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‘Someone told you when to stage that scene for Kerry’s benefit and encouraged you to lie in the sure knowledge that those lies would destroy my relationship with her,’ Luciano countered flatly. ‘Who was it? I deserve all the facts.’
Fully intent on that exchange, Kerry snatched in an uneven breath.
‘I suppose you do, and it hardly matters this long after the event.’ Rochelle gave Luciano an apologetic look of appeal and shrugged. ‘It was Miles—’
‘Miles?’ The sharp interruption was Kerry’s. ‘Why are you accusing Miles of being involved in the dreadful lies you told me about Luciano? That’s nonsense…Miles would never have tried to hurt me like that!’
‘Miles thought Luciano was bad news for you,’ her stepsister derided. ‘And I thought you were bad news for Luciano. Great minds think alike.’
‘That’s enough, Rochelle. You can go now.’ Luciano swung open the door and s
tood back. ‘Costanza’s waiting for you outside. She’ll ensure that you get back to London.’
‘Go…you want me to leave again?’ Rochelle questioned in open disbelief.
‘I can think of no reason why I would want you to stay.’ As Luciano made that crushing statement, Kerry studied him with an astonishment similiar to her stepsister’s.
‘I don’t understand,’ Rochelle said tautly.
In the tense silence, Luciano maintained his cool, level scrutiny.
‘How can you treat me like this after all I’ve done for you?’ Rochelle demanded with stark incredulity. ‘Only a few weeks ago, I risked getting charged with perjury when I spoke at that appeal hearing on your behalf…I’m the woman who dared to admit that I’d signed a statement that I knew was incorrect five years ago—’
‘You’re also the same woman who stood by that false statement in my original trial and let her lies contribute to my imprisonment for crimes I didn’t commit.’
That harsher condemnation of her own past behaviour visibly shook Rochelle.
‘And why did you lie?’ Luciano dealt the stricken blonde a contemptuous appraisal. ‘You lied out of spite and vanity because I rejected you!’
Assailed by unexpected discomfiture, Kerry found herself averting her attention from the shocked humiliation etched in her stepsister’s shattered face.
‘I get it,’ Rochelle gasped accusingly. ‘You only brought me here to play this scene for Kerry’s benefit!’
‘Yes, you finally get it,’ Luciano confirmed without a shade of remorse.
Before she left the room, Rochelle hung back to stare at Kerry with outraged green eyes. ‘Since what you’ve just witnessed is what you’ll suffer too, be warned,’ she said bitterly. ‘In fact, start running now because you needn’t kid yourself that he’s not going to kiss you off with the same treatment or worse somewhere down the road!’
Only when Rochelle departed did Kerry realise that she was trembling.
‘Satisfied?’ Luciano enquired silkily.
‘I think you scare me,’ Kerry whispered truthfully.
Luciano reached for her clenched hands and wound them slowly into his. ‘I wanted you to know for sure that I was telling the truth. Bringing Rochelle here was the only way I could be certain of that.’
‘But ever since you came out of prison…well, haven’t you encouraged her to think that she might mean something to you, that she was at least a friend of yours? I saw how shocked she was today,’ Kerry muttered uneasily. ‘It almost looked as if you’ve just been using her—’
‘I did string her along to get the information I needed. Why not?’ Luciano shrugged, his beautiful, sculpted mouth firming. ‘Do you really think I would have got it any other way?’
‘But I believed the explanation you gave me about that night in any case. You didn’t need to drag Rochelle here and make a fool of her like that…’ Kerry searched his lean, dark-angel face, clung to the vibrant gold of his intent gaze and closed that latter thought out. Her throat ran dry on the tide of sheer longing threatening her composure. He had brought Rochelle to Ballybawn solely to dispel any doubts that she might still have had about his trustworthiness. Shouldn’t she be pleased that he had made that amount of effort on her behalf and that he had not yet given up on her?
‘Five years ago, your stepsister helped to screw up my life. What she just got in return was a very minor slap on the wrist, cara mia,’ Luciano delivered.
‘Certainly, she had no qualms about lying about Miles the way she did.’ Kerry was struggling to overcome her dismay at the extent of that ruthless streak of his by reminding herself that the blonde was a persistent and shameless liar.
Luciano tightened his lean, strong hands over hers. ‘I know Rochelle and she wasn’t lying. I never did have much time for your stepbrother, Miles, and now it seems I had good reason to feel that way—’
‘She’s definitely lying about Miles! I’d trust him with my life. He would never do anything that would cause me distress,’ Kerry insisted.
