Emma Darcy - Burning With Passion

More sobbing. ‘Mum, please, please, please tell me what’s happened.’

‘There isn’t going to be a party.’

Caitlin was staggered. Her heart sank to the pit of her stomach. ‘Why?’ she asked, then collected her wits sufficiently to enquire, ‘Why not?’

‘Your father...’ Her mother’s voice quavered. She burst into more tears.

Caitlin’s worst fears were aroused. Her father had a history of heart disease. ‘Tell me the worst,’ she said bravely.

‘He...he...he...’

‘Yes, yes, yes?’ Caitlin prompted.

‘He walked out on me!’

Caitlin’s head spun. This wasn’t making sense at all. ‘What do you mean—he walked out on you?’

‘I mean what I said!’ her mother replied, a touch of asperity in her voice. She didn’t like to be contradicted or have her communications misunderstood.

Caitlin used her most sympathetic voice. ‘He couldn’t do that to you.’

‘Thirty years of looking after him hand and foot,’ her mother wailed. ‘I’m disgusted at what he’s done. I’ll never forgive him. Never! Even if he is your father.’

‘There must be a reason,’ Caitlin soothed gently. ‘Perhaps if I talk to him.’

‘You can’t do that,’ her mother snapped peremptorily.

‘Why not?’

‘I don’t know where he’s gone to.’

‘He can’t go too far without money,’ Caitlin suggested.

‘Oh, he’s got money. Too much of it, if you ask me. He’s been secretly hoarding everything I gave him without telling me what he was doing.’

‘Mum, there has to be a way.’

‘Oh, there’s a way,’ her mother said grimly between sniffles. ‘He’s done this as a symbol. When I catch up with him, I’ll give him a symbol. I’ll kill him!’

‘Mum, let me think about this.’ Caitlin had the feeling that time was passing very rapidly. She still had to get in touch with Paul Jordan. ‘Can I get back to you?’

‘There’s no need, Caitlin. I’m on my own. After thirty years of suffering through your father’s moods, this is all the thanks I get. There isn’t going to be a wedding anniversary party tonight. There’s nothing for you to do. There’s nothing anyone can do.’

Caitlin had had no idea that her parents’ marriage had been cracking up. On her recent visits home, her father had occasionally been somewhat withdrawn about her mother’s current projects and plans, but there had been no indication of a serious falling out. After all the years they had spent together, surely there was some meeting ground left?

‘Mum...Mum...’ Caitlin tried to catch her mother’s attention.

‘Everything’s ruined. It’ll be the talk of the town!’ her mother cried.

And that, Caitlin thought, was probably the crux of the matter. Her mother had always worried too much about what others thought. ‘I’ll do my best to patch things up,’ Caitlin said on a rueful sigh.

‘My life is in tatters, Caitlin. Totally and irretrievably ruined.’

Caitlin tried to give a glow of hope. ‘Somehow it will turn out right.’

‘No, it won’t.’ Her mother gave another wail of absolute distress and despair, and hung up.

Caitlin ran through a mental list of places where her father might have stormed off to. Before she recollected the important business tactic she had to set in motion, the door to her office opened and in strode David Hartley, emitting enough sparks to start a conflagration.

Caitlin’s mind exploded in horror. Time had passed too quickly. It was now too late to call Paul Jordan!

David came to an abrupt halt. He glared at the splendid arrangement of red roses. He glared at the beribboned basket containing the puppy and the chocolates and the luxurious toiletries. His glare swung back to the roses, fastening even more fiercely on the elaborate Valentine Card. Finally, he fired bolts of blue fire straight at Caitlin.

‘What the hell is going on out here?’

Caitlin started guiltily from her chair. ‘Nothing.’

‘Well, something has been going on in there.’ David pointed to the boardroom. ‘The delegation is not only muttering about alleged design flaws, they’ve been talking to Crawley.’

Michael Crawley was David’s main rival. The mere mention of his name was enough to set David aflame. There was litigation pending between the two companies over patent infringements.

‘I’m sorry...’

‘I’ve been trying to contact you for the last twenty minutes,’ he grated. ‘Your line has been tied up. You’ve made me look like a first-class idiot.’

She flushed. ‘My mother called.’

He looked at her incredulously. ‘Where’s Jordan?’

Caitlin tried to think of an appropriate reply.

His gaze flashed savagely to the roses, then back to her fiery cheeks. ‘Did your mother send the roses?’

‘No. You did,’ she reminded him.

He looked at her as though she had gone stark raving mad. ‘I did no such thing. What do you mean...I gave them to you?’

A great bottomless pit formed in Caitlin’s stomach. She wanted the ground to open up and swallow her. She fought down the feeling of emotional panic. ‘If you didn’t send them, who did?’

‘Ask your mother.’ His voice dripped acid. His eyes raked hers with scathing disbelief at her dereliction of duty. ‘In the meantime, can we get back to running this business?’

Her chin came up in fighting mode. Everything had to be done to the beat of his drum. He didn’t listen to her. He didn’t understand that she had problems as well as he. He didn’t give her roses or consideration or caring. She had duped herself into thinking David had relented in his tyrannical attitude towards her. He had not bent one iota.

‘David, I think we’re finished,’ she said tightly.

‘Damned right!’ he agreed. ‘Get Jordan up here. He might do the job required of him.’

A stinging rebuff.

She watched him as though from a far distance as he swung on his heel and headed back to the boardroom.

Cold, hard and ruthless. As his competitors saw him. As Michael Crawley must see him. As the German delegation must see him. As Caitlin now saw him.

With a heavy hand, she lifted up the phone. There was no answer from Jordan’s office. She rang Jenny.

‘Where’s Paul Jordan?’ she asked bleakly.

‘He stepped out for half an hour. Call that the rest of the morning. He thinks he’s got a potential deal with the Kirrawee Business College.’

Caitlin’s hand was even heavier as she replaced the phone. She had done a thoroughly comprehensive job in stuffing up both her personal life and professional life.

She couldn’t rescue the former. That required the impossible to happen. As for the latter, there was only one thing left to do. She went to the filing cabinet and dragged out the Sutherland contract.

She would give the presentation herself.

Not Jordan’s way.

Not David’s way.

Her way.

DAVID, of course, sat at the head of the table in the boardroom. The four men from Germany were spread on either side of him, two on his right, two on his left. Herr Schmidt, the leader of the delegation, was pointing out something in the documents in front of him when Caitlin entered. The attention of the five men swung to her.

David glowered at her. Herr Schmidt frowned at the interruption. The expressions on the other men’s faces ranged from interested spectator to a deadpan weighing of what her unheralded appearance meant. They all looked tough, experienced, executive businessmen. None had the magnetic charisma that David could exude so effortlessly.

To Caitlin he dominated the room, just as he had dominated her life for the last four months. The thought spurred her to renewed determination.