Filed To Story: The Lingering Kiss of Farewell Novel
He honestly couldn’t believe she was the type of person to do this to him. She would have to know he would blame himself for putting her on that flight, yet here she was alive out there somewhere. God only knows where because he couldn’t find her. She just didn’t bloody exist anymore, had likely used her computing skills to vanish.
But she had wanted to leave him with the thoughts that he had caused her death. The more he listened to that recording, the more angry he got with her. The woman he loved was not the woman he thought she was. Apparently she was a spiteful, vindictive woman that had not only done this to him. He now realized that she had only wanted more money from him. She wouldn’t take the house, no she had insisted on being given its monetary value instead.
For three years they’d been married, and not once did she use the card he’d given her for anything other than purchases he told her to buy. She’d played him really good, it seemed, and had portrayed herself as not wanting any of his money. She’d never asked him for a single thing in the entir e they were married. He’d willingly given her everything she needed to play the role of his loving wife. She didn’t need to ask for anything; she had everything she could possibly want.
She’d put on a hell of a show, he now realised, her attitude with Wil, her sudden being upset after Wil’s engagement party, her dismissive yet sad demeanour at Cliffside the day he’d gone to the house to collect his things.
Then at the airport, all those tears, and the words, how hurt she’d looked, and she’d made him feel guilty, and made him wonder if he was doing the right thing, he’d had to talk himself into believing it was the right way, on that day. Only now did he understand it was all just an act. She’d played her hand so very well.
She’d likely been hoping he’d change his mind with all those tears and faked sadness. To keep herself in the life of luxury she’d been able to have while married to him. But she’d also had a back??p plan in case it didn’t work, and he wouldn’t take her back. So she still got a hell of a payout from him. Everything she’d done was just to suck more money from him, and it had bloody worked.
That house was worth 12 million dollars, and he’d stupidly paid it to her on top of the four million he’d decided was a good enough amount for playing the role of his wife. Because he thought they would only be separated for all of a day, that she would see him when she got to Italy, and know he’d only divorced her to show her he wanted a real marriage with her.
She’d left her car and the house keys at the house, given him everything back, even dumped the engagement ring and wedding band in his car before getting out of it. She’d let him know that very day he’d taken her to the airport. She was severing all ties with him, but he’d been so blinded to it all. Because he’d fallen in love with her, his heart had belonged to her, but in the end she was just a gold digger that had gotten her hooks into him, and hadn’t she; she’d taken him for 16 million dollars in the end, she would never have to work a single day in her life.
She’d left him, and he’d paid her to do so, given her the money to live a life of luxury, just like she’d lived with him for those three years. When he found her, and he would, regardless of how bloody long it took, he’d get his bloody money back and make her pay for it.
He’d already tried to access her account, but it was gone. Everything in her world was just shut down. There was no social media, no email accounts, no bank accounts, just nothing and, from what he could find, she’d done it that very afternoon that she’d supposedly gotten on that plane.
Wil was not as skeptical as Calvin was. He had frowned at hearing the recorded message; he didn’t think it was staged. Had stated it correlated with the time they all learned of the plane crash, just a few hours after it happened. That maybe she’d called to tell him she wasn’t on the plane.
Wil did agree with him on that she’d shut her world down and vanished, but had told Calvin,
“She thought you were kicking her from the country. So maybe she’d left, and just disappeared on her own terms; because it’s what she thought you wanted.”
Wil didn’t actually believe Rin was that heartless, heartbroken by the divorce, yes, and had run away. He was all about love, now that he had it himself. She’d told Wil in his office that she got it. Calvin was kicking her out and abandoning her to another country, with those one??ay tickets he’d given her.
That maybe, just maybe, something had actually happened to her, that the call was real, and she was injured out there somewhere or even worse, had actually died in some accident. The man was delusional. Calvin now realised, he was her next of kin and no one had called him to notify him she was in a hospital or dead somewhere and her body needed collecting. Wil was wrong, and he was right.
She was a hell of an actress, and he was betting she was sitting somewhere lau ng about how stupid he’d been. She’d likely even managed to orchestrate that divorce herself. Asking him about having a baby, she had to know there wasn’t going to be one, it was just a contract marriage, nothing more. She had been ready to move on from him was all. So she had likely set herself up with a new life and just needed to get him to divorce her. Everything about her, he now understood; was a lie.
Today he’d had to hold a funeral for the bloody woman. Everyone around him knew he’d been over there in Italy, that she’d been on that flight that had crashed in Rome, seen him frantically searching for her. He’d not realised it was all a lie until he’d come home and listened to that message; the one he was now replaying, notching up his anger.
Everyone around him knew how much of a happy loving couple they were, and so all he could do was hold a funeral with an empty casket. Because he was not telling them she had robbed him blind, and vanished into the night. He understood her meaning, she was never coming back, she’d made him into a fool. His own heart was now cold, he would not let himself be made out as a fool. No, he was not standing for that.
