Chained Reaction (3 page)

“I’ll buy you another dress, one that won’t
have the smell and touch of him all over it. Did he tell you what
he plans to do? I’ll give him two months and he’ll be back inside.
He even had the blasted nerve to ask father if he wants to purchase
the boathouse from him. That property should have been mine.”

“He’s selling the boathouse.” She muttered,
a sick hollow feeling rising up within.

“Yes, darling. Obviously he isn’t as
sentimental as you over your former little love nest. Father has of
course agreed, seeing the damn property was originally part of the
estate and should never have been segregated.”

Lucy started dressing not caring that
Michael was watching her every move. “Why do you resent and hate
him so much? I know it’s not all because of me, you’ve never
accepted him. Is it because he was your grandmother’s
favourite?”

Michael’s expression darkened and she knew
then whatever the reason was for his hatred of Jamie; she had only
played a small part of it in the beginning. Now it had escalated
into something else and she doubted even Michael knew why and how
it had all started.

She wasn’t blameless, and in a way fuelled
it by being here. At the time she had justified it by blaming Jamie
for abandoning her and leaving her no choice. Finally she has woken
up to the fact that the mistakes were all hers and moving in with
Michael was the biggest one of all.

“I don’t hate him, in fact if anything it’s
total indifference I feel. What does madden me though is the way my
grandmother felt duty bound to take the little bastard in. His
father was a drunken gambler who never amounted to anything whilst
my father worked hard to bring the family business back from
bankruptcy, yet she always favoured the black sheep of the
family.”

“He was still her son and your father’s
brother and Jamie’s part of that family,” she said.

“Never, and the sooner he’s gone from here,
the better. There’s nothing here for him now. And by the way,
father is handing over my grandmother’s estate which includes the
boathouse as a wedding present.”

That statement caused her to drop her
hairbrush and turn from the mirror to face him.

“Married, what an earth gave him that crazy
idea?”

“I told him, next month, it’s all booked
up.” A small sneer appeared. “Come on, Lucy, it’s about time.
Father has been growing impatient. He wants to hand everything over
to me but needs to know I’m responsible enough.”

“You’re crazy. Married, that was never part
of the deal. In fact I have already allowed this charade to go too
far. I think it’s time I moved out.” Lucy went over to her wardrobe
and took down a medium-sized suitcase from the shelving area above
the hangers. She placed it on the bed and opened it up.

Michael started pacing the room, a muscle
twitching in his cheek indicating his pent-up frustration. Lucy
glanced nervously at the door, afraid now of the scene that was
unfolding and especially the unpredictability of Michael’s
temper.

“I wanted to take care of you, love you. But
you never gave us a chance, always obsessing about Jamie. He was
going to leave you, did he tell you that? He thinks I owe him. Well
he did me no great favour.” He moved towards her.

Lucy backed away until she was up against
the bedside cabinet. Her hand shot behind her and shaky fingers
enfolded the ornate gold lamp stand. The fear must have been so
transparent because Michael immediately stepped away from her and
raised his hands as if defending himself.

“Lucy, I’m not going to hurt you, I could
never. You must know that.” He sat down on the edge of the bed, his
torso leaning forward, elbows on his knees and clasped his face
within his hands.

“Do you know what it felt like all these
years, the constant pressure to be like my father, to not
disappoint him and let him down? Jamie had none of that. He did and
acted as he damn well pleased. If he wanted to bugger off
backpacking around Europe, he could, whilst I had to sit in on
endless boring board meetings. In fact maybe I would have preferred
to have been sent down. At least I would have been free of the
expectation wanted from me.” He raised his face.

Lucy stared at him in confusion. “What are
you talking about?”

“Haven’t you figured it out yet? I thought
Jamie would have told you long before now but then perhaps he had
his own agenda.”

She stood directly in front of him, no
longer fearful. “It was you who stole Jamie’s car that night and
caused that accident. You allowed Jamie to take the blame. Why?”
She could feel herself begin to shake with the emergence of
opposing emotions flooding through her. Anger, frustration, sorrow,
regret, it was all there for the last lost four and a half years.
How come she hadn’t realised or sensed it?

“You robbed him, us, our daughter of so
much. How could you have lied and tricked me like that knowing how
much hurt and suffering I was going through? I thought you wanted
to help me when all the time you could have done far more simply by
telling the truth.”

Her words snapped Michael out of his
deflated act because to Lucy, his self-pity was simply that. She
certainly didn’t feel sorry for him, her narrowed condemning glare
revealing nothing he said now would bring her back to him.

Michael stood up and went over to her
dressing table. He picked up a silver framed photograph and brought
it over to her. He looked at it for a second and then dropped it
into the open suitcase. It was a head and shoulders shot taken in
hospital of Lucy holding her newly born daughter in her arms.

“Why don’t you ask Jamie the same thing, he
was the martyr in all this, after all. Such a hero, taking the
blame for another man’s crime,” he hissed out.

Lucy snatched items of clothing from the
hangers and placed them into the suitcase, and threw undergarments
from the drawers in the same haphazard way. She didn’t want to
think about it anymore. Michael’s confession was nothing compared
to the hurt she was experiencing because of what she felt was
Jamie’s betrayal of her. He was incapable of confiding in her and
would rather she think the worst of him than tell her the
truth.

Maybe Michael was right that Jamie had been
about to dump her that night. She thought he had been acting
strange those last few weeks because he was picking up on the
defensive vibes she was giving off. Questioning him about where
their relationship was heading and what he wanted for the future
was enough to frighten any man off but the big question she had yet
to put to him was all about timing.

