Jealousy & a Jewelled Proposition

by Yvonne Lindsay

  Rachel rubbed her hand across her eyes. “Of course, that makes sense. I’m sorry. I’m tired. I should have thought of that.”

  “You should go back to bed. What are you doing up, anyway?” He flicked a glance at his watch. It was one o’clock in the morning. They should all be in bed.

  His body tautened at the thought. In bed. Together. He resolutely shoved the thought back down into the dark place it belonged.

  “I wanted to get some eucalyptus for Blake’s humidifier. He sounded a bit chesty at bedtime and his coughing woke me a while ago. He settled straight down again, but I thought it would be a good idea to get the humidifier going just to make sure it doesn’t get any worse.”

  “You head back to bed. I’ll take care of it.”

  “It’s no problem.”

  “You’re dead on your feet. Don’t worry. I’ll see to him.”

  “Okay then.” She turned to leave the room, but hesitated at the doorway. “Matt, how are you going to prove that Howard Blackstone was Marise’s father? Kimberley Perrini and Ryan Blackstone aren’t going to be too happy about a new skeleton in their father’s closet, especially not so soon after their brother has resurfaced.”

  “It’s not their happiness I’m concerned about. Don’t worry, I’ll deal with it.”

  Matt flexed his hands and counted the minutes to the time when Kimberley Perrini would be at her desk at Blackstone’s head office and he could call and tell her what he wanted of her.

  Six months ago it would have been simple. He’d have known that no matter what, he could have counted on his cousin’s support. But things had changed. Drastically. So drastically they were barely even on speaking terms anymore. Her doing, his choice. By returning to Blackstone’s the way she did with no notice, no warning, she’d effectively cut herself off from him and House of Hammond. It was little wonder he’d rejected her overtures after Marise had died—who wouldn’t when it was Kim’s own father Marise had been with. But in the light of what he now believed, he had to hope that Kim would see things his way.

  He switched on his laptop and attached to an e-mail two pictures that showed the similarities between Marise and Howard. The more often he looked at them the more he was convinced he was right.

  But would Kim feel the same way? Would she want to find out that a woman she’d only tolerated for Matt’s sake was in fact her half sister? He didn’t doubt that Ryan would do his best to forestall any attempt to create a familial link between his father and Marise. The guy’s tenacity knew no bounds, and protecting the Blackstone empire was inherent in him. If he sensed any additional threat, he’d close everything down as fast as he could.

  Matt picked up his phone, punching the numbers and waiting for the burr of the call connecting through to Sydney. He momentarily rued that he’d deleted her mobile number off his phone but reminded himself they’d gone past that type of closeness. As he identified himself to the telephonist and asked to speak to Kim he wondered how long it would be before anyone else knew who was calling and to whom. No doubt Ryan or Ric Perrini’s minions would spread the news with the speed of an Aussie bushfire.

  “Matt, this is a surprise. How are you? And Blake, how’s he keeping?”

  Kim’s voice sounded achingly familiar in his ear. He’d always admired Kim’s directness and honesty and he missed working with her more than he’d ever admit to anyone. But underlying the warmth and familiarity in her tone, her voice held an element of caution.

  “We’re fine. Look, this isn’t a social call.”

  She sighed. “No, I didn’t expect it was, although I’d hoped that by now we could start to mend some fences between us. Don’t you think it’s time?”

  He could hear the hope in her voice, the gentle plea to let go of his anger. The last words he’d exchanged with her had been bitter, laced with shock and grief, and above all, anger at what her father had wrought upon his family.

  “Time? You tell me. I need to ask you something, but before I can explain why, give me your e-mail address. I need to send you a couple of attachments.” As Kim gave him the details, he typed them in then hit the send button. “Let me know when you’ve got them.”

  He heard the hitch in her breathing as she opened the file.

  “What do you want, Matt?”

  “Have you looked at the pictures?”

  “Of course I’ve looked at them. What are you getting at? Is this some kind of cruel taunt?”

  Matt expelled a sharp breath. “Look at them again. Very carefully.”

  “I don’t know what you expect me to see here. It would help if you told me what I’m supposed to be looking for.”

  He could hear the frustration in Kim’s voice and felt a momentary pang for forcing her to look at the photos of her father and the woman she’d known so well. The woman who the world at large thought had been having an affair with Howard Blackstone.

  “Kim, just concentrate. Try to get past the fact you knew them both and try to look at the pictures with a fresh eye. Tell me what you see,” he coaxed.

  “Okay, but I still don’t see…Oh.”

  Matt gripped his phone tight as he waited for Kim to speak again. When she did, she obviously chose her words very carefully.

  “The widow’s peak. I never noticed Marise had one before.”

  “We never really notice what we’re not looking for.”

  “Am I meant to assume you think there was a relationship between Howard and Marise that wasn’t sexual?”

  “Yes. I do.”

  “But that’s ridiculous.”

