Echoes of the Heart (2 page)

No! She couldn’t let herself remember. Couldn’t relive the bittersweet memories of their brief affair and the pain of his betrayal. Jake had been out of her life for over two years.

Her conscience corrected her. As much as her mind willed it, she’d never successfully put him out of her thoughts—never banished him from her dreams. Meeting Jake had been like colliding with a meteor. Her world had been tilted off its axis and blasted out of orbit. Now, his touch evoked memories that hadn’t faded over time. Memories she was desperate to forget so she could, at last, move on with her life.

‘Amanda,’ Jake prompted.

When she looked up at him, her heart lurched through the tough barriers she’d erected around it. He was still staggeringly handsome.

Every familiar angle of his bone structure was stamped with his strength and determination. His impressive features seemed harder, and his jawline more stubborn. He still had a sinfully sexy mouth, but his lips were set in a serious, uncompromising line.

She suppressed her need to raise her hand and trace the lines of Jake’s bronzed features. Once, he’d given her free access to explore his body with her hands and her lips. Her fingers itched to thread through his thick, dark hair again, and her lips tingled, wanting to…

‘What’s she waiting for?’

Amanda heard the impatient comment from someone in the crowd. It jolted her back to her surroundings and the realisation that she wasn’t standing in a private world with Jake. There were people all around them.

‘You’re expected to shovel the first soil on the coffin,’ Jake explained.

There was no caring or softness in his voice. No sympathy for what she was going through. But how could anyone here understand the wildly different emotions flailing about within her?

She was relieved she was burying a man who’d made her life miserable. She felt resentment and despair that Lloyd had succeeded in blackening her reputation with his lies. But another far more dangerous sensation welled within her. Jake’s unexpected presence caused a deep, primitive awareness of his masculinity and stirred her dormant sexuality in an alarming way.

Giddy from the potent cocktail of feelings swirling through her, she glanced around at the faces in the crowd. Hugh’s face was the only one that bore any sympathy. She took a few deep breaths. It didn’t help—she still felt on the verge of hysteria.

Jake’s strong hand under her elbow propelled her toward the grave. A funeral attendant handed her a shovel and she did what was expected of her. A clump of earth fell against the mahogany casket with a dull thud and her duty was done.

Jake prised the handle of the shovel from her stiff fingers, then his arm was back around her shoulders, urging her to return to the edge of the crowd. Supremely conscious of his touch, her senses were in turmoil and her brain jettisoned into a black hole of confusion.

‘Let me go,’ she hissed through gritted teeth.

‘Don’t fight me,’ he shot back quietly.

There was no opportunity to make further protests. Too many people watched their every move. Amanda could almost taste their hunger for scandal.

Lloyd’s class-conscious colleagues and so-called friends had never accepted her into their stratosphere of society, and would welcome another reason to condemn her. They would have a field day speculating about Jake’s presence at her side.

Prior to the funeral, she’d focused on how she could fade into obscurity and escape the gossip and media attention surrounding Lloyd’s suicide. Now, even as media helicopters circled overhead, her thoughts centred on Jake.

Why had he re-entered her life after all this time? The last time they’d met, he made it obvious how much he despised her.

‘Mrs Bennett invites you all to the hall for the wake.’ The priest’s use of her name penetrated her thoughts.

The service was over.

Fiona stormed off and the assembled crowd dispersed in the direction of the hall. The whir and chop from the rotor blades of the media helicopters faded away. Presumably, enough footage had been obtained for the evening news broadcast.

Jake remained beside her. The warmth of his arm along her shoulders provided a comforting contrast to the chill of the autumn sea breeze on her face.

His gesture of protectiveness confused her. She didn’t understand why he was publicly supporting her when privately he’d made it evident years ago that he despised her. It didn’t make sense that he would risk his reputation like this when she was surrounded by scandal.

Then again, Jake had never worried about what people thought. She knew he did whatever suited him and to hell with the consequences. He was one of the wealthiest men in the country. If Lloyd’s social set were in the stratosphere of society, then Jake Formosa was a god in heaven.

The priest approached them.

‘Thank you for your support, Father.’ She forced the words out and her brain back into focus.

The priest nodded then turned his attention to Jake. ‘Mr Formosa.’

