The Billionaire's Secrets (13 page)

"
Fine.
I was almost finished with my Master’s in Education at Boston College but I had to drop out when I lost my job at a private school due to the recession. I was desperate to make
ends meet, and so when I saw the job opening at the boarding
academy
, I knew I was qualified even though I didn’t quite have the required degree. I must admit that I did technically lie on my resume, but I was planning to go back and finish the degree as
soon as I had earned a few pay
cheques.
When I split up with Shawn, he got his revenge by telling them
the truth, and so
I was fired." She threw the file back on the desk. "That was it. End of story.
It was s
tupid of me
, I know, but p
erhaps next time your detectives should go the source instead of talking to a bitter ex-boyfriend."

Gaelan
looked at her and wondered if he'd let his paranoia get the better of him this time. She could be telling him the truth, but he would not know that for sure until he made some inquiries of his own in the morning. He was confused now. He didn't know whether to apologize or fire her.

She seemed to be reading his thoughts. "So, are you going to fire me again? Or am I going to quit? Or am I just going to go eat my dinner and pretend this didn't happen?"

"Go eat your dinner,"
Gaelan
said. He walked around the desk and to the door, opening it for her.

She didn't leave immediately
but stood only inches from him, looking up at him with those defiant
green
eyes. "I don't know what happened to you, but you should learn not to be quite so suspicious. It must be a pretty lonely existence."

He didn't know if he was filled with such mixed emotions because she had hit the proverbial nail on the head or because she was standing so very close
to him. Did he want to fire her
or kiss her? "I think it's my turn to say it's none of your business," he said at last
, and he went back to his desk and picked up the phone
.

* * *

The next afternoon, Chloe suggested
to Sophia
they go for a walk along the cliff. She told
Sophia
she wanted to see her new surroundings, but mostly it was because she was feeling anxious and irritable. She hadn't seen
Gaelan
since she'd left his office yesterday.

She had the impression when she left his office that he had believed her version of events, but she knew he wouldn't let it rest. He would continue to make his inquiries. He was determined to find fault with her
,
determined never to trust her, and she wondered how she could bear to stay at Widow's Cliff in such an atmosphere.

When
Sophia
took her hand and smiled up at her, Chloe felt a rush of love for the child. She would stay as long as
Gaelan
let her for
Sophia
's sake. She could not leave her alone with such a loveless man.

As for her attraction to
Gaelan
Byrne with his dark, romantic, sexy looks, she would get over that. His personality, she decided, more than cancelled out his looks.

Chloe and
Sophia
walked along the cliff hand in hand. It was cold, and the wind coming from the north nipped at their cheeks until they
glowed
bright red. On the ground, the dead grass was littered with patches of old snow. There were no trees along the ridge and no shelter, so one felt the elements full force. An occasional flake of snow drifted on the wind, and it seemed that the day could not decide what it wished to do. They walked down into a hollow a little out of the wind, and
Sophia
pointed out a bird flying out over the ocean in pursuit of a gull.

“What is it?” Chloe asked.

“A peregrine.
It's after that gull.” They watched as the bird of prey dove repeatedly at the gull, each dive resulting in a narrow miss. Some bigger gulls came to the aid of their comrade, launching their own attacks against the now outnumbered peregrine. The peregrine made a few more attacks on the smaller bird before finally giving up and flying back toward the shore. Chloe knew the peregrine had just been outwitted out of its breakfast, but she breathed a sigh of relief on behalf of the gull all the same.

“Now look,”
Sophia
sai
d, this time pointing inland.
“A
bald eagle!”
Chloe watched the almost mythical bird as it soared above them, the wind under its wings.

“You know a lot about birds too, I see,” Chloe said, impressed with the girl’s knowledge.

“Windy taught me, and I put seed on the bird feeders outside t
he kitchen window. My favourites
are the chickadees.
I’m going to be an ornithologist when I grow up.
”

“
That’s a very big word for such a little girl.
Do you know the song about chickadees?”

Sophia
shook her head, so Chloe sang it for her.
Sophia
caught onto the simple little song quickly and soon was singing along happily as they walked up the other side of the hollow, the eagle soaring above their heads, their voices melting into the cold wind.

J
ust then a loud crack shattered
the air. It came from close by,
and even over the sound of the wind and the ocean, it was terrifying in its sudden loudness.
Sophia
screamed
,
and Chloe instinctively grabbed her and pulled her against her.
Sophia
’s scream was followed by another, the eerie tragic sound of something in pain.

Chloe looked in horror to see the magnificent eagle faltering in its flight.
Sophia
had her face pressed into Chloe’s coat
,
and Chloe held her there, not wanting her to see the fate of the falling bird.
Sophia
began to sob, and Chloe stroked her hair, trying to find a way to tell her what was happening. 

At the same time, she looked for the killer. There was no way the shot could come from the direction of the water; the ocean, choked with broken pans of ice, was unnavigable. There would be no boats out there for a long time. She looked behind her along the length of the
headland and the crooked line of the fence but saw nothing. She turned her eyes inland just in time to see a figure rise from behind a boulder in a small copse of stunted trees. She could not see any features from this distance but assumed by the size and clothing that it was a man. He wore a bright orange hunting cap with a dark jacket and pants. His gun was still raised toward the sky, his eye on the floundering bird as if he were about to fire again and finish off the job.

Chloe screamed at the man to stop, trying to make
herself
heard over the sound of the wind.
She
must have
succeeded,
because he turned and looked to where she stood at the edge of the hollow with
Sophia
clutching at her coat. Seemingly surprised that anyone else was out on the cold headlands, he brought the gun quickly down to his side. He took one last glance at the sky, turned, and ran away from the cliffs in the direction of the road.

Chloe turned her attention upwards and watched with sick apprehension as the bird continued to lose altitude. Again it cried and flapped its wings as if hoping to stop its plunge to the earth. Chloe prayed that the winds would carry it to the ground. If only it could land without being killed... If only the shot weren't fatal... If only it didn't land in the ocean where there was no hope of getting to it...
Perhaps they could save the poor creature.

Chloe became aware that
Sophia
had dared to take her head out of Chloe’s coat. “What happened?” she cried, her voice trembling uncontrollably.  “Who were you yelling at?”
Sophia
’s face was streaked with tears, her eyes wide with terror.

Chloe had to be honest with her. She could not see any way of protecting her from what happened. She pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped the tears gently from
Sophia
’s face while she gathered
the
courage to tell her the awful news. She hated
when
children had to learn about the cruelty of adults.

“A man shot the eagle
,
and then he ran away.” She pointed up to where the bird thrashed in the air.

Sophia
looked up
and seeing the bird let out a terrible cry of anguish. “We have to save it!” she cried.

“I don’t know if we can,” Chloe said gently. “But we'll try. I just hope it doesn’t fall in the ocean.”

“It’s going that way,"
Sophia
said, pointing along the edge of the cliff ahead of them. She pulled Chloe by the hand
,
and they hurried along the cliff, relieved that the bird was moving inland. The bird was now only about fifty feet in the air, still desperately flapping, and Chloe began to wonder if its goal was not to gain altitude but simply to slow its descent. Perhaps there was still hope.

They were now within yards of the bird
,
and Chloe stopped
Sophia
. “Let’s not scare it," she said quietly. "Let’s wait until it lands.”