Page 61 of Scandals and Secrets

'Byron should have divorced her and married you,' Gemma said. 'He must have loved you. He wouldn't have made love to you while he was married if he didn't.'

Celeste's heart leapt before she got it back under control. Gemma was only twenty, and twenty-year olds could be very idealistic. 'I don't know about that, Gemma. Men can fall prey to lust more easily than women. I was very wrong to kiss him that day. I wanted to see if I was over him. Clearly, I wasn't,' she finished drily.

'So what happened?' Gemma asked.

'Irene caught us together soon afterwards and guessed what had happened. She didn't say a word, simply looked at both of us then walked out of the room. Byron turned on me and called me all sorts of names.'

'Which is why you went off with my father.'

'You mean Stefan.'

'Oh ... yes .. .I keep forgetting.'

Celeste fell silent, not wanting to tell Gemma about her eventual disillusionment over the man she'd thought such a gentleman. She especially did not want to see the horror in those innocent brown eyes if the whole truth was revealed.

Even so, Gemma was frowning. 'I presume he thought I was his,' she said.

'Yes,' came Celeste's reluctant admission.

'And you refused to marry him, I suppose. Is that why he stole me?'

'Something like that.'

'Yet you stayed with him till I was born. Why did you do that?'

'I. . .I wasn't in the best of health and he ... he said he wanted to take care of me.'

Gemma's frown deepened. 'Doesn't sound like the man I knew. Still .. .I suppose he might have been a kind person once. Maybe he changed once he realized you didn't love him. Maybe he became bitter and twisted.'

'Yes, I think that's what must have happened.' Celeste was happy to let her daughter believe this. Better than the ghastly truth.

'But what about the opal? You know ... the Heart of Fire.'

Celeste's heart missed a beat. 'The ... the Heart of Fire?'

'Yes. I found it along with that photograph after Dad died. I. . .I mean ... after the man I thought was my father died.'

'Good God,' Celeste murmured. 'I didn't realise ... So Byron was telling the truth all along. It was found in a dead miner's belongings out at Lightning Ridge.'

'It certainly was. I thought I was rich for a while till I found out it was stolen. What I'd like to know is ... if .. .if Mr Bergman was rich back then, why did he steal it. .. and how?'

Celeste flushed. 'He didn't steal it initially. Though he did later. From me. I was the original thief.'

'You!'

'Byron was going to give it to Irene on their wedding day to symbolize the healing of the rift between our two families. I. . .I took it that day, vowing never to let the rift heal between the Whitmores and the Campbells. '

'Oh .. .'

'It was very wrong of me.'

'Understandable, though.'

'Do you really understand, Gemma?' Celeste said pleadingly.

Gemma clasped her mother's hands tightly in hers. 'Of course. Loving someone as much as you loved my father can make one do insane things.' .

'Yes,' Celeste muttered bleakly. 'Yes, it can .. .'

'You still love him, don't you?'

Celeste blinked her amazement at this intuitive guess.

'I suspected as much when I saw you together last night,' Gemma explained gently.

'He ... he's all I've ever wanted,' Celeste confessed brokenly.

'Then go to him. Tell him everything you've just told me. Tell him the truth.'

The truth ... Dear God, this sweet child didn’t know the half of it.

'Please, Mother,' Gemma begged. 'For me .. .'

Celeste melted.

'All right, my darling. For you .. .'

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Celeste was a nervous wreck by the time she knocked on the hotel suite door. Byron wrenched it open immediately, a smoldering scowl on his handsome face.

'You do pick your moments, Celeste,' he grumbled. 'What could be so urgent that you had to see me immediately? And why, if it's not my body you want, did you choose to meet me here of all places?'

A wry smile tugged at her lips. Same old Byron, always huffing and puffing when he was caught at a disadvantage. Well, he was at a disadvantage, there was no doubt about that. He was also about to get the shock of his life, if she was any judge. Would it be a welcome shock? Or would the thought of a woman like herself having had his child turn his stomach?

She'd never had the courage to tell him, first because of his marriage to Irene and secondly because she'd been afraid of his reaction. She could not have borne to see the scorn and skepticism on his face. Even if she'd been able to find their baby-and my God, she had tried-there had been riot DNA tests to prove paternity all those years ago.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com