The old man’s last statement made Alejandro turn pale in anger. Only the awareness that Adrian would be excited in getting under his skin kept him silent.
The older man slumped heavily back against the pillows. ‘Maria was my daughter and dear to my heart, but she humiliated and disappointed me when she walked out on her husband.’ ‘She was twenty-two years old and Martinez Sanchez was serving a life sentence. Why shouldn’t she have sought a fresh start for herself and her child?’ Alejandro defended his mother. ‘Loyalty is not negotiable in my world. When Maria vanished, people got nervous about how much she might know about certain activities. She knew too much to leave. Her treachery was a stain on Martinez honour as well and it made her many enemies.’ Adrian Fernandez shook his head wearily. ‘But she was destroyed by her own ignorance and lack of good sense.’ Alejandro attention was keenly focused on the older man. ‘Obviously you didn’t lose track of my mother and you know what happened to her after she arrived at London.’ ‘You won’t like what I have to tell you.’ ‘I think I’ve seen and heard worse,’ Alejandro said drily. Adrian pressed the bell by the bed. ‘You’ll take a seat and have a glass of wine while we talk. This one time you will behave like my grandson.’ Alejandro wanted to deny the relationship but he knew he could not. A certain amount of humility was the price he had to pay for the information he had long sought to make sense of his background. Relaxing his broad shoulders, he sat down in a flex, controlled movement. A manservant brought in a silver tray bearing a single glass filled with ruby liquid and a plate of tiny almond pastries. With a glint of something hidden in his sharp old eyes, Adrian Fernandez watched the younger man lift the glass and slowly sip. The old man laughed. ‘My dear grandchild...you’re no coward!’ ‘Why would you want to harm me?’ Alejandro said. ‘How does it feel to have rejected your every living relative?’ Adrian asked him in curiosity. A sardonic smile of acknowledgement curved Alejandro’s handsome sculpted mouth. ‘It kept me out of prison...it may even have kept me alive. The family tree is distressingly full of early deaths and unlikely accidents.’ After having taken a moment to absorb that acid response, Adrian Fernandez succumbed to a choking bout of appreciative laughter. Alarmed by the aftermath in which the old man struggled for breath, Alejandro got up to summon assistance only to be irritably waved back to his seat. ‘Please tell me about my mother,’ Alejandro urged. His companion gave him a mocking look. ‘I want you to know that when she left Amazonas, she had money. My late wife had left her amply provided for. Your mother’s misfortune was that she had very poor taste in men.’ Alejandro tensed. His grand father gave him a cynical glance. ‘I warned you that you wouldn’t like it. Of course there was a man involved. An English man she met on the beach soon after your father went to prison. Why do you think she headed to London when she spoke not a word of English? Her boyfriend promised to marry her when she was free. She changed her name as soon as she arrived and began to plan her divorce.’ ‘How do you know all this?’ ‘I have a couple of letters that the boyfriend wrote her. He had no idea who her connections were. Once she was settled he offered to take care of her money, but he took care of it so well that she never saw it again. He bled her dry and I understand he then told her he’d lost it all on the stock market.’ Alejandro was very still but his brilliant gaze glittered like black diamonds on ice. ‘Is there more?’ ‘He abandoned her when she was pregnant for him and that was when she discovered that he was already married.’ In shock at that further revelation, Alejandro gritted his teeth, he felt betrayed beyond words. ‘I had no idea.’ ‘She lost the baby and never recovered her health.’ His grandfather continued. ‘You knew all this...yet you chose not to help her?’ Alejandro recognized the cold, critical detachment that had ultimately decided his frail mother’s fate. ‘She could have asked for assistance at any time but she didn’t. I will be frank. She had become an embarrassment to us and there were complications. Martinez got out of prison on appeal. He wanted you, his son, back and he wanted revenge on his unfaithful wife. Your mother’s whereabouts had to remain a secret if you were not to end up in the hands of a violent drunk. Silence kept both of you safe.’ ‘It didn’t stop us going hungry though,’ Alejandro replied without any reservations. ‘You survived—’ ‘But she didn’t,’ Alejandro insisted angrily. Adrian Fernandez revealed no regret. ‘I’m not a forgiving man. She let the family down and the final insult was her belief that she had to keep her son away from my reach. She became involved in religion before she died and turned against us even more.’ ‘If you never saw her again, how do you know that?’ Alejandro asked suspiciously. The old man grimaced. ‘She phoned me when her health was failing. She was worried about what would happen to you. But she still begged me to respect her wishes and not to claim you when she was gone.’ Alejandro could see that exhaustion was steadily claiming the older man and pushing their meeting to a close. ‘I appreciate your unreserved honesty. I would like the name of the man who stole my mother’s money.’ ‘His name was Joshua Lynch.’ Adrian Fernandez lifted a large envelope and extended it. ‘The letters. Take them.’ ‘What happened to him?’ Alejandro asked curiously ‘Nothing.’ His grandfather replied ‘Nothing?’ Alejandro queried. ‘My mother died when I was seven years old.’ ‘And now here you are, proud not to be a Fernandez or a Sanchez. If you are not anything like us as you always claimed, why do you want Lynch’s name?’ the old man retaliated . ‘What do you intend to do with it?’ Alejandro surveyed him with dark expressionless eyes and shifted a shoulder in a shrug. ‘Don’t do anything foolish, Alejandro.’ His grandfather warned Alejandro laughed out loud. ‘I can’t believe you’re saying that to me grandpa.’ ‘Who better? I’ve spent the last decade in exile. I’ve been hunted across this planet by the forces of law and order and by my enemies. But my time is almost up,’ Adrian Fernandez mused. ‘You are the closest relative I have left and I have watched over you all your life.’ ‘Only not so that I noticed,’ Alejandro countered, not moved by the claim. ‘Perhaps we are cleverer than you think. You may also find out that, under that skin of yours , you have more in common with us than you want to admit.’ Alejandro lifted his arrogant dark head high, strong denial of that suggestion in every inch of his proud bearing. ‘No. I really don’t think so.’With a basket of flowers in her arm, Selena hurried down the muddy lane in pursuit of the two little boys. Thrilled by the growling noises she was making in her role as a pursuing bear, Billy and Bob were in fits of giggles. With her dog, Bruno, a tiny barrel-shaped mongrel, hard on their heels and barking like mad, they made a noisy trio. The insistent ring of a mobile phone sliced through the laughter. Selena fell still and with a guilty air of reluctance dug the item out of her pocket.‘Bet it’s the Evil Witch again,’ Billy forecast gloomily.‘Shush...’ Selena urged in dismay, wishing the children’s mother were more careful about what she said in front of her sons because the little boys didn’t miss a trick.‘I heard Mummy tell Daddy that you’ll never get a man with the Evil Witch around. Do you need one?’ Bob asked earnestly.‘Of course she does...she needs a man to have babies and change the light bulbs,’ Billy told his little brother with immense superiority.‘Is that the child
Out of the corner of his eye Alejandro saw one of his security team hurrying towards him to provide the usual barrier between his employer and the rest of the human race. Alejandro raised his right hand to keep the man at a distance. The rays of the sun were picking out streaks of pure gold in her hair. Even though that blonde waving mass was confined in a band at the nape of her neck, it was still long enough to trail down her narrow spine. In his mind’s eye he was still picturing her face and already questioning why she had had such an impact on him. He was fiercely craved for her to look up again.‘Bruno, you little rascal...I’m so, so sorry,’ Selena declared feverishly, clipping Bruno’s lead to his collar and rising. ‘He didn’t bite you, did he?’Even while Alejandro marveled at the impact of her beautiful eyes, wide cheekbones and generous mouth, he was also registering that the world of fashion and style was foreign territory to her. Her faded blue summer dress hinted at the l
An image of the stranger’s handsome, bronzed face swam before Selena afresh, along with the extraordinary impact of those dark, deep-set eyes against the fantastic symmetry of his hard bone structure. A soft gurgle of laughter was reluctantly dragged from her. So, she was female, human, and she had noticed a breathtakingly gorgeous guy. Not her type, though. He had been altogether too arrogant and slick to appeal to her. She liked open, friendly men with a creative bent. Add in tobacco brown hair and laughing green eyes, she reflected abstractedly, and she would be describing her likeness of the perfect man.Fifty breathless minutes later, Selena returned Billy and Bob to their mother, who had a prenatal appointment to attend at the hospital. She knew Joyce Miller well; the two women had worked together at the nursery for over a year.“Come in for a while,” the heavily pregnant redhead urged. “I’ll make you a cup of tea.”“Sorry, I can’t,” Selena declined.Joy gave her a wry appraisa
