Son of Secrets

by N. J. Simmonds

  Ella didn’t answer for a long time. Why wasn’t she saying anything? Zac wished he could feel her. He wouldn’t need to hear what she said if he knew how she truly felt.

  ‘You’ve made her upset now, Kerry!’ Mai Li hissed.

  Ella sighed. ‘It’s OK. I’ve been thinking about Zac a lot too, lately. Ow! Kerry, please don’t make the curls so tight. I’m going to look like Little Bo-Peep.’ She went quiet again and then turned to face her friends. ‘Zac’s out of the picture. He’s never coming back.’

  ‘When did you speak to him?’ Mai Li asked.

  ‘I haven’t; it’s been over three years since I last had contact with him. If he wanted me back, he would have come for me by now.’

  This was his moment. All he had to do was walk into the bathroom. Of course Ella still loved him. How could she not? She was only doing what he’d told her to do as he lay dying at her feet. She was following her path, but she couldn’t possibly be happy. Could she? He shifted beneath the bed, ready to stand, and then he heard her voice again.

  ‘I’m finally happy,’ she said, and she sounded it. ‘Zac wasn’t good for me. Every time we got together, there was drama and problems. I just want an easy life. Josh is a good man, and I love him.’

  ‘Plus he’s hot, famous, and rich,’ Kerry added.

  Ella laughed. ‘Yes, that too. But that’s not why we got together. When I’m with him I feel, I don’t know, like everything’s going to be OK. Obviously, I fancy the pants off him, but life seems easier with him beside me. He says the same thing. It’s fate.’

  ‘So, you’re over Zac?’

  He held his breath, waiting for her to answer. He couldn’t see her face; she had her back to him. If only he could see her beautiful face, he’d know what she was feeling. Ella stayed silent but nodded her head in agreement. Zac’s heart sunk. That was all he needed to see. She was over him. It was that simple. Fate had captured her at last, and she was marrying the right man—just not the one who loved her the most.

  The three girls stepped out of the bathroom, and Mai Li applied some extra mascara to Ella’s eyelashes.

  ‘Anyway, let’s not talk about Zac anymore, OK?’ Ella said. ‘This is a new beginning. I’m happy, Josh adores me, I have my friends by my side, my parents are waiting for me, and the sun is shining. Shall we go and get me married then?’

  They all squealed and embraced one another. Kerry opened the door, Mai Li picked up the train, and all three girls walked into the corridor.

  Zac couldn’t move. That had been his one chance, and he’d blown it.

  • • • • •

  Outside the hotel, the sun shone and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was the perfect spring day for a white wedding. The happy chirping of the birds in their branches mocked Zac as he walked to his motorbike.

  Was he really too late? He could turn around right now and make a big, spectacular gesture like they did in the movies. He could use his powers to slam open the chapel doors and make her fly into his arms, like he had two thousand years ago when she was fleeing the Roman soldier. But what was the point? In every lifetime he’d held back, watched from afar, and let her live her life. Why should this life be any different? She only had eleven years left; she may as well spend them in peace with the man she was destined to love.

  She’d said it herself—all Zac ever gave her was drama and pain.

  As he reached inside his jean pocket for his motorbike key, his fingers closed around his mother’s amethyst necklace and rings—the jewellery he’d intended to give to Ella. He already had his crash helmet on, but he was considering turning back to leave the jewellery in her room when he saw a young, Spanish-looking woman approaching him. She held a magazine in one hand and a set of keys in the other.

  ‘Are you here to make a delivery?’ she asked, pointing at his bike.

  ‘Si,’ he said, his voice muffled by the helmet. He handed her the jewellery. ‘Para Ella.’

  She frowned and looked down at the palm of her hand, and then she nodded and entered the hotel.

  Zac would give it ten minutes. If Ella didn’t appear, he’d take that as his cue to get out of her life forever.

  ELLA TOOK A moment to compose herself then knocked on her mother’s bedroom door. This was it. In a few moments, she’d be standing at the altar beside her husband saying ‘I do.’ Husband. The word sounded so strange and final. She pushed away the creeping doubts that had been trickling into her mind all morning and opened the door.

