Page 50 of Abigail's King
Chapter Twenty-Two
Bianca
Istood over the great Lila Goddard’s sleeping body. She should never have come here. It was the perfect opportunity I needed to enact my revenge for the years of betrayal I had to put up with from Gary. I had given him everything, and what had I gotten in return? A broken heart. That was it.
Gary had been my world. When I first met him, I knew I wanted to be with him forever. The first few years had been blissful. We had created a life together that I thought would last until my dying days. He encouraged me in my work life and pushed me to go into the 1odelling industry and to be a PA. That’s when things started to go wrong. When I told him that I had bagged one of the most sought-after models as my client, his attitude started to change.
It was subtle at first, just comments here and there about Lila. How she was, what she was doing. But then it became obsessive. He was asking me constantly where she was going to be and what she would be modelling. Then the gifts started to arrive. We knew it was commonplace for someone as famous as Lila to receive random gifts, but when it was happening on such a regular basis, we both started to be concerned.
It was only after passing comments from Gary that I realised that it had been him that was sending the gifts. He would ask if Lila had received any messages or flowers during the day. When I asked him why, he shrugged it off at first, but I couldn’t let it go. It had to be him that was sending them, as he seemed to know exactly what gifts or flowers had been sent.
I remembered the night he finally admitted to me it was him. I had been working with Lila Goddard for nearly eighteen months then, and had endured Gary’s behaviour for most of that time. I had just come back from New York after spending the past week with Lila on a photoshoot. She had received two bouquets of white roses whilst we had been there. I couldn’t understand why it was always white roses, but it was all he ever sent. The cards would always say they were from her “Secret Admirer.” Never once did he put his name. I decided there and then that I would call Gary out as soon as I walked into the flat that evening.
I had barely walked through the door when the questions started.
“Hi, hunny. Did you have a nice trip? How’s Lila? I bet she is tired after all that modelling and having to travel back.”
I couldn’t hold back my anger any longer. He was more worried about how Lila was feeling than how I was. He didn’t ask if I was tired. Wasn’t worried about how I was feeling. I stormed across the room and poked him in the chest.
“What about how I am feeling? How about asking if I am tired. I have been working as well. I’m your girlfriend unless you have forgotten. NOT LILA!”
I was screaming at him. I couldn’t take it anymore. He was either going out with me as his beloved girlfriend or he was having an imaginary relationship with Lila Goddard, who in reality didn’t even exist. It was just a name. There was actually a real person behind the model, and that was Abigail Clark. But he didn’t care about that.
“I’m sorry, hunny. I know you work hard. Why don’t you sit down and I’ll make you a coffee? Unless you would like a hot chocolate?”
I didn’t really get a chance to answer him, as he had immediately walked out of the front room and into the kitchen. I wasn’t going to let him get around me. I followed straight behind him into the kitchen and almost stopped dead in my tracks. There on the kitchen table was a bouquet of white roses. He had never bought me flowers in all the time I had been going out with him. Why now?
“What are those?”
I could feel my heartrate increasing as the anger built inside of me, ready to explode at any moment in time. It would only take him to say or do the wrong thing and I would be past my boiling point. I was pointing towards the flowers as he turned to look at me. The smile on his face immediately disappeared when he saw the look in my eyes.
“I bought them for you today.”
I could see from the cagy look in his eyes that he was lying. The fact that he only glanced towards me and directly turned his gaze to the flowers…I knew it was a lie. The flowers hadn’t really been bought for me, but because he didn’t know where Lila was going to be, he couldn’t send them on like he usually did.
“You’ve never bought me flowers before today, and why white roses?”
His sharp intake of breath told me all I needed to know. Now was the time to call him out on the gifts being sent to Lila. I took one last step towards him, so I was in his personal space.
“When were you going to admit to me that you were the one sending the gifts to Lila? When were you going to tell me that you were her ‘Secret Admirer’ and were in love with her? Was it before we got engaged, or once we were married?”
I saw his face drop as he looked down at me with fear in his eyes. I could almost hear and feel his heart beating in his chest. He knew he’d been made. That I’d found out what he had been doing for the past year or so. I took a step back to allow him some space. He immediately moved away from me and walked towards the table, gesturing for me to sit down.
“I guess it’s time that I came clean. I’m in love with Lila Goddard. She is an amazing and gorgeous woman. Not that you aren’t, but I just don’t love you like I used to. I’m sorry, Bianca. I don’t think things will work out between us. I’m not sure they ever would. I just don’t love you as I should. I shouldn’t be obsessed with another woman like I am with Lila. I know I can’t have her, either. That she would never be interested in a guy like me. But I can’t help myself, I’m fascinated by her. By everything about her. It’s probably best if we break up and I leave. I hope you understand.”
“Understand? Understand?! How can I understand that the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with is in love with my boss and never really loved me? Tell me how I understand that? Get out. Just get out, and don’t come back.”
He never replied to me, just got up from his chair. I watched him walk out of the room, and out of my life forever. I felt my heart breaking in two as the anger turned to despair. I had lost everything. As the tears poured down my face, I watched as Gary walked past the door giving me one final glance as he left the flat and my life forever.
This was all her fault. If I had never started working for her, I would still have been happily living with Gary. It was why I had come up with this plan. It had taken me nearly six months to get everything in place, but I had achieved it. I decided to keep up with the gifts being sent. It would make it all the more believable when Lila Goddard went missing. They would put it down to her stalker taking her. Gary had at least done me a favour by starting that off. I just carried it on to fruition.
The issue had come in finding someone willing to pay for a famous model who would keep her away from the limelight. I didn’t want the press to find out where she was and then manage to find out exactly what had happened to her. Well, not until I was at least far enough away for anyone to find me. When I thought all hope was lost, a friend I had made over the internet contacted me to say a sheik in Qatar was interested in purchasing a western wife and was extremely interested in Lila. It was the break I needed, and after many email exchanges, a deal was put in place. All I had to do now was get her there, and all would be good in the world.
Abigail coming here for the photoshoot had been the perfect opportunity for me. I had arranged a week’s holiday from work, as Abigail didn’t need me. That allowed me to come here and complete the last part of my plan. All I needed to do now was get her to my car and then head to Funchal airport, where the private jet was waiting. Then a quick fuel stop in Marrakech, and we would be on our way to Doho and the private airfield of the sheik. No one would even know she was in the country.
I could feel the excitement starting to build inside me. The rush I was feeling was better than sex, not that I’d had that much in the past few months. That was something I was going to change as soon as I reached my destination in Cuba. I was almost there. Grabbing the wheelchair I had left out of sight, I pulled Abigail’s sleeping body into it. It was the only way I was going to get her out of the caves. There was no way I would have been able to carry her on my own.
Stepping out into the warm afternoon sun, I walked her up to the car, opened it, and placed her inside. I bound her wrists and ankles with duct tape so if she did wake up, she wouldn’t be able to escape me very easily. It was about a forty-five-minute drive to the airport, and with the plane’s departure time in just under an hour and thirty minutes, I knew I had plenty of time to get there and get her on the plane. I could cover her up so no one would see the bindings, and the pilot could help me carry her onto the plane. I got into the driver’s seat and drove off towards Funchal. In two hours, we would be on the first leg of our journey and I would be on my way to becoming a millionaire.
