Читать книгу A Promise Kept - Barbara Jeffs - Страница 3

Rebecca.

Thirty Years Ago.

It was a normal Wednesday morning for Mike Conway until the telephone on his desk began to ring.

From that moment on the day became anything but normal, and his staid, unexciting life would never be the same again.

Mike continued to write his signature on the official document in front of him with his right hand as he lifted the telephone receiver to his ear with his left hand and absentmindedly recited his name.

“Mike Conway.”

A female voice came down the line.

“Hello Mike. This is Rebecca.”

Mike was so shocked he dropped the receiver onto the desk and his other hand jerked so badly the pen left a long, ink-filled line across the face of the document. Then his shaky fingers dropped the pen onto the desk beside the phone.

It was a voice from the past. A voice he never expected to hear again. But it was also different to how he remembered it. More mature, not as bubbly and carefree. Nevertheless, it was Rebecca’s voice.

“My God,” he gasped in astonishment, his heart thundering in his chest. He hastily picked the receiver up and asked doubtfully. “Rebecca? Is that really you?”

Rebecca put his rather stupid question down to shock and incredulity and decided to ignore it. After all, who else would be calling him claiming to be Dominic’s long-lost wife?

“I want to arrange a meeting with you, but I don’t want Dominic to be told that you’re meeting me,” she stated firmly.

Mike sucked down a shocked breath. “I can’t do that.”

The line went dead.

Quickly, he disconnected the call and waited until he heard a dial tone, then punched in the number for caller ID and cursed savagely when it came up as ‘Private’.

Smart girl, he conceded reluctantly. She was using a prepaid mobile which meant she could be calling from anywhere in the country. But she had asked for a meeting with him, didn’t that mean that she had to be in Sydney?

If she was in the city, he knew it would be pointless attempting to locate where she was staying. She knew the areas of this city where the firm’s investigators would stand out like flashing neon signs.

Now what the hell was he supposed to do? He asked himself despairingly, gazing blankly at the ink smeared piece of paper on his desk, aware he would now have to get his secretary to apply for another form to replace the one he had just ruined.

But hell, he would gladly ruin a dozen government forms and happily stand in line all day to get a replacement if it meant getting Rebecca back into their lives.

Should he tell Dominic about the call or should he wait on the slim chance that she might call again?

Dominic was the owner of Farrell Enterprises. A chain of luxurious hotels located throughout Australia.

Mike was his lawyer, and his loyalty would always be to Dominic and the firm.

They had started out in the business together fifteen years ago when Dominic had purchased his first hotel.

Yes! He had to tell Dominic at once.

But Dominic was more than his employer, he was also his friend, and this might be his one and only chance to finally find Rebecca for him after years of fruitless searching. Although to be technically correct she had found him so to speak.

Rebecca! He shook his head in dazed amazement, still finding it hard to believe that he had actually spoken to her a few moments ago. In fact, one corner of his mind was convinced it was all just his imagination.

Had he really received a telephone call from Rebecca after all these years, or was he suffering from some kind of breakdown or delusion and was not able to realize it?

For the past five years he’d had hordes of investigators searching the entire country in a desperate attempt to discover her whereabouts.

He raked his hands through his hair, astounded by the coincidence that she had popped up on one of the rare days when he had not been reading yet another report detailing the futile search to discover her present location.

After much soul searching, he finally decided that he would wait for twenty-four hours before informing Dominic that she had called, and in the meantime, he would pray like hell that she called again.

It was logical to assume that the matter was important and that she would contact him again. After all, it was highly improbable that she wanted to meet with him just to have a chat.

***

Further along the corridor in a corner office that overlooked Sydney Harbor, Dominic stood at the large plate glass window gazing at nothing, his mind in the past.

He did not notice the rain beating against the windowpane or see the flashes of lightening brightening up the grey, overcast sky.

Mike’s latest report on Rebecca’s whereabouts lay unopened on his desk.

He saw no point in reading it as it would be like all the other reports he had received over the years – failure to locate subject at this location.

A shudder shook his muscular frame as he recalled the first report he had ever read concerning Rebecca shortly after he had first met her here in this building.

The contents of that report had given him nightmares, and he had felt unbearably sorry for the young girl whose life up to that time had been hell.

‘Name:---Rebecca Ann Wilson. Age:---Twenty. Appears to be homeless. Injured in a car accident at age sixteen’.

Her parents had been killed in that accident and her fourteen-year-old brother had suffered massive brain damage that had left him in a vegetated state.

