Contract with Consequences

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

JOHN made his way quickly back into the master bedroom where he threw on a white T-shirt, slipped on some ancient but comfy flip-flops, then reached for a white baseball cap which he’d bought last week. He’d discovered that even in winter the sun up here in Darwin could burn, especially now that he didn’t have a thick covering of scalp and facial hair to protect him.

When he returned to the living room, Scarlet was waiting for him with a roomy straw carry-all slung over her shoulder and a large-brimmed white sun-hat on her head.

John walked ahead of her to the door, opening it and waving her through before turning and locking up. Slipping the keys into his shorts pocket, he accompanied her along to the bank of lifts where they rode in companionable silence down to the lobby. Once there, he took her elbow and steered her out onto the pavement then safely across the road to the park opposite.

‘The park runs the full length of the Esplanade,’ he told her as they started walking along the main pathway which wound its way through the extensive lawns and gardens. ‘This path will lead us to the far end of the CBD, past Government House, which is a splendid old building, then over a walkway and down a lift to the newly developed waterfront. I think you’ll be impressed with what they’ve done to what used to be a pretty dingy area.’

‘You’re right-the views of the harbour from down here are incredible! And different from up on your balcony. Do you think we could go out on the harbour one day?’ she asked whilst taking photos.

‘Of course. I’ll charter a boat. We’ll go sightseeing and I’ll show you how to fish. Fishing’s a recent hobby of mine.’

She stopped taking photos and looked at him. ‘I’m surprised. I thought you were a terra firma man.’

‘I thought I was too. But after my accident I couldn’t do too much for a few months. A friend suggested fishing and I found I loved it.’

‘My dad used to like fishing. But I never went with him. I always thought it would be boring.’

‘Not if you know where to fish and you have the right equipment. Then it’s quite exciting. And very satisfying. They’ll cook us what we catch on board the boat. If you like eating seafood, that is.’

‘Love it.’

‘That’s one thing we have in common, then.’

Scarlet laughed. ‘The only thing, I’ll warrant.’

‘No. Not the only thing,’ he said, his voice low and knowing.

Scarlet deliberately ignored his sexual overtone by walking over to read a commemorative plaque which had a list of names on it connected with the Second World War. Darwin had been the only city in Australia ever to be bombed during any of the world wars, she’d discovered during the Internet search about the city. Scarlet took a photo of the plaque, then a few more of the view.

‘What a lovely place Darwin is,’ she said.

‘I like it,’ he said.

‘So why don’t you live here permanently, John? Why go back to South America? Come to think of it, why did you choose to work there in the first place? I mean, there are jobs for geologists here in Australia. You could have just come up here, or gone to one of the many mining towns in Western Australia. There’s no need to go to the other side of the world just to get away from…’ The question she really wanted to ask burst out. ‘Why do you hate your father so much, John?’

‘Wow,’ he said. ‘That’s quite a lot of questions in one hit. Look, why don’t we sit down over here?’ he said, directing her to a park bench that was under the shade of a tree. ‘It could take me a while to answer them all.’

‘Especially truthfully,’ she reminded him.

‘Scarlet, would I lie to you?’

‘In a heartbeat,’ she replied, and he smiled.

‘You know me too well.’

‘I know you don’t like talking about yourself.’

John shrugged. ‘I doubt you’ll find any of this happy listening, but what the hell? You wanted the truth.’

For a split second, he wondered if he could get away with lying to Scarlet. But only for a split second.

He wasn’t about to sugar-coat anything, either.

‘First things first,’ he said rather bluntly. ‘I’m actually not going to go back to Brazil. I recently sold my house in Rio. I plan to stay and work here in Australia.’

‘That’s a surprise! What made you decide to return home after all these years? I got the impression you loved living in South America.’

‘I did. I probably would have stayed living there indefinitely if my housekeeper-a truly sweet lady named Bianca whom I was very fond of-hadn’t been killed. Stabbed to death by a gang of street kids she’d been trying to help.’

‘Oh, John, that’s awful!’

‘It was. She was such a good woman. She used to go out every night and take food to the homeless. If I wasn’t away working or out clubbing for the night, I’d go with her-not because I was a saint like she was, but because I was worried about her safety. The places she used to go were downright dangerous. I tried to stop her going out alone when I wasn’t there, but she took no notice of me. She said she’d be fine. Said if she didn’t help those poor kids, who would?

“When I came home early one morning to find a police car parked outside my house, I knew something bad had happened to Bianca. I have to confess I went crazy when I found out she was dead. I wanted to kill the little bastards who did it to her. As it was, I beat the hell out of a couple of them. The police weren’t impressed, and gave me a warning. At the time, I didn’t give a damn. They weren’t doing anything that I could see to solve Bianca’s murder. Anyway, I knew if I stayed there, I might do something really stupid so I sold up and left.’

‘Just as well you did. Does your family know any of this?’

‘Of course not!’

‘But why ever not?’

‘Because it’s my private and personal business, not theirs.’

‘So they don’t know about your housekeeper being killed? Or that you’ve left South America for good? Or that you’re going to live and work here in Australia in future?’

