‘I guess I almost wanted it to be true, that you had some secrets so I could feel some sort of parity. God, I don’t know, I just can’t get past my…indiscretion.’
Lila sat back and sighed. ‘God, Rich…I thought this was done with months ago. Look, it happened, you apologized, I accepted that apology. Let it go.’
She got up, clearly annoyed. Why did he have to keep bringing this up? It was almost like he wanted to feel bad, feel sorry for himself. She went to the kitchen and grabbed a couple of beers from the refrigerator. Closing the door, she looked at the calendar. The wedding was fifteen months away.
Fifteen months. Lila closed her eyes. What’s the matter with you, woman? Why does the thought of being married scare the crap out of you? You love him, don’t you?
I don’t know. Oh god…I don’t know…
22.
Now…Riker’s Island, New York City
Her heart was thumping hard against her ribs as she walked through to the visitors’ room. As she sat down in front of the glass partition, she felt vomit rise in the back of her throat and tried not to gag.
‘Breathe through your mouth, honey, it gets easier to bear,’ said a kind faced woman to her right. Lila smiled weakly then, as the door to the prisoner’s side opened, her stomach dropped.
Rich had aged in the months he’d been incarcerated, his face covered with a thick beard. He sat down and looked at her, placing his hand flat against the glass for moment. Lila tried to smile, put her hand against the glass to mirror him. It was a shock to see him so broken.
He picked up the phone. As she out the receiver to her ear, she heard his shaky breathing.
‘Lila…oh god, Lila…’ He started to sob and her heart fractured. She wanted to put her arms around him and tell him it was okay.
‘I didn’t do this, Lila…I swear on everything I am, and I did not do this.’
‘I know, Rich, I know…don’t you think I know that?’
‘I would never, ever hurt you, my love, never…’
He hadn’t heard her, she realized. ‘Richard. Richard, look at me.’
His sobs became gasps and he looked up, eyes streaming. ‘God, I had forgotten how beautiful you are.’
She ignored the compliment. ‘Richard, listen. I know you didn’t do this. I know with every fiber of my being that you would never hurt me, let alone stab me.’
Rich flinched. ‘God…they showed me pictures, Lila, of you, of your injuries, of how they found you…baby, I’m so sorry.’
Lila shook her head. ‘Don’t think about that. We need to concentrate on getting you out of here.’ She stopped, looked away for a second. ‘Rich…I know you were…with someone else. It’s okay, it really is so don’t keep anything from me. I need to know everything so I can help you.’
Richard’s face crumpled again and he began to sob and Lila let him cry himself out. ‘Rich,’ she said softly, ‘It’s okay. We both have our…mistakes.’ She felt strangely disloyal to Noah saying that. ‘Please, take a deep breath and tell me everything.’
So he did. To her great relief, it wasn’t Camilla he had strayed with this time, but his new assistant, Molly. The affair had only begun three months before Lila’s stabbing but she could tell that Molly had been more than a fling. She felt strangely relieved.
After he’d finished, they stared at each other. ‘I love you, you know?’ he said and she nodded.
‘I know. I love you too but Rich, we’re not in love anymore, are we?’
He shook his head sadly. ‘No, I don’t think we are. And I hate saying that. I thought we’d be together forever. I hope you find someone who truly deserves you, Lila, I do. And please, whatever happens to me, to us, please don’t abandon my family. They love you as one of their own.’
It was Lila’s turn to cry now, tears dripping down her cheeks. ‘I would never do that, I love them too.’
He put his hand against the glass again. ‘Lila…will you come visit me again?’
‘Of course. Every day. Every day, Rich, as long as you’re in here.’
She was still thinking about him on the ride home. As the town car sped through the city, she felt a peace settle inside her. Her cell phone rang. Charlie.
‘Hey little one, how did it go?’
Lila sighed. ‘Good. Really good. Charlie, I need your help…we have to start trying to free Rich – ‘
‘Are you serious?’
Lila pulled the phone away from her ear for a moment. When she spoke again, her voice was strained with anger. ‘Charlie, enough. I know Richard didn’t try and kill me. I know it.’
