Irene laughed then, a brittle sound that grated on Josh’s ears.
“I told her Bruce wanted her to leave Auckland. She refused, telling me she knew Bruce loved her. Loved her! But I convinced her in the end. I gave her the letter and the cheque and told her to use it to get rid of the baby she was carrying. That night I went home and I told Bruce I was pregnant. He was overjoyed, and the rest, as they say, is history. Oh, he tried to find her, to let her down gently, I suppose, but she was already gone. Well and truly gone, and good riddance.”
No wonder his mother had never cashed that cheque. It had been blood money. Money for the sole purpose of taking a life that had been conceived in love. That Bruce had loved Suzanne he had absolutely no doubt. He’d read the letters. He’d seen the fear in Irene’s eyes. It was a fear that still ruled her.
Josh’s hands curled into knotted fists as he sat and listened to Irene’s invective. The woman was poison. She’d played with lives, moving them around as if they were no more than pieces on a chessboard.
“You sent that letter to me when my mother died, when I tried to let Bruce know.”
“Of course I did. I’d protected my family for more than eighteen years from that woman. Do you really think I was going to be less vigilant after all that time?”
“He had a right to know she’d gone. He had a right to know me.”
“My husband will never acknowledge you as his son,” she stated, her voice as frigid as the Great Southern Ocean.
“That doesn’t matter to me anymore, Irene, because, you see, even though you thought you’d done everything right to protect your precious family, you—and only you—have sown the seeds of the destruction of what you tried hardest to save.”
“How dare you! You’re the one. You’re the mastermind behind it all. You even used that poor girl to further your maniacal scheme.”
“If, by poor girl, you’re talking about Callie, then maybe you should ask yourself why you groomed her for so many years and then let her take the blame when everything turned upside down. What kind of person scouts for the vulnerable the way you did with her, and then lets her believe she belongs—that she has a place in your world? Then, when it no longer suits you, you cast her adrift as if she has no value to you anymore. Is that how you measure everyone in your life? By what they can do for you?”
Josh closed his eyes a moment to compose himself. To draw on every last ounce of control he had left. “I feel sorry for you, Irene, because when all is said and done you had to cheat and lie to get what you have today—your husband, your business, your entire world. All of it based on lies. You say you’ve done it to protect your family, but you only did what you did out of fear. Fear of rejection, fear of failure. And when the truth comes out, who will stand in your corner then?”
Twin spots of colour stood stark on Irene’s cheeks, but he could see the fear that now reflected in her eyes. Could see that she feared him and the threat he was to the very fabric of her world.
“You’re threatening me with the media? I’ll have an injunction slapped on you so fast you won’t know what gagged you. You will not spoil my plan. Palmer Enterprises will recover from your attempt to destabilise us, and when Bruce and I move to Guildara, he’ll be the jewel in their diplomatic crown because I protected him from you.”
“No. I’m not going to the media. Not any more. Nor am I going to systematically take Palmer Enterprises apart piece by piece. You’re simply not worth the effort. Besides, I think my father and my half brother deserve better than that. But what you decide to do next will be the key to what makes or breaks Palmers and your dreams for the future. And if your entire world falls apart, you will know that you were the only one who could have done anything about it. See how you like playing God with that truth.”
How he made it out the office and down in the elevator to the entrance to the building he didn’t know, but the moment he stepped free of the Palmer Enterprises building he knew a freedom he had never experienced before.
Freedom tinged with grief for the ill-fated love affair his parents had shared. For so many years he’d believed his father had been a man to be vilified. Some all-powerful being that had held Josh’s fate, and the eventual fate of his mother, in his hands. Yet all along he’d been a victim of his world. A man who’d been too late—and yes, maybe even too weak—to act when love had been his for the taking.
Yet, despite that, Bruce had given Suzanne happiness, even if only for a short time. And it said a lot that his mother had never once run his father down. Never once apportioned blame. To her dying day, he knew she must have loved him and that kind of love was a gift, no matter how long you shared it.