  ‘Oh! Ella!’ her mother yelped, springing apart from Leo and tucking a loose tendril of hair behind her ear.

  Ella’s eyes narrowed, darting between her parents. Surely not? Not on her wedding day! A light flush travelled up her mother’s neck.

  ‘Darling, you look beautiful,’ Felicity said, straightening her pastel pink shift dress and hugging her daughter. ‘We didn’t hear you. Your father was just here to…’

  ‘Pick up Josh’s buttonhole. And mine,’ Leo said, pointing to the rose pinned to his chest. ‘Your mother was just putting it on for me.’

  He cleared his throat and joined Felicity beside his daughter.

  ‘You look radiant, mi niña,’ he said, stroking Ella’s cheek with the back of his hand. ‘You know your grandmother’s going to be very sad she missed this. She loves you so much.’

  Ella blinked away tears. Three years ago, her only blood relative was her mother, but now she had a loving father and grandmother, too—the family she’d always wanted. This wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for Zac. Ella meeting her father, Felicity leaving Richard, Sebastian on the run, her and Josh getting together—all because of Zac. If he hadn’t stepped into her life back then, who knows where she would be today? Would she still be in London? Would she and Josh have found their way to each other regardless?

  Leo cleared his throat again.

  ‘I’ll see you at the chapel shortly, then. I better not leave Josh waiting any longer; he’s a bundle of nerves. He may have already fainted.’

  Leo, avoiding looking at Felicity, gave Ella a peck on the cheek and then rushed past the bridesmaids standing in the doorway.

  ‘Papa, Josh’s buttonhole?’ Ella said, holding it out to him.

  He scurried back, took it, and ran back down the stairs.

  ‘Awkward,’ Kerry whispered to Mai Li, who stifled a giggle.

  ‘Isn’t this wonderful? My baby is getting married!’ Felicity trilled, linking her arm through her daughter’s. ‘There’s no rush, darling. We’ll just walk slowly. Always good to keep a man waiting.’

  The irony of her mother’s comment wasn’t lost on Ella.

  The chapel was on the ground floor, accessible via the large courtyard in the centre of the hotel. Ella lifted the skirt of her gown so it wouldn’t trail along the marble steps, and Kerry and Mai Li picked up the train. The four women descended in silence, all of them lost in their own thoughts. Ella’s mother absentmindedly playing with her empty ring finger. Was she thinking about Richard or Leo? Was she right to have married “the one”—or had she always been destined to return to her soulmate?

  Their footsteps echoed on the white stairs, the hotel silent save for the sound of water cascading from the large stone fountain in the courtyard. The door to the chapel came into view, and Ella’s heart leapt at the thought of what lay beyond.

  ‘There you are!’ Paloma was running up the stairs toward them.

  What was her assistant doing at the hotel on her day off?

  ‘Oh, thank goodness you’re here,’ she said, out of breath. ‘I couldn’t find you. I wasn’t sure if you’d…oh my God. Que guapa! Why are you wearing a wedding dress?’

  Ella felt the colour rise in her cheeks. Own it! she told herself. Nobody knew about the wedding apart from her parents and two friends—but it wouldn’t be long before the media caught wind of the fact that the delectable de Silva was off the market, and then she’d have to get used to more than a few shocked faces.

  ‘I’m getting
married.’

  ‘I didn’t even know you were dating. Who are you marrying?’

  ‘Josh.’

  ‘The hotel guest? Joshua de Silva, the actor? Por dios! That is why I came.’

  She handed Ella a magazine she’d been clutching in her hand. ‘I wanted to show you this. It’s a picture of you in the British press. There you are singing at that bar in town, and in that photo, he is kissing you. I read the article. They are asking who the mystery girl is.’

  Ella inspected the grainy images. The drunken karaoke night. So that’s what had happened! How embarrassing.

  Kerry peered over her shoulder. ‘O. M. G. You made it into HELLO! magazine. Ella, you are, like, already famous and you’re not even married to him yet.’

  ‘I don’t want to be famous!’

  ‘Well, I just wanted to show you,’ Paloma said. ‘I apologise for the disruption. Oh, and there was a courier at the front of the hotel. He gave me this for you.’

