Time Lies Fate & Family

By Kazzie Kennedy

Family secrets, lies and betrayal collide with two different crime families all because Storm Madison read the wrong article. In the mix a street kid called Mickey and a hot shot American lawyer Daniel Costa begin a journey none of them expected to take. Enemies made and allies found. Just when you think you have worked her out Storm Madison becomes a chameleon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781483556840

Book preview

Twenty-Four

Chapter one

First day off in months and I am really looking forward to lazing on the beach with nothing to do other than relax. A knock at the front door disturbed me, bringing me back from my daydream. I opened it only to find two well-dressed men standing there.

Ms Storm Madison?

Who wants to know?

My name is Nathan Reilly and this is my associate Daniel Costa. We are attorneys at law from the American firm of Nolan, Mind and Miller and we are here on behalf of our client, Mr Gino Francini whom we believe you do not know. May we come in?

Sure, just don’t make me regret it any more than I already do Mr Reilly. You’re right, about one thing, gentlemen I have no idea who your client is. But then again why should I?

Well if you have the time, I would like to talk to you about the reason for us travelling half way across the world to speak to you.

If you feel you must.

I believe you are an adopted child?

Yes, that’s right, and you would know this how?

Please, our law firm has over many years been retained to track and find adopted children. I won’t bother you with how we do this, yet is it not true you have been searching for your biological father via the Internet?

Yes, that is right, although this still does not explain how you two gentlemen knew where to find me. As you can imagine, it is not something one puts over the Internet.

Let me put you at ease straight away, Ms Madison.

Trust me Mr Reilly, you couldn’t if you tried … but go on.

As I was saying, we are an international legal brokerage house which means we have access to world-wide departments whereby it becomes a case of ‘you scratch my back and I will scratch yours’, if you know what I mean.

Bloody Americans. Some of them are so damn full of themselves.

Yes I get the general idea Mr Reilly.

As he started to speak I found myself wanting to ignore him.

Excuse me Mr Costa, do you speak or are you just here so there is something pleasant to look at while this ‘wanna be’ mouth piece does all the talking? For god’s sake please tell me you have something more to offer. I hate pretty boys, yet a man with something intelligent to say, now that I enjoy. If good looks come with that, then that’s a bonus.

Just the way Mr Costa lowered his eyes and smiled I knew I had embarrassed him and for the first time in a very long time I found myself feeling bad. His second look back at me told me I was right.

I know, miss I will have my say and if you can’t handle it, tough. My grandma use to say: ‘If ya can’t stand the heat then get your sorry ass outta my kitchen’, god rest her soul.

Turning my attention back to Reilly, I don’t know why but I disliked this ‘mister look at me I’m so god damn important’.

Get on with it won’t you.

The look on his face told me he wanted to say a whole lot more so again interjected.

"Before you were so rudely interrupted huh Mr Reilly? You really are going to have to do better than this. Surely any good attorney can only lay claim to that if they at least have the ability to keep their client’s attention.

Me, personally, I say you are definitely showing no signs of that. I am, however, very grateful I studied in Australia before going abroad to pursue and attain my international degree. Dear god, imagine living your moronic legal life with zero brains. I don’t know anyone I have ever encountered who is as challenged as you. I am not implying, that all, American Lawyer’s are as poorly versed, in the law, as you appear to be. The way you were taught is obviously why your degree is letting you down.

I was not thinking that at all Ms Madison.

"Mr Reilly, second rule of law: if in fact you are not good at something … now surely even you would have to concede I am right, as you are not even in the ballpark. Every problem has a solution, and to my mind yours is to take a load off and shut up. Please, I am fast running out of what limited patience I have left. Mr Reilly in these situations I find it best left to someone who could maybe move things along so why don’t we give your Mr Costa a chance because I have to tell you at this point in time you have lost me.

"My time is extremely valuable, not to mention expensive, so if we could just move this along a little I might just find out what the hell it is you people want, then you can go back to wherever it is you came from.

I, on the other hand, can get back to my much needed day off. I know you are both thinking I have a bit too much attitude, in which case you would both be wrong as I have a huge attitude that gets bigger the more pissed off I become. So you see fellas, I rarely get a day off and when I do, and someone comes along and starts messin’ with it, I get a little touchy. So Mr Costa…

Please call me Daniel.

Now you I like, go on.

In light of your recent online search, we were contacted by a gentleman who believes you to be his daughter.

As Daniel started to speak I noticed Reilly’s face and I couldn’t help but laugh as I informed him that Daniel had given me more information in three minutes than he had babbled in the entire twenty minutes they had been here.

I apologise for interrupting you Daniel. Now who, what, where? Come on, talk to me.

Well Ms Madison.

Please call me Storm.

"As you wish Storm. We have little information really other than that we were contacted by a gentleman in Europe who approached our firm after seeing your online search.

