The Billionaire's Secrets (34 page)

* * *

Chloe looked down again at her tracks in the snow. She was lost. She panicked and spun around, seeing nothing but swirling snow in every direction. Which direction was home
? And how far was she?
A mile?
T
wo miles?
She listened for the sound of the ocean. If she kept the
ocean on her left, she would find her way home, she reasoned. But all she could hear was the wind and her own
frightened
breathing. She was lost! 

She started to run, stumbling forward in the snow, running until she was out of breath, only to see her own snowed-in footprints. Three sets of footprints - all her own! Blankly, she looked down at her coat. It was covered with snow, and she had the terrible feeling she was disappearing into the landscape.
Her and
the
baby.
She staggered on, shivering uncontrollably now.
Out of fear.
Out of cold.
Going on blindly in any direction - to keep moving was her only goal. How long had she been walking?

The longer she
walked,
the more unreal everything became. Just like a snowstorm in May, everything that had happened today did not seem possible.
It was like a dream.
A horrific
dream.
Colleen.
This snowstorm.
This cold.
Yes,
that’s
it
, she thought, becoming slowly calmer.
A dream
.
She would wake up soon,
Gaelan
would be there, and she would put on her wedding dress
,
and they would get married.

She saw
him like a mirage or a vision,
herself
and the swirling snow reflected in his dark eyes. She walked toward him. She wouldn't wait for the wedding, she would tell him about the baby now. She didn't want to forget. It was, after all, her wedding present to him.

She opened her mouth to speak to him, but suddenly the vision was gone. She looked around for him
,
but there was only snow. Suddenly, she stumbled against a boulder. She reached out
,
and her hands touched the sharp branches of a tree. She realised she had wandered into a small copse.

For a moment she thought she heard her name being called. She stopped and listened, but it was only the wind playing tricks on her.  "
Gaelan
?" she said. She tried to shout, but the name was all but lost on the wind.

She crouched down between some boulders. It wasn't as windy here. And she wasn't cold anymore. She was just sleepy. She would just close her eyes
,
and when she woke up, she would be next to
Gaelan
in their bed
,
and she would tell him about their baby…
.

* * *

Gaelan
had been walking for almost an hour when his cell rang. He reached for it, praying it was Marcus say
ing
Chloe had returned to the house unharmed.

"
Gaelan
, David here."

"Yes,"
Gaelan
said anxiously.

"Sorry,
Gaelan
.
No news, I'm afraid." The connection crackled
,
and
Gaelan
lost the sound of the chief's voice for a moment. "Are you still there,
Gaelan
? I can't do much
before this storm lets up. But if she's not back by then, we'll see if we can't get a search party organised."

"I hope that won't be necessary,"
Gaelan
said, fearing if he didn't find her before then, it might be too late. Already there was more than six inches on the ground
,
and the storm showed no indication of letting up before nightfall. Chloe had already been o
ut here for two hours
. In this cold and wind, hypothermia was a real possibility. He put the phone back in his pocket and continued to follow the fence away from the ocean, calling her name in between praying for her safety.

Suddenly, he remembered that near here was a small copse of trees surrounded by large rocks. On this windswept headland, it was the only place that could be considered shelter. The snow was blinding, and as he could see no further than a couple of feet, he relied on his sense of direction and intuition to guid
e him. Again he called her name
and again heard only the wind in reply. He pressed on in the direction of the
copse
,
head bent into the wind and snow, knowing that he could pass within feet of the
trees and never see them
.

More and more he feared she was h
urt. Surely if she were out here
she would be returning his calls. And if she wasn't here, where was she?  He prayed she did not
go beyond the fence. Outside
the grounds of Widow's Cliff
,
the edge was not protected by a fence, and in this weather, it would be only too easy to step off... He shuddered and tried to block the horrifying image from his mind. But there was a terrible irony to the scenario - to find out that his first wife did not die from a fall from the cliff, only to have Chloe… He could not even finish the thought.

What would he do if he lost her?  He could not imagine his life without her. Only a couple of months ago, he had been determined never to fall in love with another woman. Now here he was, more in love than he ever thought possible, his life changed forever. Never could he have imagined such happiness with another woman. No god could be so cruel as to snatch her away from him. He saw his life stretched out before him, an eternity of missing her, an eternity of wishing for her.

He stopped
suddenly,
sure he heard the faintest of sounds on the swirling snow. He raised his head and listened again.
Only the wind.
But instinct told him to follow the sound, and he turned only to find that he had been about to overshoot the copse by just six feet.

He walked between the trees and boulders, his heart nearly stopping when he glimpsed the dark fabric of her coat beneath a dusting of snow.
Oh God
, he breathed,
let her be alive!
She was curled up in the fetal position, one arm tucked under her head. Her eyes were closed, the snow white against her lashes.

Galean
didn't breathe. He pulled off his glove and touched her cheek. She stirred
,
and her eyes opened.

"
Gaelan
," she whispered.

Gaelan
felt relie
f flood over him. She was alive!
She was probably suffering from minor hypothermia, but she would be okay. "You're safe now," he said, his voice catching, tears of relief filling his eyes.

He took off his coat and wrapped it around her. He knew he was risking exposure himself, out in this wind and snow in only his wedding suit, but he knew Chloe needed the extra warmth of his long coat. They were possibly two miles from the house, a distance too great for him to carry her. Both of them needed warmth quickly.

He took out his cell once again. "Marcus. I found her. I'm close to the road here, where the fence meets the road. Get out the Jeep and meet us.
Fast."

* * *

Stripped of her frozen clothes and wrapped in blankets, a roaring fire blazing in the fireplace, Chloe lay on the bed in
the master bed
room
suite
.
Gaelan's
doctor, a guest at the wedding, had already been in to see her. She had asked to speak to him alone
,
and he reassured her there was no reason to fear for the safety of the baby. And it was with tears of relief as much as pain that she had cried as the circulation returned to her frozen feet and hands. Chloe felt she could bear almost anything so long as the baby was safe. 
Gaelan
held her in his arms, giving her sips of warm tea, stroking her hair, talking to her gently until the tears subsided and the shaking stopped.

She took a long hot shower, and after a meal of toast and tea, she felt almost normal again, at least physically.

"I've ruined our wedding," she said apologetically to him at last.

"No," he said. "It was me who was at fault. I should have told you I suspected Colleen really didn't die in that fall. You see, my lawyer had given her a great deal of money. But after her so-called death, there was absolutely no trace of the money. I was suspicious and hired private investigators to search for her. I only recently decided I was being paranoid and called off the detectiv
es. I didn't tell you about it
because I didn't think it
was
an issue anymore."
Gaelan
stopped and looked thoughtful for a moment. "That lawyer must have helped her hide the money and change her identity."

"No. It's my fault," Chloe insisted. "I should have just trusted you. If I had done that, I would have just told you she was here and trusted that you knew as little about it as I did." The tears welled up in her eyes once more. "
Gaelan
, I love you so much. I'll never mistrust you again.
No matter what anyone says."