  A necklace and two rings laid in the palm of her hand, their lilac stones winking in the daylight of the courtyard. Ella gasped. She held them up to the light, tears pooling in her eyes. She blinked and looked up at the ceiling to stop them from falling.

  What was Paloma doing with Felicity’s amethyst necklace? Ella had been the last one to wear it before giving it to Zac the day he’d died. It was this jewellery, which he claimed had once belonged to his own mother, that had carried the clues as to who he was and what he had to do.

  ‘That’s my necklace!’ Felicity said, taking it gently off Ella.

  Felicity sat down on the steps, pale beneath her perfect make-up. Ella joined her. Neither of them had seen that jewellery since the day Zac had killed himself. He’d put it in his pocket. Ella’s heart was racing, her mouth too dry to speak. Was he here? Was Zac in her hotel right now?

  ‘What’s going on?’ Kerry said. Mai Li put her finger to her lips, and they both sat down beside the bride.

  Felicity looked up at the Spanish girl. ‘Who are you, and who gave these to you?’

  ‘Mum, this is my assistant,’ Ella said. ‘Paloma, what did the courier look like?’

  ‘I’m not sure.’ Paloma was very still, as if she were listening for something. She was making Ella uncomfortable. Why was she staring like that? Paloma’s eyes grew wider as she looked between Ella and her mother. ‘He was young with tattoos on the top of his arms.’

  ‘Long hair?’ Ella asked.

  ‘No. He had a crash helmet on, but I saw no hair.’

  ‘And his eyes?’ Felicity asked, reading Ella’s mind. ‘Were they blue?’

  ‘I don’t know—his visor was down.’

  It didn’t sound like Zac. It couldn’t be him. Surely if he’d returned for her, he would have stopped the wedding. Also, Zac didn’t have tattoos or short hair.

  ‘Are you OK, Ella?’ Mai Li asked, shuffling closer to her on the stairs. ‘It’s just Kerry and I don’t speak Spanish.’

  ‘Yeah, like, what the frig is going on? You two look like you’re going to pass out!’ Kerry added.

  ‘Nothing,’ Ella whispered. ‘Thank you, Paloma, for bringing this to us. Would you like to stay for the wedding?’

  Now it was her assistant’s turn to look uncomfortable. Her expression had changed from one of confusion to pure panic.

  ‘I have to go.’

  ‘Honestly, it’s no trouble. Stay for the ceremony and a drink afterwards? We’re going for a meal in town this evening.’

  ‘No, thank you. There is something urgent I must do.’

  She ran down the stairs two at a time and down the corridor toward the foyer. This all felt wrong—the mysterious courier, Paloma’s reaction. Ella had to get to the bottom of this. Josh could wait another five minutes.

  She ran after her assistant, calling out her name. Her long dress slowed her down, making her stumble, and by the time she reached the hotel exit, Paloma had disappeared. Ella scanned the grounds for the mysterious courier too, but there was no one there, nothing but the distant sound of a motorbike engine.

  ‘LUCI, WATCH OUT!’ Sebastian grabbed the handrail above the car window and checked that his seat belt was fastened. The sooner he got out of this blasted car the better. ‘You nearly hit that guy on the motorbike. Look! He had to swerve onto the grass, and now his bike’s fallen on top of him. Shall we see if he’s OK?’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Sebastian. We’re here now.’

  The wooded entrance to the hotel opened up into a large gravel drive surrounded by cypress trees. Sebastian had never been to a monastery before, not in Spain anyway, especially not one that had been so expertly converted into a hotel. He had to admit his sister had done a good job; it was an impressive place.

  ‘Torre de los angeles was once a monastery named after the patron saint of the town—they called it “The Virgin of the Light.” It’s Tarifa’s prettiest and oldest building. Isn’t it glorious?’

  He nodded, taking in the tall tower with its arched windows and the weathervane atop a tall steeple shaped like an angel blowing his horn. In the centre of the drive, serving as a mini roundabout, was a statue of two fighting deer, their antlers locked in battle.

  ‘That’s new,’ Luci said, getting out of the car and walking toward the entrance. The door was already open, but there was no one around. ‘Not much else has changed, though.’