‘Not yet. Wait a second,’ he went on quickly when he saw her mouth opening. ‘Let me finish before you get on your high horse and start tearing strips off me for being a secretive and unloving son. I will tell them. Well… not the bit about Bianca. Just that I’ve come home to Australia to live and work. Meanwhile, they’re none the wiser and no one is getting hurt.’

Scarlet pressed her lips tightly together to stop herself from telling him that he was always hurting his family by his long absences, especially his mother. Carolyn had been quite upset when he’d left so soon after her party. She’d be even more upset if she knew he was up here in Darwin, holidaying, whilst she thought he was in Brazil working.

‘Now, if you must know the truth, I do not actually hate my father. My emotions where he is concerned are not that simple.’

Scarlet blinked. What on earth could have possibly happened to sour the relationship between father and son so?

‘You won’t know this since my parents don’t speak of it, but I was born a twin.’

‘A twin!’ Scarlet exclaimed, totally taken aback.

‘Yes. I had a brother, Josh, born a few minutes before me. We were identical twins. Identical in genes but, as is often the case, not identical in nature. He was the extrovert; I, the introvert. He was hyperactive and rather naughty, but a real little charmer. He could talk when he was just a toddler. I was quieter and much less communicative. People thought I was shy but I wasn’t. I was just… self-contained.’

Scarlet had an awful feeling about what was coming. After all, no twin brother named Josh had moved into the house opposite hers. She braced herself for bad news but it still shocked her.

‘Josh drowned in our back-yard pool when he was four,’ John went on. ‘Mum was on the phone one day and we were playing outside. Josh pulled a chair over to the childproof fence and attempted to climb over it. But he fell off the top of the fence and hit his head before toppling into the pool. I stood there for far too long in shock before running screaming for my mother. By the time she pulled Josh out of the pool, he was dead.’

‘Oh, John,’ Scarlet choked out as tears welled up into her eyes. ‘How tragic.’

John stiffened when he saw the evidence of her sympathy. This was what he could not stand. This was why he’d never told anyone this story. Because he didn’t want to feel what he was feeling at that moment-as though he was somehow to blame for Josh’s death. Logic told him it couldn’t possibly have been his fault, but logic meant nothing to a four-year-old seeing his mother almost catatonic with shock and his father weeping in despair. It welled up in him again, the guilt and the grief. Because he’d loved Josh just as much as his parents. He’d been his twin brother. His flesh and blood. They’d been inseparable from birth.

But no one had cared about his grief.

John could not believe how painful he still found the memory. Damn it, he would not show weakness in front of Scarlet.

‘To cut a long story short,’ he said abruptly, ‘My father did something the night after Josh’s death which affected me very badly. When I saw him sitting in an armchair in our lounge, with his head in his hands, I ran up to him and put my arms around him. He pushed me away and told my mother to put me to bed, that he couldn’t stand to look at me.’

Scarlet sucked in sharply. What a dreadful thing for John’s father to say!

‘Later that night, he did come into my room to kiss me goodnight, but I turned my face away and refused to let him kiss me. He just shrugged and walked away. After that, I stopped speaking to him altogether for a very long time. In fact I totally ignored him for years. He didn’t seem to mind or care. He was no longer the father I’d once adored. He was just an empty shell of a man. My mother could see what was going on but she was a mess herself for ages and didn’t seem to know what to say or do to make things right. She didn’t recover till she had Melissa. She was the one who insisted we sell our old house and move-for a fresh start, she’d said. It made no difference to Dad. Or to me. He became a grouch and a workaholic and I became what you know I became. An angry, resentful boy.’

Scarlet had started gnawing at her bottom lip to stop herself from weeping. What a sad, sad story. Her heart went out to John as she began to understand what had made him the way he was. How incredibly hurt he must have been. No wonder he retreated into himself. And no wonder he didn’t stay around his family for too long.

‘I’m surprised you’re as civil to your father as you are,’ she said with feeling.

‘He’s mellowed since he retired. I can’t say that I’ve totally forgiven or forgotten, but hatred and revenge never get you anywhere. Now that I’ve grown up, I can see that parents aren’t perfect. They’re just human beings. Josh had been the apple of Dad’s eye and Josh was dead. Grief can make you say dreadful things.’

He had said appalling things to Bianca’s family after she was killed, blaming them for not going with her that night. They’d been amazingly understanding of his grief and had not taken his accusations to heart. But he’d still felt terrible afterwards, once he calmed down. It was one of the reasons he’d given them his house and everything in it. To make it up to them.

‘Have you ever confronted your Dad over what he said and did that night?’ Scarlet asked, frowning thoughtfully.

‘No.’

‘At least your mother loved you and your brother equally,’ she pointed out.

‘I’m sure she did. But then Melissa came along, and Mum simply doted on her.’

‘All mothers dote on their daughters, John. It didn’t mean she loved you any less. To be fair to your mum, by then you were not the most lovable boy in the world.’

John laughed. ‘Trust you to make me stop pitying myself.’

‘That wasn’t my intention. But do you know what, John? Things might not have been quite the way they seemed back then. I’ve been thinking…’

John sighed a weary sigh. ‘What about this time?’

