The Costarella Conquest (12 page)

F
OR
the rest of the year Laura applied herself so thoroughly to her uni course, she not only attained her degree, but also graduated with honours in every subject. This gave her an extra edge over other students entering the workforce for the first time. She was snapped up by a firm of architects, wanting a landscape specialist to enhance their designs. It was a wonderful buoyant feeling to know all her hard work had paid off and she was actually going to begin her chosen career.

The phone call notifying her of her successful interview came in the first week of December and her new employers wanted her in their office the following Monday. After revelling in the news for a few moments, she rushed out to the back garden to tell her mother, who was trailing after Nick Jeffries as he checked the sprinkler system.

‘Mum! I got it! The job I interviewed for!' she called out, causing both of them to turn and give her their attention. She grinned exultantly at them as she added, ‘And they want me to start next week!'

Her mother's face lit with pleasure. ‘That's fantastic, Laura!'

‘Fantastic!' Nick repeated, grinning delight at her. ‘Congratulations!'

‘And before Christmas, too,' her mother said with an air of relief, turning her face up to Nick's and touching his arm in an oddly familiar manner. ‘Can we do it?'

He nodded. ‘The sooner, the better.'

‘Do what?' Laura asked, bemused by what seemed like an intimate flow of understanding between them.

Nick tucked her mother's arm around his and they faced Laura together as he told her their news. ‘Your mother is leaving your father and moving in with me. We've just been waiting for you to have some freedom of choice, Laura, and now you're set.'

She was totally thunderstruck. Her mother and Nick? She had never imagined, never suspected there was anything beyond a casual affection between them, born out of sharing the pleasure of a lovely garden. She knew Nick was a widower, had been for years, but he'd always been very respectful to her mother, caring about what she wanted but never taking liberties that might not be welcome. When had their relationship moved to a different level?

‘I can see you're shocked,' her mother said on a deflated sigh.

Her air of disappointment jolted Laura into a quick
protest. ‘No! No! Just surprised! And pleased,' she quickly added, beaming a smile at both of them.

‘It's not good for Alicia here,' Nick said, appealing for her understanding.

That was the understatement of the year!

‘I'm sure Mum will be a lot happier with you than with Dad,' Laura said with feeling. ‘Both Eddie and I have always liked you, Nick. And appreciated how much you've lightened Mum's life. I think it's brilliant that you're stepping in and taking her away, but I've got to warn you, Dad's bound to be horribly mean about it. He's not a good loser.'

Which was another huge understatement.

Nick patted her mother's hand reassuringly. ‘Alicia doesn't need to take anything from him. I can provide for her.'

‘There's very little I want to take from this life, Laura. Nick can fit it into his van,' her mother said, looking brighter now that her decision had been so readily accepted by her daughter. ‘But you'll have to move on the same day. Either come with us or go to Eddie's until you can afford a place of your own. I can't leave you here, not with your father finding out I've walked out on him.'

‘No, that would not be a good scene,' Laura heartily agreed.

The biggest understatement of all!

‘I'll go to Eddie's, let you two start your lives together on your own,' she decided. ‘It won't be for
long. As soon as I get my first pay cheque, I'll look around for an apartment close to my work.'

‘We must tell Eddie now,' her mother said anxiously, looking to Nick for his support again.

‘Yes, he has to be brought into the plan,' Nick agreed.

‘No problem. I'll call him, let him know,' Laura suggested. ‘And don't worry, Mum. Eddie will be all for it.'

She shook her head. ‘I must tell him, dear. It's only right.'

‘Okay. Just trying to save you trouble, Mum.'

‘I know. It's what you've been doing for years,' she said sadly. ‘But no more, Laura.'

‘That's my job from now on,' Nick said with a cheerful grin. ‘All you have to do, Laura, is choose what you want to take with you, pack it up and be ready when Alicia nominates the day.'

‘A day when I'm sure your father will be out. I'm not going to face him with this. I'll leave him a letter. Let him rage to an empty house.'

