When Nick had finished Bill jumped from his seat. ‘Bloody Hell. This calls for my best scotch. Where’d you say Brian was?’
‘He went to the TV studio he’s breaking the news now. Turn it on.’
‘News.’ Bill ordered and the display shimmered into view. Brian filled the screen and related the story almost like he was taking part in a movie, every now and then wiping his wet forehead with a cloth. Microphones were shoved toward him as he stood protected by a podium.
Bill poured them all a heavy serving of two hundred year old scotch and listened in silence, eagerly absorbing all the information. He suddenly laughed and slapped his knee. ‘Ha, ha. Veronica’ll crap her bloody designer jeans. Ha. ha.’ Then Bill scowled and bit his bottom lip, lowering his eyes. ‘Sorry Karen, I didn’t mean to offend you. What d’we do now?
Karen rose and sat beside him on the plush coffee-coloured lounge. She put her arm around his shoulder and laid her head against him. ‘I don’t know. Nick told us last night and I’m still in shock.’
Nick stood by the huge Navilon windows gazing out to sea. From this vantage point on the twenty-fourth floor, he could see clearly to the far horizon. The ocean was his life but now a shiver ran through him when he tried to imagine the coming days.
Bill hung his head. ‘Nothing like that sort of news to sober a man up.’
Nick looked at Karen and raised an eyebrow.
Karen kissed Bill on the cheek. ‘We want you and Veronica to come to our place. It will be safe there in the hills.
‘I’ll talk to her when she gets home, but don’t count on it.’
After they had gone Bill fixed himself another stiff drink and sat out on the balcony. Life had been boring lately. Jupiter’s Casino had been his only outlet for a long time, but even that had lost its attraction now. The same old crowd, always flashing their expensive jewellery and fast cars. Life was going to be far from boring from now on. Reminded of Veronica he glanced at his Rolex watch.Where the hell was she? He thought she would have made a beeline home when she heard the news.
Just then he heard the lift arrive and he jumped from his seat. Veronica came running into the apartment howling like a cat on heat. Bill was shocked when she threw herself into his arms and sobbed on his shoulder. He had never seen her cry like this, and it bewildered him.
The only thing Bill thought to do was pour her a drink, his answer to every problem, and when she gulped it down in one swig and presented her glass to him for another, he gaped. They continued drinking for the next hour, becoming quite drunk before falling asleep in the conversation pit.
Chapter Twenty-six
Karen
Karen struggled from the usual dream that had recurred for eighteen years. Thoughts of her life as a teenager rushed at her. Those years often haunted her, people and events she was unable to leave in the past. One person in particular constantly invaded those dreams. He should have been banished from her memories forever, but remained a part of her no matter how hard she tried to forget him.
When she met Sean in Sydney she was a rebellious young girl of seventeen. He was a man about town, sharp, well dressed, twice her age. He swept her off her feet and she was deeply in love with him before she found out he was married, with two children. She had attempted to give him up but it was too late, and she was too young to understand the danger in such a relationship. He made life exciting, he took her to the horse races and wined and dined her in fancy restaurants. She was infatuated and wanted to be with him every minute of the day.
He was not her first lover, men had chased her since she was barely fourteen. In her spare time she worked as an artist’s model, and she was in high demand, having a slim body, long silky black hair and a lovely face, highlighted by slightly oriental purple eyes. She was daring, always looking for excitement, never listening to her uncle who tried unsuccessfully to control her. Sean was very different from her other boyfriends. He was mature, interesting, and he didn’t chase her, which made her want him all the more.
Her life became a nightmare where she switched between elation and depression. He dangled her on a string, used her in every possible way until eventually she fell pregnant. Young, barely eighteen she was desperately frightened but believed Sean would want to marry her, and he continued to court her and promised marriage one day.
The tragedy struck, four months into her pregnancy Karen miscarried leaving her in a state of despair, that no-one guessed was because not only had she lost the love of her life’s child, a child she had prayed would bring her and Sean together, but doctors told her she may never be able to carry a child to full term.
Sean reacted in ways she couldn’t explain, he didn’t seem to care and he tortured her with his indifference. His wife divorced him and took away his children, he blamed Karen, and she believed his wife had found out about their affair, and Karen blamed herself.
After the hurt had subsided she went on with her life, training to become a nurse. She tolerated his many affairs with other women, remaining chained to him for the next four years until she learned he had made one of those women pregnant also, and was about to marry her. She was devastated and withdrew into herself for several years, believing had she not lost the child they would still be together.
After she married Brian she suffered many incidences of pain from ovarian cysts, and her next pregnancy was ectopic and caused a fallopian tube to rupture resulting in infertility.
All those years ago and she was still unable to force Sean out of her heart. She had tried with Alex, and with Brian, but nothing worked, he was still there, deep in a corner of her soul. Sometimes a song they had both liked would spark the memories again, tearing her heart as if it were yesterday.
Perhaps if she had been able to give Brian a child, life would have been different, albeit complicated, balancing a child between nursing, her other great love. She didn’t blame Sean for her inability to fall pregnant again, she blamed herself. She believed it was God’s punishment for breaking his commandments. He would probably go on punishing her until she died, with memories of Sean locked inside her, a woman unable to give love to anyone but a ghost of the past.
She had married Brian because she needed someone to straighten out her life and give her security, and she had never discussed her affair with Sean. They enjoyed a normal relationship for a while and she cared for him deeply, but there was never the passion and wild emotion that she had experienced with Sean. She respected Brian but love eluded her. The physical side of their relationship ceased two years ago. For reasons she was never sure of, Brian just stopped touching her, and did not encourage conversation about why. He was very caring and considerate, but the warmth and tenderness he had shown her previously had gone. She knew there was no other woman, Brian just wasn’t interested any longer. She existed, but never really felt that life was anything more than just existing.
The challenges that she knew lie ahead began to overwhelm her, and she wished right at that moment she was dead. Many nights just before falling asleep she would offer a prayer, one that she would die in her sleep, so she would not have to endure her empty life any longer. Her prayers were never answered, so it was useless to think it would change now.
Her heart was heavy as she dressed silently for work, careful not to arouse Brian, who had stumbled into bed sometime during the early hours of the morning. Nick’s story reeled around inside her head, and she wondered just what was facing her at the hospital.