That brave sixteen-year-old girl had walked out of the hospital two months after the accident and worked two full time jobs for the next four years to pay for her brother’s full-time care.

The world had dealt her a damn lousy hand but in all the weeks he had known her he had never heard her complain or had seen her depressed.

Except when she had lost their baby.

She had sobbed in his arms as if her heart was breaking and would never be whole again, and all his attempts to comfort her and to share her grief had failed miserably.

Don’t go there, his mind screamed. Those memories were too soul destroying, too painful. Leave them in the past where they belonged.

But he could not prevent his mind from returning to the day he had first set eyes on a ragamuffin named Rebecca.

***

Five Years Ago.

Mike’s call on the intercom had been the final straw that morning.

Dominic cursed when the intercom on his desk began to beep. Reluctantly, he glanced across at the annoying machine and noted that the number three button was flashing.

He had given his secretary strict instructions that he was not to be disturbed unless the building was on fire, and only then if his life was in imminent danger. Apparently, he should have given Mike the same message.

Cursing under his breath, he rose to his feet, grabbed hold of the folder that contained the report on the costings for the new hotel in Queensland and strode out of his office.

He gave up attempting to read the detailed report in this madhouse. It was worse than Central Station during peak hours. The old conference rooms on the first floor were never used he would go there.

His secretary looked up in surprise as he halted in front of her desk. “I thought you said you---“

"I know what I said," he interrupted her brusquely, scowling down at her confused face. “I’m going down to the old conference rooms to read this report in peace and you are forbidden to tell anyone where the hell I am.”

“Yes Sir,” Meg acknowledged. She felt as if she should jump to her feet and salute.

“And see what the hell Mike wants,” he growled stalking out of the office and slamming the door shut so hard it vibrated through the entire office.

Meg glared at the shuddering door in disgust. ‘See what Mike wants.’ What a stupid thing for Dominic to say, she scorned. Obviously, Mike wished to speak to him, and as he had just stormed out of the office that would be an impossibility.

When Dominic had walked into the conference room, he had found Rebecca asleep on the couch and all thoughts of reading reports or sending for security had flown straight out of his mind.

She was one of the cleaners who came in each night to clean the offices and would often catch a few hours of sleep on the unused couch after her shift had ended before she began her second job at eleven o’clock later that same morning.

***

A loud crack of thunder that rattled the window glass dragged Dominic back to the present and he sighed, remembering what he had lost.

Even today, he could still clearly remember her thin body curled up into a ball with her cheek resting on the palm of her hand.

“Oh, Becky,” he whispered, the pain in his heart as unbearable today as it had been the night she had walked out of his life.

He sucked down a sharp breath as an icy shiver raced up and down his spine. He could feel her presence. The feeling was so strong, so powerful that he glanced over his shoulder expecting to see her standing across the room.

Of course, no one was there.

Don’t be a damn fool, he berated himself with disdain. Your imagination is running away with you.

He had been thinking of her---again. Obviously, that was why he felt as if she was quite close to him at the moment.

But he had never experienced this feeling before and he thought of her daily, so why should he suddenly sense her presence today?

Rebecca! She haunted his dreams at night and constantly popped into his head during the day. Her gamin grin, her bubbly laughter and zest for life.

Hair as black as ebony and eyes as green as the brightest emerald. Her body warm and wanton in his arms, and he craved that body with a hunger he could never satisfy.

Dominic groaned in anguish as his manhood grew hard, his arms aching to hold her again.

“Damn you, Becky.” He rubbed his hand around the back of his neck in a futile attempt to relieve his frustration. “Must you haunt me forever?”

Muttering curses under his breath, he strode out of the office informing Meg on the way past her desk that he was going down to the squash courts.

Meg sighed in sympathy as she watched his back disappearing out the door. He had been thinking of Rebecca again. She knew that.

Every time he thought of her he would take off and play a few games of squash on the courts in the basement until his libido settled down again. But then sadly the pattern would repeat itself all over again the following day.

All the sleepless nights and work filled days over the past five years were written in every inch of his body. He was thirty-eight years of age, but he looked ten years older.

His thick black hair was sprinkled with streaks of grey and he no longer strode the corridors like a young, virile man. He was six feet two inches tall, but he appeared to be much shorter.

Meg sighed in despair. She felt so helpless.

The three of them, Dominic, Mike and herself had been friends since their university days and had started out in this business together, but their camaraderie could not help Dominic forget the waif named Rebecca.

