A Gift of Matrimony (Lover's Gift Book 2) Page 3

  “Isabella, I’m sorry to tell you this, but . . . but Dante has gone missing,” said Gaspard.

  Gone missing? I rolled my eyes. He had to be joking. “What do you mean missing?”

  “About a month ago his helicopter went down in the Amazon, where he was surveying a recent flood in the area. He was doing some humanitarian work with his charity organization. They found the wreckage, but no bodies. He was flying by himself, and since there was no trace of human remains, we can only assume he was ejected from the chopper somewhere in the rivers or the forestation,” said Gaspard. I tried to keep from laughing. They sure did have vivid imaginations.

  “Stop joking around with me, Gaspard. Where is he? Is he here hiding someplace?”

  “I’m sorry, Isabella, but that’s the truth,” said Maya.

  “I don’t believe you. Dante, are you here somewhere? This isn’t funny. Are you here? Dante! Dante!” I screamed. I looked around the condo, checking all the closets, under the bed, behind the curtains, each room, everywhere.

  “Isabella, he’s not here. He’s gone.”

  “Dante, this isn’t funny anymore! Come out, all right. I’m sorry I was gone for so long, but I’m here now. Come out now, Dante. Please.” I was going into a panic looking for him. They had to be joking. They just had to be. Maya grabbed and hugged me tight.

  “He’s not here. We wouldn’t joke about something like this.”

  “Dante . . . Dante!” I shouted with tears forming in my eyes. This was like a nightmare come true. I couldn’t believe this. Everything became a blur. This couldn’t be happening. It just couldn’t. I dropped to my knees and started crying as if I had never shed a tear before in my life. I wanted to die.

  Everything I was faded to nothing as Gaspard and Maya hugged me, telling me everything was going to be okay. Nothing would be fine, however. It wasn’t going to be okay, and I would never be fine! I’d lost him again. He’d waited a lifetime for me, and now he’d slipped through my fingers again.

  I felt I couldn’t live without him. I would not accept he was gone. If there was even the slightest chance he was alive somewhere down there, then I was going to find him. No matter where he was or what condition he may be in, I would devote all my resources to finding him.

  I turned to Gaspard. “Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner? You waited a damn month to tell me that he’s gone missing. What the hell is wrong with you? And you too, Maya. What’s the matter with you two?” The both of them dumbfounded me.

  “I’m sorry, Isabella, but Dante told me not to interrupt your recovery under any circumstances. A month after he got back from visiting you, he was in the hospital for a broken wrist, but he demanded that I not tell you because he didn’t want to worry you in any way,” he said.

  “What? How did he break his wrist?”

  “It wasn’t his fault; he was just sitting at his computer when a couple of ceiling beams came crashing down on his keyboard and hands. Someone had loosened the screws above his desk. We’re still trying to find out whom. He recovered, so there wasn’t any need for him to bother you with it.”

  Was there some predestined spirit trying to take this man away from me? Those ceiling beams could have killed him, and now he was missing.

  “We have search parties working around the clock to find him, Isabella.”

  “You promise me, Gaspard. You promise me that you will bring him back to me.” I screamed, grabbing his shirt and shaking him furiously.

  “On my life, I promise you. We’re doing everything in our power to find him,” he assured me. The resources at Gaspard’s disposal far outweighed my own, but I would still devote what I could to finding him. He had done everything for me and sacrificed so much. Now it was time for me to do the same. I had to find him, or else I might as well be dead myself. I loved him. I knew that now. And nothing, not even predestined spirits or shitty luck, would take him from me.

  “Isabella, I’m sorry to say this, but if they didn’t find anything in the first week, then . . .” Maya started.

  “Don’t! Don’t you dare! Don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it! We’ll find him. Do you understand me, Maya? We’ll find him,” I shouted. “If you all had told me about this the moment it happened, then I could have done something. This is all my fault. I should never have left for as long as I did. I will never forgive myself.”

