The nightmare had suddenly gotten worse than she could ever imagine. She’d been duped, taken for a ride all along. Her husband hadn’t loved her. He hadn’t wanted to build a life for her and Kyle. When he first approached her asking to work with her and learn, it wasn’t so he could make her happy and feel loved. He’d used her to get what he wanted. A credible restaurant with dirty money and she’d fallen for it.
Lena gagged, her coffee purging from her stomach to sink into the thick green grass. How could I have been so stupid? Why on earth would I have thought someone who looked like Cole would want to take on a single mother and all of her baggage? He’d planned the take over all along once he got what he wanted and in the meantime, he’d been cheating on her.
“Honey, let me help.” Adam crouched down beside her, reaching for her hand.
“Leave me alone, please.” Embarrassed by her ex-husband’s deception, Lena saw herself as a loser. She didn’t need Adam’s sympathy.
He passed her a handkerchief and she grabbed for it, wiping the spit on her chin before sitting back on her haunches. “Leave me alone, Adam.” Let me suffer in peace.
“No. Not going to happen so get over any ideas you have of pushing me away because you were used and abused. Welcome to my world, Lena. I’m in the same position if you bother to think about it.” She could hear the hurt and frustration in his voice but her pain was rawer, deeper than his. Or so she thought.
“I loved her too, at least I thought I did. When I heard from Jeremy that she’d used me, I was gutted. I felt so stupid and not only because I didn’t see it for myself, because I was taken in by her so easily. Hook line and sinker as they say.” He leaned back on the fence railing and watched her, sadness in his eyes—or was it regret? Lena couldn’t tell and right now she didn’t care all that much.
“We’re so alike. Both hurt and both looking for a new beginning. We work together, Lena, and in spite of what might be going through your head right now, it’s not over between us. This makes no difference to me at all.” He ignored the dirty look she gave him. “I’m in love with you. There, I’ve said it out loud. I love you and it’s not just the sex or the great food, which I assure you is great. I love Kyle and I think the feeling is mutual.”
Lena watched the spark in his eyes when he mentioned her son, the light of her life.
“I think your parents like me too, so as far as I’m concerned, you and me, we’re good. And I want it to stay that way regardless of today. This was just another step in the process of us letting go of the past, putting it behind us and moving on. What do you say? Reckon you can help me out here? Give me a sign or something.”
She took a deep breath and glanced at the restaurant, wondering if Jeremy was in there waiting for her to come back in. She decided she didn’t really care, not at the moment. Everything that needed to be said, had been and look where that left her now. On her knees in the laneway with the man of her dreams waiting for an answer. She wasn’t sure she could give him one at this time.
“I’ve made so many mistakes, Adam. I couldn’t bear it if I made another one.” Her words hurt him, she could tell by the small squint he made with his eyes. “How about this then, I hold your hand and we make them together. That way it won’t hurt so much if we stumble together. I don’t exactly have the best track record out either, as you well know. You can’t deny we have something, something good.”
“No, I can’t.”
We’re good together. So good it scares me.
* * *
Lena convinced Adam to leave her alone and let her work. It would be the best way to sort through her emotions and come to terms with what Cole had done to her. Watching him walk away had been hard but she needed to be alone. At least for now.
The press of cold steel against her throat jarred her out of her daydream. Her heart thumped in her chest and a whimper escaped her lips before she could stop it.
“Don’t like it do you?” Hot fetid breath rolled over her face and Lena gripped her assailants arm to stop her body shaking in fright and the knife cutting in.
Adam come back! “What…what do you want? I don’t have any money.” This couldn’t be happening, not to her. Not out here away from the city, and certainly not after what she’d already gone through this morning with the police.
He laughed, the evil connotations creeping up her spine like a cold serpent. “Seems like you’re causing a friend of mine a few problems, especially after he opened his fat mouth and told you things you didn’t need to know. Can’t have you spilling that little detail to the cops now, can we? Some talk of you taking away his customers too and that just won’t do, you know. I think we need to do something about that.”
“I don’t—”
“Oh yes you do. Fancy chef like you taking the time to ruin one of my boss’s best customers. We can’t have that now. So”—he leaned