The following morning, Mike jumped on the telephone every time it rang but the call from Rebecca never came. He cursed himself, wishing he could rewind the clock back to yesterday again, when he had first received her call. His answer would be very different this time.

At one-thirty he gave up waiting for a call that was obviously never coming and rose to his feet intending to go and break the bad news to Dominic. He would not blame him if he sacked him on the spot for his blunder.

The telephone rang as he was halfway to the door and he glanced back over his shoulder hesitating for a moment before retracing his steps to answer the ringing machine.

He had decided to answer it as it might be important. Mike had no idea just how important that particular telephone call would turn out to be. He was not expecting it to be from Rebecca. He had given up on her calling him again.

“Mike Conway,” he recited automatically.

“Second chance Mike.”

“Rebecca!” he shouted in relief as her voice came clearly down the line. “Please don’t hang up,” he begged desperately. “I’ll agree to anything.”

He was surprised when she laughed.

For a moment Rebecca was tempted to ask him if he would walk along Bondi beach naked. After all, he did say he would agree to anything.

The mental image of old sober-sides Mike walking naked anywhere almost sent her into hysterics. She was not even sure he completely disrobed when he showered.

“Calm down Mike,” she ordered choking back a laugh. “I would have given you one final chance tomorrow.” She paused then demanded with steely determination. “I want your word that you will not tell Dominic that you are coming to meet me.”

Rebecca knew Mike. She knew that once given he would never break his word regardless of his loyalty to Dominic.

But she also knew that he would take other measures to keep track of her whereabouts. However, those steps did not worry her at all. She had taken her own precautions to keep her location secret.

She had returned to Sydney for one purpose only, to arrange two meetings, and those meetings would be conducted on her terms or they would not occur.

This time Mike did not hesitate. “You have my word.”

As soon as he said the words he felt like a traitor, but he had no choice.

If he did not agree to her condition the meeting would not take place, and he had a feeling that somehow this meeting was vital to Dominic’s future well-being. He only prayed he had made the correct decision.

“Solitaire Plaza, room two-one-six,” Rebecca stated abruptly.

The line went dead, and he idly wondered if she would ever end a telephone call in the accepted manner.

Just out of curiosity, he punched in caller ID and was not surprised when it came up as ‘Private’ again.

When he suddenly realized she had told him she was staying at the Solitaire Plaza, he instantly had an insane desire to burst into gales of laughter.

He sure admired her audacity. Actually, he could not decide how he felt about her staying in that particular hotel.

The Solitaire Plaza was the first hotel Dominic had ever owned. He had even named his home Solitaire because of that hotel.

His laughter echoed around the spacious office at the thought of Rebecca staying in their hotel. What irony.

The staff would have a heart attack if they were aware of her true identity. He knew she would not be using her married name. The name Rebecca Farrell would cause too much speculation throughout the hotel and would be too easy for the firm’s investigators to trace.

Mike rose to his feet, straightened his tie and shrugged into his suit coat. He had a very important appointment to keep, but he intended to stop off at the security office on his way out of the building.

Thirty minutes later Rebecca watched as Mike entered the hotel lobby and noticed he had not changed much at all. Maybe he looked a little older but then so did they all.

He was thirty-eight years of age, the same age as Dominic with curly red hair and a sprinkling of freckles across his nose. He hated those freckles, but he had been scandalized when she had suggested he cover them up with makeup.

After checking to make sure he had come alone, she crossed to one of the front windows and was not surprised to see a neatly dressed man in a casual white shirt, a pair of black slacks and a denim jacket standing on the other side of the street. Obviously, he was watching the hotel entrance and she knew with certainty that Mike had placed him there.

Really Mike, she chuckled quietly. He stands out like a gum tree in the middle of the Simpson Desert.

“I’m not that gullible girl you remember Mike,” she muttered to herself as she returned to the room where she had arranged to meet him earlier.

She had booked and paid for that room for one purpose only, this meeting with Mike. Her accommodation and her luggage were situated elsewhere in the city. Had Mike broken his word and brought Dominic with him then she would not have returned to that room.

Instead, she would have walked out of the hotel by the employee’s entrance and returned to Queensland. Then he would have found himself dealing with her lawyer and not with her personally.

When Mike returned to his office two hours later the telephone on his desk was ringing and he quickly crossed the room then lifted the receiver to his ear.

“Mike Conway.”

He was surprised when Rebecca’s voice came down the line as he had recently left her at the hotel.

