Unlawful Escort (Unlawful Series book 1) (24 page)

CHAPTER FORTY FOUR

SEBASTIAN STARED UNSEEINGLY INTO HIS HALF EMPTY
glass, his teeth clenched in frustration. The past weeks had been the most agonizing he’d ever encountered as despite his best efforts he hadn’t been able to shirk the wondrous memories of her from his mind. But it was the pain in her face as she’d ran from his penthouse that faithless day that kept him awake at nights and acted as a poignant reminder of what he’d lost.

What in the hell had possessed him to introduce Gabby like that? He
cursed himself. Why hadn’t he waited awhile? Perhaps when her brother was fully recovered, he could’ve invited her to dinner or meet her someplace and patiently initiated the matter to her; then bring in Gabby. Instead he’d behaved like a complete novice; introducing Gabby with little preempt. What if he’d given her a heart attack? He thought miserably.

Gabby had told him that Paige didn’t know of her existence and although he didn’t trust her one bit; he suspected she was telling the truth. His Private Investigator
had reported that there had been no evidence of a relationship between the two as they had been separated at birth. And now she wanted nothing to do with him. As for Gabby; how lucky he’d been not to have been saddled with her for four months. She’d tried to escape him twice in the past day; almost succeeding once.

“I wonder what’s got
you in such a bad temper this early in the afternoon”, Brandon said, sinking into the vacant chair opposite Sebastian.

“
I’m really not in the mood for company”, he emptied his glass in one swallow and reached for the decanter in the centre of the table but Brandon snatched it before he could get a hold of it.

“Well if you don’t want to see me don’t come to my restaurant. Now; how about lunch.”

“Fine, I’ll go somewhere where I can drink at my leisure”, he rose to leave but Brandon placed a staying hand on his shoulder.

“Come on
, let’s go to my office. I have a bottle of scotch that I’ve been saving for a special occasion.”

Sighing in frustration, he strode alongside Brandon to his office in the back of the restaurant.

“How’s Paige? I haven’t seen her in awhile”, Brandon noted, as he poured a glass and handed it to Sebastian.

He was silent for a moment, “she left, well I told her to leave
”, he turned away so Brandon wouldn’t see the pain in his face.

“And now you want her back.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that.”

“I’m all ears.”

Sebastian stared hard at Brandon. Of the three, Brandon was undoubtedly the most levelheaded and sentimental. He knew whatever he shared with the other man would remain between them as long as he wished it so. He related the story to Brandon; starting with his first encounter with Gabby; who’d been acting as Paige, almost four months ago to what transpired earlier today.

“Wow”, Brandon exclaimed as he finished his tale, “I never thought I’d be saying this but you really love her”.

He was silent for a moment, “yes”, he’d expected it to be difficult to admit but surprisingly it was quite the opposite. Too bad, Paige didn’t want him within a fifty mile
radius
of her; he thought glumly.

“You should go back to the hospital. She’s probably going through a whole lot right now and needs your support.”

He hung his head in shame, “she’ll never forgive me”.

“You’re wrong
, if she loves you she will.”

“But what if she doesn’t anymore”, he could hear the fear in his voice.

“That’s a chance you’ll have to take and true love doesn’t go away that quickly or easily.”

“You should know”, Sebastian said smilingly, “Mat and I had to drag you out of your room when Chelsea left for college shortly after we graduated”.

“Touché”, they both roared with laughed.

“Thanks for the talk, I’ll see you later”, there was a flutter of excitement in his chest that he couldn’t remember ever feeling before as he virtually ran to his waiting car in his hurry to be  on his way.

PAIGE SWIPED AT HER EYES WITH HER FINGERTIPS AS SHE
retrieved her cell and dialed her mother’s phone number; praying a silent prayer that her mother would pick up. The nurse had just left after drilling her incessantly about her medical history and she couldn’t seem to stop crying.

“Mom”, she choked as her mother’s groggy voice came through the receiver, “tell me it’s not true”.

“What are you talking about honey?”

“Tell me that you and Dad are my real parents and I wasn’t adopted”, she almost screamed in frustration.

Her mother was silent for a moment, “how did you find out?” she asked softly.

“You lied to me all my life…It was all a lie…and dad wasn’t…” her voice broke.

She wasn’t his little girl but instead she was probably parented by a thug on death row and a mother dancing in a strip club, she thought despairingly. Her sister was an escort for Christ’s sake and she must have known about Paige. Now she knew why Sebastian hadn’t believed her that first day they’d met in the café or figured out that she wasn’t whom she claimed.

“I’m sorry honey. I told your father to tell you but he insisted that you were his little girl and it wouldn’t make any difference if we told you, so I didn’t”.

There was a knock at the door and she was shocked when Sebastian entered the room.

“May I come in?” he mouthed; his eyes warm with concern and she nodded involuntarily.

She listened; too overcome with tears to speak as her mother admitted that she’d lied to her dad that she couldn’t have children. But after years of discouraging the idea of adoption; she finally relented. She was grateful when Sebastian stood at the side of the bed and pulled her to his chest and she sunk into his comforting embrace.

Her mother further explained that she’d known that she was never meant to be a parent and she’d wanted to do an abortion when she was pregnant with Joshua but her dad had discovered her plans and forced her not to. Paige had phoned the week before and told her of Joshua’s surgery and she asked after his wellbeing and as usual promised to come and visit soon before she hung up.
The phone slid heedlessly from her grasps unto the bed as she convulsed into wracking sobs while Sebastian held her comfortingly to him.

“Everything I believed
is a lie; my dad…I don’t even know who I am anymore”, fresh tears pooled in her eyes and spilled over her cheeks.

“Listen to me”, Sebastian said firmly, cupping her face and forcing her to meet his gaze, “this doesn’t change who you are. You’re father loved you and that’s all that matters”.

