Perfect Mistake - Chapter #2 - Free To Read

Chapter Two

Simone’s hands trembled so much she struggled to lock the bathroom door. She dropped her toiletry bag and banged her head against the hand basin as she bent to pick it up. A blinding sting settled behind her eyes, and she blinked it back. How was it that after all this time, this man, who had broken her heart and almost her spirit, had arrived at the Carlevaro pilots’ lounge out of the blue?

Their intense six-week relationship flashed by her mind’s eye—those halcyon days, colored in turquoise and gold, which she’d thought would never end. They’d ended as they’d started, abruptly, with a phone call. The call’s repercussions had only hit her weeks later. He’d left her with the promise he would phone her again, that he’d be back in a couple of weeks. Those promises had been broken, one by one.

He hadn’t even had the decency to break up with her via a text message. A knot pushed up her throat, making it hard to breathe.

Sarah.

She paused, closing her eyes for a moment as she leaned against the wall. There was no way she could deal with this on her own. She grappled for her phone, which she’d stuffed in her back pocket after getting off the plane, and pressed the speed dial for her sister.

“Landed safely?” Gabi asked as she answered. “I just got my luggage.”

They had traveled together, but Gabi had flown back to South Africa, whereas Simone and Sarah had returned to Tanzania.

“Yes.” Her voice trembled and she let herself slide against the wall as her legs all but caved in. “Oh God, Gabi.” Her voice broke and she had to swallow.

“Are you okay? What’s happened?” Gabi’s tone picked up, sitting up straight.

“He’s back.” She didn’t need to explain anything more.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” There was a short pause in which she could hear Gabi’s mind doing the math. “It’s been what? Four years? Holy crap, I’d love to have the job that gives me that much leave.”

“He’s no longer a pilot. He’s the freaking CEO,” Simone groaned, the reality newly settling on her. How the hell did that happen?

“CEO of Carlevaro East Africa?”

“Carlevaro International.” The words sank in slowly. Mr. C.F.L. Carlevaro. It was the long-drawn name that had started appearing on the directors’ list on the company documents after the original CEO had passed away. “He’s a Carlevaro. He never told me he was a Carlevaro.”

“What?”

“He’d told me his name was Carlo Laurentia.” For weeks, after he’d left, she’d searched for him on social sites on the internet. She unobtrusively tried to trace him via the company, but he’d vanished into thin air. Now it made sense why she couldn’t track him down. She never got his private email or his phone number because it was never necessary. They lived in the same pilots’ digs on the Peninsula, went to work together, flew together. They made love whenever they were alone, which was as often as they could contrive it. Then one day he had left without a trace for a crisis at home.

She dropped her forehead into the palm of her hand. It was too much, and afresh the tears pricked behind her eyes.

“Does he know about Sarah?”

He couldn’t know. There was no way he could know about Sarah’s existence.

What would he do if he found out? Her fingers trembled so much she balled her hand into a fist, pressing it to her mouth to check its quivering.

“Simone? Stop breathing into the phone like a psychopath. Does he know about Sarah?” Gabi repeated, her voice urgent.

She blew out a sigh. “I don’t think so.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Just don’t cry. You look horrible when you cry.” Gabi’s voice was cool, calm. She could almost see her sister pull herself together, her mind ticking over. “Where are you?”

“In the staff bathroom. I’m supposed to be taking a shower. He wants to fly out in half an hour.” A cold shudder rushed through her body. “The freaking schedule!” She almost cursed.

“You’ve gone mad. Slow down and tell me exactly what’s happened.”

She would have to explain everything to Gabi from the start. She took a deep breath and filled Gabi in on Peppe’s heart attack, the changed schedule she’d received after they’d already parted ways at Heathrow and Carlo’s arrival at the staff lounge that morning.

“I can’t ask him to change the schedule, not without bringing Sarah up as my reason,” she finished off. Her hands were bound. She had no control over the situation and helplessness threatened to overwhelm her.

Gabi sighed into the phone. “You don’t want him to know about Sarah?”

“No.” It was an impulsive decision and she had no idea where it came from. But she had no doubt that it was the best thing to do.

“I don’t blame you. He has no right to your daughter.”

“Not only that. The Carlevaros are stinking rich. All their hotels…East Africa is not even a quarter of their properties.”

Gabi had grown silent on the other side. They both knew that men with money were dangerous, deceptive things. They’d learned that from their father a long time ago. He came and went, leaving a trail of debris in his wake that would be cleaned up by money. She swallowed at the bile rising up her throat. Money meant lawsuits, parental custody battles…each thought fed the ulcer that had popped up in her stomach over the past few minutes. Carlo could take Sarah.

“Can you keep her a secret?” Gabi asked eventually.

She took a deep breath to subdue the pitch of panic in her chest. “I don’t know if anybody at the office has told him about Sarah.”

