“So, I have been searching for someone to help me with this problem.” Helena
stated, her soft English accent sounding like music in the acoustically perfect
room. Tina

She was tall, blue luminescent eyes that seemed to invite you to gaze into
them, walking with Jo, shorter and wearing a
pair of tinted sunglasses to cover eyes that never invited you, though they
might compel you to her will. Neither of them had seen Tina
as of yet.

“So she ran off with your children and you are sure she is out of country?” Jo
asked, moving to the back of the bar and pouring Helena
a drink. Helena
took it, marveling how the woman had known what she had an urge for. Jo
seemed to be reading each and every movement and every thought.

Helena
had gotten Jo’s name from a colleague of hers in
the art world. She had dismissed it, until she’d been told by several PI
agencies that they could not do much of anything if Winnie
had taken them out of the country. One of the investigators she’d spoken to had
said that if Jo Wheaton
went after Winnie, she’d drag her back one way
or the other. That was just the ruthlessness that Helena
was looking for.

“Thank you,” she smiled gratefully. “Yes, the courts ordered primary custody to
me, with only supervised visitation for Winnie.
I wasn’t the one who’d cheated, she was. And the tactics she used to try to
discredit me were so transparent…bordered on perjury, actually. I’m no saint
but I have tried to do everything in the best interest of my children. I adore
them.” She swallowed hard as her eyes brimmed with tears that she struggled not
to release. Beneath Helena’s
British reserve, Jo could feel the truth of her
words, and barely avoided dipping into her pain.

“I don’t think Winnie ever considered that she
might not win. But when she did, she whisked them away the day after I was
awarded custody. I should never have allowed her one more evening with them,
not unsupervised anyway. But she’s their mummy, too, and I couldn’t deprive
them of that visit.” Helena
said with a soft sad sigh. Jo