Unfaithful (70 page)

“I believed him,” Maggie said slowly, giving her words time to sink in. “And I also believe he was murdered.”

“I suppose you’re another one who succumbed to his hypnotic spell.”

“No, our relationship was purely professional.”

“Does it matter if he was murdered? He’s dead, there’s no bringing him back.”

Maggie recoiled at the harshness of the other woman’s words.

“Don’t you want to know the truth?”

“Not particularly. The truth has only ever brought misery to me.”

“Murder usually requires a strong motive and Mark certainly had his fair share of enemies. Revenge is a very personal matter.”

“Penelope and Shona are the only people who may have wanted revenge on Mark, and they were with me in the office when he died,” Rebecca said thoughtfully. “Who else would want to hurt him?”

“I was thinking that the assassin, Savannah Kingston, may have been involved, but I checked into it and she left the country a few days before Mark’s death,” Maggie advised.

“I read in the newspaper that she was released last month,” Rebecca said despondently. “Why are you here? Do you have anything conclusive to offer me?”

“No, nothing conclusive,” Maggie said. “I came to offer you my condolences and to see if you would like me to pursue my investigations.”

“I wish the whole thing would go away,” Rebecca replied. “A verdict of accidental death was recorded and I want to leave it at that. There’s nothing more to pursue.” She got to her feet. “I’d like you to leave, please.”

“I'm sorry for your loss,” Maggie left immediately, surprised by the change in Rebecca’s demeanour. One minute she was sad and lost, the next she was decisive and borderline aggressive. She jumped in her car and sped away. She’d done extensive surveillance on the women who had been involved with Mark. She’d taken Jackie’s hard-drive to pieces, but apart from a few gaps in her email correspondence there was nothing untoward to be found. Still, she couldn’t help a sneaking suspicion that appearances could be deceiving.

.

Chapter 25

The soft sea-breeze gently caressed Rebecca’s tanned cheeks. She held her face up to the sunlight and smiled. She was going home. A deep happiness swelled up inside her at the thought of seeing Cois Farraige and her son again. Her doctor had advised her that she needed some rest and relaxation, time to get away for a while, so she’d used some of the money from Mark’s life insurance to treat herself to a Mediterranean cruise. She’d left the business in Penelope and Shona’s capable hands. Her parents were caring for little Ethan. She’d missed him so much and couldn’t wait to hug him close. It would be good to be home at last. She’d left the past, with its struggles and strains, behind her, and was looking forward to a new beginning, a fresh start.

She climbed up on deck just as the coast of Ireland was coming into view. The green fields of home were coming closer. Everything had worked out just the way she’d planned. She’d shaken off Mark’s shadow. The deceit was over. Her plotting and planning and scheming had paid off handsomely and everyone had been taken in by her pretence. Finally, she could drop the grieving widow act. There was no need to pretend any more. She was triumphant. Part of her wished Mark could see her. After all, she’d learned from the best. There was a fine line between love and hate, and he’d forced her to cross that line. He’d proven to be a master of trickery and betrayal but his fatal mistake was in underestimating her; poor, sweet, innocent, trusting Rebecca. Well, that Rebecca was long gone.

Everything had worked out perfectly in the end. It had been surprisingly easy. Colm came to her and told her about the affair his wife was having with Mark. He’d known about it almost from the start, having followed her and seen her meeting him. Rebecca had been upset, but Jackie was yet another one of her husband’s conquests. It was the discovery of her husband’s plot to kill her which had been the final blow and sent her over the edge. She’d accidentally found the emails on his computer and had read each and every one of them in horror. It didn’t matter that he had called the whole thing off. It was too late. There was no going back.

She and Colm had hatched their devious plan and with the help of Colm’s computer expertise she’d hacked into her husband’s account and continued sending the emails to the assassin. All she had to do was maintain the pretence that she knew nothing about Mark and Jackie’s affair.

Jackie’s confession had thrown them off track for a while. Colm had never expected his wife to confess. He wanted to drop the whole thing, and it had been hard work persuading him to continue, but she’d convinced him, eventually. When he’d read in the newspaper about Mark’s movie and book deals he couldn’t control himself any longer. Colm wanted Mark out of his life for good. They bided their time and prepared for their opportunity to exact their revenge.

She and Colm were kindred spirits, united in their burning desire for revenge. It was a relief not to have to pretend with Colm. She could be herself with him, because he understood exactly how she felt. There was no need to worry about him giving the game away because he was in exactly the same situation as her. She poured her heart out to him and he hadn’t been shocked by her plans to kill Mark. They plotted and planned and played their parts. She’d actually enjoyed it. It was fun; dangerous, intoxicating fun because there was always the risk of being caught.

She was exhilarated, having gotten everything she wanted, in spite of the dangers. Mark was gone and she was a very wealthy woman. Everything was fixed and she was going to have an amazing future. She didn’t feel an ounce of guilt. She’d wondered how she’d feel after he was gone, but she didn’t care, not really. It was his own fault. He got what he deserved. She’d won.