“But I’m not his little girl”, she sobbed and Sebastian pulled in into his arms.

“
Shh, it’s alright baby; you’ll be fine”, he crooned repeatedly, stroking her hair soothingly until her sniveling subsided.

“I want to see her”, she said suddenly.

“Are you sure..?”-

“Yes”, pulling away from him; she straightened her shoulders and brushed the tears from her cheeks.

“Ok”, he agreed reluctantly; retrieving his cell phone from his jacket pocket.

CHAPTER FORTY FIVE

PAIGE WRUNG HER HANDS NERVOUSLY; HER GAZE RIVETED
to the entrance as they awaited her twin’s arrival. 

“You’ll be fine”, Sebastian smiled encouragingly, his large hands swallowing hers; his thumbs stroking her knuckles in a soothing motion
and her tense muscles slowly relaxed.

“Oh shoot! Josh”, she sprang up out of bed but Sebastian’s grip on her hands tightened; forcing her to stay put.

“I stopped by and told him you were busy. And I sent a nurse to stay with him.”

“Thank you”, her gaze locked with his for the first time since she’d fainted and she wondered why he was there.

Their conversation came to an abrupt halt as her twin entered the room and once again she was struck by the shocking resemblance between them. She had expected to feel anger, resentment or even a slight dislike upon seeing her again but rather, she felt an amazing surge of emotion as she rose from the bed and slowly padded to where she’d halted in the centre of the room. She could see exactly what she was feeling reflected in her twin's eyes which were the exact color as her; only a tad deeper.

She touched a finger to Gabby's forehead to assure herself that she wasn’t staring in a mirror somehow, and they both jumped at the contact
. She touched her hair, her cheeks and her arms before surprising herself by embracing her warmly and her eyes overflowed with tears as Gabby returned the embrace. They stood there for a moment, in each other’s embrace and Paige felt as if she’d found a piece of herself that she hadn’t even realized was missing.

“I’m sorry”, Gabby said, brushing the tears from her cheeks as they released each other; “I never meant to hurt you”.

“It’s ok”, Paige assured, “Come, let’s sit”, she lead her to two chairs beside the bed and they sat.

Sebastian cleared his throat noisily and both women glanced at him, “I’m going to make a few calls, I’ll be right outside if you need me”, he said warmly to Paige, then pointedly to Gabby, “and in case you try to escape again”.

Paige watched him go; a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach before she turned to Gabby.

“You love him, don’t you”, Gabby noted, “and he seems to feel the same”.

I wave of sadness overwhelmed Paige; if only that were true, she thought wistfully.

“Let’s not talk about that now”, Paige said hastily, “tell me about you, our…parents. Do you know them?”

“Yes, our mother”, her eyes dulled with pain before averting to her lap, “she never said much about our father other than that he left when she was pregnant. She’d thought she was having one baby and had already gone through the adoption process when she delivered two babies and according to her she never got around to completing the adoption process for me. She made it very clear though, that I ruined her life”, she ended bitterly.

“I’m sorry”, it was evident her sister hadn’t had the loving and secure upbringing she’d had and suddenly it didn’t matter whose genes she carried. John Sinclair was her father and nothing would change that or the love she felt for him and
always knew he returned until his death.

“What about you?”

“Well my mother isn’t the family type but my dad”, her eyes filled with tears, “I wished you’d had the chance to meet him”.

Gabby’s face softened, “I’m glad”.

“So how did you find me?” and steal my identity, her eyes asked.

A shadow crossed Gabby’s expression, “life wasn’t so great at home so I left home for the road when I left high school. Moved from town to town, did odd jobs to survive and about two years after I left home I hired a detective to look for you…”-

“Wow, it must have been hard being on your own like that”, Paige murmured sadly.

“It wasn’t so bad”, she laughed nervously, “he wasn’t the best and he took forever to find you but he did and I drove to New York to meet you. But when I came and saw you, I chickened out and left”, she smiled apologetically, “I remained in the city and rented a flat with a roommate but work wasn’t easy to get and I didn’t have any skills and when my roommate saw that I couldn’t pay the bills she told me about Roberta”, her face contorted with the bitter memories, “she said I didn’t have to sleep with the men that some of them just wanted a companion and it would pay well
…”-

“Why didn’t you come to me?” Paige interjected feelingly, “I have plenty of extra space and we could’ve worked something out in terms of a job.”

“I didn’t want to burden you with my problems.”

“Don’t be silly, you’re my sister”, Gabby face mellowed at Paige’s declaration and she realized that she probably hadn’t had much love growing up.

“Thank you for saying that”, Gabby squeezed her hand appreciatively, “I was so desperate that I went to Roberta and that’s when I started using your name; incase mom came looking for me”, she said it as if she didn’t believe her mom would, “Roberta smiled indulgently when I told her I didn’t want to sell my body and told me that I’d get used to the job and that I was beautiful and the men would love me”, her face clouded with distaste, “It wasn’t as my roommate had said; all the men wanted to sleep with me, some of them touched me without my permission…” he voice cracked with pain.

“You don’t have to talk about it”, Paige squeeze her shoulder comfortingly.

“I ran away that night after I left Sebastian”, she said bitterly, “I packed my bags and got in my car and left the city. I just couldn’t bare those sex crazed men anymore!”

Paige blushed at the thought that Sebastian might be included in that lot but Gabby didn’t seem to notice her discomfiture.

“I’m really sorry I got you tangled in this mess”, she said feelingly, before laughing softly, “silly me. I didn’t even remember to ask how you are feeling after…” her voice trailed off.

“I’m fine”, she
assured quickly, “the doctors insist on keeping me here until my blood results are back”.