A Taste of the Forbidden by Mortimer Carole

Author:Mortimer, Carole [Mortimer, Carole]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction
ISBN: 9780263234473
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘MY GOD, CESAR!’ Grace choked emotionally as she dropped down onto the carpet beside his chair to grasp his hand tightly in both of hers as she looked up at him. ‘I can’t believe—Gabriela was kidnapped...?’

Cesar’s expression softened slightly as he saw the tears of empathy shimmering in Grace’s blue-green eyes. ‘Taken,’ he insisted gruffly.

‘How? Where?’

‘We had gone to the park with our niñera— Yes,’ Cesar gave an acknowledging grimace as Grace gasped at he once again mentioned the park. ‘It was April, a time when the pollen would not bother Gabriela—’

‘She’s the one who’s allergic to flowers?’ she breathed softly.

He gave another acknowledging nod. ‘I have not been able to bear having flowers inside the house since she disappeared.’

And Grace had thought he was just being unreasonable that first day at his estate when he had asked for the flowers to be removed from the entrance hall, and again earlier today when she had accused him of once again being paranoid because she had chosen to go into the park opposite this apartment.

He sighed. ‘We played with Gabriela in the park for an hour or so chasing a ball, until she became tired and fell asleep in her pushchair, finally allowing me to fly the kite I had received as an Easter gift.’ Cesar’s gaze was unfocused as he obviously relived a day he would never forget. ‘The wind was too strong, the string broke, and my kite drifted off to become entangled in some bushes a short distance away. Our niñera was only distracted from Gabriela for one minute, perhaps two, when she came to help untangle the kite, but when she turned to where she had been sitting Gabriela’s pushchair was empty,’ he concluded bleakly. ‘We both searched for her, becoming more frantic by the moment, believing she must have woken up and wandered off somewhere but—she was gone. Disappeared as if from the face of the earth.’

Leaving Cesar to spend the rest of his life knowing it had been his enjoyment of flying his kite that had allowed the opportunity for Gabriela to be taken?

‘My parents were beside themselves with grief as we waited for the ransom to be demanded,’ he continued, his voice raw with emotion. ‘We all waited, hours, days, weeks. But there was nothing. Just an empty space where our Gabriela should have been,’ he recalled bleakly.

Grace’s throat moved as she swallowed before speaking, the tears falling unchecked down her cheeks now. ‘But—it was never reported in the newspapers...’ She had no doubts it would have been in the article she had read online about Cesar if that had been the case.

He gave a shake of his head. ‘My father was, and still is, a very powerful man in Argentina, and he believed it would be safer for Gabriela if her disappearance was not allowed to become a public media circus.’

‘But surely the police—’ She broke off as Cesar gave another shake of his head.

He sighed. ‘Again, rightly or wrongly, my father

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