‘Because of your years of detective training? Or a hunch?’
‘You weren’t in that dressing room, Charlie, you didn’t have a knife stuck repeatedly in your belly, you didn’t hear him, feel him, smell him. Don’t you think I would have recognized my own fucking fiancé?’ She was mad now, mad at Charlie for his antagonism, his negativity.
There was a silence on the other end of the phone then… ‘You’re right. I’m sorry, boo. I’m just frustrated that we haven’t found whoever did it. I’m scared I’ll lose you…but, forgive me, the guy cheated on you if nothing else.’
Lila sighed. ‘That’s not anything you have to worry about now. We agreed to break our engagement. But that will not stop me from fighting for his freedom.’
Another silence then a soft laugh. ‘Sweetheart…I hope that guy knows what he lost. I’ll come by after work and we’ll talk.’
‘I’d like that.’
When she got home, she showered and then got into bed for a nap. The day had exhausted her; her body ached, her mind fatigued and sad. Her head pounded and she felt nauseous.
She awoke to the sound of someone pounding on the door. She staggered out of bed in her shorts and t-shirt to see her security guard coming in the door.
‘I’m sorry to disturb you, Miss Tierney, but there’s a police officer here to see you, says it’s urgent.’
Lila sighed. ‘It’s just Charlie, let him in.’
Charlie was grim-faced when he came in but Lila rolled her eyes at him. ‘What’s with the drama? I was sleeping.’
‘Lila…’
Something in his tone made her stop. ‘What is it, Boo?’
‘Lila…sweetheart, I have something to tell you and it’s not going to be easy.’ Charlie took her hands, his expression grim but his eyes were sad. He led her to the couch and made her sit down.
Lila looked at him, ice flowing through her veins. ‘What?’
Charlie cleared his throat and when he spoke his voice was soft. ‘Lila, there was an incident at the prison. In the exercise yard. Some guys were railing on a new guy and Richard tried to stop it. Lila, he got stabbed, in the back. They called the emergency services straight away and he was rushed here, to the emergency room a little over an hour ago.’
Lila was shaking her head from side-to-side. She wanted to scream, wanted to hit Charlie for what he was about to tell her. ‘No…no…’
‘Darling…he died forty minutes ago.’
She stared at him in horror. No…no, this isn’t happening…
Richard was dead.
End of Part One
Shattered
(An alpha Billionaire Romance)
Part 2
By Michelle Love
Shattered
Two days before her lavish Upper East Side wedding, artist Lila Tierney is stabbed and left for dead by an unknown assailant. Waking up in the hospital she is devastated to discover her fiancé Richard Carnegie has been arrested for arranging her murder. An exhausting and draining recovery keeps Lila at her lowest point until she meets handsome doctor Noah Applebaum. Despite her loyalty to Richard, Lila cannot help the feelings he stirs in her. Everything changes though, when a tragedy hits the Carnegie’s and Lila has to reevaluate her life.
Reeling from Richard’s murder, Lila and the Carnegie family close ranks and grieve in private. Soon, though, Lila discovers something which could shatter the Carne
gie’s faith in her and so she disappears. Her oldest friend, New York detective Charlie Sherman is devastated by her disappearance and works with the Carnegie's and their vast resources to find her. At the same time he and his partner Riley investigate Richard’s murder and find out more about the dead man than they expected. Richard’s brother Harry returns to New York and when he meets Charlie’s ex-girlfriend Tinsley, sparks fly. In Seattle, Noah Applebaum can’t get Lila out of his mind and when he learns of Richard’s death, he resolves to track her down. With more than one person seeking her, will Lila be able to stay hidden and safe, with the biggest secret of her life…
Lila has returned to her native Seattle to rebuild her life. With the help of her oldest friend, police detective Charlie Sherman, she soon realizes that life she thought she had been living was a lie and that she is back where she belongs. Learning to trust again, she begins a tentative relationship with handsome doctor Noah Applebaum and she is amazed by the new world of erotic pleasure he opens up for her.