  “Nothing could have prevented this from happening. Dante had his heart set on going through with that mission. You can’t blame yourself. That’s the last thing Dante would have wanted,” Gaspard said. I buried myself into the pillows on my couch, curling up in a ball.

  “We’ll find him. You have my word,” he said. He got up and hugged Maya before leaving. She moved closer to me and hugged me, sympathizing with my plight.

  “I don’t understand, Maya. I really don’t. It seems like everything I love, I end up losing. Losing Nathan was a good thing, but not Dante. Not like this . . . Not like this.”

  “If true love does exist, then it existed between you two. I have never seen a man love a woman as much as he loves you. If there is good in the world, then I’m confident your love for each other will go on forever. I’m sure they will find him. I’m sorry for what I said before. The Amazon is a large place and it’s only been a month. They will find him, and when they do, you will be the first to know. I promise.”

  “I don’t care if I have to find him myself. I will not give up on him, not now, not ever,” I asserted. She looked at me and wiped away the tears.

  “I have to get back to the office but call me if I needed anything,” she said.

  I shook my head in an attempt to gather my bearings. I supposed I should get back into the office as well. Running the company via Skype and conference calls had me worrying if my employees were starting to think their leader had abandoned them.

  Couldn’t Dante have just stayed here and waited for me to get back before flying his helicopter in the outskirts of South America? What was he thinking? He couldn’t have gotten someone else to do that damn survey?

  Anger, sadness, and regret all balled into my stomach, wanting to explode. Anger toward myself for leaving and toward him for going on that mission. Regret for not coming home sooner and nauseating sadness knowing he was gone. I wouldn’t be able to go on if I found out . . . I didn’t even want to think about it.

  Chapter 5

  Isabella

  Distraught and broken, I found myself walking down the street aimlessly in the rain. A few weeks ago, Nathan had the audacity to contact me asking for my help, saying he had changed and he wanted me back so things would go back to the way they were. That would be pretty difficult seeing as he was a fugitive living in Thailand.

  He was even featured on American Greed a couple of times. The second he stepped on American soil, he’d be arrested. I needed to change my email address to keep him from contacting me. I wanted nothing to do with him. The bastard was officially dead to me, especially after I found the pain room he talked about. During the demolition, the horror of his sexual fantasies came to light. I thought I had gotten over him entirely until I saw that room with its whips and chains and other torture devices. And the jars . . . I almost wanted to vomit when the police showed me the jars.

  To think he was collecting the pinky toes of all the men and women he’d taken to that room made me want to scrub my skin until it started to peel. There were at least twenty jars in that room, each labeled with a name. I would never have thought Oliver, in all his corruption, would have been one of Nathan’s sex slaves.

  I saw his jar sitting there next to a jar with Valentina’s name on it. Her jar was empty, however. I guessed the prospect of having her toe cut off was what made her run to Dante’s place that night. His sickness finally caught up with him, and now he was gone from my life forever.

  All the same, he wasn’t the reason I was out here in the rain sulking in my sorrow. It had been five months, and they still hadn’t found my Dante. Despite my company flour
ishing since our move into the European market two months ago, I still couldn’t bring myself to the realization that he was gone. Maya said it was time for me to move on, and Gaspard had discontinued the search three months ago at the urging of their board members.

  They planned to announce him officially deceased within the next few weeks. This couldn’t be happening. I looked down at the ring he’d given me and removed it from around my neck. I unlatched the necklace and took the ring off so I could place it on my finger. I sat under the tree we’d passed by the day he took me to the airport to see my mother. I reminisced about the time he came to visit me in Florida, just to say hello. If I had known that was the last time I was going to see him, I would have smothered him in kisses. Hell, I wouldn’t have allowed him to leave at all.

  As I put the ring on, I noticed something engraved on the inside. Taking a closer look, I saw written words I never knew were there. I had been wearing this almost a year, and I’d never seen this engraving. Dante & Isabella 4ever . . . it said on one side, and . . . so we can find each other, on the other. Tears poured out of my eyes, and I contemplated what to do with my life.

