The Redeemer (31 page)

His palms were clammy and his stomach felt like he’d swallowed a blender.

‘Well?’ he barked.

The other man did his best not to cower. ‘Your suspicions were confirmed, sir. The DNA sample we took from you yesterday does not match the one that was used in your paternity test.’

‘So I’m not the father?’

Shaking his head, and looking afraid that Xander might take it out on him personally if this was not the result he was hoping for, the DNA analyst stepped back defensively. He visibly relaxed when Xander beamed before pumping the air with his fist and shouting, ‘Yes! Fuck, yes!’

A few minutes later, armed with written proof that he was not the biological father of Janine’s baby, he roared across Edinburgh; a man on a mission.

I’m coming to get you, Red. Whether you’re ready or whether you’re not, I’m coming to get you.

His satnav directed him  through Murrayfield’s immaculate, tree-lined streets. The red stone houses grew larger. It was clearly a very affluent area. When the robotic female voice informed him that the address was now on his left, he looked up and frowned.

That house looks almost the same size as Rouge Passion . . . Isla’s parents must be very comfortably off. Yet she was scrimping and saving to pay her mortgage each month.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Red’s ferociously independent, not to mention as stubborn as fuck. She’d rather lose her flat than ask her parents for a helping hand.

He chuckled when he recalled her resignation letter.

No doubt she won’t be scratching around to meet her monthly payments for a while. Not after awarding herself a settlement at the hotel’s expense.

He sat, grinning and shaking his head.

She has balls of steel, that woman.
My
woman. That’s exactly the stunt that I’d pull if I were in her shoes.

He looked back up at the house again and felt his stomach begin to churn. This was it.
Showtime.

Looking far more confident than he felt, he got out of the car and approached the heavy oak door. He rang the bell and waited. When the door began to open, he found he could barely breathe; his heart was hammering against his ribcage and every single nerve was on edge.

The opening door revealed a middle-aged gentleman whose demeanour was calm yet confrontational.

Red’s father, I take it . . . and he knows exactly who I am . . . and why I’m here.

‘Mr Hamilton, I take it?’

The older gentleman nodded, just a slight movement of the head but enough to signal the affirmative.

‘My name is—’

‘I know who you are, Mr Rhodes, and I’m afraid to say that you’re not welcome here. No – don’t bother to attempt to charm or persuade your way inside. Isla’s not here. She said you may come looking for her and that you’d probably threaten to lie in wait outside the house. Oh, and she also said to tell you to feel free. It’s a public road, so as long as you don’t cause an obstruction, there’s no need for anyone to call the police.’

He made to close the door but, when he heard Xander say simply, ‘Please?’ he hesitated. He’d been prepared for a raging confrontation by a cocky, self-assured upstart. Not a simple plea made by a man who sounded as though he’d just been condemned to death. His eyes searched the face of the younger man, looking for any excuse to slam the door. He found none. Instinct told him to give the man a chance.

‘What do you want from me? I’ve told you she’s not here. Don’t ask me to give you her whereabouts – I’m sworn to secrecy and, no matter what, I’ll never break my word to my daughter.’

Xander looked him in the eye. ‘I ask that you hear me out. I can prove to you that your daughter has been misled about me, and about the situation in general.’

The older man looked cautious but intrigued. ‘And what if I don’t?’

Sighing, Xander shrugged. ‘Then I’ll find a way to contact her. This way, you can make the decision, based on what I have to say. If you hear me out and you decide not to pass it on to her, I’ll do my best to respect that. But I have to warn you; I love your daughter more than I’d ever believed it possible to love anyone and I can’t lose her. I won’t lose her. I don’t deserve this chance – I know I don’t. If I’d been honest with her from the start, things would be very different. I gave your daughter reason to doubt me, to not trust me. I was cowardly. I tried to evade telling her about the mess that was my marriage because I was scared she’d run. I was wrong. I should have told her everything and allowed her to choose whether to become involved with me. I can’t turn back the clock to when I met her. Believe me, if I could, I would.’

