Where Love Has Gone

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Book: Where Love Has Gone Read Online Free PDF
Author: Harold Robbins
Tags: Fiction, Action & Adventure
just something to have around when she wasn’t in the way. But if there was any inconvenience, off she went to her grandmother’s or I’d take her down on the boat. And you know the topper to the whole story?”
    She shook her head.
    “Dani was always so glad to see her mother,” I said. “She was always trying to make up to her. And Nora would just give her an absent-minded pat on the head and go on with whatever she was doing. I would watch the child coming back to me with a kind of sad expression on her face underneath the baby laughter and it was all I could do to keep from crying.”
    Tears were welling up in Elizabeth’s eyes. I felt her move closer to me. “You were her father,” she whispered gently. “You couldn’t be her mother too. No matter how hard you tried.”
    The loudspeaker over our heads blared again. “American Airlines, Astrojet Flight 42 to Denver and San Francisco now loading at Gate 4.”
    I rubbed by neck. Suddenly I was tired. “That’s us,” I said. “I guess it is, Daddy.”
    I looked at her in surprise. It was the first time she had ever called me that. She smiled. “You’ll have to get used to it again.”
    “That won’t be hard.”
    We started to go back inside. “You’ll let me know when you arrive?”
    “I’ll phone myself person-to-person from San Francisco. If you don’t have anything to tell me,
    say I’m not there. That way we’ll save the cost of a call.” “What could I possibly have to tell you?”
    I put my hand on her stomach.
    She laughed. “Don’t worry, I won’t have the baby until you come back.” “That’s a promise?”
    “That’s a promise.”
    There weren’t many people around Gate 4 by the time we got there. Most of the other passengers had already gone aboard. I kissed Elizabeth goodbye and gave the passenger agent my ticket.
    He looked at it, stamped it, tore the top section off and gave it back. “Go right on through, Mr.
    Carey.”
    I didn’t get off the plane at Denver to stretch my legs as the stewardess suggested. Instead I sat in the lounge and had a cup of coffee aboard. It was hot and black and I could feel its steaming warmth creep down inside me and loosen up the muscles in my gut.
    Six years. A long time. Many things could happen in six years. A child could grow up. She could be a young lady now. High heels and bouffant skirts. Pale, almost colorless, lipstick, and green or blue eye shadow, and that funny pile-up of twisted hair on top of her head, like an artichoke, that would make her look taller. She would appear very mature until you saw her face, and only then would you realize how young she really was.
    Six years is a long time to be away from home. The child you left behind could grow and be many things that you never wanted for her. Like her mother. Six years and your child could grow up to
    —
    murder?
    I heard the cabin door lock and the lights flashed on. I ground out my cigarette in the tray and fastened my seatbelt. The stewardess came back and gave me an approving nod, then went about her task of checking the rest of the passengers.
    I looked at my watch. It was four thirty Chicago Time. I set it back two hours. Now it was two thirty Pacific Coast Time.
    I smiled to myself. It was so easy. Just turn back the clock and you’ve got the two hours to live all over again. I wondered why, if it was so easy, no one had invented a machine that would do it for the years.
    I could turn the clock back six years and Danielle would not be where she was tonight. No, I’d turn it back almost fifteen years, back to the night she was born. I remembered those hours in the hospital. It was just about this time of the night and Nora had just come down from the delivery room.

    “Don’t stay too long,” the doctor said as I started into her room. “She’s very tired.” “When can I see the baby?”
    “In ten minutes. Just tap on the nursery window. The nurse will show you your baby.”
    I stepped back into the corridor
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