‘Best course,' Nick said decisively. ‘I wouldn't put it past him to stoop to physical violence and I won't have Alicia subjected to any risk of that.'

‘Definitely the best course,' Laura agreed. ‘What about Friday, Mum? I'm sure Dad said that was when he was meeting with his barrister to plan the counter attack to the accusations against him.'

Give him some dirt on your lover-boy, Laura,
he'd
jeered.
Jake Freedman won't come out of this clean, I can promise you that.

None of my business,
Laura had firmly recited to herself, determined not to encourage her father into elaborating on
the dirt,
refusing to go anywhere that involved Jake. Despite all the intervening months, she hadn't been able to bury the hurt of her disillusionment with him and it was quite impossible to become interested in any other man.

‘Yes, Friday!' her mother cried excitedly.

The day of freedom.

She turned to the man who had opened another door for her. ‘No way will Alex miss that meeting, Nick. As soon as he's left the house I'll call you.'

‘And I'll be here,' he assured her.

It was really heart-touching seeing the caring for her mother written on Nick's face, seeing her open trust in him. Laura had to clear a lump in her throat before she could speak.

‘Now we've got that settled, I'm off to my room to start selecting what I want to take with me. You two can start planning a happy future together.'

She kissed them both on their cheeks and skipped away feeling even more light-hearted at the prospect of her mother's escape to a new life. No more oppressive abuse, no more fear, no more misery. Nick Jeffries was not an impressively handsome, wealthy man, but the kindness running through his veins was obviously more attractive to her mother than anything else.

And maybe that was what she should look for in a man.

Forget Jake Freedman's strong sex appeal.

Forget everything she had loved about him.

There had been no real kindness in him.

A kind man would never have used her as Jake had.

Next week she would be starting a new phase of her life, leaving everything and everyone connected to her father behind, and that would surely make forgetting Jake easier. She would be busy working her way into her career, forging a path of her own without having to worry about her mother's well-being, and looking forward to a really happy, tension-free Christmas for once!

Joy to the world!

Smiling over the words that had sung through her mind, Laura raced upstairs to her room to start organising the big move. Having perused the contents of her wardrobe, she decided large plastic garbage bags were needed for easy transportation. A lot of old stuff need not be taken. She stared down at the turquoise shoes Jake had called erotic on her first date with him at Neil Perry's Spice Temple. Gorgeous shoes. A gift from her mother. But could she ever wear them again without remembering him, remembering how it had been in the hotel after he'd taken them off?

A knock on her door interrupted the miserable train of thought.

‘It's just me,' her mother called.

‘Come in,' Laura quickly invited, wanting some private time with her mother, mostly to feel totally assured that going with Nick Jeffries was the right move for her, not an act of desperation or some kind of sacrifice to her children's peace of mind.

‘Nick has stacked some boxes in the laundry for us to use,' she said, her blue eyes sparkling with happy anticipation.

‘Mum, you are sure about this?' Laura asked earnestly. ‘You're not just taking some…some easy way out?'

‘No, dear. I'm very sure.' She walked over to the bed and sat on the end of it, looking at Laura with a soft, dreamy expression on her face. ‘I lost myself with your father. I want to find the person I could have been and Nick will let me do that. I know I'm different with him and I like the difference. He touches my heart and makes me feel good, Laura, good in a way I've never felt before.'

She'd felt good with Jake until… But this wasn't the time to be thinking of him. She had to
stop
thinking of him. ‘That's great, Mum,' she said warmly, giving her an ironic smile. ‘I guess I'm still a bit surprised. When did you two open up to each other?'

‘It was just after my birthday…'

Tenth of October

‘Your father had been particularly nasty to me and I was sitting out on the garden bench near the pool, weeping over my miserable existence, wishing I were dead. Nick had come to work and he found me there.
There was no hiding my wretched state and he was so kind, so comforting. We talked and talked…?.'

