A Promise Kept. Barbara Jeffs

on his part. He had been thinking of her and she had appeared as if in answer to his prayers.

      The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he recalled how he had felt her presence two days ago. Apparently, it had not been his imagination after all.

      Love and desire blazed in his eyes for a moment before he quickly veiled them, but it was long enough to answer all Rebecca’s questions. She knew now that he had forgiven her for killing their baby.

      Without conscious thought, Dominic pulled his hands out of his pockets and turned to face her, unable to believe the sophisticated woman gazing calmly back at him was the same naïve, young girl he had married five years ago.

      This woman was beautiful, and her appearance shouted lady with a capital L. Her hair was styled up and her skillfully applied makeup actuated the colour of her eyes and her high cheekbones.

      Her skin was tanned a golden brown as if she spent a lot of time outdoors, and she was wearing a bright blue skirt and jacket with black stockings and black, high heeled shoes.

      “Are you real?” he asked in a whisper and a smile flickered across her face.

      “Hello Dominic,” Rebecca greeted him softly and he sighed with regret.

      Her voice no longer resembled that of an uncertain young girl. Now she spoke in a mature woman’s confident tone of voice.

      Ignoring Rebecca, and not bothering to answer her greeting, he strode across to the desk and savagely punched the intercom button.

      He knew who to blame for her sudden appearance in his office.

      “I want to see you and Mike in here now,” he ordered in a clipped voice when Meg answered.

      “No, you don’t,” Meg contradicted him firmly and disconnected the line.

      Dominic glanced up in surprise when Rebecca laughed gaily.

      “Don’t you go blaming Meg and Mike,” she ordered, and his heart skipped a beat or two when her mouth curved in a cheeky smile. “The blame is entirely mine. I pulled rank on them. I am after all still your wife.”

      Dominic watched in silence as she walked confidentially across the carpeted floor and sank gracefully into the visitor’s chair in front of the desk.

      A deep sadness filled him when he recalled how she had once skipped around a room boisterously, curious to discover all that it contained. Her boundless energy used to make him feel tired just watching her constantly moving.

      “Which indirectly is one of the reasons I am here,” Rebecca stated as she placed her handbag onto the floor beside the chair then gazed up at him serenely. “I recently learned that you cannot get a divorce without my signature, so here I am.”

      Dominic strode around the desk until he was standing directly in front of her and gazed at her intently, his eyes filled with steely determination.

      “If we ever divorce Rebecca it will be at your instigation,” he stated emphatically. “It will never come from me---ever.”

      Rebecca shrugged her shoulders in dismissal. “It occurred to me that this could be the reason you have been searching for me these past five years.”

      Her eyes widened in surprise when his eyes filled with anguish, his face becoming ashen, and she felt a flicker of fear and uncertainty. What was going on here?

      He hunkered down in front of her and clasped her hands in a firm grip, his expression so grave her fear increased tenfold, and she shivered as a chill raced up her spine.

      “Dominic, what is it?” she asked apprehensively.

      “In the letter you left me you begged me for my forgiveness for killing our baby,” he murmured gently his eyes intent on her wary gaze, refusing to let her look away from his serious expression. “I had to find you to tell you that you didn’t kill our baby Rebecca. Your miscarriage was nature’s way of righting itself.”

      “What are you talking about?” Rebecca cried in despair, his hold tightening on her hands when she attempted to pull them free. “I caused the miscarriage with all the swimming and diving I did that day.”

      “No, Rebecca, you did not,” he stated emphatically, his eyes fastened onto her bewildered expression. “The baby was not in the womb where it should have been. Nature made a mistake, and your miscarriage was nature’s way of fixing its error.”

      A tear trickled slowly down her cheek quickly followed by another and his heart ached for the pain and anguish she was suffering at that moment.

      “Please don’t call him an it,” she begged tearfully. “He was our child Dominic. We created him.”

      Tears sprang into his eyes and his hold tightened on her trembling hands. He would give everything he owned in the world to ease her suffering, but he knew she had to be told the true circumstances of her miscarriage. Only then could she begin the healing process.

      “Rebecca if the pregnancy had continued you would have died.” A shudder of remembered fear shook his body. “You almost did anyway.” He tightened his hold to emphasize what he was telling her now. “The doctors would have aborted the pregnancy in any case.”

      For several moments she gazed at him in silence knowing in her heart that he was telling her the truth.

      Dominic had promised her once that he would never lie to her and he had always kept his word. At times, he had answered her questions truthfully when she would have preferred him to lie.

      “Why didn’t the doctor tell me all this?” she asked, her brows creased in a puzzled frown. “Why did he let me think I had done it?”

      Dominic sighed in despair. “You had been through the trauma of the miscarriage. He decided to let you rest for the night.” He squeezed her hands in a comforting gesture. “But he planned to explain it all to you the following morning.”

      Rebecca slumped back in the chair as an enormous feeling of relief surged through her body until it consumed her totally.

      She felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted off her shoulders as the guilt she had felt for the past five years slowly began to dissipate.

      But her relief was bittersweet. If she had not run away from the hospital that night, she would have known five years ago that she had not killed her baby.

      “For five years I have lived with the thought that I was a murderer,” she cried in distress her tears falling steadily onto their linked hands.

      Dominic rose to his feet, pulling her up with him and enfolding her in his arms. He pressed her cheek against his chest rubbing his hands over her back in a soothing gesture.

      “Hush. Please don’t cry. It breaks my heart,” he murmured softly.

      He held her in his arms murmuring comforting words in her ear as she cried away all the guilt and remorse she had felt for the loss of their baby.

      Dominic knew how her emotions were tearing her apart inside at that moment. He had gone through his own painful hell for the loss of their baby and the disappearance of his wife as he sat on a hospital bed reading her Dear John letter.

      As the minutes ticked slowly by, he began to consciously become aware that it was Becky he was holding so closely in his arms and his body was reacting to her nearness.

      A hot tide of desire surged through his body as his hands slid up and down her sides and across her back. He closed his eyes and savored the sensation of her warm body pressed against his from chest to thigh and no matter how strong his willpower was, he could not prevent himself from becoming aroused by the smell and feel of her desirable body.

      “You can let me go now,” Rebecca murmured eventually.

      “Never as long as I draw breath,” he stated fiercely his arms tightening around her slim frame. “I have ached for this for so long Becky.”

      Becky! Rebecca stiffened.