealing tires as the car swung around and the crunch of metal as it crashed into the guardrail. The much louder crash of the truck as it hit the rock cut head on. Somewhere in this hospital was the truck driver, miraculously alive with only minor injuries.
Chloe recalled the fear as she waited for the ambulance, Sophia unconscious in her arms. And where was Bowen? She remembered him talking to the police, recalled him there when the ambulance arrived, but then he was gone. She supposed he didn’t want to stick around and face his brother, but she couldn’t help thinking he had been cowardly, leaving her alone with Sophia.
She wondered what she should tell Gaelan. She could imagine his fury when he found out that she was with his brother. Not that the accident was Bowen’s fault, but she had a feeling that he would be angry with her for accepting the ride with him.
As she stood watching Gaelan and Sophia, she tried to remember the things Bowen had said about Gaelan. Gaelan had stolen his girlfriend and may have played a role in his wife’s death. Somehow now, they sounded like sour grapes, the paranoia of a jealous brother. There had been an investigation after all, and Colleen’s death had been ruled an accident. Chloe felt ashamed for taking Bowen’s side against Gaelan and wondered how she was going to tell Gaelan she had been with his brother - not to mention that his brother had been driving when the accident occurred.
Gaelan turned and looked at her, his eyes still full of tenderness. “You okay?” he asked gently.
She nodded but tears welled up in her eyes all the same. “I’m so sorry,” she murmured without elaborating all her reasons for being so.
He took her in his arms, and she rested her head against the softness of his shirt, his heart beating strongly against her cheek. “There’s nothing to be sorry for,” he murmured. “I’m just glad you’re both safe.” There was a catch in his voice.
She stood there in the circle of his arms trying to grasp all that was happening. She was safe, Sophia was safe, and Gaelan had showed her how much he loved his daughter. She was wrong to talk to Bowen - it was absurd to think Gaelan could have had something to do with his wife’s death. She had just been angry with him because he didn’t seem to care for Sophia. She had also been angry because he had left her at Widow's Cliff without saying goodbye. She had been lonely, and Bowen had seemed so sympat
hetic...
The Billionaire's Secrets Page 9