She sighed, shook her head as though it was too difficult—or too private—to explain, but the reminiscent smile on her face spoke of unexpected pleasure found and treasured. ‘Anyhow, the more we talked, the more I realised
I
wanted to be with him, and
he
wanted me to be with him, too. We both believe we can make a beautiful little world together. You can't imagine, Laura. Everything feels so different with Nick. So very different…'

Yes, she could imagine. No problem at all in imagining how it was or how it could be. She pulled her mother up from the bed for a hug. ‘I'm so glad for you, Mum. Make sure you tell Eddie all that so he won't worry about you.'

‘I will, dear. And you must both come to Nick's house for Christmas. We'll have a lovely celebration of it this year.'

‘Mmmh…' Laura grinned. ‘We'll be able to have fun together.'

‘Yes, fun!' Her mother seized the concept with delight and sailed out of the room, no doubt eager to share it with Nick.

Over the next few days Laura and her mother secretly packed what they wanted to take, storing the boxes in Laura's room, where her father never ventured. Eddie was cock-a-hoop about the plan and in total agreement that it be carried out without
their father's knowledge, not risking any explosive confrontation.

Friday morning came. Alex Costarella duly left for his meeting. Nick arrived in his van within minutes of the all-clear call. He and Laura packed the boxes and bags into it while her mother removed her personal papers—birth and marriage certificates from her father's safe—and made a last-minute check that nothing important had been missed.

There were absolutely no regrets on driving away from the Mosman mansion. It was like having a huge weight lifted off their hearts. The sense of freedom was so heady they couldn't help laughing at everything said between them. Laura called Eddie on her mobile phone to inform him of their successful escape and he was out on the street waiting for them when they arrived at his apartment block.

They all moved her belongings into his second bedroom and once that task was complete, she and Eddie accompanied their mother and Nick back to the van to say goodbye and wish them well. Oddly enough her mother looked strained as she nervously fingered a large envelope she'd left on the passenger seat, finally thrusting it at Laura.

‘I don't know if it's right or wrong to give you this,' she said anxiously. ‘It was in your father's safe and I looked into it while I was searching for my papers. It holds more photos of Jake Freedman—ones he didn't show you, Laura. I think he lied about those he did. Lied to drive a wedge between you and Jake,
wanting to hurt. He always wanted to hurt when he didn't get his own way. Maybe seeing these will lessen the hurt a bit. I hope so, dear.'

It felt like a knife was twisting in her heart as she took the envelope, but she managed a smile, quickly saying, ‘Don't worry, Mum. What's done is done and it's all in the past anyway. Go with Nick now. Be happy.'

They drove off and she stood so long staring blankly after the van, Eddie picked up the vibes of her distress and hugged her shoulders. ‘It might be in the past but it's not done with, is it, Laura?' he said sympathetically. ‘I know you haven't got over the guy. So let's go inside and look at what Dad's Machiavellian streak came up with to destroy what you had together.'

They were before-and-after photographs—before and after the damning shots that had driven her to reject any future with the man she had loved. Jake hadn't followed the pretty blonde into the house. She'd gone inside alone. Even the shots of them walking down the street together had no hint of any intimacy between them—just a man accompanying a woman.

As for the kiss at the gym, it was clear that the woman had thrown herself at Jake. There were snaps of his face showing surprise, annoyance, impatience, rejection, none of which had been visible in the photo her father had shown her.

‘It was a set-up,' Eddie muttered, tapping a clear
shot of the blonde. ‘I've seen this woman around the traps. She's a fairly high-class working girl. This would have been an easy gig for her and no doubt Dad paid her well for it.'

A set-up…and she'd fallen for it; hook, line and sinker.

‘I didn't give Jake a chance to explain,' she said miserably. ‘I posted him the incriminating photos with a message that wrote him out of my life.'

‘Don't fret it, Laura. I'm sure Jake was smart enough to realise Dad wasn't going to tolerate a connection between the two of you. He probably thought he was saving you grief by letting it go.'