  ‘You’ve been here before?’

  ‘Oh yes, years ago, in the late eighteenth century. It was full of monks back then. I went through a stage of de-Goding people.’

  ‘I’m going to regret asking this, but what do you mean exactly?’

  ‘It’s a long story but, as you know, I have an issue with God. Mainly because he’s made up.’ She leant against the monastery wall, inspecting her long red nails. ‘After Archangel Mikhael thought he’d successfully murdered me, he decided to form an alliance with humans. In accordance with the world leaders at the time, he created an omnipotent being who would govern both the angelic realm and the human world—God. You look confused, Sebastian. Keep up. So, along with a God, he created a Devil…me. That way, everything good was down to God, and everything bad was, well, my fault. Even though Mikhael believed I was dead, he wanted everyone above and below to fear and hate me as much as he did.’

  Sebastian nodded. As terrifying as Mikhael sounded, he was beginning to like the sound of this Machiavellian warrior angel.

  ‘I was at the crucifixion of Jesus, you know,’ Luci continued. ‘It wasn’t long after my own resurrection. I knew he was a Nephilim; he looked a lot like his father. I was hoping Gabriel would be there, that he would help me find Zadkiel. But no one turned up to watch the so-called “son of God” die at the hands of his own people. I washed his feet and told him he would rise again. They called me a whore back then, too. For centuries, I’ve stood by and watched humans use God as an excuse to start wars, to dominate women, and to decide what happens to the weak and vulnerable—and Mikhael started it all. So, after thousands of years of his bollocks, I decided to show God’s followers that they were serving a fictitious entity.’

  ‘How did you do that?’

  ‘Mainly by fucking them. You’d be surprised how easily a man can change his mind about anything once he gets the taste of a woman.’

  ‘Charming. And the nuns?’

  ‘Oh, they were insatiable. They were worse than the men. They couldn’t get enough of me, and it got quite sordid toward the end. Fun times. I emptied this monastery of its believers three times over during that century.’

  ‘What you’re basically saying is that you know your way around this old building because you once shagged everyone that ever resided within it?’

  ‘Yes. There’s a secret library in that turret.’ She pointed at the tower. ‘I spent quite some time in there, reading and having sex. Two very undervalued pastimes.’

  She winked at him and stepped through the hotel’s doorway. Sebastian couldn’t wait to find Ella and get as far away from Luci as he could.
r />   They walked along dark, winding corridors leading to cobbled internal patios and covered walkways, but there was nobody there. Lucy unlocked room after room with the touch of her hand, but they were all empty. A few bedrooms had clothes in the wardrobes, so people were clearly staying there, and whoever was in the penthouse suite had enjoyed a wild night, as there were bottles of beer floating in the hot tub and a half-eaten box of chocolates on the bed. But no Ella.

  ‘She’s not here,’ Sebastian said for the third time.

  ‘She has to be. I’m not leaving until I’ve searched every room. Perhaps they’re in the restaurant or…’ She smiled. ‘Is today Sunday or Monday?’

  Sebastian had no idea.

  ‘It doesn’t matter. Let’s try the chapel anyway. I had so much fun beneath that altar with those saucy monks. I wonder if it’s changed much.’

  Sebastian trudged behind her, impatient to get to his stepsister. His breathing quickened at the thought of how Ella would react when she saw him. Would she cry and try to run away? He hoped so. It was always a lot more fun when girls struggled.

  They were back outside the building now. At the base of the tower were large wooden doors with a cross above them.

  Luci rested her head against the door and smiled.

  ‘I hear voices inside. Sebastian, it’s time to make our grand entrance.’

  ELLA TOUCHED THE necklace around her neck that her mother had insisted she wear and thought of Zac. She felt guilty, standing at the altar with the angel on her mind, but how could she not? Where had the jewellery come from, and who had that courier been?

  She jumped at the feel of Josh’s hand in hers. His kind eyes staring down at hers, and the beaming face of her father, made her push away all thoughts of fated angels. This was it. She was marrying the handsome Josh de Silva. But did she really love him? Could she with thoughts of Zac resting so heavily on her heart?