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‘I meant it at the time. I expected something else when I came here.’
Some small indication that Luigi hadn’t found her an abomination. That the harrowing sadness she still glimpsed in her mother’s eyes when she was too drugged up to conceal her emotions wasn’t the reason Luigi had turned his back on them.
That got Maceo’s attention. ‘What exactly did you expect from a woman you ignored for weeks?’
‘I didn’t expect anything from your...from Carlotta.’
Faye wasn’t sure why the word wife stuck in her throat. Perhaps because she found it difficult to imagine this man married to Carlotta. She grimaced inwardly at the sexist thought. For all she knew they’d been a perfect match, wildly in love.
That curious dart returned, sharper than before. She doubled her efforts to suppress it.
‘I wanted to know why Luigi...my stepfather...’
She stopped, unwilling to divulge the depth of her hurt to a stranger. Even if that stranger had, until recently, been married to the widow of her stepfather.
Faye shook her head. The whole thing was confounding. ‘When your lawyers mentioned Carlotta had left something for me, I wasn’t expecting it to be shares in Luigi’s company.’
His eyes hardened. ‘It is a fraction of a single share.’
She shrugged. ‘Yes. Whatever...’
‘There you go again—pretending you don’t give a damn about the fortune that’s landed in your lap. You’re going to have to do better than this flippant performance, Miss Bishop.’
‘It’s not a performance. I care about the inheritance, obviously, or I wouldn’t have returned. I just wanted something...more.’
An expression flickered through his eyes, but he veiled his features with the simple act of glancing down. The avoidance lasted only seconds before he was back to dissecting her with laser-like precision.
‘Why now? He’s been dead for over a decade.’
She wasn’t fooled by his silky tone. Suspicion rolled off him in radioactive waves. Her heart slowed to a dull, painful thud, and she was bracingly aware in that moment of the dark stain she carried. The reason she strove to live her life in light, lest the darkness overwhelm her.
‘I thought perhaps he hadn’t wanted to say whatever he needed to say to my face.’
Again something intangible flickered in his eyes, lifting the hairs on her nape. Again the look disappeared, taking with it that tiny seedling of hope.
‘My godfather was many things, but he wasn’t a man who lived in fear of little girls. What do you believe he needed to say to you that he couldn’t when he was alive?’ he asked.
Faye shook her head, her insides locking tight around her secret. ‘That’s between him and me. Or not, as it turns out, since there’s nothing besides this fraction of a share you’re so annoyed about.’
Bleak amusement glinted in his eyes. ‘You think that’s what I am? Annoyed?’
‘You certainly don’t seem joyful about it—’
‘Perhaps because we both know you don’t deserve it, and nor did you do anything to earn it,’ he sliced in.
‘Whereas you have?’ Faye wasn’t sure why she felt the urge to needle him. ‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t you the silver spoon recipient of what Luigi built?’
His face hardened into an iron mask, his eyes livid flames of displeasure. ‘Permit me to correct that misconception. My grandfather started this company with one shop here in Napoli. My father took over when he was twenty-one and expanded the company into Europe. It was my family’s hard work that got it off the ground. Luigi’s contribution was immeasurable, of course, but he didn’t come on board until much later. As to your assumption that I’ve merely ridden on the coat-tails of my forebears—I’ll leave you to discover how wr
ong you are in your own time. You’ve already wasted enough of mine. Do you want to discuss how you will justify your inheritance or waste more time dispensing insults?’
Faye realised just how much she’d wounded his pride by his haughty expression. Since she knew the company was now a billion-euro luxury confectionery brand, Faye didn’t need telling that he had been responsible for that meteoric expansion.
She swallowed and attempted to corral her turbulent emotions. ‘I... I’d like to discuss this. What do I need to do?’
He regarded her for several seconds and, had she been invited to guess, she would’ve said he was disappointed she hadn’t taken a third option and thrown his offer back in his face. But then that peculiar gleam entered his eyes again. Almost as if he was relishing this skirmish. And why wouldn’t he? Hadn’t she just presented him with the perfect opportunity to exact his pound of flesh for her insults?
With growing apprehension, she watched him stroll around to perch on the corner of his vast glass desk. The motion drew her attention to his muscled thighs, to the high polish of his shoes and to the stern reminder that she was in the rarefied company of one of the world’s youngest billionaires. His expression suggested she should count herself lucky that a man of his calibre was giving her the time of day.
