A Family Affair - Next of Kin (7 page)

“No?” After what Nikki had said, Kane would always be a part of Ellen’s life.

“No.” She seemed sure.

Kane decided it was time to say exactly what he was thinking. “So you’re positive I’m not the father of Angus?”

Ellen didn’t say a word. The colour in her face drained away.

Kane saw her certainty start to waver. Ellen either knew or suspected that Angus was his. “Where is he, Elle?”

“At home.”

“I want to see him.”

“No.”

“Elle, I want to see my son,” Kane said, louder this time.

Neither of them noticed, but Margaret Bradley was sitting close by and heard every word that was said.

Margaret sat perfectly still - her mouth wide open, as she listened to the questions that Kane asked Ellen. He had asked if she was sure that he wasn’t the father of Angus. That could only mean one thing - they had been intimate. Ellen’s face filled with the guilt and shame of the act. It must be true - her look confirmed it. They had been lovers at some time in the past. Margaret had no way of knowing the length of the affair, but it must have occurred around the time that Angus was conceived.

Hadn’t Kane been Ellen’s personal trainer or some nonsense like that? Even if Margaret hadn’t heard what she heard, there was an obvious tension between the two. Their relationship was more than professional.

Margaret needed to think carefully. Clearly the timeline of Ellen’s relationship with Kane overlapped with her son’s engagement to the girl. That meant Ellen had cheated on Tom. But he must not know. Surely if Tom knew, he would never have married the girl. She wasn’t worthy of the expensive ring on her finger. Margaret was confident that her son knew none of this. He just couldn’t.

Margaret had tried to trust in Tom’s judgement, despite her own instincts telling her that Ellen was too young and too immature to be Tom’s wife. It seemed that Margaret’s intuition had been right all along. Ellen was not going to stay in her family for very long if she could arrange it.

What was it about Kane Jarrad that women found so irresistible? Nikki’s dalliance with him ended her ill-fated and irresponsible marriage to Jack, and now Ellen’s infidelity would ruin her marriage to Tom. The lesson here for Bradley men was not to marry a younger woman. Tom should have trusted in his mother’s ability to pick a wife for him. He had been introduced to so many more appropriate choices - good, strong women whose parents were respectable members of the golf club.

Margaret stood up quietly. This congested hallway was not the place to make a scene. She took a step into the bustling crowd and moved away quickly. Ellen and Kane never knew she was there. She would bide her time until a moment when Tom was alone and ready to hear the truth about the affair. She headed home to plan exactly what she would say when the right time arrived.

Ellen was not handling the confrontation with Kane well. She couldn’t understand why he was demanding to see Angus. What had changed? He knew a paternity test had already been performed. Ellen wouldn’t have involved him in the first place if she’d known he wouldn’t accept the result. And he couldn’t possibly know about the secret doubt in her own mind that had surfaced after seeing Alice and Angus together. Unfortunately those doubts were being reinforced by looking into Kane’s eyes again - there was no doubting their similarity to those of Angus.

Kane claimed that he wanted to warn her about Hayden - her biological father. She had been impressed by the way Hayden had dealt with Kane’s case in court. His arguments were succinct and convincing; he made Kane’s lawyer look like an amateur. In a way, Ellen had been proud of her father that day. He was certainly not a threat to anyone.

And so what if Hayden had warned Kane to stay away? Just about everybody in the family wanted to throttle him. In a way, it was nice that Hayden wanted to protect her. Perhaps there was hope for a typical father - daughter relationship one day after all.

When Tom emerged from the bathroom, Ellen almost ran into his arms, leaving Kane standing alone.

“Get away from her,” Tom warned him.

Kane sighed. “Fine,” he said, walking away. “This is not over, Elle. And don’t say I didn’t try to warn you about you-know-who.”

Ellen watched as he walked away, not feeling even a hint of peace until he was gone.

“Sorry, Elle,” Tom said, slipping his arm around her waist. “I shouldn’t have left you alone here. I didn’t think he’d be so stupid as to approach you with all the cops around.”

“It’s fine. I’m okay. I probably over-reacted to his questions.”

Tom looked around. “Let’s get out of here. Where’s Mother? She came out with us, didn’t she?”

Ellen had been too distracted to notice Margaret’s whereabouts. “I’m not sure, Tom. There are so many people in here.”

“Let me call her.” Tom retrieved his phone from a deep pocket in his jacket and dialled his mother’s number. “Mother, we’ve lost you in here,” he said. “Oh, okay then.” He paused. “Okay, see you later.” He hung up and turned to Ellen to explain. “She’s gone shopping and will make her own way home.”

He rolled his eyes and Ellen knew why. Margaret seemed to love spending money more than anything else. Shopping had become her number one hobby in life since Jack’s passing, but luckily she had the bank account to support it.

“Let me call Robert, so he can bring the car out front,” Tom said.

Ellen was led by Tom’s firm clasp. He was holding her tight, just the way she liked it. When they were together, it felt as if nothing bad could go wrong. His strength and influence kept them on track. It was when he left her alone that dreadful things seemed to happen.

“There’s Robert,” Tom said, pointing towards the car approaching them.

Robert pulled into the curve and stopped in a non-parking area, so Tom was quick to open the back door, and usher Ellen in.

As the car pulled away, she tried to recover her composure.

“What is it, Mrs Bradley?” Tom asked, taking her hand. He always read her mood so well, and it was hard to hide anything from him.

Ellen wasn’t sure whether the conversation should be repeated. “It’s nothing.”

“I want to know everything,” he insisted. “Obviously something is bothering you.”

She took a deep breath. “It’s just that Kane was asking questions that shook me. I shouldn’t have come here today.”

“You know I like to have you by my side with family matters.” He undid her seatbelt and pulled her into his arms.