So, instead, he’d held that stupid funeral and stood there and tried not to seethe through it, had spent thousands of dollars on her empty casket and all the bloody flowers, had that photo up there next to it, a pretty picture taken of her smiling at the camera, from one of the events they’d been too together. Held a freaking wake and had to accept everyone’s heart??elt apologies and condolences, though he’d not been so stupid as to tell them he thought she was actually dead.
He’d now played the clinging to hope card, and told them that because no body had been recovered he didn’t believe it, not really, she was out there somewhere unknown to him. He got those pitying looks and heard people whisper about how much he loved her, that it was sad that he just couldn’t accept it.
That woman was just sucking more money out of him, because that funeral had to be big and lavish, because of who he was and how much they all thought he loved her; their divorce had never been public knowledge, so none knew of it, not even his family. That was his mistake he now understood. Never again would he be deceived by someone like her.
She didn’t even have any family he could hunt down and extract revenge upon to make her come out of hiding, and he was willing to bet she was in hiding now. Marrin wasn’t so dumb as to not know when he found out the truth, he wouldn’t be looking for her, to get his money back. He was going to confront her, stand right before her and demand that she tell him why she had to go to such extreme lengths, to punish him like that.
He had to know why? She’d had everything in that marriage, so why would she want out of it? She should have wanted to stay in it as long as possible, to get more money from him. Why did she pretend to be in love with him? It didn’t make sense, not when staying married to him would have kept her in the life she’d become accustomed to.
Marilyn
She was discharged from the hospital a week later, and the social worker had organised home help for her for the next month, and organised patient transport to her home, or the address that was on her driver’s license. The police had dropped off her one suitcase, and handbag with her belongings in it.
Even to her, it looked as though she had been travelling from somewhere, returning home, she guessed. There was a laptop in that suitcase, some clothes and a couple of books all with her name on them, all written by Marilyn Riddley. There was no picture of herself on them, but she’d flipped through them and smiled as she’d gotten the sense that she was the actual author of those books.
When she’d turned that laptop on, there had been a password to unlock it, and she’d been able to recall the password. It was the main character from her first book. She smiled to herself, even knew where to put the capital letters. She’d gone through it and was not wrong. There were on that laptop all of her books plus the one she was clearly working on. Something finally felt familiar to her. She was Marilyn Riddley Author.
She’d googled the woman and found not a great deal. Her books sold quite well, yet there was no picture of her. She was a bit of a recluse, it seemed, and didn’t want those around her to know who she was. It was all there in her bio. The only thing known about her was that she lived in Virginia. It stated her bio had been updated only six weeks ago.
At least that was something. She was who she thought she was.
Arriving at her home in Bedford, there was a woman standing waiting for them at the house. It was a quaint two??edroom cottage, all white, with a covered veranda at the front, a few potted plants, and she could see. there was a barn??tyle building off to the side. It was a lovely property with a tree??ined driveway, acreage she knew, all the details of the sale of the house were on her laptop as well. This house sat on six acres and the gates at the front of the property were simple and white, had stood open.
There were many deliveries lined up along the veranda as well. She’d not been ho to take delivery, and so they’d been left in a safe place. Her home couldn’t be seen from the road down the long driveway. So anywhere was good, she thought.
The patient transport assisted her out of the vehicle and into the house, and the woman standing there had smiled at her and introduced herself as Barb, would be there to help her every day for the next four weeks until her casts came off.
There wasn’t much by way of furnishings.
“It looks like you’re just moving in, Miss Riddley.”
She could only agree.
“I got in an accident on my way here,”
she nodded.
“This is now moving day I guess.”
“Hmm, you’re not going to make it up those stairs to your bedroom,”
Barb had stated as she looked up at the stairs.
“It is unlikely,”
Marilyn nodded.
“Guess I’ll be sleeping on the floor until I can get a bed delivered.”
“There are a fair few deliveries outside, let me go check them and see what’s there.”
Barb was not only a helpful woman, but she was a doer as well. Had gone off and checked the mailbox for her and brought back a bunch of mail. There were two bank cards in there, from her bank. That was good.
She could actually pay for things, and she’d been able to access her bank from her laptop.
She’d damned near fallen out of her wheel chair at the bank balance. This house had been purchased only a few weeks ago, and cost nearly a million dollars, though she had a feeling it was more the land she was on than the actual house itself. She’d gotten a massive transfer just a few weeks ago from some bank in Huston, Texas.
Seems she’d lived and worked out there, and had moved here. There were no pictures on her laptop of her previous life, just those manuscripts were all. Nothing about her old life, she’d obviously left it behind her to move here. Her eyes had moved to her left hand once more, and she wondered if that doctor had been right.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.