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Max looked back to her. ‘I did some digging and discovered who did plant the drugs on Luca that night. He was a small-time dealer and in the crush he spotted you together. He knew that if he could plant the drugs on you or Luca no one would ever dispute that you had been involved.’
Shame lanced Serena to be reminded that everyone knew of her exploits and how tarnished her reputation was, even as her heart beat fast and she wondered
why Luca had asked his brother to do this.
Max continued. ‘He’s actually in jail at the moment on another charge, and he’s been bragging to anyone who will listen about how he set you and Luca up—it would appear that he couldn’t bear to keep such a coup to himself. He’s been charged with the offence and hasn’t a leg to stand on because he’s confessed to so many witnesses.’
For a moment the relief was so enormous that Serena felt dizzy, even though she was sitting down. She looked at Luca, whose face was stern. ‘You can clear your name.’
He nodded, but he didn’t look happy about it. He looked grim.
Max stood up, rising with athletic grace. ‘My flight leaves in a couple of hours. I have to go.’
Serena stood up too. ‘Thank you so much. This means...a lot.’
Max inclined his head before sending an enigmatic look to his brother. ‘I’ll be in touch.’
Luca nodded. They didn’t embrace or shake hands before Max left, striding out with that same confident grace as his brother.
When he was gone, Serena sank down onto the chair, her head in a spin. She looked at Luca, barely taking in that he looked a little pale, his face all lean lines. ‘How...? Why did you ask him to do this?’
He sighed heavily. ‘Because I owed it to you to find out the truth. After all, you’ve been nothing but honest with me. The fact is that I think I suspected you were innocent in the jungle. This just proves that you were as much a victim as I was. You deserve to have your life back, Serena. And you deserve to have the slate cleared too. My lawyers and my PR team will make sure this is in all the papers.’
Serena felt an almost overwhelming surge of emotion to think that Luca was going out of his way to clear her name too. Perhaps now people wouldn’t always associate her with feckless debauchery.
Treacherously, this made her hope for too much, even when The End was written into every tense line of Luca’s body. Clearly he just wanted to move on now.
It made her want to push him away again, for making her feel too much. For making her fall in love. Damn him.
‘And if Max hadn’t found the culprit so easily? Would you have believed me anyway?’
Luca stood up and paced behind his desk, his white shirt pulled across his chest, trousers hugging slim hips. Just like that, heat flared in Serena’s solar plexus.
He stopped and looked at her. ‘Yes.’
Serena cursed herself for pushing him. She hated herself for the doubt, for thinking that he was lying. And then she had to concede that Luca didn’t lie. He was too moral. Too damn good.
She stood up again, her legs wobbly. ‘Well, thank you for finding out.’
Luca looked at her for a long moment, and then he said, ‘Serena—’
She put up her hand, because she couldn’t bear for him to say it. ‘Wait. I have something I need to tell you first.’
His mouth closed and he folded his arms across his chest. Serena knew she couldn’t be anything else other than completely honest. She had been through too much soul-searching to ever want to hide away from pain again. She might never see him again. The urge to tell him how she felt was rising like an unstoppable wave.
‘I’ve fallen in love with you, Luca.’
He looked at her, and as she watched, the colour leached from his face. She broke apart inside, but was determined not to show it.
‘I know it’s the last thing you want to hear. We were only ever about...’ she stalled ‘...not that...and I know it’s over.’
She gestured with a hand to where Max had been sitting.
‘After this...we owe each other nothing. And I’m sorry again that your association with me made things bad for you.’
Luca unfolded his arms and slashed a hand in the air, looking angry. ‘You don’t have to apologise—if I hadn’t been so caught up in blaming you, I would have ensured a proper investigation was carried out years ago. You had to suffer the stigma of those accusations too.’
Serena smiled bitterly. ‘I was used to it, though. I had no reputation to defend.’
