Deadly Embrace Jackie Collins (the reader ebook .TXT) 📖

brunette who performed alongside her. Gemini was a divorced mother with a son, Nando, who was a few months older than Vincent. The two children often played together, and Dani and Gemini had plans for them to attend the same nursery school.

Sam didn’t like Gemini–he wasn’t fond of anyone he considered a threat. He wanted Dani and Vincent to himself and was fiercely jealous of outsiders. His jealousy manifested itself in an occasional petulant outburst, which Dani tried to ignore.

Basically, Sam was on a downward spiral. He’d never got over Emily’s disappearance, and there was nothing she could do to help him forget. Emily was always there, hovering between them. Dani had learned to accept that this was the way it was.

Vincent was her saviour. To look into his handsome little face and see the love there was everything she’d ever needed. ‘Love you, Mommy,’ he said every night, when she tucked him into bed and read him a story before going off to do her show.

‘Thank you, sweetheart,’ she said, kissing him. ‘Mommy loves you too. In fact, Mommy loves you the whole wide world!’

Sometimes, when Sam was on one of his drinking jags, she hired a babysitter to stay with her son.

Sam didn’t approve. ‘Are you saying I’m not capable of looking after the kid?’ he yelled.

‘If you want to go out, there has to be someone here,’ she said. ‘You cannot leave Vincent alone.’

He’d done it one night, and when she’d come home and found her child alone, she’d been hysterical. She was determined that it would never happen again. Sometimes she wondered how things might have turned out if Emily hadn’t vanished. Would Emily and Sam have remained a happy couple? Would Sam have started drinking? And would she have got pregnant with Vincent? Because with Emily to advise her, she probably would’ve been wiser.

It wasn’t worth thinking about, because it didn’t matter. She had Vincent, and he was everything to her. One day, while walking home from the market with Vincent, she thought she saw Manny Spiven. It was a horrible moment. She clutched Vincent, tightening her grip on his small hand.

‘Whassamatter, Mommy?’ he asked, big eyes gazing up at her.

‘Nothing,’ she answered as Manny Spiven scurried past, barely noticing her. Of course he wouldn’t recognize her. It was years later and she looked quite different. Onstage she was a gleaming goddess. Offstage she tied back her long blonde hair, put on no makeup, wore granny glasses and understated clothes.

Seeing Manny brought back all the memories. The night she’d spotted him in the audience with Michael, and then the next day Michael repeating the horrible lies Manny had made up about her. Then Michael returning a few weeks later, and their one night of unforgettable passion.

Damn! She had to stop thinking about him.

You think about him because he’s Vincent’s father, her inner voice informed her. And you named him after Michael.

I did not.

Yes, you did. Surely you remember that when you were sitting with Michael in the coffee shop at the Estradido, he told you that his given name was Vincenzio Michael Castellino?

Yes, she remembered, but it had nothing to do with her naming her son Vincent. It simply happened to be a nice name, a popular name.

When she got home, Sam greeted her full of enthusiasm. ‘I’ve come up with a scheme,’ he announced excitedly. ‘We’re gonna make millions.’

This was his new thing, coming to her with schemes that he tried to persuade her to invest in.

‘What is it this time, Sam?’ she asked, unloading the groceries in the kitchen as Vincent played on the floor with his train set.

‘Windmills,’ he said. ‘Everybody wants windmills. It’s a new tax dodge. And…’ a triumphant pause ‘…guess what? I’m gonna build ’em.’

‘You’re going to build windmills?’ she said patiently.

‘Yeah,’ Sam said, pacing up and down. ‘I met this guy an’ he’s gonna show me how to do it.’

‘You’re going to build windmills with your own hands–is that what you’re telling me?’

‘No. I’ll put together a team, an’ I’ll supervise.’

‘It sounds like a good idea,’ she said, thinking it was a stupid idea.

‘Pleased you like it,’ he said, beaming. ‘’Cause all you gotta do is hand over ten grand.’

Oh, yes, naturally it involves me and my money.

‘I don’t have that kind of money, Sam,’ she said evenly. And even if I did, I certainly wouldn’t be giving it to you to put into windmills.

‘No, no, honey, you don’t get it,’ he said, waving his arms in the air. ‘Windmills are gonna be big. Like I told you, we’ll make millions.’

She didn’t say a word. They were headed for another fight and she hated him for doing this in front of Vincent.

‘So,’ he said belligerently, ‘you gonna come up with the money or not?’

‘I told you,’ she repeated, wishing he’d stop this nonsense, ‘I don’t have ten thousand dollars.’

‘You must have,’ he said, beads of sweat glistening on his upper lip. ‘You sock it away every week, an’ you’re getting paid top dollar. You sure as hell don’t spend it on me.’

‘I told you what I do with my money,’ she said quietly. ‘I put it in the bank for Vincent’s college education.’

‘Why d’you wanna send him to college anyway?’ he demanded. ‘We did okay without goin’.’

‘Maybe you did, but I would’ve given anything to go to college.’

He threw a malevolent glare her way. ‘So you’re not gonna help me?’

‘It’s not a question of helping you.’

‘I’m outta here,’ he said, scowling. ‘Get a babysitter for the night.’ And he slammed his way out the door.

She couldn’t win with Sam. It was quite obvious he didn’t want them to be happy. The only time she saw a smile on his face was when he took Vincent to the park and played ball with him, and he didn’t do that too often.

‘Daddy’s cross,’ Vincent said, zooming his train round the wooden track.

‘No, he’s not,’ she assured him, cheerful as always.

‘Cross! Cross! Cross!’ Vincent sing-songed.

She didn’t know what their future held.