“Doesn’t sound like it. In any case, what right do the other pilots have to tell him about your daughter? It’s your private life.”

Trust Gabi to be calm and clearheaded in the situation. Medicine as a career fitted her like a glove. “You’re right. I didn’t think about that.”

“And if he is the CEO at the top of the food chain he won’t be in East Africa forever. He might only be there to oversee the handover to someone else now that Peppe is gone.”

“Peppe’s nephew is taking over. But it’s not Carlo.”

“There, see? He might even be gone by tomorrow,” Gabi said in a positive tone, and then she added, with a bit of sarcasm, “No surprises there.”

A dry laugh scraped up her throat, but she plugged it. “What if he’s here for my full three-week assignment? I don’t know if I can do it. I’m terrible at acting.”

“Agreed.”

Gabi’s response wasn’t very hopeful. But the image of her daughter invaded her mind. Sarah was her life. The idea of being separated from Sarah sent pins and needles crawling under her skin. “I’d have to ask Ruth to stick it out until I’m back at home.”

The situation was hopeless and nothing made sense. The only thing that made any sense at that moment was that Carlo mustn’t find out about Sarah. She steeled herself.

As if she read her mind, Gabi said, “As we say, put the white coat on, Simone, and act the part. You can do it.”

“It’s going to be hell.”

“You’ve been through worse—thanks to him, may I remind you.”

“True.” Being a single mom with a student loan to pay off at the age of twenty-three had been no walk in the park. Her learning curve had been so bloody steep at times it had given her vertigo.

She’d come this far on her own, and she wouldn’t let him mess with her life. She didn’t need him, and neither did Sarah. She ignored the little voice nagging her that Sarah had some right to know who her father was, now that he’d crash-landed back into her life. The only solution was to get a grip, quickly, do her job, and let Carlo Carlevaro return to where he came from, none the wiser.

“Give me your action plan,” Gabi prompted her.

“Take charge, act the part, stay away from him as much as possible, no idle conversations, uh…” She exhaled deeply after each point.

“Do what you do best. Be a pilot, put every emotion to the side and deal with the situation,” Gabi completed. “No tears. Walking around red-eyed and blotchy with snot everywhere would be a dead give-away.”

The image was so spot-on Simone laughed. “Yes, Dr. Levin. Anything else you want to prescribe?”

“Nothing else, except…don’t let him get under your skin. There’s no cure for that.”

Simone glanced to the ceiling. Carlo touching her skin…her stomach quivered as if butterflies were stirring their wings, warming up for flight. No. Never. “Okay, I’ll keep you posted.”

They rang off and Simone stared at the screen for a full minute before getting up.

Relieved by her younger sister’s injection of common sense, she opened the cold water to the max, stripped her clothes off and stepped into the shower. For a long moment, she let the water run down her body, slithering down her heated skin, calming her heart as it beat down on the valley between her breasts.

Silent tears trickled down her cheeks. They’d been sitting on the rim so long, they just needed a little push to flow. But they were tears of anger. Carlo had resurfaced as the CEO of Carlevaro International. He’d been close all this time but yet so far, on the top of the corporate Carlevaro International pyramid, heading a company that employed over twelve thousand people in nine different countries. If only she’d known.

As she got out of the shower, she chuckled mirthlessly. That hadn’t gone as anticipated. How many times had she visualized seeing him again? She’d dreamed of it, begged and prayed for it. In her dreams, she always strolled on an empty beach, wearing her white spaghetti-strap dress. Today she’d been dirty, sweaty, in jeans and hot shoes she’d wanted to kick off since getting off the plane, her teeth furry and her hair a mess. In her dreams, they’d been alone with no audience; he’d gathered her into the haven of his arms and kissed her in his slow intoxicating way. Sarah had been clinging to his leg, asking to be lifted into their embrace.

Did he still smell of espresso and the aftershave he always wore? It was subtle but distinctive. Had he stood close enough she would’ve known it was Carlo, even if his voice hadn’t given him away. She rested her palm against her cheek, recalling the tingling of his skin against hers as he had shaken her hand earlier.

Over the years, she’d accepted she had just been a fun fuck. But, for her, there had been much more between them during those six weeks. He might have fathered Sarah, but he hadn’t been around to find out about the pregnancy, hadn’t cared enough to call her, to find out what had been going on.

She shuddered. Acting for a couple of weeks was all it was going to take. She could keep her distance, and he had pretty much proved he could keep his. How hard could this be?

She dressed with quick, aggressive pulls of her trousers and shirt. Then she combed out her wet hair until the curls bounced back in equal anger. By the time she’d sorted her things she was exhausted. After he’d left her, acceptance had taken a long time to come, but she’d moved on with her life. And now he was back, throwing everything into turmoil again.

He can’t, he won’t get under my skin. For Sarah’s sake, but also for my own.