  “Is it? Was Howard so devoted to your mother that it’s outside of the realm of possibility he had an affair? We already know he wasn’t a saint and your mother was withdrawn and depressed after James was taken. Howard was a virile man. As much as he supposedly loved your mother he could have had an affair, and he could have had other children. After all, no-one had trouble believing he was having an affair with my wife.” Matt pressed home his point with the subtlety of a hammer on an anvil, strike after strike.

  “Matt, look. I know you must still be hurting, but seriously, what are you hoping to achieve with this? It’ll just start up the media merry-go-round again. Do you really want that? And how do you hope to prove your theory?”

  “A DNA comparison will satisfy any question over their relationship. I want it clear that my wife wasn’t having an affair with your father.”

  “So this is all down to your pride and this stupid feud? I don’t think so, Matt.”

  “My pride has nothing to do with it. Would you rather continue to believe your father was having an affair with someone young enough to be his daughter when he died? Think of it from a public relations angle, Kim. Think of the damage that has been done to Blackstone’s since he died.”

  “Damage you’ve been capitalising on!” Kim interjected.

  Matt rubbed his fingers across his forehead. Damn. Arguing with her wouldn’t get the answer he wanted.

  “Barbara Davenport was your father’s secretary. She left his employ around the same time the Blackstone Rose went missing. We both know what a bastard Howard could be. If he cut Barbara off when she fell pregnant, what better revenge could she have had on him than stealing from him the one thing he prized above all else? The one thing he believed symbolised his success. Marise had four of the stones when she died. It makes sense that her mother gave them to her.”

  “And the fifth stone? Tracing that would be the only way to prove whether your outrageous theory holds water.”

  “I have the fifth stone.”

  “You…you what?”

  Matt swiftly explained his recent trip to Tahiti and meeting Temana Sullivan.

  “Trust me on this, Kim. Barbara Davenport stole the original necklace and broke it down. I don’t know whether the heat around selling the largest diamond put her off selling the others or whether on its own it got her enough money to live the lifestyle we both know that her husband couldn’t have provided on his income, but whi
chever way you look at it, she’s the common denominator.”

  “Okay, for argument’s sake, let’s say she is, and that you’re right. What do you want from me?”

  “I need authorisation from all of you to allow me access to Howard’s DNA results. I need to know, Kim, for Blake’s sake. I don’t want him to grow up with a mass of lies and speculation about his mother hanging over his head. You know what that’s like. You don’t want to put him through that, do you?”

  He waited for what felt like an aeon before she replied.

  “Okay, I’ll do what I can to ensure Ryan and Jake give their consent.”

  “Thank you, Kim.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. You might have my agreement, but Ryan and Jake are going to be a lot harder to convince. We have a meeting scheduled shortly. I’ll try to call you back later today.”

  Nine

  Matt spent the better part of the day working desperately to distract himself from the agony of waiting for Kim’s call. In the end it was after five before his secretary buzzed through to say she was on the line.

  “What did they say?” Matt asked as he picked up the phone.

  “It wasn’t easy, but I have their agreement.” She sounded weary even though it was still only midafternoon in Sydney.

  “Excellent. I’ll get things rolling from this end.” He wanted to punch the air.

  “Hold up a minute. They have made some stipulations and, to be honest, we’re in unanimous agreement on this.”

  A frisson of disquiet skittered down his spine. “Go on.”

  “Obviously you want some kind of public statement about the outcome of the DNA comparison if it proves your theory is correct—and I’d like to say that both Ryan and Jake are very doubtful of this.”

  “I had considered that a press release would be the best way of nipping this whole thing in the bud.” He didn’t want to tell her about his own recent fears about Blake and that he was sitting on the release of a statement that proved his fatherhood of his son. He was glad now he’d waited. Imagine the impact if both statements were released at the same time.

  “We’ve done a little research and understand that if you can provide something of Marise’s—a toothbrush, a hairbrush, even some hair that might still be on an item of clothing—the lab in Canberra that identified Howard’s remains is prepared to rush through the comparison. However, the results will be returned to us. We are prepared to inform you of the outcome, of course, but even in the event you’re proven correct you will have no physical proof, there will be no statement issued and no acknowledgement of the relationship, unless you agree to one thing.”

  “What?” Matt bit the word out through a clenched jaw. He could see where this was going and he didn’t like it one little bit.

  “You are to withdraw from the takeover bid, stop your buyout.”

  A wave of fury swelled through him. His first instinct was to growl “Never!” and slam down the phone, but he reined in his fury just that little bit and harnessed the control he needed.

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “That’s our offer, take it or leave it.”

  “And if I leave it?”

  “How can you even ask that? Maybe you should be asking yourself the real reason why you want to know about Marise and Howard. From here it sounds more like you’re doing it for yourself than for Blake. When you can answer yourself honestly, call me back and let me know what you want to do.” Then she hung up.

  Matt was furious. With himself and with Kim. But he had to admit it, they held all the cards and they knew exactly how to deal them. Without the Blackstone children’s permission he’d never get access to their father’s DNA records. At a stretch he might be able to get some comparative kinship test done if he could find anything of Kim’s still lying around, but he’d been ruthless in purging her workspace—and the Hammond-owned town house that had been provided as part of her employment package—when she’d told him she was staying in Australia. He’d overseen the movers as they boxed up every last item and had it shipped to her without so much as a personal note.

