Chapter 2

The old man’s last statement made Alejandro turn pale in anger. Only the awareness that Adrian would be excited in getting under his skin kept him silent.

The older man slumped heavily back against the pillows. ‘Maria was my daughter and dear to my heart, but she humiliated and disappointed me when she walked out on her husband.’

‘She was twenty-two years old and Martinez Sanchez was serving a life sentence. Why shouldn’t she have sought a fresh start for herself and her child?’ Alejandro defended his mother.

‘Loyalty is not negotiable in my world. When Maria vanished, people got nervous about how much she might know about certain activities. She knew too much to leave.

Her treachery was a stain on Martinez honour as well and it made her many enemies.’ Adrian Fernandez shook his head wearily. ‘But she was destroyed by her own ignorance and lack of good sense.’

Alejandro attention was keenly focused on the older man. ‘Obviously you didn’t lose track of my mother and you know what happened to her after she arrived at London.’

‘You won’t like what I have to tell you.’

‘I think I’ve seen and heard worse,’ Alejandro said drily.

Adrian pressed the bell by the bed. ‘You’ll take a seat and have a glass of wine while we talk.

This one time you will behave like my grandson.’

Alejandro wanted to deny the relationship but he knew he could not.

A certain amount of humility was the price he had to pay for the information he had long sought to make sense of his background.

Relaxing his broad shoulders, he sat down in a flex, controlled movement.

A manservant brought in a silver tray bearing a single glass filled with ruby liquid and a plate of tiny almond pastries.

With a glint of something hidden in his sharp old eyes, Adrian Fernandez watched the younger man lift the glass and slowly sip.

The old man laughed. ‘My dear grandchild...you’re no coward!’

‘Why would you want to harm me?’ Alejandro said.

‘How does it feel to have rejected your every living relative?’ Adrian asked him in curiosity.

A sardonic smile of acknowledgement curved Alejandro’s handsome sculpted mouth. ‘It kept me out of prison...it may even have kept me alive. The family tree is distressingly full of early deaths and unlikely accidents.’

After having taken a moment to absorb that acid response, Adrian Fernandez succumbed to a choking bout of appreciative laughter.

Alarmed by the aftermath in which the old man struggled for breath, Alejandro got up to summon assistance only to be irritably waved back to his seat.

‘Please tell me about my mother,’ Alejandro urged.

His companion gave him a mocking look. ‘I want you to know that when she left Amazonas, she had money.

My late wife had left her amply provided for. Your mother’s misfortune was that she had very poor taste in men.’ Alejandro tensed.

His grand father gave him a cynical glance. ‘I warned you that you wouldn’t like it. Of course there was a man involved.

An English man she met on the beach soon after your father went to prison. Why do you think she headed to London when she spoke not a word of English?

Her boyfriend promised to marry her when she was free. She changed her name as soon as she arrived and began to plan her divorce.’

‘How do you know all this?’

‘I have a couple of letters that the boyfriend wrote her. He had no idea who her connections were.

Once she was settled he offered to take care of her money, but he took care of it so well that she never saw it again.

He bled her dry and I understand he then told her he’d lost it all on the stock market.’

Alejandro was very still but his brilliant gaze glittered like black diamonds on ice. ‘Is there more?’

‘He abandoned her when she was pregnant for him and that was when she discovered that he was already married.’

In shock at that further revelation, Alejandro gritted his teeth, he felt betrayed beyond words.

‘I had no idea.’ ‘She lost the baby and never recovered her health.’ His grandfather continued.

‘You knew all this...yet you chose not to help her?’ Alejandro recognized the cold, critical detachment that had ultimately decided his frail mother’s fate.

‘She could have asked for assistance at any time but she didn’t. I will be frank. She had become an embarrassment to us and there were complications.

Martinez got out of prison on appeal. He wanted you, his son, back and he wanted revenge on his unfaithful wife.

Your mother’s whereabouts had to remain a secret if you were not to end up in the hands of a violent drunk. Silence kept both of you safe.’

‘It didn’t stop us going hungry though,’ Alejandro replied without any reservations.

‘You survived—’

‘But she didn’t,’ Alejandro insisted angrily.

Adrian Fernandez revealed no regret. ‘I’m not a forgiving man. She let the family down and the final insult was her belief that she had to keep her son away from my reach. She became involved in religion before she died and turned against us even more.’

‘If you never saw her again, how do you know that?’ Alejandro asked suspiciously.

The old man grimaced. ‘She phoned me when her health was failing. She was worried about what would happen to you. But she still begged me to respect her wishes and not to claim you when she was gone.’

Alejandro could see that exhaustion was steadily claiming the older man and pushing their meeting to a close. ‘I appreciate your unreserved honesty. I would like the name of the man who stole my mother’s money.’

‘His name was Joshua Lynch.’ Adrian Fernandez lifted a large envelope and extended it. ‘The letters. Take them.’

‘What happened to him?’ Alejandro asked curiously

‘Nothing.’ His grandfather replied

‘Nothing?’ Alejandro queried. ‘My mother died when I was seven years old.’

‘And now here you are, proud not to be a Fernandez or a Sanchez. If you are not anything like us as you always claimed, why do you want Lynch’s name?’ the old man retaliated . ‘What do you intend to do with it?’

Alejandro surveyed him with dark expressionless eyes and shifted a shoulder in a shrug.

‘Don’t do anything foolish, Alejandro.’ His grandfather warned

Alejandro laughed out loud. ‘I can’t believe you’re saying that to me grandpa.’

‘Who better? I’ve spent the last decade in exile. I’ve been hunted across this planet by the forces of law and order and by my enemies. But my time is almost up,’ Adrian Fernandez mused. ‘You are the closest relative I have left and I have watched over you all your life.’

‘Only not so that I noticed,’ Alejandro countered, not moved by the claim.

‘Perhaps we are cleverer than you think. You may also find out that, under that skin of yours , you have more in common with us than you want to admit.’

Alejandro lifted his arrogant dark head high, strong denial of that suggestion in every inch of his proud bearing. ‘No. I really don’t think so.’