  Before him, I thought only of my business, and everything else came second—my family, Nathan, everything. Now, I would personally tear down my company brick by brick if it meant I could have him back again. I’d told him that night in the hotel I would never remove this ring, and I never did. He was there waiting for me to find him, I knew it. I couldn’t leave this to Gaspard or anyone else. I had to go there and find him on my own.

  For months, Dr. Logan, Maya, Gaspard, and even our new CFO, Julianna Fay, had discouraged me from going to the Amazon to find him. It sounded crazy, but what was I to do? I wanted him. I needed him back in my life. If I didn’t go, I would be forever haunted by the knowledge that I didn’t do everything in my power to find him.

  I didn’t want to think about it, but even if he was dead, I had to find his body so I could at least bury him in peace. I’d reached out to his mother last week. She had retired to Spain and told me to do anything I could to find her son. Those were the words of encouragement I needed to hear more than anything.

  I looked at this ring, and I gently caressed it between my fingers. I recalled the time we were in the L’Ermitage. I’d begged him to tell me the truth about his feelings, but he’d still held off until I was available. I’d worn a simple robe with nothing underneath. He could have taken me right then, but he hadn’t.

  How could a man resist such temptation in the face of someone he loved? He loved me enough to respect my marriage, even though the whole thing was a disaster. He loved me enough to wait until I was ready to hand myself over to him entirely, heart and body. I would never find another man like him. That’s why I would never give up on him. I was going to the Amazon. No one would stop me.

  Chapter 6

  Isabella

  “I will not allow you to do this! Wait until I get back before you do anything,” I shouted at Gaspard. He was planning to announce Dante deceased. I pleaded with the board of the Cayman Roth Conglomerate and Dante’s mother before they declared him officially gone. The board was putting pressure on Dante’s mother and Gaspard to move on from this. I refused to let it happen.

  After weeks of pleading, they finally agreed. Now it was up to me to bring him back home. My mother said I was acting irrationally, yet what was love but one irrational decision after another? If trying to find him was considered irrational, then so be it. Vast oceans and borders be damned.

  Everyone close to me gathered at my home to talk me out of it. Gaspard, Maya, Julianna, my mom, and Dr. Logan ambushed me. It was a coordinated trap they’d all planned to keep me from going. I would have none of it. My mind was made up. Nothing could stop me.

  “Julianna, could you please reason with her?” said Gaspard. With everyone in my home, it looked as if they’d all come together for an intervention. As if they were going to be successful in talking me out of this. I was dumbfounded when Maya called my mom after I told her I was going to find Dante myself. She was a snitch as far as I was concerned. The fact that my mother brought Dr. Logan to try to talk me out of this as well floored me. I had told them all before that nothing would stop me from going, though they didn’t seem to want to listen.

  “Isabella, please listen to me. It’s been over five months now, and there still is no sign of him. Dante’s charity fund and his company’s search-and-rescue teams have been searching for him this whole time, and still nothing. There is a time when we have to accept the facts and try to move on,” said Julianna.

  Maya looked at me and placed her hand on my shoulder.

  “She’s right. I’ve done everything I could to bring him home to you, but I failed. I am so sorry that we weren’t able to find him,” said Gaspard.

  “That’s because you all stopped looking!”

  “Isabella, please, try to calm down,” my mom interjected.

  “I’m going, and there is nothing any of you can do to stop me.”

  “Listen, Isabella. He’s gone. I know it’s hard, maybe even impossible to understand. But you have to accept that,” Maya said.

  “Don’t you say that!” I exclaimed.

  “He’s gone, Izzy,” my mom said. “I’m sorry, I really am, but I don’t want you to end up missing right along with him. You are my only child, and I don’t want to lose you too.”

  “Maybe I won’t find him. Maybe I’ll die in my attempts to find him. If that’s what fate has in store for me, then I will accept that. What I won’t accept is sitting here doing nothing while there is even the slightest possibility that Dante is lost somewhere down there, waiting to be found.”

