Introducing my new book, Love’s Child! 

Love’s child is a romantic suspense novel and I hope you enjoy reading it! I have posted the first few pages here, to give you a feel of the book.

Blurb: Love’s Child

Friendship, loyalty and secrets. Who can you really trust?

Jemima Trent is desperate to have a designer baby to keep up with her socialite friends, reconnect with her work-obsessed husband, Lucas, and regain some respect from her domineering father. But the number of women able to conceive each year is in decline and no one seems to know why.

Dr Cole believes that the answer can be found in a warehouse full of delinquent teenagers, where David Love and his pregnant girlfriend, Tilly, have been hitting the headlines for turning youngsters’ lives around. Dr Cole’s violent and callous employer will stop at nothing to discover the reason behind their success and why girls at the warehouse are able to fall pregnant.

Jemima finally tries to step out of her father’s shadow, but discovers they are more alike than she could ever imagine. David and Tilly vow to keep their secret, but the lessons of the past been learned and is the world ready for the truth?

Lies, deceit and betrayal, all in the name of love!

Book Link Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Loves-Child-Lizzie-Chantree-ebook/dp/B011236ZC0

Book Link Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Loves-Child-Lizzie-Chantree-ebook/dp/B011236ZC0

CHAPTER 1

The door flew back on its hinges making Lucas and his secretary, Poppy, jump in fright at the unexpected interruption. Jemima stormed into the room and glared at her husband, totally ignoring the quivering, pathetic woman at his side.

‘What is the matter with you?’ she spat at him, with real venom in her tone. ‘You were supposed to be at Dr Lomax’s office with me this afternoon. What the hell do I have to do to get a baby around here? Drag you there by your briefcase?’

Lucas looked at his beautiful wife and realised how ugly she had become. She was stamping her feet, hair flying behind her, with nails at the ready to scratch his eyes out, not even caring that poor Poppy was in the room. She had become so unreasonable in her demands that he impregnate her, so that she could have a designer baby, that she had completely lost her mind!

He shifted to shield Poppy from the wrath of his wife and sent her an apologetic smile, but she scurried out, her cheeks flaming crimson, into the executive toilets where she promptly burst into tears.

Lucas sighed and walked over to close his office door, to afford he and his wife some semblance of privacy after the scene she had just made.

‘Well?’ demanded Jemima, throwing her ridiculously expensive handbag on to the floor by his desk and walking over to the concealed bar in the wall to pour herself a hefty drink.

‘I didn’t go to the meeting because I’ve been there twice already and we are just paying them to repeat what they’ve already told us. There is nothing wrong with us!’ he ground out, breathing hard to control his temper.

Jemima looked at her husband’s rigid stance and felt her anger flare up again. She had left early from a lunch with her friends to go to the doctor’s appointment with Lucas, and had felt such a fool when he hadn’t arrived. Dr Lomax had smiled at her sympathetically as she made up some ridiculous excuse on the spur of the moment about the absence of her husband, which had sounded half-baked, even to her. Lucas was supposed to give her anything she wanted, but all of a sudden Jemima felt she was missing something and losing her edge. He didn’t seem to care what made her happy any more. Standing there, with his back turned to her as he looked out of his office window at the glorious view, she knew, for the first time since she had decided that this man would be her husband, that she needed to be more careful about how she handled him, or her father would step in and control him for her. Fear burned in her stomach and she quickly decided to change tack and went over to take hold of Lucas’s hand.

Lucas looked up in surprise at the intimate gesture, but he stood stock-still and refused to give her the reassurance she was looking for. He was tired of this charade of a marriage and only wished he had seen the trap she had set for him sooner. He had been a gullible fool, but he wasn’t about to let his wife, or her father, dictate his life any more.

CHAPTER 2

David leant on the counter of the little café that they had installed in the centre of the warehouse and a smile spread across his face. He picked up the local newspaper and reread the front cover. His own face stared back out from the page, alongside that of his girlfriend, Tilly, and a group of the guys and girls that formed the main team at EVE. He was so proud of what they had all achieved, and seeing Tilly’s blooming belly full to bursting with his child, in the photo, made him want to pick up the phone just to hear her sweet voice.

There it was, splashed across the front of the newspaper, crime was at an all-time low and David and his team were being lauded as a vision of how things could be in the future. It was all he had ever dreamt of and more. It amused him to think how most people would perceive him; a tall, muscled man, tattoos snaking up his arms and with short, cropped blond hair. They probably thought he was a ‘typical’ thug. He could so easily have been a menace, after the first twelve years of his life, where he had scraped and clawed his way out of the miserable existence his father had created for them.

