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‘Confided what?’ she exclaimed. ‘We never discussed his will. Why would we? And what are we doing in bed together, if all you want to talk about is that?’ She stared at him accusingly. ‘I thought we’d settled this. I can’t believe I’ve fallen for it again.’
‘Fallen for what?’ he said as she leapt off the bed.
‘For you—and your lies,’ she shouted back at him as she stumbled her way to the bathroom with the sheet tangled around her feet.
‘Raoul was on the point of becoming very wealthy when he died—’
Luca’s voice stopped her at the bathroom door.
‘He’d gone through one fortune, but only had six months to wait until his thirtieth birthday when he would have gained access to his trust.’
‘Six months,’ Jen repeated tensely.
‘That’s right. And then his problems would have been over.’
‘So in the same length of time you estimated my work here would take, Raoul’s trust would be released. To me,’ she added coldly. ‘That’s why you wanted me here, wasn’t it, Luca?’ she said, turning to face him. ‘Everything else was just a ruse. You had a few months to play with, and while I was here you expected to get a confession out of me—something to the effect that I had somehow persuaded your brother to make me the main beneficiary of his estate. Then you thought I’d accept a pay-off and disappear. Is that it, Luca?’ She shook her head. ‘You don’t even need to say a word. I can see the truth in your eyes.’ She drew a deep, shaking breath. ‘How could you?’ she demanded in a voice made harsh with anger and grief.
‘We didn’t know you then. Try to understand my concerns for my father—’
‘Your father?’ she exclaimed with outrage.
‘He was concerned about Raoul’s expectations—’
‘Raoul’s expectations?’ she interrupted as Luca continued to pull on his clothes. ‘Your brother’s problems went a lot deeper than money. And from what I’ve seen of his family, I think mine do too.’ She felt duped and betrayed, and was only holding onto her control by her fingertips. ‘Why didn’t you bring this up before I came to Sicily? You could have asked me straight out at the club.’
‘I didn’t know you as well as I do now.’
‘You didn’t trust me,’ she fired back.
‘I wasn’t sure of you,’ Luca conceded.
‘And now?’ The cold had returned to her veins, but now it was ice. ‘You made love to me, Luca. I could be having your baby. But all the time I was falling in love with you, you were keeping me here to suit your own ends. With less than six months to go before I inherited Raoul’s trust fund, you must have been under real pressure.’ Jen blenched as she thought about it. ‘But you were determined to use every one of those months, if you had to, weren’t you, to find out what I knew?’
With a disgusted shake of her head, she snatched up her clothes as emotion threatened to overwhelm her. ‘You’ve been manipulating me all along. You said you loved me. You talked as if you knew how hard it was for me to express my feelings after Lyddie’s death. We’d both shared such a terrible loss, I thought we understood each other, but now I can see that you were just trying to win my trust so I’d open up to you. You must have been surprised when your skills as a security expert failed to unmask the villain in your brother’s life—’
‘Jen, wait—’ Luca’s arm snapped out to keep her with him.
‘I’ve done nothing wrong,’ she exclaimed angrily, shaking him off. ‘Let me go!’
The moment Luca released her, Jen finished dressing with shaking hands. ‘I want you to leave now,’ she said, pointing at the door.
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ Luca assured her. In a couple of strides, he was at her side. ‘Your pregnancy—if there is a child—changes everything.’
‘Yes, it does,’ Jen agreed. ‘It allows me to see what a fool I’ve been. Just the possibility that I might be pregnant has woken me up faster than I would have believed possible, and the first thing it tells me is that I don’t want you involved—’
‘If you’re pregnant, I am involved,’ Luca assured her. ‘Even you can’t change that.’
‘I can keep you at a distance,’ Jen countered. ‘I’ll be qualified soon, and I’ve got a guaranteed job at the auction house where they’ll have to pay me more. I won’t need you, your money, or anything else to do with the Tebaldi family.’
Luca ground his jaw, refusing to answer. ‘Who will look after your baby while you work?’
‘The company crèche,’ she said, blessing Smithers & Worseley for being on the ball where that was concerned. ‘I can continue to work after my mat’ leave with the reassurance of knowing my child is in the same building. So, you see, Luca, I really don’t need you at all.’
‘You don’t have a choice,’ he said coldly.