Soon, she is falling in love with him but her happiness is shattered when someone begins to stalk her in Seattle, making it clear to Lila that he wants her dead.
A terrified Lila begins to question every relationship around her as her life falls apart and the killer closes in…
Shattered #2
Charlie
Reeling from Richard’s murder, Lila and the Carnegie family close ranks and grieve in private. Soon, though, Lila disovers something which could shatter the Carnegie’s faith in her and so she disappears. Her oldest friend, New York detective Charlie Sherman is devastated by her disappearance and works with the Carnegie's and their vast resources to find her. At the same time he and his partner Riley investigate Richard’s murder and find out more about the dead man than they expected. Richard’s brother Harry returns to New York and when he meets Charlie’s ex-girlfriend Tinsley, sparks fly. In Seattle, Noah Applebaum can’t get Lila out of his mind and when he learns of Richard’s death, he resolves to track her down. With more than one person seeking her, will Lila be able to stay hidden and safe, with the biggest secret of her life…?
Harrison
1.
Upper East Side, Manhattan
There was a quiet sadness in the apartment as Lila dressed for the funeral. She still couldn’t believe it; Richard was dead. Her love for so long, the man she thought she would spend the rest of her life with until that terrible day all those months ago. The day she was brutally stabbed and left for dead. Somehow, even though she had loved Richard, she knew that day marked the end of one life and the beginning of another.
She looked around the apartment. It rang with loneliness. This was never my home, she thought now. I may have spent every night here, with Rich, but it was never really my home. It was too opulent for her simple tastes, to designed, too neat. She preferred her space to be cluttered and cozy.
She had already told Delphine, Richard’s mother, that she wanted to move, that being in the penthouse apartment was too painful. Delphine had understood. ‘You can go anywhere you want now,’ she had told Lila, ‘everything Richard had is now yours, with our blessing.’
God. Lila Tierney, the girl from the children’s home, the girl who from sixteen to eighteen had lived in an old car, was a millionaire. She would give every penny away to have Richard back in their lives, even though before he’d died, they’d agreed to break up. She still wanted her friend, for herself, for his family.
‘I miss you, Boo,’ she said aloud to the empty apartment. A knock on the door made her start, chuckle softly to herself. If this was a movie, she thought as she went to get the door, then Richard would be standing on the other side, a big grin on his face.
Instead, her oldest, most trusted friend, Charlie, half-smiled at her. ‘Hey, you. Ready?’
She tried to smile back but just nodded. ‘Ready.’
He offered her his arm as they walked to the elevator, his big warm hand covering hers. It wasn’t until they were settled in the town car, that it hit Lila. Richard’s funeral. Richard was gone. That funny, erudite, adventurous livewire of a man was dead. How could that be? Her breath hitched and caught in her chest and she felt her composure slip.
Charlie took one look at her and wrapped his arms around her and let her sob out her heartbreak.
2.
Westchester
Harrison ‘Harry’ Carnegie felt utterly out of place in the home he had grown up in. Having lived in Australia for the last fifteen years, he’d forgotten how organized and structured Westchester gatherings could be. More than that, he hated to see his parents, his sister Cora, so utterly devastated.
Delphine had introduced him to Lila at dinner last night and he’d chatted to the petite brunette, seeing exactly what his brother had in her. What she’d been through this last year…poor girl. And the devastation on the faces of his family was echoed in her lovely, heartbroken eyes. He’d liked her very much.
Now though, circulating through the gathered mourners, Harry felt discombobulated, as if the person they were burying hadn’t been his own brother. He and Richard had been close growing up but as their lives moved in different direction, the inevitable distance grew.
And he just couldn’t get his head around the fact that not only was Rich murdered, but was in prison at the time. In prison! Harry shook his head – what the hell had happened to his family? His sister Cora was a wreck and, according his mother, only thirty days sober. He looked across at her now, fragile and sparrow-like in her black dress, and his heart pounded with sadness.
‘Hey kiddo,’ he said moving to her side and wrapping a big arm around her. ‘This is a shitstorm, isn’t it?’