  “Isabella . . .”

  “He’s alive. I just have to find him.” My eyes began to water.

  “Go, Isabella. You go, and you find him,” said Dr. Logan. Everyone in the room inhaled deeply with shock as they turned their attention to her.

  “What in the world are you talking about?” said Maya.

  “She’s been tormented because of the loss of this man. I can see in her eyes that she will never give up until she has closure. I’m not speaking as your therapist. I’m speaking as your friend. If you feel the need to go and look for him yourself, then that’s exactly what you should do. Leave no stone unturned.”

  “Dr. Logan, please don’t encourage her,” said my mother.

  “No, she’s right,” said Maya, to my surprise. “I look into her eyes, and I don’t see the same person I saw nine months ago. To tell you the truth, I don’t see the same person I saw when Dante wasn’t even in the picture. She’s changed. Her whole outlook on life has changed. I want the old Isabella back, and if traveling to South America to find the love of her life will make that happen . . . then let’s do it. I’ll go with you.”

  My eyes lit up with hope upon hearing her say that.

  “Maya, who will run the company if both you and Isabella leave?” asked Julianna.

  “She’s right, Maya. I’ll have to go alone. I’ll hire a private search-and-rescue team when I get there.”

  “You’re really serious about this, aren’t you? You’re really going to go?” my mother asked.

  “Yes, I am dead serious,” I bellowed.

  “Do you have any idea how large the Amazon Basin is? You’ll be searching for months. Do you even know which country in the Amazon he crash-landed in?”

  “His helicopter was found in Brazil, but they’ve searched all the rainforest in that area already. I’ll just have to look a bit harder. I don’t care what it takes. I have to find him, Mom. I have to.”

  “But why, sweetie?”

  “Because I love him.” I whispered. This might have been the first time I had shown this much emotion over a man to my mother. Not even Nathan could get me to express this much passion. I hoped she could see just how fervent I was about this and how deeply I felt for him.

  “In all my years I have never seen any woman love him with such intensity as you do. You ha
ve my full support, anything you need—connections, travel consultants, funds, anything, just ask,” said Gaspard. I smiled a little. It was a relief to have a few of them support me.

  “Thank you, Gaspard.”

  Even if his board members refused to go on with the search, Gaspard and Dante’s mother still had the final say. If he were declared dead, all of his holdings would transfer to Gaspard until arrangements were made to shift responsibilities to Dante’s cousin Felix, who was living in New South Wales, Newcastle.

  When I’d spoken to him a few weeks ago, he seemed completely uninterested in running the company and would most likely allow it to be broken up and sold off. He was more than happy to hear that I wanted to continue the search. If it weren’t for my pleading, their board would have given up on the search months before now.

  I thought Felix wanted Dante to be found just as much as I did. If we did find him, then he wouldn’t have to take on the responsibility of running the company. Felix was already wealthy in his own right and wanted to continue to live the life of a carefree playboy. And that was fine by me.

  What I didn’t understand was his sheer laziness in not wanting to help me in the search. Why Dante would leave him in charge was lost on me. I guessed he was the only kin Dante had.

  With nothing else left to say, Dr. Logan excused herself. I offered for her to stay in my condo and put one of the many rooms I had to use, but she declined. She wanted to get back to Florida as soon as she could. Julianna was secure in the knowledge that Maya would still be around to run the company in my absence.

  I hated leaving Maya here to shoulder much of the burden of the everyday corporate responsibilities. I hoped she would forgive me just this once. Aerial & Kam Cosmetics had grown substantially in the last year, and with the expansion of our field offices in Europe coming about, I felt that maybe I should stay until they were completed. But that would take too long. Every moment that passed was a moment Dante could be in danger. I had to go now. The sooner, the better. I would try to be available via Skype and email as much as I could. My location in the rainforest and jungles of South America might make that impossible, but I’d give it my best.