  Given how thorough he’d been to strip every last thing of Kim’s from wherever she’d left her personal stamp, Matt wasn’t prepared to think about why he still hadn’t let go of his dead wife’s possessions.

  He’d allowed himself to be manipulated into a tight corner, and there was only one way out. To agree. But agreement went against everything he’d been working so hard for. Was it enough simply to know for himself what the results were? Would that be enough for Blake in years to come?

  Ever since his grandfather, Jebediah Hammond, had signed over his mining leases to Howard Blackstone, it had been his father, Oliver’s, greatest goal to regain control of the diamonds that Blackstone had built his empire on. That goal had become Matt’s and with the rift between the families wider than ever, he had been even more determined to see his father’s dream realised.

  But if Marise was truly Howard’s daughter, wasn’t his agenda thereby altered? Weren’t the anger and the bitterness that had festered deep inside him falsely bred? His entire perception had to shift.

  Matt wasn’t a man accustomed to making mistakes. Every last detail had to be perfect before he would commit. Not for him the highs and lows of speculation and risk. No. He had to be certain that if he called a halt to his buy up of Blackstone Diamonds shares that it was for all the right reasons.

  If he agreed to the Blackstone children’s condition he was faced with the prospect of fielding his father’s disappointment. While he’d been able to privately vindicate his father of the theft of the Blackstone Rose, and while the re-emergence of James Blackstone, as Jake Vance, had cleared his parents in his abduction, there still remained his father’s one bug bear.

  The mines.

  Legend had grown around his father’s final words to Howard Blackstone on the fateful night the necklace had been stolen. “Diamonds that belong to theHammonds I would take from you in a heartbeat, you bastard, but never a child.”

  There was no argument. A child’s needs came before everything. Even a father’s. And Blake deserved to grow up without the cloud of scandal over his mother’s death hovering over his head. Damn. For his own peace of mind he needed to know the answer. The rest, well, he’d have to think about that.

  He picked up the phone. They thought they had him, but he’d find some way out of this. A way to break beyond their conditions. Right now it was more important to get things under way. When Kim picked up at the other end he cut straight to the point.

  “I’ll send you what you need to get this started,” he enunciated carefully, determined not to show so much as a crack in his control.

  “So you’ve agreed? You’re withdrawing from the takeover? Matt, I’m so relieved, I knew you’d—”

  “No.” He said the word quietly.

  “No? What do you mean, no?” Kim’s confusion was clear in her voice.

  “Just get the tests done.”

  “But—”

  “The tests, Kim. That’s all for now.” He put down the receiver. Without his agreement would they change their minds about getting the comparison done? It was a risk he was willing to take. Their consent to go ahead with the testing had been a telling moment. By now he’d lay odds they wanted answers almost as much as he did.

  When he got home he was surprised to find the house in darkness. Rachel’s car wasn’t where it was usually parked and there was no sign of either her or Blake. It was late. A sense of alarm washed through his body. Where were they? Had something happened to them?

  From the kitchen he started to dial the numbers to Rachel’s mobile phone when he heard her key in the front door. He sped through to the entrance hall. She was alone. He caught her by the arm as she swung the door shut and reset the dead lock.

  “Where have you been? Where’s Blake?”

  Rachel shook herself free. “Blake’s with your mum and dad. Mrs Hammond called me to see if she could have him overnight. I didn�
�t think you’d have a problem with that. Do you?”

  He was overreacting. The by-product of too much frustration, and not all of it centred on his conversation with Kimberley Perrini.

  “Of course not. Just keep me in the loop next time.”

  He stepped back and Rachel brushed past him, sending his body into instant full alert. He ground his teeth together silently. Yes, the frustration he suffered had a lot more to do with his son’s off-limits nanny than with anything else. The faint imprint of her warmth where her hip had grazed his was like a burning brand. He wanted that brand over his entire body, skin to skin.

  An aberration, she’d called their last encounter. But this sensation that held his body captive was no aberration. It was desire and need and longing all bundled into one aching mass centred deep within his body. It would be so easy to give in. To take Rachel in his arms, to taste her sweet essence and plunder her softness in the pursuit of release. If for one minute he thought that would soothe the disquieting ache within, if to take her and have done with her would bring it all to an end, he’d have followed her through to the kitchen where he could hear her preparing dinner. He’d take her by the hand and lead her to his master suite where he’d peel the winter layers of her clothing from her body, one piece at a time, until he exposed her pearly white skin. Then he’d explore every inch of her in as leisurely a fashion as he was capable of.

  His hands shook. Okay, so leisurely probably wasn’t in the cards. Nor was the realisation of the fantasy that plagued him night and day. Matt dragged his fractured thoughts together and locked them away in a cold, dark corner of his mind.

  In the kitchen Rachel started to put together a quick meal for herself and Matt. Her mother always had a selection of pre-made dinners in the deep freeze in the utility room off the kitchen. Rachel had selected a home-made lasagne and popped it into the convection oven to warm through.