‘About what your father said that night. He might have meant he couldn’t stand to look at you because you reminded him of Josh. You were physically identical, after all. It might not have meant that he didn’t love you just as much as your brother.’

‘Pardon me, but I think his subsequent actions rather confirm that he didn’t. He had every opportunity over the years to be a loving, caring father to me but he wasn’t. He acted like I didn’t exist. You’ve no idea how jealous I used to be of your father. Now he was what a father should be.’

‘He was rather wonderful,’ Scarlet agreed. ‘But at least you had a great grandfather.’

‘True. Grandpa was very good to me. To be honest, if it wasn’t for him, I probably would have run away from home and ended up in jail.’

‘Oh, surely not?’ Scarlet protested.

‘Why not? Jails are full of angry young men, Scarlet. Neglected sons with little self-esteem and no goals in life. My grandfather gave me back my self-esteem, plus the goal of becoming a geologist. I was shattered when he died just before my graduation. But even in death, he looked after my well-being by willing me some money. Quite a lot of money, actually. With it came a letter, telling me to travel and to see the world. So as soon as I graduated, I took off. First I went to Europe, but strangely Europe didn’t appeal to me all that much. Too many cities and not enough trees maybe! I took off again and travelled all around for about two years.

“Eventually I reached South America. By that time, I had run out of money so I had to find work or go home. As you can imagine, going home didn’t appeal all that much. Anyway, because I had no actual work experience, the only job I could get was with a speculative mining company who were looking for geologists to go places most people weren’t prepared to go. It was dangerous work, but the money was good, and I found I rather enjoyed taking risks. Over the last decade, I discovered a new emerald mine in Columbia, oil in Argentina and natural gas in Ecuador.

“In return, I got shot at several times, fell off a mountain, almost drowned in the Amazon and was bitten by more vicious insects than you could ever count. Still, for my blood, sweat and tears I got paid serious bucks. I was able to buy myself that house in Rio and this apartment here in Darwin. I now don’t have to take jobs which might get me killed!’ He smiled wryly. ‘I can even afford to support a child and give his or her mother enough financial freedom that she doesn’t have to work for the rest of her life. If she doesn’t want to,’ he added.

Scarlet hadn’t even given John supporting her financially a second thought. Now that he’d brought the subject up, she realised it was a tricky situation. If she accepted his money, it would give John more rights. Custody rights, maybe.

Her forehead scrunched into a frown as she once again considered the consequences and complications which would come with John being the father of her child.

‘More thinking, I see,’ John said before she could voice an answer to her concerns. ‘And not happy thoughts either. Look, if you don’t want my money, then just say so. I won’t ram it down your throat. Most women would be happy to have that offer on the table, but I should have known you’re not most women.’

‘I do value my independence,’ she admitted.

‘With my money you could buy yourself your own place. You could even employ a nanny, if you want to stay working.’

‘A nanny? I don’t want to hand my baby over to a nanny! As for buying my own place, I’ll have you know I already have enough money to buy my own place, if I wanted to. I’ve been saving for a house ever since I started work. Thank you very much for your offer, John, but no; I don’t want or need your financial support.’

Her stance shouldn’t have annoyed him. But it did.

‘Fine,’ he bit out. ‘I won’t pay for a damned thing.’

‘There’s no reason to get angry,’ Scarlet countered sharply. ‘You should be glad that I’m not most women. Just think what would happen if I were a gold-digger. I could take you for heaps!’

In spite of himself, John’s mouth quirked. She looked so disgusted by the very idea. Her anger had flushed her cheeks and made her look even more beautiful than usual. ‘Fine. I accept that it’s a good thing you aren’t a gold-digger. Now, are there any more questions I have to answer before we can proceed with my plan for today?’

Scarlet blinked her surprise. ‘You have an actual plan for today?’ She’d thought she was the one with the plan.

‘I did have. Before you put a spanner in the works and started wanting to get to know me better.’

‘Well I… I…’ Scarlet could not believe she was stammering when she was usually so articulate. She pressed her lips tightly together and took a deep breath before continuing.

‘Okay. Fine. No more questions for now. But I might have some more later,’ she added as an afterthought. When I can think more clearly, that is. ‘So what was your plan for today?’

‘A brief hour of sightseeing followed by a light lunch, followed by an afternoon in bed.’

Scarlet’s mouth was suddenly bone dry. ‘The whole afternoon?’

‘That’s a compromise. When you first walked out onto my balcony this morning looking good enough to eat, I wanted to whisk you right back into bed and keep you there all day.’

She just stared at him, the extent of his desire for her still a shock. So was the extent of her desire for him. Suddenly, her earlier resolve to restrict sex to the evenings dissolved, as she herself was dissolving.

‘Also,’ he went on with a sudden flare of desire in his eyes, ‘this afternoon has nothing to do with babies and everything to do with pleasure. Not just mine, either. Judging on how you reacted last night, your sex life so far has been sadly lacking. I aim to rectify that, if you’ll let me.’

Let him! How in earth was she going to stop him?

John rose to his feet and held out his hand to her. ‘Now. Let’s go sightseeing.’