Echoes of the Heart Read Free Page A

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