Deceit. [COMPLETED.]

Chapter 69

"The waiting."

Jenny Stamford sat in her taxi under the midday sun. Her eyes were glistened and her cheeks moist.

The call from Uri had not materialised. She had been told to wait two hours. She had done this and more.

The engine purred. The driver looked again to see if she was ready. She shook her head. She still had time to catch her flight. She could wait another five more minutes.

She looked again at her watch happy that at least one side of her plan was working. They would be airborne by now. Tina and her Amy. There had been no news to say otherwise and as Jenny had paid someone a lot of money for the false passports she was confident they would have walked through the airport without any problems.

She began to tap her thigh in a fast rhythmic fashion. The taxi was hot and humid. It didn't seem to have any air conditioning. She had the window wound down but there was no air moving about at all.

She sat full of emotion. Some good. Some bad. She had even wondered how long it would take kill a man. She had never fired a hand gun. She had killed pigeons and pheasants of course with a shot gun. Many times in fact. That was instant. You aimed. You pulled the trigger. You watched the birds fall out of the sky.

She assumed that it would be the same for a human. She couldn't see the pain of course of being hit by a flying object moving at incredible speed. She couldn't see the tragedy of another person's death. She just accepted that Kirk would aim, he would shoot and her brother would be no more. Erased from this earth. Erased from her memory in exactly the same way as she had been able to erase her mother.

But then a frown formed.

More question invaded her mind cascading down one after the other like pieces of flotsam falling from a waterfall.

Had he somehow fought back? Was that why no one had called. Had Adam even survived?

She then started to wonder whether she had said too much. That maybe her darling Kirk had been given too much to think of.

The cautionary words of her friend Tina came to mind.

Was she right?

He had finally seen through all her manipulations. Had he hesitated at the very moment when she desperately needed him to act.

A tear formed and fell.

She had never wanted to lie to him.

As God was her witness, she didn't.

Not intentionally.

But bad people had to pay for what they had done. Bad people had to know what pain felt like and surely Kirk must have seen how much she had started to love him. Couldn't he see that she was doing all these things so that they could be together and start anew.

She ran the forefinger of each hand around their respective thumbs. Faster and faster they moved. She didn't realise at first what she was doing. It was a habit born from fear. She stopped. She looked at her hands.

Was she frightened now?

Turning her attention to the empty road she took in deep long breaths of air.

It was happening all over again.

It was as if someone was pressing their fists hard against her stomach stopping her from breathing.

She closed her eyes.

It just wasn't fair.

She shook her head as she tried to hide their faces but they had come back. She could see them, she could hear their grotesque laughter. She could see the lake.

Why wouldn't they stop.

She snapped awake. She strained an ear. She could have sworn she heard a car but there was nothing.

Why?

Why had he not returned?

Her rape had been a sign. Isaac's death had been a sign.

Both only proved that her life was not complete. His inability to save her only meant that their lives had not been entwined strong enough. That their love was not able to stand up against the darkness that had begun to engulf them; not strong enough to cast a shield around her to save them from harm.

But Kirk was different.

Oh yes. In him she had found her shield and her life had begun to have meaning again. Her past was being silenced, bit by bit it was being sent away forever.

She looked again at her watch. Five more minutes. She could wait another five more minutes.

She thought again of Paris. He had protected her then. He had proved to be a strong family man. The sort she needed. The sort who would fight to protect those he loved and today had been the final test, the final piece in the jigsaw that would see her life whole again.

Another involuntary shake of her head.

She knew he wouldn't fail her. He couldn't fail her. He had already proven himself to be far stronger than her Isaac. He could hate, something her Isaac could never do and she had learnt a long time ago that hate was one of the corner stones of life itself because without that raw primeval emotion there was no cohesive strength to bind you together.

Without hate there was no direction, no purpose.

No. He wouldn't fail. He wouldn't abandon her. Only where was he? Something must have gone wrong.

She thought of Uri?

Until that morning in Singapore she had thought that they were fighting for the same cause but not now. He had shown his true colours. He had shown he had his own agenda. Only she thought that she could have at least been spared the agony of today.

Had they all been killed?

Her mind raged.

Hatred burned.

Old feelings re-surfaced.

Knowing that if her Kirk had been killed. If anyone had inflicted harm on him then she would have to find them. She would hunt them down and she would make them pay in the same way that she had made everyone pay for what they had done to her.

And still no one came from the house to give her the news she was hoping for. That her Kirk had killed her brother. That was finally on his way and so with more minutes ticking away and with the tightening of her stomach she knew she couldn't wait any longer.

She would be outcast. She knew that but she had been an outcast before. She had learnt to adapt then. She would learn to adapt again.

She tapped the driver on the shoulder. He engaged the clutch and the car started to move away.

If her Kirk was alive then she would make sure he could find her. She had told him enough of her life for him to know where she would be.

She had shown him her world. She had told him that it could be his world too. She had separated him from his wife. He said that he was going to fight for her.

Until right now she had thought that today would finally bring closure to a part of her life that she thought would never end. In a few hours she would see the daughter she thought had died. She would finally be the mother she had always wanted to be.

But it would be alone and without the man had wanted by her side.

She turned and looked out of the window.

'Goodbye my love,' she mimed, a salty teardrop finding its way into her mouth. 'Fight for me. Fight for us. Fight for our daughter and please stay alive.'

She then sighed, leant back in her seat and started to sob.

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So I guess by now no one has an ounce of sympathy do they?

Your comments as always make my day :)

Take care.
JU