"It appears he had an affair many years ago when he was in Australia. The time fits with your age and when he spent time here. That was the first thing that caught the attention of the staff he apparently employs around the clock to search for the daughter he only found out he had by accident after running into an associate he knew from the old days when he was in Australia.

The second was your mother’s name – it being so unusual – which was why they contacted and retained us to investigate. If it was proved that you could possibly be his child, he would like us to claim it although there would be certain conditions.

"Wait a minute. Wait just a god damn minute, to coin one of your Yankee phrases. Claim! Did you say claim? What is he looking for, lost baggage or his child? Perhaps they are one and the same to him. As for his conditions, I’ve got one thing to tell you to take back to your client. Oh and Reilly, leave it, to pretty boy here, to be the messenger. Got it?

"Here’s the deal. You said my mother’s name was unusual. That is an understatement – Lilly Rose Madison – although that is not the half of it. I didn’t like her then as I felt betrayed and I despised her betrayal. The only thing I despise more is having my time wasted, so watch the door doesn’t hit you as you leave. When you get back to wherever it is you are from, you contact your client and tell him from me… and you can quote me … tell him he can take his conditions and shove them where the sun don’t shine for all I care. That, gentlemen, as they say, is that.

"Oh, and one more thing, even if it turned out he was my father, you can tell him I can save us both from wasting anymore time because I would not like him anyway. I have spent enough of my life around people I didn’t like; I still have to for my work. Today, on the other hand, I am the master of to whom I speak.

Yes I was looking, yet it was more out of curiosity than the need for a daddy. I had one of those once – never want another. I guess it was really just to see if he was dead or alive. Here’s me hoping he is dead, then you pair of clowns arrive bringing me news he is not. Just what, I don’t need– more dramas in my life. Now best you leave.

Ms Madison you don’t seem to understand.

"No Mr Reilly, it appears to be you who does not understand. You came into my home at my invitation – you shall leave the same way. Yet if you so choose, I am sure I could arrange another option, only problem with that is it would most definitely delay your trip home. You see I don’t know about where you come from but in Australia it is against the law to detain people against their will, if you do not leave my home when I ask then as a point of law not only are you trespassing, you are detaining me against my will.

Now mainly because you appear to be an okay kinda guy, Daniel, I’m hoping you’re not going to let me down in the brains department and convince your associate it is in everyone’s better interest that you both should leave, as in this minute.

As you wish Storm. Thank you for your time today. Please accept my sincere apologies if we have offended you in any way, that was never my intention.

Don’t flatter yourself Daniel. Very few people are clever enough to offend me. I was born with very thick skin, and with my lifestyle, if I took offence every time some ‘wanna be’ hot shot lawyer came through my door I’d have major dramas.

Oh, one more thing if I may intrude?

Uh huh?

What is it you actually do for a living?

You are kidding me, right? Or are you hearing impaired? I do sign if the latter is the case. Let me put it this way, Daniel, as perhaps your brain has for some reason gone into the temporary abyss – I do what your Mr Reilly would like to be able to do but can’t, and what one day you, if you practice, may be able to.

Of course, you’re a lawyer. I am not travelling too well am I? Must be the jet lag, I am not normally so vague.

"Glad to hear it. Yes, a lawyer. And a damn good one at that, probably one of the best, but of course that depends on whom you ask. If you ask my opponents, they will say I am a ruthless piece of work – Aussie translation, super bitch that will do whatever it takes to win, not to mention my ability to be a hard-ass, which has no fear.

Then again, if you ask my clients they will tell you I am sheerly brilliant, so as one can imagine, I much prefer my clients’ opinion yet at a guess I would say that they are both extremely accurate. Now does that answer your final question gentlemen?

Sure does.

Good, so now would be a great time to make your hasty retreat. Sounds like the best, not to mention the only, plan on the table before a certain someone who resides here might have to do what he does best. Trust me, you do not want to be messing with him.

Thank you again for your time. Good day.

Finally, what an absolute bitch, the day’s all but over. At least that annoying Mr Reilly is finally out of my face. What an obnoxious jerk he was. Daniel Costa … now that is a different kettle of fish, easy on the eyes. Although I would never admit it, he is probably a damn good attorney to boot. Nevertheless, they are out of my day and hopefully my life. Now that my day is just about completely ruined I guess I will grab a shower and head out for a quick bite to eat, taking in some nice polluted Brighton air along the way.

Think I might go down to Renae`’s on the bay and grab some fish and chips then hang out and watch all the pretentious wanna-be’s trying their best to get noticed. Renae`’s Cafe is the place to be seen day or night. It’s great for me, especially since I got the owner’s son off major drug charges. Their first attorney told them he was looking at twenty years. Yep that little win guaranteed me a primo table no matter what time of day or night.

Cherie you look beautiful as always.

Thank you Jean-Claude.