‘But you have a wife and child, Mr Rhodes. You can’t turn the clock back and erase them. Neither can you run back and forth between your wife and my daughter. She won’t stand for that and neither will I.’

Xander shook his head in exasperation, trying desperately to keep his actions non-confrontational. ‘But I don’t have a child. I have the DNA results here. And I haven’t run back and forth. I left my wife once the baby was born safely, as I told your daughter, and I haven’t been back. My marriage was dead before my wife began to cheat on me, Mr Hamilton. She’s firmly in my past. Your daughter is my present and my future. I need to see her to show her the DNA result and to explain it. My wife must have switched the samples for the first test. There’s no other explanation – and the reason she needed to obtain a DNA sample from Jamie. She fixed the test so that I’d be named as the father.’

Isla’s father frowned and then shook his head. ‘That seems a very unlikely scenario. Who would do such a thing? No, I’m sorry. I’ve already gone against Isla’s instructions by listening to you at all. Now if you wouldn’t mind . . .’

Xander thrust the DNA results and the explanatory letter that the analyst had typed to accompany them into the older man’s chest in sheer desperation.

‘The proof is there. My wife is a gold-digger, Mr Hamilton. If she could prove that her baby is mine, she stands to gain a considerable divorce settlement. Believe me, now that I can prove that he isn’t mine, I’ll be divorcing her as fast as is humanly possible. She and the baby are not my concern. My concern is for your daughter who has been caught in the crossfire, thanks to my devious, scheming soon-to-be ex-wife. I didn’t know that would happen. I would have done anything to prevent causing your daughter harm and I’ll do anything in my power to fix it.

‘I love her, Mr Hamilton. And, if you’ll just read the proof of what I say that lies in your hands, you’ll let me tell her. I know she loves me too. She wouldn’t have been so hurt if she didn’t care. If you don’t do anything, do you want to have it on your conscience that you didn’t give her chance to know all the facts? That you may have denied her a chance at happiness? What if she finds out the truth, years from now? Will she hold it against you? I’m a good man, Mr Hamilton. I married the wrong woman and I didn’t end the marriage as soon as I should have. They are my only crimes. But, if you’re not convinced, I guess I’ll have to accept that you’re making a huge mistake. A mistake that won’t stop your daughter’s pain and suffering and bring her the happiness she deserves.’

Isla’s father read the DNA results letter and contemplated Xander’s words before pursing his lips. ‘And what if I tell her all that you say – show her your proof but she doesn’t want to have anything to do with you? What then?’

Xander’s jaw clenched so tightly, it was a wonder his teeth didn’t crack. ‘Then, sir, my heart will bleed. Without her, it will haemorrhage until the life we could have had together is gone, taking with it my potential happiness – and hers – and leaving me to face a life steeped in darkness and mourning. Your daughter saved me from drowning in despair when I knew my marriage had ended thanks to my cheating, money-grabbing wife. She filled my monochrome life with glorious Technicolor, just by being in it. She gave me a reason to look forward to the future. Now she’s gone, my life isn’t even monochrome . . . knowing what we could have had and losing it before we even had a chance, my world darkens more with every minute we’re apart.’ The emotion and desperation in his voice was clear. It surprised Xander to hear it . . . to his ears, it didn’t even sound like him.

Mr Hamilton was frowning slightly as he nodded. ‘So you’ll relentlessly pursue her? You’ll try to wear her down until she listens to you? Gives you another chance?’

Sighing deeply and wanting so much to be able to assure the gentleman in front of him that he too was a gentleman and would respect his daughter’s wishes, Xander shrugged. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse and weak, as though he were being strangled. ‘I’m sorry, sir, but yes, I’ll pursue her until I take my dying breath. If I told you otherwise, I’d be lying. So turn me away, protect your daughter . . . I’ll respect you for that but you won’t thwart my efforts. Your daughter isn’t my life but she sure as hell makes my life worth living and I can make her happy. Until Friday, when the sham of a DNA test result came back and then her snivelling ex further filled her head with lies, I
was
making her happy. We had it all because we had each other. With Red by my side, if I lost everything I own to my wife in my divorce settlement, I wouldn’t care because I’d still have everything I needed. So goodbye for now, Mr Hamilton. I’m sure we’ll meet again because I’m not giving up on your daughter. Not now, not today, not ever.’

