Secrets and Lies (Sequel to Your Lying Eyes)

Secrets and Lies Chapter 16

Catherine was shaking as she logged off from her conversation with Gemma.  She knew that she had made an important discovery when she had spotted Anna on the webcam.  She had kept in touch with Chloe since arriving back home, the pair of them having a lot in common as they were about to become mums for the first time within a couple of weeks.  She had heard all about the upset that had taken place once the band had got back.  How all Howard's plans of getting back with Anna had come to nothing.  Anna had gone missing with the children and their nanny, not leaving any clues as to her whereabouts.

The day they had arrived home from the hotel, Jason had discovered that she had gone.  She'd left him a note and from this it was obvious that she had thought that Howard and Catherine were together and that she was having his baby.  This had upset her so much that she had had to get away for a while.  

To add to his misery, Jason had also found out that Matthew was not his son.  There had been a fight between him and Howard when he had discovered that Howard was Matthew's father, Gary and Mark finally calming them down.  Even now, several weeks later, there was an air of unease whenever they were altogether.

Howard had been so down.  He wanted to find her and the children and bring them back home so that they could all be a family together.  He didn't know where to begin to look for her.  The only clue they'd had was the hotel that she'd been staying in and from where she had rung Jason and Gary to let them know that she was alright.  They had tried to ring the hotel back once they had found the message on their answer machines, that same day when they had come home, but she had already checked out without leaving a forwarding address.  The trail had gone cold and all of them were just hoping and praying that she would get in touch with them once more as she had promised in the messages she had left for them.

More than once Catherine had wished that she had said something to Anna the night that they had all been together at the hotel when they had first arrived back in England.  If only she had, all this trouble and upset could have been avoided.  She remembered how much Howard had been looking forward to seeing her and Maisie.  The nights that he had talked about them in the Lagoon Hotel.  Whenever he had had a couple of drinks, he would bring out the photographs he had of Anna and Maisie, showing them around proudly, to all around him.  He'd told her that he'd done some stupid things and had almost totally ruined his chances of them ever being together, but he hoped that he could one day prove to her that he had changed.

"We belong together me and Anna," he'd tell her.  "She's with Jason now, but that's just for the time being.  It's part of her proving to me that she can get along without me.  But I know we'll be together again some day.  I just know it.  I'll not rest until we are.  She belongs with me, not him or anybody else."

She had heard him say this so many times, as had Eddie and Dot.  The pictures were dog eared and crumpled, but he kept them safely in his wallet, probably his most treasured possessions.

She'd heard him so often that she was convinced that he still loved Anna and that if he found he had another chance with her that he would never let her down again.  The morning that he'd left her with Dave, she'd encouraged him to sort things out with her, certain that they'd be able to find a way through their problems.  But he'd been too late.  By that afternoon, he'd found that she had disappeared with Maisie and Matthew.

Her conversation with Gemma could provide him with a way back to her.  She sat thinking carefully.  She was certain that the woman she had seen briefly on the webcam was Anna.  She had mentioned that she had two children with her.  Gemma had told her that her name was Anna Jordan.  She was sure that Howard had told her that was her name before they'd married, during one of his many late night conversations about her.  She had to get in touch with him, tell him what she suspected.  This was her chance to help him and she wanted to do that so much for him.