Chained Reaction Read Free Page A

Michael, he might have
forced the truth out of him rather than have to go on another day
paying for his crime. But now, it would feel more like retaliation
for taking something far more precious than his freedom. He wanted
her back but not by going down the path of bitter
recriminations.
    * * *
    “Lucy, I’m tired. It’s been a long day and
I’m used to sleeping alone.”
    He knew how cold his words sounded and
witnessed the hurt in her eyes as she turned away from him and
stood up.
    Moving over to where her dress lay draped
across a wicker chair, she snatched it up and pulled it on over her
head without bothering with her underwear. Grabbing up her knickers
and bra, she shoved them into her handbag and then stood over him,
hands on her hips, her features taut with anger.
    “You were right, you haven’t changed. Still
a bastard who is capable of breaking my heart over and over again.
You take but never give.” She spun on her heels and marched
out.
    “Lucy, stop, come back.”
    He rushed to the door but she carried on to
her car without a backward glance.
    The car screeched out of the driveway.
    * * *
    The following morning, Michael walked into
her bedroom dressed in the same suit she had seen him leave in, on
his way to the airport. She bolted upright and met his tense
unsmiling features.
    “Aren’t you supposed to be in New York?” she
said.
    “My father rang me as I was stepping down on
American soil and told me the good news. Caught the next available
flight back.” His voice told her it was the opposite of good news
and he already knew where she had been.
    Lucy could see by the dark circles under his
eyes that he hadn’t slept on the plane. His short, layered brown
hair was sticking out in tufts and he was unshaven making his
boyish features jaded.
    She felt guilty and ashamed, not because of
what she had done but because of what she was continuing to do.
“What news might that be?” She reached over for her robe that
Michael stood holding in his hand.
    “That Jamie has been released.” He stepped
back.
    “What were you planning, a welcome home
committee?” Her eyes met him levelly.
    “You don’t seem surprised by the news.
Perhaps you have already given him his welcome home present. Susie
tells me you went out yesterday afternoon and didn’t return until
late. I tried ringing you before boarding the flight back.”
    She wrapped the robe around her
negligee-clad body, feeling the vulnerability of her nakedness
beneath the sheer garment. “Susie should learn to keep to the job
she’s paid for and not report my every move back to you.”
    She went to walk past him when his hand shot
out and ensnared her wrist. “You didn’t answer my question. Have
you been with him?”
    “What if I have? I’m back here now, in your
house and in your bed where I belong. Isn’t that what you are
always telling me? I met him because he rang and now I’m back. You
were right all along and now if you don’t mind, I need the
bathroom.” She was fighting back the tears, her voice shaky.
    “Did you tell him then?” He still held onto
her wrist.
    She glared back at him. “What difference
does it make? Now please, let go of me.”
    His fingers came away from her wrist and
Lucy turned and fled into the bathroom, slamming the door shut
behind her. She couldn’t carry on like this any longer, lying to
herself and trying to pretend what she was, what she had become was
for the sake of her daughter. She had spent the last three and half
years giving her body to a man she didn’t love whilst all the time
her thoughts were with Jamie, and now it was obvious he didn’t want
her, not permanently.
    She could hear Michael moving around in the
bedroom, probably changing out of his crumpled suit. He would see
the red shift dress lying on the bedroom floor screwed up along
with the undergarments taken from her handbag. The same red dress
she had purchased for a friend’s engagement party six months
earlier that she had then