Now. She had to seize this chance to pull out of Jake’s hold. ‘Excuse me, please,’ she mumbled. ‘I’m expected at the wake.’

‘Amanda —’ Jake began.

‘Thank you for your help, Mr Formosa.’ She injected cool formality into her voice. As she turned away, the priest gave Jake no opportunity to detain her. As she willed her legs to carry her as quickly as possible toward the reception hall at the opposite end of the cemetery, the priest had cornered him. The man launched into the virtues of the latest charity project his diocese was promoting, and was appealing to Jake for financial assistance.

Amanda hadn’t progressed nearly far enough away before her movement was arrested by a hand on her arm.

‘Amanda.’

‘Hugh.’ She felt a line of anxiety pleat her eyebrows. ‘We shouldn’t be seen together.’

Glancing nervously over her shoulder, she saw the tight-lipped condemnation in Jake’s expression and felt shattered by it. She gave herself a mental shake. His opinion of her shouldn’t matter. When she had been the victim in this whole charade, she had no reason to feel guilty.

Hugh took her hands in his. ‘Your hands are freezing.’

‘Please, don’t. People will see us, and that will only fuel the rumours.’

He smiled bitterly and dropped her hands. ‘All thanks to Lloyd’s blasted suicide note claiming he took his life because we were lovers.’

She let out a pent-up breath. ‘I’m sorry you were implicated in all of this.’

Hugh’s lips thinned as he shook his head. ‘It isn’t your fault. Lloyd set us both up with his lies.’

‘He hated you because you started defeating him in the courtroom,’ she revealed.

‘He knew he could rely on lawyer-client confidentiality. I can’t expose his lies to reveal the hold he had over you, or to clear my own name. If I’d known how corrupt he was, I would never have agreed to become his lawyer.’

‘There was no way you could’ve realised. He was clever at covering his tracks.’

‘There were rumours…’

‘That’s all they ever were. There was never any proof of his activities or he would’ve been disbarred.’

Hugh’s lips twisted in disgust. ‘There was enough suspicion to stop him being appointed as a judge.’

‘He could never understand why he wasn’t appointed. He blamed the fact that—‘

‘I know what he believed, Amanda. He was arrogant, malicious, and underhanded to the very last breath.’

A shiver shook through her slender frame when she thought of Lloyd’s deviousness. She struggled to suppress tears that gathered and stung eyes that were already gritty and sore from lack of sleep.

‘His behaviour was unforgivable,’ Hugh said. ‘What will you do?’

There was a wealth of caring in his voice, and she fought against the sudden need to throw herself into his arms and sob her heart out. It had been so long since anyone had stood up for her. She’d coped alone for what seemed to be an eternity.

‘I’ll survive.’ She heard the brittle edge to her voice and steeled herself to keep talking. ‘It’s over now. The most important thing is that my aunt continues to be cared for.’

Hugh’s mouth tightened with suppressed anger. ‘If only I could clear our reputations with the truth.’

‘Mud sticks, Hugh. People believe what they want to believe and to them, I’ve always been a heartless gold-digger.’

She watched his fists clench at his sides.

‘Lloyd really was a bastard. Not content with making your life miserable while he was alive; he had to send a copy of his suicide note to the press, making sure you suffered in his death.’ A vehement curse of frustration left his lips. ‘One last swipe to tarnish your reputation and divert people from discovering the truth.’

She shook her head with regret. ‘He also wanted to blacken your name.’

‘Well, he’s succeeded. Quite a few people are convinced we’re lovers.’

‘All the more reason not to be seen talking like this.’

‘Damn him!’ Hugh punched his right fist into his left palm. ‘I feel like tipping off the press anonymously to the real circumstances of your marriage.’

‘Please, don’t,’ she said with a shudder. Trying to shut out painful memories, she closed her eyelids tightly. Her life with Lloyd had been a living hell, but somehow she was going to put it behind her. With supreme willpower, she wiped the tears from her eyes and the emotion from her face. ‘You know Lloyd’s got a hold over me, even in death. If the truth is revealed all I’ve been through will be...’ Her voice broke with the effort of suppressing her fears.

