Page 14 of The Flame

There was a small pause, almost negligible. “That’s good.”

“My number is the same as yours, with an F at the end. RW3ZF.”

“Thanks for letting me know.” He didn’t sound angry or hurt. He sounded formal and polite, pretty much like it had been with us in the beginning, before we’d fallen in love.

“Okay, then.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll see you later.”

“Goodbye, Georga.”

Well, that had gone just about as well as I’d expected. I sucked in another deep breath, releasing it slowly as I tucked the small black device into the back pocket of my jeans.

4

Ihad one more stop to make before I went home.

The Edgar residence was a mansion, much like all the other estates in Parklands. The creeping arrival of winter had killed the glorious display of summer flowers in the courtyard. I preferred it this way, the gravel driveway circling a graveyard patch of dirt.

Julian Edgar and his other councilman cronies had held the power of life at their fingertips. My baby, our babies, so many babies that would never be born.

He’d used that power to destroy rather than to create.

I’d moved passed the devastating pain. When I thought of the family I should have had one day, the family I could have had, red-hot fury burnt away the pain until all that remained was this single fact: Julian Edgar had killed my unborn child.

This courtyard inviting guests into the magnificent stone mansion now reflected the nature of the owner.

Death.

I shook off the cold shiver as I propped my bicycle against the wall by the front entrance and knocked on the door.

McKinnon opened, looking and acting every bit his usual self with his neatly trimmed salt-and-pepper hair, black butler uniform and starched collar and his stiff spine.

“Mrs. West,” he greeted formally.

“Hi.” I smiled. Occasionally a smile would sneak through his prim and proper countenance. Not today. “Is Brenda around?”

“I will let her know you’re here.” He stood back, allowing me to enter before he closed the door behind me. His gaze took in my hoodie—no coat to deliver me from—and then my sneakers—no mud to be cleaned off.

He led me through to the den, Daniel and Brenda’s recreational areain the west wing, and left me there while he went in search of Brenda. The last time I’d been inside this room, I’d been waiting to see Julian Edgar, waiting to sedate him and steal his handprint. My gaze drifted over the snooker table to the bean bags, where I’d fake collapsed to stall Daniel from checking up on his father.

I wanted to say deception didn’t come naturally to me.

I wanted to believe I was an honorable, noble person.

I didn’t feel any guilt about Julian Edgar. But he wasn’t the person I’d wronged that day. Daniel had welcomed me into his home, into his life, and I’d struck like a viper. I’d poisoned his family and I’d betrayed his trust.

I’d already lost Daniel. I just hadn’t wanted to admit it to myself. But standing here, in the bosom of his family home, I knew he’d never forgive me. Iwouldsave him. I would do everything within my power to free him. And if that didn’t work, I’d do everything outside of my power.

He’d saved me once, by not offering for me.A councilman’s wife has to be perfect in the eyes of Capra.

Daniel hadseenme from the very start.You’re a wildflower in a garden of potted plants. How could I not see you? Your smile is trouble. You have stars written in your eyes.

I was perfect to him, but his greatest fear was that I’d end up like his mother, Miriam. That I wouldn’t be able to hide my nature in the spotlight as a councilman’s wife, that I’d end up inrehab where everything I was would be carved out until all that remained was an empty vessel.

Now the tables had turned, Daniel needed me to save him, and I wouldn’t let him down. But I knew, with every fiber of my being, that nothing would ever bring him back to me. Our friendship would not survive this.

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