Miranda Lee - A Secret Vengeance

“Protect your mother,” he finished bitterly. “Well, it’s a pity you didn’t think what results your charade might produce. Because no sooner had I started thinking of you as my father’s mistress, than I started wanting you as my own. I was well on the slippery slide to hell long before you started crying and I took you in my arms. I’m in hell now, still wanting you so badly it’s killing me. But it’s not love driving me. It’s lust. Pure animal lust. At least I know the difference. So what am I to do, Celia? You tell me. Walk away like I’ve been trying to do? Or take you to hell with me? You choose, darling. You choose.”

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

EPILOGUE

CELIA was still half asleep when the phone rang. Lifting one eyelid, she glanced at her bedside clock radio.

Ten past eight. Not all that early, she supposed, but it was Sunday. Celia liked to sleep in on a Sunday. Everyone who knew her well, knew she liked to sleep in on a Sunday.

Which meant whoever was ringing her at this ungodly hour must have a good reason for doing so.

“Probably Mum,” Celia muttered as she threw back her duvet and reached for the receiver.

“Hello,” she said.

“He’s dead,” came a woman’s voice, sounding spaced out.

Celia sucked in sharply and sat up. It was her mother. And Celia didn’t have to ask who he was.

There was only one he in her mother’s life. Lionel Freeman. Sydney’s most awarded architect. Fifty-four years old. Married, with one grown-up son, named Luke.

Celia’s mother had been Lionel Freeman’s mistress for more years than her daughter liked to think about.

“What…what happened?” Celia asked, her thoughts whirling.

“He’s dead,” her mother repeated like a stuck record.

Celia took a deep breath and tried not to panic. “Is Lionel there with you now?”

“What?”

“Did Lionel come to visit you at Pretty Point this weekend?” Celia was thinking heart attack or stroke. The idea that they might have been actually doing it at the time brought a degree of revulsion. But it had to be faced. That was why Lionel Freeman visited his mistress after all. To have sex. And plenty of it, no doubt.

“No. No, he was going to, but then he couldn’t make it.”

Celia was torn between relief and anger. Her mother had wasted nearly half of her life waiting for her married lover to show up.

Well, now her waiting for Lionel was over. For good. But at what price?

“It was on the radio.”

“What was on the radio, Mum?”

“They said it wasn’t his fault. The other driver was drunk.”

Celia nodded. Sounded like an accident of some kind. A car crash. And Lionel Freeman had been killed.

There was little pity in her heart for the man, only for her mother, her poor deluded mother who’d sacrificed everything for the illicit moments she’d spent with him. She’d loved Lionel Freeman more than life itself.

Now he was dead, and his distraught mistress was all alone in the secret love nest where the selfish Lionel had installed her a few years back.

Celia was terrified that, once the reality of her beloved’s death sank in, her mum might very well do something stupid. Celia wasn’t going to let that happen. Her mother had wasted twenty years of her life on Lionel Freeman. Celia wasn’t going to let him take her with him in death.

“Mum, go and make yourself a cup of tea,” she said firmly. “And put plenty of sugar in it. I’ll be with you very soon.”

Celia lived not all that far away, in Swansea. She also drove a zappy little hatchback which could move when she wanted it to.

Celia reached Pretty Point in twenty-three minutes flat. A record, considering it usually took her over half an hour. Of course, there’d hardly been a car on the road. The Sunday day-trippers from Sydney didn’t swarm up in their droves till the seriously warm weather arrived, and summer was still a couple of months off.

“Mum?” she called out as she knocked frantically on the locked back door. “Mum, where are you? Let me in.”

No answer. Celia’s chest tightened like a vice as she raced round to the front of the house which faced the lake. She began imagining all kinds of horror scenarios.

But there her mother was, sitting at a table on the deck which overlooked the lake. The rising sun was behind her, outlining her perfect profile and glinting on her softly curled red-gold hair. She was wearing a silky lemon robe, sashed tightly around her still tiny waist. From a distance, she looked very young and very beautiful.

And, thankfully, very alive.

Celia heaved a great sigh of relief and hurried up the wooden steps which led onto the deck.

Her mother glanced up at her, her usually expressive green eyes worryingly vacant. She’d made the cup of tea, as ordered, but it sat in front of her, untouched.

She was still in deep shock, Celia realised.

“Mum,” she chided gently as she sat down opposite her. “You haven’t drunk your tea.”

“What?”

“Your tea…”

“Oh… Yes… The tea. I’m sorry. I made it but I forgot to drink it.”

“So I see.” Celia decided against making another. Far better to get her mother away from here as soon as possible to a place where someone could watch her twenty-four hours a day for a while.

As much as Celia would have liked that person to be herself, she had a clinic to run and appointments that she simply had to keep this coming week. And the next week too. Maybe, by the end of that week, she could clear her diary somewhat and have some time off.

Meanwhile, Aunt Helen would have to come to the party, whether she wanted to or not.

“Mum,” she said firmly, “you do know you can’t stay here, don’t you? This place belonged to Lionel. No doubt he kept it a secret from his family, but there will be a deed somewhere. Sooner or later, someone will show up and if you’re still here, questions will be asked. You always told me Lionel didn’t want his wife and son to know about you, so…”

“She’s dead too,” her mother broke in. “His wife. Kath. In the accident. They were both killed instantly.”

“Dear heaven. How dreadful.” Celia sagged back against her chair. She’d often wished Lionel Freeman would go take a running jump from one of his tallest buildings, but she’d never wished any harm on his unfortunate wife.

Poor woman, Celia thought.

“Poor Luke,” her mother choked out. “He’s going to be shattered.”

Celia frowned. She didn’t often think of the son, especially nowadays. He was a grown man after all, and not living at home. But now that her mother had mentioned him, she did feel sorry for the man. How awful to lose both his parents so tragically, especially his mother. Still, there was nothing she could do for him. She had her own shattered mother to worry about.

Her mum suddenly looked up, her eyes troubled.

“You’re right,” she said in panicky tones. “I can’t stay here. Luke might come. Lionel would die if Luke found out about me.”

Once she realised what she’d just said, her face paled and a strangled sob escaped her throat.

“I doubt Lionel’s son would come here personally, Mum,” Celia reassured her. “But even if he does, you won’t be here. I’m taking you to stay at Aunt Helen’s for a while till I can organise something more permanent for you.”