He put his hand on her arm in a gesture of reassurance. ‘Don’t worry. I won’t do anything that will hurt you, and I’m too successful in court for this whole debacle to hurt me professionally. It will blow over in time.’

Hugh’s focus darted to a point behind Amanda. The fine hairs on the back of her neck rose and all her self-protective instincts switched to full alert.

‘Jake Formosa’s heading this way. What’s he doing here?’ Hugh asked.

‘I don’t know,’ she replied honestly. Anxiety had her in its full grip, pressing down on her solar plexus, making it difficult to breathe. Any chance of composure was impossible if she was still in Jake’s vicinity.

‘I can’t imagine why he’d be here,’ Hugh puzzled. ‘I know Lloyd hated Formosa with a vengeance.’

Unknowingly, Hugh had just detonated a landmine. Shockwaves made her body jerk.

‘What?’ Lloyd’s life had been a complex tapestry, woven with lies, deceit and paranoia. The longer they’d been married, the more dark secrets had been uncovered, but she’d never realised there was a connection between her husband and former lover. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘It was Formosa’s newspapers that started digging into Lloyd’s connections with the underworld crime bosses. One of his editors led the push for investigations to try to prove Lloyd was involved in jury tampering. I think the final straw was when Lloyd bought tickets to a major charity fundraiser that was under Formosa’s patronage. Lloyd turned up to the event and Formosa had him removed because of his underworld connections. Lloyd was publicly humiliated and vowed to get even with Jake.’

The breath whooshed out of her lungs. She stumbled slightly on her feet and her stomach churned with the sour acid of bile. ‘When?’ The word was choked out. ‘When did this happen?’

Hugh frowned. ‘You didn’t know any of this?’

‘I had no idea.’

‘Well, I guess it happened before your marriage. Probably about a year before. Why? Is this important?’

Her mind reeled. Lloyd’s main motivation for choosing her as his bride had just become crystal clear. It was all about revenge. The corners of her mouth lifted just a little in what must be a bitter mockery of a smile. More fool Lloyd. His plan had backfired. He must have chosen her as his bride to hit out at Jake. He obviously hadn’t realised that she meant nothing more to Jake than a passing fling.

‘No,’ she said steadily. ‘It’s not important.’

And it wasn’t. Lloyd couldn’t hurt her anymore, and Jake...

She frowned. She still didn’t know what Jake was doing here.

‘I’m going to take this opportunity to warn the great media mogul that his newspaper editors had better back off printing all those lies about us being lovers. If they don’t I’ll file a lawsuit against them.’

It was fight or flight time, and the last thing she wanted was a confrontation with Jake. ‘I have to get to the wake,’ she muttered.

Desperate to avoid any further encounters with Jake, she almost tripped on the rough stone path that weaved through the cemetery. Her nerves were stretched to their limit, wound up like corkscrews, balancing on a razor’s edge and in danger of being completely severed, or at least irreparably frayed. Almost at the hall, her steps faltered as she neared a corner in the pathway. Two female voices carried clearly to her on the sea breeze.

‘I don’t blame Fiona for wanting to slap Amanda silly,’ one woman declared.

‘From what I’ve heard, Amanda’s an opportunistic little tart,’ another agreed.

Humiliation and pain ate at Amanda like acid. Born on the wrong side of town, she’d been subjected to many scathing comments since she married Lloyd, but she’d never been able to develop a thick skin. Each insult and snub from his social set clawed at her heart, shred at the essential fibres of her being, and re-opened feelings of inadequacy that had been present long before she’d met Lloyd and entered his world of wealth.

‘I don’t know what Lloyd ever saw in her,’ the first woman continued.

‘Amanda was definitely after the money,’ was the response. ‘Why else would a twenty-five year old girl marry a forty-five year old man—especially Lloyd?’

‘There were always rumours about him…’

‘Yes, but you know Amanda was pregnant when they married. That’s how she trapped him into marriage.’

‘I have to say I’ve always wondered whether Lloyd really was the father.’

‘I guess we’ll never know. All I know is that Amanda was lucky Jake Formosa intervened today, or she would’ve got what she had coming to her.’

‘But, why would he defend her?’

‘Exactly what everyone’s wondering. Lloyd moved in high circles, but Formosa’s like Australian royalty. What’s he doing here?’