As he turned to leave, Xander realised that his whole frame was so tense, it was almost vibrating. More surprising than that, he realised that his face was wet. When the older gentleman spoke, he quickly wiped away the tears before turning back, missing what the softly spoken voice had said.

‘I’m sorry, sir. What did you say?’

‘I said good. She’s a stubborn, wilful child – always was, always will be. If you’re worthy of my daughter’s love, then you’ll need to be determined. I don’t doubt your love for her, I can see it in your eyes and hear it in your voice. Only she knows whether she’s willing to accept what you have to say and what she wishes to do next. Just a word of caution: Jamie hurt her more than she’s probably let on. She thinks she hid it from her mother and me but we can see through her bullish independence and into her soul. What he did took something from her . . . it was heartbreaking to watch from a distance because she wouldn’t allow us any closer and we had to respect that.

‘For her to run to us now . . . that shows us just how much she’s hurting. It’s unprecedented. She can’t handle it by herself. And for her to hurt that much, tells us less about what you did . . . or what she thinks you did . . . and more about the strength of her feelings for you and how much pain she’s feeling. I’ve never seen her like this . . . she’s like a ghost of her former self. Like something has sucked all the energy from her and the breath from her lungs. So go . . . go and see her and plead your case . . . beg, plead and even bully her if you need to. Whatever you do, make her listen. She is so stubborn that she would cut off her nose to spite her face, but you can’t let her. Only you can stop my daughter from hurting. Only you can heal the wound and stop the pain. Go, quickly, and make my daughter whole again.’

‘Forgive me, sir, but fucking hell . . . I wasn’t expecting that. I won’t let you down and I won’t let your daughter down. I can assure you of that.’

‘Son, I wasn’t expecting that either. Isla told me you were likely to come here and throw your weight around, making demands and threats. If you’d done that, you’d have been sent packing. By being calm and genuine, I could see your torment. I could almost feel your restraint and I respected you for that. You weren’t the man I was expecting.’

Xander shrugged. ‘Thank you. Thankfully, I’m not the man your daughter has been led to believe I am. Deep down, she knows it. But it’s difficult to see past the lies and manipulation. I’m sorry your daughter was dragged into all of this, Mr Hamilton. From this moment on, barring the divorce which can’t happen quickly enough for my liking, it will be just us. Janine and Jamie are out of our lives for good. I won’t let them, or anyone else, come close to upsetting her and I’ll do my best, every single day to make your daughter smile. She’s something very special. And she’s mine.’

Thrusting the DNA letter back into Xander’s hands, Isla’s father gave him the address of where she was staying. ‘She won’t know you’re coming – if I warn her, she’ll be pissed with me for even speaking to you. You have a mammoth task as it is. She’ll probably be out. She’s always loved walking along the beach. I suggest you start there. But please, Xander, promise me this: you’ll both stop by and say goodbye before you whisk her back to London.’

Xander grinned, his face lighting up as the tension receded. He nodded and dashed back to his car, shouting that he’d do his utmost to fulfil that promise.

Red’s father thinks I can do it. I have a chance. No, thanks to him I have a fighting chance

He programmed the satnav and drove, elated that just a few miles separated him and his Red. Just a few miles . . . and a mountain of misunderstandings to overcome.

He parked his car a short walk inland from the address Isla’s father had given him. If her father thought that the element of surprise would be useful then there would be no point in letting her see the Holden. He walked the long way to the beach, avoiding her cottage for the same reason. Despite the sunshine, there was a distinct chill in the air. Well, he reasoned, he was in Scotland. That also explained the number of golf courses that he’d passed and this picturesque town was not exactly lacking in those.