She thought back to the night of Jamie’s
arrest. That was the same night she had made a decision to tell him
and let him decide. She was due to go to the boathouse when she had
finished her shift that night but Jamie had turned up hours
earlier. Arriving in his boat, he had moored it up by the pub where
she was working not far from his boathouse. She could see he was
upset and she thought it was because Michael had told him she was
pregnant. She wanted to explain that Michael had found out from
another source, her so-called best friend, but the bar was busy
that night and the landlord wouldn’t allow her ten minutes alone
with him. Jamie had stormed out.

“Where are you going? What are you going to
do? It’s obvious you can’t run to him.” Michael’s voice brought her
back to her present predicament.

“I’m going home, back to my mother. I should
be able to find a teaching position locally and Caitlin will be at
full-time schooling.” The thought of moving in with her
sanctimonious mother was not an ideal option but it was the only
one she had.

“You’ll be back, just like the last time,”
he taunted her.

“Not this time. I stayed with you because I
felt nothing, had nothing. I had given it all to Jamie and then to
my daughter. I wasn’t living, purely getting through day to
day.”

He let out a short bitter laugh. “You and me
both. I’m the only one who understands you. Your coldness and lack
of enthusiasm in bed doesn’t offend me, it turns me on.”

Lucy ran from the bedroom in search of her
daughter. She found her in the nanny’s bedroom sitting in front of
the television whilst Susie was lying on her bed talking into her
mobile. She quickly snapped the phone shut and came off the
bed.

Taking her daughter’s hand, Lucy removed her
from the cartoon TV station and took her out into the hallway.

“Caitlin, darling,” Lucy knelt down and
tucked a strand of curly dark hair behind her daughter’s ear.
“We’re going on a holiday to see Granny in Scotland.”

Her daughter hadn’t seen her grandmother for
several years and it was obvious by her blank look she had no
memory of her. Lucy wasn’t looking forward to this either. She
hadn’t even spoken to her mother about coming to stay. “We’re going
to have fun time together, you and me.”

“Is Michael coming?” her daughter said in a
small voice.

“No, he’s staying behind with Susie,” she
replied.

Caitlin grinned and hugged her favourite
bear to her. Lucy didn’t feel guilty about taking her away from
Michael; he had never formed a bond and was jealous of any time she
spent with her daughter. Lucy went back into the nanny’s bedroom
and spoke to her briefly.

An hour later she was placing her house
keys, car keys and credit cards down on the hall side table. It all
belonged to Michael. She wanted only to take what she had bought
with her own money. Picking up the suitcases, she then walked out
the front door and called back over her shoulder, “Caitlin, hurry
up darling, the taxi is here.” “Caitlin,” Jamie’s voice repeated
the name as if saying a curse. “My mother’s name.”

The cases dropped from her hands onto the
paved pathway. She stared back into those dark intense eyes and
watched as his gaze fell upon the dark-haired child who now stood
by her side staring curiously up at him.

He held up a hand and reached out to touch
the thick dark curls that surrounded their daughter’s head.

She knew her secret was out. Without meaning
to, she drew Caitlin behind her away from his touch and it was then
that she saw the pain and regret within his eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought you knew, that Michael had told
you. Then yesterday I realised you didn’t want to know.”

“You are so wrong. If I had known, I would
have…”

“What, Jamie, read my letters, allowed me to
visit you, ring me? You went to prison for another man’s crime. The
message couldn’t be any clearer.”

Caitlin, sensing the upset, was hugging her
leg. This wasn’t fair on her, none of it was.

“Is that why you moved in with Michael, to
punish me?”

“Michael offered a roof for me and our
daughter. I could no longer afford the rent on my flat, I got
behind with my studies and my mother wasn’t speaking to me.”

Jamie ran a hand through his hair and shook
his head. “You’ve got to believe me, Lucy, I never knew. As for
going to prison for Michael, it was my fault he was in such a mess
that night. I helped cause it.”

There was a maturity about him now and
something else revealing itself in the way that he was looking at
her and their daughter.

He reached up and lightly placed his
fingertips against Lucy’s cheek. “There hasn’t been a day that I
haven’t thought about you, wanted you, needed to reach out for you.
I love you Lucy and have done from the beginning. I never knew what
I had until I lost it. That’s why I came here this morning, to tell
you what a fool I’ve been. I’ve sold the boathouse to help finance
the garden centre business I’m buying. It comes with a rundown
two-bedroom cottage on site but you know how good I am with these,”
he held up his large calloused hands in front of her. “They can
work magic.” He smiled warmly at them both. “All it needs now is
the female touch.”

“I thought you were used to sleeping
alone.”

“We need to talk, there is so much I need
and want to say.” His eyes pleaded with her for a second chance to
put things right between them.

Caitlin peeped out from behind her mother’s
legs and looked up at him. “Why are you making my mummy cry?”

Lucy smiled and gathered Caitlin up into her
arms.

“Sometimes we can cry tears of joy, that’s
what I’m doing now. This is Jamie, mummy’s special friend.” There
was going to be a lot more explaining to do but time was now on
their side.

Jamie picked up her suitcases and the three
of them walked down the pathway together.

THE END

About the Author

Lynne King lives in southeast England with
her husband and several cats. A lover of rural living, wildlife,
watching great movies and reading anything that moves or thrills
her, Lynne also has a passion for writing and has done so from an
early age. Her short stories have been published in several UK
magazines and online, and cover many genres. As for her novels, she
tends to write romantic suspense, allowing her to fall in love with
her characters and escape into their world. She hopes readers do
likewise.