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p; Sidonie’s eyes seemed to clear and she reached out with a hand that Alexio stepped back from. ‘You don’t understand. I didn’t mean a word of it. I was just saying what I could to reassure her—she was upset.’
Alexio could have laughed at her earnest expression, which was a travesty now that he knew everything was twisted and black and nothing had been real. He felt betrayed, and that made him even more incandescent with rage. He never let women get close enough to do this to him.
‘You expect me to believe a single word from the daughter of a criminal? You obviously learnt well from her—but not well enough. If you had had the decency to tell me about this—come to me and merely asked me for help—I might have given it. Instead you insisted on this elaborate charade. Maybe you got off on the drama?’
CHAPTER SEVEN
FOR AN AWFUL second Sidonie thought she might faint. She couldn’t actually believe that Alexio had just said those words...daughter of a criminal.
She went icy cold, despite the heat, and forced words out through numb lips. ‘What do you mean, the daughter of a criminal?’
His voice flat, he admitted, ‘I know all about your mother, Sidonie. I know that she blackmailed her married lover and went to jail.’
The words fell like shattered glass all over her. The old shame rose up to grip her vocal cords so she couldn’t speak, much in the same way as had happened when she’d been eight years old in the schoolyard and her classmates had surrounded her, jeering, ‘Your mother’s going to jail...your mother’s going to jail...’
Sidonie could not believe she was hearing this. It had to be a nightmare. Perhaps any minute now she’d wake up to Alexio saying, Sid...wake up. I want you.
She blinked. But nothing changed. Alexio was still standing there. A stranger. Cold and remote. Condemnatory. She felt dazed, confused.
Somehow she managed to get out, ‘How on earth do you know about that?’ Something else struck her. ‘And how do you know about my aunt’s debts?’
Alexio crossed his arms and now he looked completely forbidding. ‘I had you investigated.’
This information made Sidonie literally reel. She had to put her hands behind her on the railing just to hold onto something or she was afraid she’d fall down.
‘You had me investigated?’ she whispered incredulously, looking at him, at this complete stranger.
Alexio lifted one shoulder minutely and didn’t look remotely ashamed or sheepish. ‘I can’t be too careful... Someone, a complete stranger, comes into my life... I got suspicious.’
‘My God,’ Sidonie breathed, horrified. ‘Who are you?’
She felt sick. And then angry. It was a huge surge of emotion, rising up within her. She stood up straight, let go of the railing. She was shaking.
‘And how dare you pry into my private life? What my mother did has got absolutely nothing to do with you.’
Sidonie had lived with that shame all her life but had finally come to terms with what her mother had done—not least because she understood a little of why she’d acted the way she had. Something that she could never explain to this cold stranger. She hadn’t even let her guard down enough with him to tell him of her deep private secrets. He’d gone looking for them.
Sidonie was aware of parts of herself breaking off inside, shattering. She knew she had to hold it together.
Alexio spoke again, his voice as cutting as a knife. ‘But it wasn’t just that, was it? She put your aunt into severe debt, to fund her own expensive tastes.’
Shame heaped on top of shame. Sidonie felt horribly exposed. From somewhere deep inside, and far too late, she reached for and pulled up an icy shield.
‘That is none of your concern.’ Because she’d never intended to tell him about it. It was part of the real world, which wasn’t part of this fantasy world.
Alexio’s mouth twisted. ‘But it would have been, wouldn’t it? You were waiting for the right moment, when enough intimacy had been established, and then you were going to make your move. I just wonder if you were going to ask only for enough to cover the debts or more...based on how many nights we’d spent together? Based on how duped you thought I was by then?’
‘Theos.’ He was lashing out now, making Sidonie flinch. He narrowed wild-looking eyes on her.
‘You were good. I’ll give you that. But there were a few signs... The way you were so blasé with the clothes, as if you had expected nothing less. That little wistful moment outside the jewellery shop... Were you hoping to wake up and find a diamond bracelet winking at you on the pillow?’
Sidonie desperately tried not to let the awful insidious insecurity take hold, telling her that despite everything she was her mother’s daughter. Had something about the sheer level of Alexio’s wealth called to her? More than the man himself? Suddenly she doubted herself. She had to take deep breaths to avoid throwing up right there on the terrace.
The sheer depth and evidence of Alexio’s cynicism was astounding, shocking. The lengths he’d gone to because he hadn’t really trusted her... Because he’d suspected something.
The things he’d found out... The fact that she had so fatally misread this man. How had she not seen an inkling of this? Only those most fleeting moments when a look would cross his face...hardly enough to make her wonder.
Nevertheless, a small, tender part of Sidonie not lashed by this terrible revelation was making her say, ‘You have it all wrong. I was only telling my aunt something to reassure her. She was hysterical. I didn’t mean it. You were never meant to hear that and I had no intention of asking you for money.’