“You can call your watchdog off Mike, he’s wasting his time and the firm’s money,” she stated, and his eyebrows rose in astonishment. “I left the hotel by another entrance that you didn’t have staked out.” There was an ominous silence for a moment and when she continued. There was a warning tone to her voice. “I’ll allow you this one mistake Mike, don’t make another one.”

Once again, the line went dead. He was becoming accustomed to that occurring by this time.

Mike sank into the executive chair behind his desk as he placed the receiver onto its cradle and smiled in admiration at her actions.

He would have to stop thinking of her as an unsophisticated girl. That was one smart woman on the other end of that telephone line, and he fully intended to heed her warning. There would be no more tricks.

Obviously, she had been aware of the security officer he had placed in front of the hotel with orders to follow her if or when she left the hotel.

His laugh echoed around the office. She had sure taught him how the game was played, and he idly wondered who had taught her how to remain anonymous. Whoever it was, they had taught her well.

His laughter disappeared as he picked the telephone up and punched in the numbers that would connect him with Dominic’s office. What he was about to do was no laughing matter.

It was bad enough that he had made arrangements for a meeting between Dominic and Rebecca that Dominic knew nothing about, now he was about to drag Meg into the conspiracy as well.

But he had no choice. Meg was the only person who could clear Dominic’s calendar for the following day and ensure that he was in his office in the morning. Although that would not be hard to arrange, he acknowledged in despair. He practically lived there anyway.

“Dominic Farrell’s office.” Meg’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

“It’s Mike,” he announced. “And before you ask why I’m calling you on the phone and not using the intercom it’s because this conversation is strictly between you and me.”

He grimaced when he heard her suck in a sharp breath.

“You mean private from Nick?” she gasped incredulously.

“Especially from him,” he stated firmly then emphasized the point he was making. “Nick’s the last person I want to know about this call.”

Meg almost fell off her chair in shock. In the ten years the three of them had been working together, they had never kept any secrets from Dominic, and he had never hidden anything from them.

He had even confided in them about his crazy plan to acquire a son and heir without bothering to fall in love with a woman before he married her. He had ignored them both when they had advised him not to do it.

Mike took a deep breath. He knew he was about to give Meg the shock of her life, which seemed fair to him. After all, he had received the shock of his life when Rebecca had called him yesterday.

“I want you to cancel all his appointments for tomorrow but don’t let him know that you’ve done it,” he ordered and heard her suck in a surprised breath.

For a moment he felt sorry for the series of shocks she was about to experience. If she thought she was surprised now, she should wait until she heard what else he intended to tell her in a moment.

“Have you been drinking?” Meg demanded suspiciously.

It was the only reason she could think of for his absurd behavior. Either that or he had suffered a mental breakdown.

Mike ignored her question, admitting honestly to himself that he could do with a drink or two at that moment.

“Rebecca’s in town and wants to see him,” he stated bluntly and waited patiently for her to get over her disbelief and amazement.

Two minutes later he was still waiting.

“Meg, you haven’t fainted on me have you?” he asked with a chuckle, and he was only half joking.

“Please tell me you’re serious, that this is not a joke,” she finally managed to gasp, her voice a curious mixture of hope and skepticism.

Mike decided to take pity on her and inform her of the arrangements he had made with Rebecca for the following day.

“I’ve just spent over an hour with her making arrangements for her to be in your office at ten o’clock in the morning.” He paused then sighed deeply. “She’s changed Meg.”

“Changed?” Meg asked suspiciously. “In what way?”

If Rebecca was coming here to hurt Dominic again then she would have her to deal with, Meg decided ominously. Her midnight flit five years ago almost cost him his sanity. There was no way she would allow that to happen again.

“She’s grown-up Meg. She’s not a ragamuffin child anymore,” Mike stated and there was a touch of sadness in his voice. “She’s a sophisticated woman now.”

Well what did he expect, Meg scoffed silently. Good heavens it had been five years, of course she had grown up.

She would be twenty-five now. No longer a naïve young girl and she wondered what type of woman she had become. Well, she would find out in the morning.

“Did she say where she’s been during the past five years?” Meg asked curiously and was surprised when Mike groaned loudly.

“You remember I visited a town in Queensland named Tannum Sands just after she disappeared?” he asked and when Meg answered in the affirmative, he added drily “Well, that’s where she’s been living.”

Silence settled over the line for a few moments, each of them recalling those hectic, first few months after Rebecca disappeared completely out of their lives.

“I’ll clear his schedule for the entire day,” Meg declared. “I’ll invent a family full of dying aunts if I have to.”