Slowly, she drove up the twisting path to Cois Farraige, savouring the first sight of the house. It was as magnificent as ever, her dream home. The house would be a fine monument to Mark’s memory; at least, that’s what she’d tell everyone. A peculiar feeling of foreboding came over her, the closer to the house she drove. She tried to shake it off. There was nobody home when she unlocked the door. Somehow she’d expected a little welcoming party. She checked her watch. She’d arrived two hours early. Sighing she went to the kitchen to make some tea. There was something about Irish tea that she missed whenever she travelled. Her mail was piled high on the kitchen table. There was the usual junk mail, and bills to be paid.

Nothing of any great interest, until she came to an unstamped envelope without any address, just her name “Jackie” printed on the front. It must have been delivered personally. She ripped the envelope open with shaking hands. There was a photograph inside, but no letter. She stared at it, trying to make sense of it. It was a photo of a busy street, somewhere in London. Big Ben was in the background. Two people sat outside a café, deep in conversation with each other. It was herself and Colm.

Somebody knew! Somebody had known all along! They’d been so careful. Who knew their deadly secret? She was suddenly very afraid. She ripped the photo into tiny pieces and threw it in the bin. A photograph didn’t prove that they’d murdered Mark. It only proved that they knew each other. Her mind raced. Stop panicking! She wasn’t going to fall apart, not now, not after everything she’d endured. Whoever had sent the photograph had better be prepared. They had no idea who they were up against. She hoped for their sake, whoever they were, that they wouldn’t take this any further, because she was a fighter, and she would fight them to the bitter end…

The End

Abo
ut the Author

Joanne Clancy is a writer from County Cork, Ireland. She is an avid reader, a self-confessed Kindle addict, and a tea fiend!

Joanne is the author of
The Unfaithful Series, The Wedding Day, Unforgettable Embrace, My Love, and The Secrets & Lies Trilogy; Secrets and Lies, Aftermath, and Redemption.

Web of Deceit is her latest release. Joanne is currently working on her tenth book which will be available in February 2013.

You can purchase Joanne Clancy's paperbacks and ebooks at Amazon.

Click here to purchase Joanne Clancy’s books

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/joanneclancy

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5105133.Joanne_Clancy

Website: http://www.joanneclancy.com

Discover books by Joanne Clancy
:

Unforgettable Embrace

The Wedding Day

My Love

The Secrets & Lies Trilogy
:

Secrets & Lies, Book 1

Aftermath, Book 2

Redemption, Book 3

The Unfaithful Series
:

Unfaithfully Yours, Book 1

Revenge, Book 2

Web of Deceit, Book 3

Click here to purchase Joanne Clancy’s books

Secrets & Lies

Book 1 in The Secrets & Lies Trilogy

by Joanne Clancy

Synopsis:

Kerry Darcy has loved Conor, her childhood sweetheart, for more than twenty years. They’ve built their dream home, raised a happy family and are still madly in love.

Hope Kennedy seems to have it all; a fabulous job, a luxurious apartment and best of all she’s married to her soulmate, Niall.

Two very different women, two perfect husbands; but what happens when their lives horribly collide?

The terrible force of chaos ensues; a force that takes its fateful hold on time and place. It ruptures the present, warps the future, replacing order with confusion, confidence with trepidation and control with powerlessness. Lives are ended for some, changed forever for others and a most significant chain of events is about to unfold with catastrophic results.

Reviews
:

Secrets & Lies was a wonderful story. It kept building momentum as the stories of Kerry's and Hope's lives unfolded. The author described the characters in vivid detail and you felt as though you knew them by the end of the novel. There are also hints as to their lives possibly intersecting in the following sequels, which promise to be very interesting considering the cliff
-hanger of an ending! I feel compelled to read Aftermath to see exactly what lies ahead for these characters...
~Michele H., Amazon

Having read a few previous books by this author, which I'd also enjoyed. I have to say that Joanne Clancy just gets better and better every time and as a result this is a polished and well thought-out, intriguing story. It follows the lives of a couple of female main characters. Kerry who's married to Conor and Hope who's married to Niall and it sure makes you wonder how these two, very different ladies are connected and I don't want to spoil anything, but could it be their husbands? The sex scenes were handled really well as I've come to expect, for Joanne Clancy has a knack of making them downright sexy without being 'cringey' which is a major skill in itself. I got stuck into this novel right from the start and raced to finish it, seeing as I was carried away on a simple basis of wanting to find out what happens next. In fact, it's such a page-turner that I nearly missed my doctor’s appointment when they'd called out my name, but I was so engrossed in reading it that I didn't hear them until the nurse tapped me on the shoulder and I nearly dropped my Kindle. I can't wait for the second book in this trilogy to be produced and if you read it too then you'll understand, why!
~ Maureen Reil, Amazon