Jean-Claude was your typical Frenchman; even at 60 he was still a strikingly handsome man who, as with every other Frenchman in the world, could charm a rattlesnake. Yet Jean-Claude had eyes only for his wife Renae`. Renae` is a petite strawberry blonde and even though she was in her late 60’s she was a classic beauty. They have been married 40 years and have two children, Michael whom I defended, and Tarnee who was young, beautiful, wealthy and wild; a very dangerous cocktail. I can recall a girl child with, at the tender age of 17, the looks and a body that you would be forgiven for believing to be much older than her years.

Cherie, you want your usual?

That would be wonderful Jean-Claude.

You look like you have had a bad day Mon Cherie.

You got that right, my friend.

Then you relax and let us turn your day around.

You’ll get no argument out of me there, but improving my day is a big ask.

Leave it to me Cherie.

As he left I settled back in my comfortable chair, staring out over the most beautiful bay in the world. Watson’s Bay was breathtaking – even more so at sunset. My mind wandered, lost in the Bay’s beauty. I found myself thinking over the day’s events and smiling at how, for the first time in years, actually in more years than I’d care to admit, I felt some sort of attraction. Don’t be stupid girl! Snap out of this crap! I had to mentally remind myself that all men were a ‘no no’ when, my train of thought, was, broken by Renae`.

How are you Storm?

Well, thank you Renae`, and you?

Wonderful, wonderful. I’m young, alive, beautiful and own the best restaurant in the world, so I ask you darling, what has a girl got to be worried about? Blessed am I darling, truly blessed.

Renae` was a breath of fresh air. In all the years I had been coming here I had never seen her minus the smile that genuinely stays on her face. She is probably one of the very few people I knew who really loved her life and lived it to the full. Her sense of humour fitted her like the proverbial glove.

Jean-Claude tells me you’re having a bad day Cherie, so for you I make a sparkling Moet cocktail.

Ah Renae`, you spoil me. Thank you so much. I’ve not seen Michael round the traps Renae`.

No Cherie, we thought it best to send him overseas for a while, you know with all that messy business now behind him. I talked to him last night. He says he is coming home any day. Storm I do not know how we can ever repay you for what you did for our boy!

Renae` I did what you paid me to do and we got lucky.

I wouldn’t have believed you to be the kind of person who believed in luck.

I turned to see what Renae` was smiling approvingly at. She was always trying to line me up with some eligible man. She tells me often, Cherie you work too hard and spend too much time alone.

That’s just the way I like it, was my standard reply.

What the…? Mr Costa.

I thought we agreed on Daniel.

Please excuse my bad manners. Renae`, I would like you to meet the reason for my bad day, Daniel Costa let me introduce the owner of this famous establishment, Mrs Renae` Dupont.

As she extended her hand, he, after kissing it, spoke to her – in perfect French, I might add.

When you two are finished with this fine display of French pleasantries, maybe you, Daniel Costa, could explain how the hell you found me?

To use one of your lines, don’t flatter yourself. I was hungry so I made inquiries as to the best restaurant in town and was told about this place.

Touché!

May I join you?

No you may not. I have had about as much of you as I can take for one day.

"As you wish.

Perhaps you would have a table for me Renae`?

Of course Monsieur, you are in luck we are not yet busy. Come.

As they walked away I could not work out why I was so angry; why did this man bother me? How dare he throw my own lines back at me, smart-ass, he would keep? Nobody rubs me the wrong way and gets away with it.

You know all of a sudden Jean-Claude I am not that hungry.

Don’t be silly child, you must eat. That young man he bothers you, no?

He bothers me no, but he annoys me plenty. He’s an arrogant American with just a little more attitude than I can take.

Come eat, eat.

You’re right, screw him.

Tah tah Cherie, do you not know that men the world over are smitten by beautiful women and you are not only beautiful you are extremely intelligent so why is it you prefer to be alone?

That is a long story Jean-Claude and one that would surely ruin what is left of my day.

With that, Cherie, I shall leave you to enjoy. Bon appetite.

As I ate I found myself wondering if I would ever unravel the anger that entombed my soul, preventing me from letting anyone get too close to me. Intimacy was my only fear. Men were fine as long as they knew that dinner meant just that – dinner. Those who couldn’t be told found out the hard way. Needless to say, I spend most of my time working or out walking my four-legged friend, my German Shepard Guardian, the only male in my life that had never let me down. He is my protector, my friend. Again my daydreaming had me caught off guard.

I am sorry if I offended you, I was teasing.

Then go tease someone else Daniel, I am really not in the mood after the day I have had.

Okay how about we start again? This time I promise only to say what you want to hear.

You pompous, self-opinionated bastard. Who do you think you are?

Who I am, is a man in a strange country that doesn’t like to eat alone, and to know I have upset the most exquisite woman I have ever seen is more than I can bare, so how about we at the very least call a truce.

Smooth Daniel, very smooth.

"Ah come on Storm, give a guy