Cora smiled up at him through bloodshot eyes. ‘This last year, really, Harry.’
‘Sorry I wasn’t around for it, punkin.’
She wrapped her tiny arms around his waist. ‘Don’t apologize. I’m glad you were spared at least some of it.’ She sighed. ‘Lila looks so sick, don’t you think?’
Harry glanced over at his brother’s ex-fiancée. ‘I don’t know her well enough to say but yeah, she looks tired. I don’t know who half these people are, Cora. Richard’s friends? And who’s that dude over there that looks like he might go postal at any minute?’
Cora chuckled. ‘That’s Charlie; he always looks like that but he’s a big softy, really. To me, at least, he’s been very kind.’
‘Little crush, sis?’
Cora giggled through her blushes. ‘Noooo….He’s Lila’s oldest friend, and a cop.’ She broke off suddenly. ‘His partner, Riley, is lovely too.’
‘He’s gay?’
Cora laughed. ‘No, his police partner, idiot. Hey, come meet some people.’
Harry balked and made an excuse – he really didn’t want to meet ‘people’. Cora, shaking her head, stuck her tongue out at him and smiled.
‘Hermit.’
‘Twig.’
‘Old man.’
‘Wise-ass.’
Harry smiled after his sister….oh lord, talking of sisters; Judith was bearing down on him. Out of all the Carnegie children, Harry was the only one she liked – adored, actually. The feeling was definitely not mutual.
Not even pretending to be subtle about it, Harry made his escape to the bar his parents had set up in the reception room.
‘Dewer’s on the rocks, please.’
The barman nodded and went to get his drink. Harry leaned against the bar and rubbed his eyes. God, let this be over soon, please…
‘I heard an accent,’ said a voice….an Australian voice. ‘Might you be the sibling who escaped all this grandeur to go to the greatest county on Earth?’
Harry grinned and looked up to see a stunningly pretty blonde girl grinning at him. ‘I might be. Well spotted.’
She laughed. ‘Wasn’t hard. I have Oz-dar.’
‘The hell is Oz-dar.’
‘Like gay-dar, except I can spot an Aussie accent a mile away – even an ex-pat who’s caught the lingo. Where did you en
d up?’
‘Melbourne.’
She clinked her drinks glass against his. ‘Born and bred.’
Harry smiled. God, she was gorgeous, blonde hair pulled back in a low pony tail, blue eyes sparkling with humor, pink, rosebud lips parted in a wide smile. He stuck out his hand. ‘Harry Carnegie.’
‘Tinsley Chang.’
Harry raised his eyebrows. ‘Chang?’
She grinned, obviously expecting the question. ‘My stepdad is Chinese. And lot nicer than my real dad was so when my mum remarried, I took his name.’
‘That’s cool. I know the weight of having a ‘name’.’ He motioned around the place, then added hurriedly, ‘Not that I don’t love my family, because I do.’ Sadness enveloped him and Tinsley stepped toward him, placing her hand on his arm.
‘I’m sorry, Harry, about Richard, about all this. I got to know him quite well over the last few years; Lila and I used to work at the same bar and Charlie and I used to double-date with them.’
A spike of disappointment went through him. ‘Oh, so you and the bulldog?’
She laughed. ‘Not anymore, no, but thankfully, we’ve stayed friends.’
Harry nodded, his mind racing. She was utterly beguiling but a complication he really didn’t need at the moment. Unless he was desperately needed, he wanted to get back to Australia and his life there. His shipping business was huge now, built from a small export and import company he’d started with some capital from his father and it had made him a billionaire in less than two years. He knew his father, to whom he was closest, was proud of him but within himself, there was a building dissatisfaction with his life. He wanted to create something, something tangible, with his own hands. He wanted to build boats, beautiful bespoke, hand-crafted sailboats for passionate sailors like himself. He just didn’t know how his family would react if the CEO of the world’s most successful shipping company was to give it all up to apprentice as a shipwright.
The Billionaire’s Lighthouse Series: A Billionaire, Bad Boy, Romance Page 105