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‘Whereas I,’ Abby interrupted, ‘don’t simply turn a blind eye to everything!’
‘Abby,’ Matteo said. ‘I can explain.’
‘No,’ Abby said. ‘I don’t want your charming lies. I want to hear—’ her voice was rising further ‘—the truth from my father. At least he doesn’t sugarcoat things.’
‘Abby,’ her father warned. ‘Keep your voice down.’
‘Then give me an answer. Are you telling me that you bribed Matteo?’
‘It was a gentleman’s agreement,’ Ellison said.
‘I’ve got this, thanks,’ Matteo said to her father and taking Abby by the arm he tried to steer her away but she shook him off.
‘And this gentleman’s agreement happened...when?’ Abby demanded.
‘Matteo came and saw me in April to purchase the necklace...’
Hearing that a meeting had taken place even before she had met Matteo, Abby didn’t need further details; she was already walking off. She had nothing, nothing, left to say to her father, and she had just one parting line for Matteo as she brushed past him.
‘Screw you!’ Abby said.
She stepped out of the study and walked briskly towards the entrance and out the front door. Guests were staring and Annabel was throwing fire with her eyes as, yet again, Abby created a scene.
‘Will you stop?’ Matteo called as he ran down the stairs after her and then overtook. Abby stood on the bottom step as Matteo reached the ground and so he was right in her face but she just stared coolly back, refusing to break down.
‘I hate you.’
‘No, you don’t.’ Matteo took her arms and almost shook her to listen to him. ‘You hate what I’ve done, you hate that I set out to deceive you, but I never have.’
‘How can you say that when you met him in April? You were never interested in my team.’
It was simple maths to Abby.
From the very start Matteo had never been interested in her.
All the joy, all the memories, dissolved like soap left in the bathtub.
She remembered sitting in jeans in a stunning restaurant and the joy that it hadn’t seemed to matter. Oh, there was a reason he hadn’t cared what she wore—Matteo had had other things on his mind that night.
Was the necklace the reason he’d been prepared to take things so slowly?
She felt sick with recall as every sweet memory of them soured.
‘Abby.’ Matteo would not give in. ‘My grandfather is sick and more than anything he wanted the necklace. I was going to pose as...’
‘Pose,’ Abby sneered. ‘You started lying even before we met.’
‘Yes, but I stopped lying an hour after we met,’ Matteo said. ‘You know that! By the next morning I was already head over heels with your team and by the next week I was struggling because I cared more about you than them...’
‘Leave me alone.’
She was humiliated, embarrassed and more hurt than she knew how to be.
‘I’ve been trying to tell you about the necklace...’
‘When?’ Abby demanded.
Matteo blew out a breath. He knew that he hadn’t really tried; he had left it in the too-hard basket, it would seem, for too long.
