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“That’s not it. From all the claims he made, and the returns he’s been showing in his statements, my investment should have grown by leaps and bounds.”
She went back to her bedroom and grabbed the files. He was heading into the kitchen, so she laid them on the table. After a few seconds of rifling through it, he stared at her with icy fury in his eyes.
“These records show your investment had nearly fifty percent returns. But the actuality is that he’s lost it all? He’s fronting the funds from somewhere else?”
“Looks like it,” Clio whispered.
Instantly, she was lifted off the ground in a bear hug. “You did it, bella. You found it.” Putting her down, he cradled her face in his palms. “That’s all we need to expose him, bella. Jackson won’t recover from this.”
“It doesn’t feel like an achievement, Stefan. I have a sick feeling in my gut. Everything he did, everything he ever said to me, it was all such a big lie. How can I ever—”
She was more than surprised when he pulled out a dining chair and pulled her onto his lap. His long fingers tracing the angles of her face, he pressed a kiss to her temple. Held her within the cocoon of his embrace. “Shh... It’s all his shame, Clio. Not yours.”
It was a place Clio never wanted to leave, and the want was so visceral that she shivered.
* * *
Holding Clio in his arms as she trembled, seeing the pain in her beautiful gaze abate as he kissed the lush curve of her mouth, Stefan finally felt at peace after a long time.
Strange since seeing his parents after so long, unburdening his shame and guilt with his father, and making love to Clio, the day should have been an emotional roller coaster.
Yet the facts that Clio had uncovered about Jackson, that he finally had a chance to bring him to justice for all the wrongs he had done to so many people, freed something inside him.
He couldn’t find it in him to be angry with Clio anymore for interfering. Instead, he felt grateful.
With her actions, she had only shown him how much power he had given Serena’s rejection over his very life. And yet here she was, struggling to find herself again after Jackson had stolen so much from her.
In the face of her strength, Stefan felt some of his own bitterness melt. He lifted her and carried her back to her bedroom, drenched in the realization that a small part of him could trust a woman again.
However their marriage had started, it seemed he had a wife who bore his name with care and honor and duty.
CHAPTER TWELVE
TWO WEEKS LATER, Stefan and Clio arrived in Gazbiyaa, Zayed’s desert kingdom, the evening before Zayed’s wedding was to take place. The desert palace glittered in the setting sun, breathtakingly beautiful, a haven of luxury amidst the stark landscape of the desert.
Stefan and she had been shown to a suite in the wing of the palace that was away from the festivities of the wedding and provided privacy, just as Rocco and Olivia, and Christian and Alessandra had been.
With Stefan catching up with Rocco and Christian, and feeling a bit fragile to face the other women yet, Clio toured the Gazbiyan palace with a bevy of maids—at least the portions that she was allowed to without infringing on the customs of a kingdom that clung to its traditional roots. A kingdom that Zayed was determined to pull away from the brink of war with its neighboring nation.
Everywhere she looked, there were festivities going on with a pulse of joy beneath them.
The next evening, reunited with Rocco’s wife, Olivia—they had bonded over her and Stefan’s kissing scandal at Christian’s wedding—and Alessandra, who was beginning to show a growing baby bump, she visited Nadia, Zayed’s intended.
Even as Stefan and she were taking part in Zayed’s extravagant wedding, back home in New York, Jackson was under investigation by the SEC. The guilt she had initially felt had eased as more and more of Jackson’s illegal business practices began to come into light.
Driven by greed, he had fleeced so many people.
Under Stefan’s expert guidance on all things related to the charity and its finances, she had hit the ground running in terms of her work. When he looked at her now, there was nothing but admiration and respect in his gaze.
She had achieved everything she had set out to do when she had stumbled into his suite at the Chatsfield with her life in tatters.
As much as she had feared ruining their fragile relationship, making love with Stefan was the most natural path they could have taken.