Selena looked round the noisy room in despair and blocked out the angry flood of accusations being hurled at her father, who had been stripped of all his natural buoyancy by the events of recent days.The drawing room of the Old Mansion was large and elegant. But the flower arrangement on the table, which Selena had taken such special pains with, was now withering and dropping petals. It was three days since the world in which she lived had shattered into broken pieces and, along with it, some of her most heartfelt convictions.Joshua Lynch had been charged with fraud, false accounting and forgery and informed that other offences might yet be added to that terrifying tally. At first, everybody had been up in arms in defence of the older man. Not just his family, but his friends and neighbours as well for he was a popular figure. The fact that his employer and work colleagues stayed silent and kept their distance had been loudly condemned. But then, possibly people were worried about t
Alejandro accepted a black coffee, but ignored the erotic invitation in the PA’s admiring gaze and the manner in which she contrived to bend low enough to show off her cleavage. Where was her respect? If she had been on his personal staff she would have been history. He didn’t like sex in the office. It was a distraction and he disliked distractions. Women were wonderful...outside working hours, at a convenient time of his choosing. He let nothing get in the way of business or profit.He stood by the window that overlooked the ground- floor reception area of Vento Leather’s premises and listened to his executives uneasily discussing ideas to regenerate the company with the former owner, Miller. Occasionally Alejandro spoke up to beat down the more unrealistic suggestions. This was the smallest company he had taken over in a decade. It was a challenge for his staff to think small enough to suit the project, particularly when this latest acquisition had a big black hole in its accounts.
‘My father has some properties that could be sold and the proceeds put towards repayment.’ Eager to put that point across, Selena partially evaded his gaze as she became aware of the force of his scrutiny. Not for the first time she wondered why he made her feel so uncomfortable. Her throat was tight, her muscles clenched tensely. Was it fear?‘If any of those properties were purchased with stolen funds and your father is found guilty in court, those assets could be seized and sold to provide compensation.’ Alejandro countered That smooth assurance sliced through Selena’s hopes like a blade and she felt the full force of her own ignorance. ‘I wasn’t aware of that.’His agile intellect was already engaged in wondering what favour she had intended to ask in return for the repayment of the stolen funds. In spite of what he had said to her, he was aware that the courts were often reluctant to seize and sell private assets, particularly where there was a wife involved. It would not be th
Selena surveyed him with as much unrestrained amazement as she would have shown a zebra that suddenly appeared out of nowhere to walk across the office. She had always had a problem seeing herself as a sexual being. The passes that came her way were usually pretty half-hearted because she was much better at being sympathetic and sensible than sexy. That a guy of such immense wealth and supposed sophistication should target her as if she were a provocative Manikin struck her as unbelievable.‘Is this some kind of a joke?’ she asked tensely. ‘I don’t do jokes.’Selena studied him, poised there so straight and tall in his sharply tailored black designer business suit. He was devastatingly handsome but she crushed that thought as soon as it entered her mind. ‘But are you really suggesting that if I sleep with you you might reconsider prosecuting my father?’‘Yes.’ Alejandro made that confirmation.Selena was stunned by that unhesitating agreement. ‘But that’s morally wrong.’‘We’re consen
Joshua Lynch slowly shook his distinguished head. ‘I’ll have nothing left, not even my independence.’‘The valuations aren’t what you hoped? Even for the city apartment?’ Selena questioned anxiously.‘I would say that the figures are anything but generous.’Selena frowned. ‘Of course property prices have fallen in some areas. How did the Candy Manor and nursery fare in the valuation stakes?’‘The estate is listed and protected by law,’ Joshua reminded her. ‘That keeps its value low because there are too many rules preventing more profitable types of development. The nursery is a small enterprise. You’ve worked wonders there but...’‘It’s hardly big business,’ Selena filled in heavily.‘Even so, if selling up protects me from having to make a court appearance, how can I possibly complain?’ her father asked her in a more upbeat tone. ‘As for what you told me about you and the owner of Miller, that’s made all this even more amazing.’Amazing? It seemed an odd choice of word. Selena colou