‘Really?’ Jen challenged tight-lipped. ‘Would you care to put that to the test? Let me tell you one thing, Luca—you and your father don’t frighten me.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘You said you would never take over from your father, but I don’t think I believe you now.’
‘Then, you’re wrong,’ he said quietly. ‘I am Don Tebaldi’s son, but that is a very different thing from being in business with my father, or taking over from him. My world and his are as different as could be, and if you’re suggesting that I would sink to his tactics you couldn’t be more wrong.’
‘So keeping me here in the hope I might confess to something is different? It’s not kidnap, or restraint. No,’ she declared hotly. ‘It’s something far cleverer than that. It’s subtle coercion, and not so subtle manipulation, and neither of those things is good in my book. Do you really think that after this I’d allow you to have any part in my life, or that of my child?’ She laughed bitterly. ‘You’ve tried to catch me out. I can see that now. But how am I supposed to confess to something when I don’t know what that something is?’ She shook him off when Luca attempted to soothe her. ‘What was your aim, Luca? Were your father’s instructions to stop at nothing until I signed a waiver relinquishing all claim on Raoul’s estate?’
‘I’ve told you before. I protect my father, but he doesn’t instruct me—’
‘Clearly not,’ she flashed. ‘Because you had a better solution: bring me to the island on any pretext, and then seduce me—win my trust and make me believe I can confide anything in you, because you love me.’ She spat out the word. ‘The Emperor’s Diamond and all that nonsense was just to keep me busy until you could solve the puzzle of your brother’s will.’
‘Try to see things from my point of view—’
‘Why should I?’ she demanded.
‘Because you cared for Raoul, and there had to be a very good reason why Raoul wrote his will in that particular way, and I’m trying to fathom out what that is. Don’t you want to know? Think about it, Jen—think back. What was Raoul trying to achieve when he drew up his will in your favour?’
‘Maybe I had time for him? Maybe Raoul thought I would use the money to help people like him—people with addictions. I don’t know,’ Jen admitted. Angry as she was, what Luca had said did bear thinking about. But then something else occurred to her. ‘I hope you’re not suggesting I was blackmailing your brother?’
‘No,’ he exclaimed with what she thought was genuine shock. ‘Of course not.
‘I can see that my father’s intolerance, coupled to my brother’s desperate need for his love and acceptance, could lead you to think Raoul might be the perfect target for blackmail by someone,’ he admitted, ‘but I would never believe that of you. Anyone could have told my father anything, and it wouldn’t have made one jot of difference to his contempt for us. He despised both his sons, especially Raoul. And, no, I don’t think you’ve been underhand in any way. You couldn’t possibly have predicted that Raoul would be killed in a street race. No one could.’
A tense silence fell between them, but then, as they were both letting all the poison out, Jen voiced a fear she had so far kept to herself. ‘Raoul lived life on the edge. We both know it. Do you think he might have driven recklessly that night because he wanted to kill himself?’
‘What?’ Luca exclaimed softly.
‘I think Raoul was so desperate for love, and for support and understanding, he was at his wits’ end.’ Jen fell silent. She’d said enough. Luca’s face was a mask of shock. This time the silence went on and on, and in the end she had to say something. ‘I can’t say anything more,’ she explained, ‘without breaking my promise to Raoul.’
‘Your promise?’ Luca flared. ‘Always another secret with you, Jen!’ With an angry gesture, he exclaimed, ‘Your promise to a dead man doesn’t count.’
‘Don’t—’ Shocked by Luca’s outburst, she turned away.
Jen’s reaction shamed him. He hadn’t exactly covered himself with glory. ‘I’m trying to understand,’ he explained, making one last desperate attempt to find out more. ‘I’m trying to understand my brother. I’m hungry for information. If I’ve shocked you I’m sorry. I just want to make sure my brother’s last wishes are honoured, and to do that I have to know what you know. Please. This is the last thing I can ever do for him.’
Jen didn’t speak on her way to the door. She stood beside it, trembling with emotion as she waited for Luca to leave. ‘I’ll finish cataloguing the jewels,’ she said. ‘And I’ll arrange your exhibition. But then I’m going home. I’ll let you know if I’m pregnant as soon as I’ve seen a doctor. If I am expecting your child, we’ll have a meeting in England to decide where we go from there—where I go from there,’ she amended before he had chance to speak.