Ellen started to relax in his embrace. “I’m glad I came then.”

“What was he asking, out of curiosity?”

Ellen hesitated, but knew she needed to be honest. “He was asking to see Angus. Actually, he demanded to see him.”

“That’s strange. Why would he want to see our son?”

Ellen sensed something insincere in Tom’s tone, but shook it off. He couldn’t know anything of her doubts. “I don’t know,” she mumbled without thinking.

“Well, the security team won’t let him anywhere near our boy,” Tom said, trying to reassure her. “I should have had them here today.”

Ellen knew there was more to say. Now was as good a time as any to let him know what she suspected about Angus’ paternity, especially given Kane’s questions. “I need to tell you something else, Tom. I saw Nikki the other day.” She paused. “Sorry, I meant to tell you that too, but I honestly forgot. There’s been so much activity this week.”

“Elle... you know we agreed to keep those people out of our lives.” He sounded disappointed. “You remember what happened to Dad?”

“Of course I remember. It wasn’t planned, Tom. I was shopping, and she just happened to be in the same store. It was a chance thing.”

“Okay.”

“And by the way, I had a security guard with me, and he threw himself in front of me, as if Nikki was going to attack. You should have seen it.”

Tom chuckled. “Good. That’s what I’m paying them to do. And well... Nikki is a threat. Let’s not forget that Dad would still be alive if it wasn’t for her.”

“I know, Tom.”

“I thought she was overseas,” he muttered. “Well, go on. What does seeing Nikki have to do with Kane’s questions?”

“Well, Nikki approached me, and I only spoke to her for a few moments, but...”

“Elle, what happened? You’ve gone white.”

Ellen touched her face. She felt cold, as if the blood had drained out of her body. It was affecting her more than she realised. “I hate to speak these words aloud, in case they somehow make it real.”

He held her tighter. “Nothing will ever come between us. I hope you know that by now. We can tell each other anything, and I will still love you. It doesn’t matter what happened with Nikki.”

Ellen did trust in his love. In fact, there was nothing she trusted more. She and Angus were the most important people in Tom’s life, and the love between them all was stronger than anything she could imagine. “I saw something between the two children,” she said, spitting the words out quickly as if wanting them out of her.

“What two children?”

“Angus was with me, and Nikki had a baby with her.”

“What?”

“Nikki kept Kane’s baby.”

“Oh my God! That’s terrible... and horrible. It’s bad enough what happened between them, but why would she keep it?”

Ellen shook her head. The decision was equally incomprehensible to her, and Nikki’s attitude had seemed so bizarre. “I don’t know. I didn’t stay around to ask her about Kane’s baby. But that’s why she came home. She wants to raise the baby here. Tom, what I saw between the two babies scared me even more.”

“What was it, Elle?”

“There was an undeniable likeness between the two babies.”

“Oh.” Tom looked away.

Ellen searched for the love and trust that she’d felt only seconds before. He’d said it didn’t matter what she said - he would still love her. She tried to trust in the memory of those words. “I know it can’t be right, as Dr Walsh performed a paternity test which ruled Kane out as the father. So maybe the similarity comes from you and Kane being half-brothers, but... it was frightening to see. I was thinking... perhaps Nikki saw their similarity too. Perhaps she told Kane.”

“Are they still seeing each other?”

“Nikki said she had court papers ordering him to appear at hospital this morning to be tested as Alice’s father. I can’t think why else he would have said those things to me. He yelled at me, and said that he wants to see his son. Tom, he believes that Angus is
his
son, and I don’t know why. Nothing has changed, as far as I can tell. A similarity between the babies doesn’t mean anything, right?”

“I need to tell you something, Elle,” Tom said, pushing her out of his arms and back to her own seat. They were now facing each other. His tone was serious, and his expression knowing.

“What is it?” Ellen wondered why he didn’t seem surprised by what she had said. In fact, he hadn’t shown any kind of reaction.

“I love you, more than life itself.”

“I know.” It was reassuring to hear those words again.

“I love our son, more than life itself.”

“I know, Tom. You don’t need to tell me all this. I know where your heart lies because mine is there too. I feel the same way about you and about our son.”

Tom looked down. “I did something that I haven’t told you about. I did it for me because I needed to. Perhaps it was selfish of me...” He was thoughtful for a few moments. “I never intended to tell you about it, but I see now that it is for the best.”

Ellen was scared by his words, having no idea what he was talking about.

“After Angus was born, I had a second paternity test performed.”

Ellen was shocked to hear that, but she knew the result would be the same. The results of paternity tests didn’t change even if they were performed multiple times. Tom would have been proven to be the father in any subsequent test. There had been no other man in Ellen’s life, and Kane had been proven to be not the father already. The similarity between the two babies must be due to the family connection between Tom and Kane.

“I didn’t tell anybody that I was doing it. It’s hard to explain, but I’ve had this sense for a while now...”

“Of what?”

He looked out the window, lost in his own thoughts as the world rushed by. “I’ve sensed that things are not what they seem to be. That there’s this force of energy around me that is twisting truths and manipulating me for reasons I can’t fathom.” He shook his head. “I know I sound crazy and paranoid when I say that.”

“There have been a lot of unusual things happen to us.”

Tom nodded. “Please don’t think that I don’t trust you. It’s true that I didn’t tell you, but I didn’t tell anyone. I just had to do it for myself.”

“It’s okay. I understand, I think. So you did the paternity test, and it showed that you were the father...”

He paused. “No it didn’t, Elle.”

“What?” Ellen stared at him without comprehending his words. Why would he say that? Of course the test would have showed him to be the father. Why wasn’t he explaining? Ellen wanted to scream - there must be some sort of mistake. There had been no other man. By the look in his eyes, he believed what he said. Tears formed in Ellen’s eyes almost instantly.