Seductive Knight Read Free Page B

home.
    Feeling the homesickness envelop her, she sat down and quickly diverted her attention to the family struggling to push their overloaded cart. Whatever they had packed in those travelling bags could fill Nanni’s house! She looked down at her own bag. She’d brought enough clothes for few weeks.
    Few weeks. She could handle that. It would be tough, though.
    Come on Baskerville. Where are you?
    She wished she still had the sign Ema made for her. The darn thing had disappeared somewhere between here and Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Well, she’d just have to keep her eyes open.
    With little information as to why she would be in town, in their last letter, Baskerville insisted that she stay with him and his wife. No questions asked.
    You are going to stay with us. Those were his words written with big smiley faces at the bottom of the paper. As a postscript, he asked for a cell phone number that he could use to contact her, or email address. She had neither one of those. Baskerville knew she’d be arriving today, but if anything changed with the plans, she wouldn’t have a way of finding out. Lord, he didn’t forget she’d be here today, did he?
    Well, Ema said to use the payphone if necessary. Nanni had neatly placed a five-dollar bill in her purse to be used in case of an emergency. She didn’t know where and how Nanni got the money, but it looked like the bill had been in someone’s wallet for years because its crease looked permanent. Right now, she wasn’t facing an emergency situation yet. She’d give Baskerville another half hour and then she’d make the call.
    Alex thought about her dad. Three weeks after they left their home, her mom found out online that her dad died on a plane crash. It was a hard blow. Mom’s spirit went down and stayed low. No amount of island hopping or activities helped to cheer her up. And she died that way—sad, with a broken heart.
    How come Dad hadn’t followed them to Palawan? No notes, no letters, no telegrams? He simply poofed out of their lives.
    What happened to the letter Mom said she’d left for Dad to find? Did he ever find it and just threw away? Oh, she would find out why a man so loving like her father simply turned this back on them. Or had he? Gah, she really wanted to start finding out the answers now.
    “Dad loved us, Alex. I know it. Something happened. When the right time comes, go home. Learn the truth for yourself and then whisper it to me. Dad loved us. I know.” Those were her mom’s words.
    It wasn’t her mother’s fault that she did what she did that horrible night, that it was imperative that they flee and wait for Dad on the island away from the authorities so he could hear everything first—to make him understand.
    God, she would never forget that night.
    Alex had been having a tea party with her Barbie dolls and Tully, wearing her mom’s jewelry, when she heard voices. Thinking that her dad was home early from his business trip, she jumped out of her bed and went downstairs. Instead, she found a half-naked man sprawled at the bottom of the steps. Blood pooled around his head and her mom stood beside him with a poker on her hand. Scared, she ran back to her room and hid under the sheets. She promised to tell her dad what she saw, but she didn’t get a chance. Her mom dragged her out of the house in a hurry.
    At the time, she didn’t understand what had happened. Only when she turned eighteen did she find out why the man was lying on the floor. Still, she had no idea who he was or why he had come to their house. Even Mom was clueless as to why.
    Now, Alex was here, to find answers to so many questions that had plagued her mom for years. It would be hard, for sure, and this trip might be a failure, but she would try.
    For her mom. And then she’d go back to Palawan—to Nanni, Ema, to her friends and neighbors, to her home. Then she’d move on.
    She took the piece of paper from her pocket and read it again for the hundredth time.