David’s dad had pretty much ignored him during this time, until he became useful and able to get a paper round or run around after him, which usually involved delivering or collecting drugs. Then he would get a smack round the ear or a shove in the back if he didn’t do things quickly enough. It taught him to move fast and to stay out of the way as much as possible. This wasn’t easy on a rough estate where going outside was not a safe option.

David’s mum had literally vanished, with no explanation, when he was very young and his step-mum, Tonia, detested him. His little sister, Abbie, fared better, as she was actually Tonia’s child, but David still saw the fear blaze in her eyes when she thought he wasn’t looking.

Boxing had been David’s salvation. He had filled out with muscle as a teenager and knew how to handle himself in most situations. His dad stopped punching him under the ribs because he knew that David would now hit back. It was something that had always kept him strong, both mentally; when his dad had died from a sudden heart attack, and physically when it had come to building his warehouse. When his dad had passed away, Tonia had thrown him out on to the street and he had found himself sleeping on the couches of an endless round of friends and their families. Being away from Abbie was hard, but trying to find a job and dropping out of school at fifteen had been even harder. Luckily, he was a survivor. He vividly remembered the day he had wandered into an old warehouse, found a shabby boxing club inside and it had changed his life. They had let him stay to clean the place up and do odd jobs in exchange for a bed and some food. The accommodation was grubby, and beyond basic, but someone had given him a chance and he had never forgotten it.

David didn’t want to turn out like his parents. It was what drove him to succeed. He had turned his life around and now helped others to do the exact same thing. His work on the estate with underprivileged kids was creating quite a buzz, and he was getting a name for himself as the man to know if you had a problem child. He had a knack of channelling aggression into ambition. Years of night school and days working hard at the boxing club, had helped him to become the man he was today.

Local, and now even national, newspapers had started to show an interest in what they were doing at the EVolvE Warehouse, or EVE, as they all called it now. Many promising youngsters, who were currently getting sports scholarships and sponsorships from big firms, originated from EVE. Kids from the warehouse were going into football clubs as the ones to watch, and one or two had created extraordinary artworks or had been seen on television in acting roles. It was truly amazing. It proved that love and support could give anyone a fighting chance. The children here felt valued and that they had a family behind them and it showed in every move they made. They were incredible!

The newspapers were reporting that crime rates had been steadily dropping for the past ten years, and that there were many more positive, happy stories to print. Communities were looking after each other and families appeared to be sticking together, with divorce rates dropping considerably. People were getting happier!

The journalist in the local paper was suggesting that places like EVE were the reason that communities were working together, instead of tearing each other apart. It was an interesting theory that the nationals picked up on. For David, it was just a means of getting more sponsorship for his kids, but hearing Tilly’s excited squeals and seeing her beautiful smiling face, when she found out a photographer was coming to the warehouse, made him feel grudgingly happy about the article too. Tilly was his world.

 

CHAPTER 3

Dr Cole rubbed a hand across his forehead to dispel some of the sweat that had gathered there. He frowned at his scribbled notes, as he was so tired that his vision was blurring. He shook himself and stared at the computer screen in front of him, whilst throwing his handwritten ramblings into the overflowing bin by his feet. He knew he was on to something big. He just couldn’t quite grasp the reason for the genetic mutation he had found and was literally ready to pick up his computer and throw it out of the window. Not that this would be worth wasting his energy on, as it would merely bounce back from the blacked-out, reinforced glass that surrounded his high-security manufacturing unit. He sighed in frustration.

The building was so inconspicuous from the outside that you might walk past it and hardly notice it was there. It was tagged on to the side of a prestigious medical facility, almost ignored as an unassuming storage centre at the back of the building. It was the inside that was built like a fortress. In truth, the two centres worked hand in hand, sharing information and working towards a common goal. The lab centre had the latest genetic and lifestyle research and the medical facility worked with men and women to improve their fertility and help them attain their dream of a perfect family unit.

Dr Cole was starting to feel claustrophobic in his own office, but he needed to concentrate, right now! He patted his hand along his overflowing desk, not once taking his eyes from the screen, and grasped the newspaper he had been reading that morning. He brought it up in front of his face, as he was too tired to move, and quickly scanned the text.

Slamming the newspaper down and sending papers flying in all directions, he jumped up with renewed vigour. That was what he needed, fresh genes to test his theory on. Newborn babies! Smiling up from the paper he had been holding was a good-looking young man called David Love, with his arm protectively wrapped around a bouncy redhead. The thing that drew Dr Cole’s attention was the size of her protruding belly.

The story said that these people helped down and outs to change their lives. No one brought up like this could help change society, he scoffed, laughing suddenly and scaring his lab assistant at the unheard of sound. Surely there would be more girls having babies who wouldn’t want them in a place like this EVE centre for unruly waifs and strays? David and his cute girlfriend were just what Cole needed to help him turn his life around, he sniggered. They would be the making of him!

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