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Then she’d remembered her wedding to Primo Vasile. Even though they’d lied to her about the severity of her father’s illness, she could not escape from Vasile’s blackmail. If anything, it made it vital that she cooperate. If her father was going to regain his health and eventually leave hospital, Vasile’s threat to take incriminating evidence to the police became more meaningful.
Once again, it had seemed her life was horribly out of her own control and she would still be forced to submit to Vasile’s blackmail.
Then Marco had launched his attack on her.
And suddenly her whole world had been thrown into a tailspin of an altogether different magnitude.
Just about everything Marco had said and done that afternoon had horrified her. She’d been subjected to a relentless bombardment of vicious accusations, unbelievable deceptions and harsh truths about the past.
But nothing had hurt as badly as the discovery that everything that had ever happened between them had been a lie. Marco had been deceiving her from day one.
Claudia shut her eyes and tried to close her mind too. Horrible thoughts were churning in her head, threatening to tear her apart from the inside. She couldn’t let herself think about any of it yet. It was too raw. Too overwhelming.
She took several steadying breaths, opened her eyes and focused on the view outside the window, determined to keep calm.
A magnificent winter sunset filled the western sky, painting it a brilliant tangerine with wide contrasting ribbons of silver-grey cloud slicing through it. The sun was a blazing ball of fire at the centre, made all the more dramatic by the stark black silhouettes of winter trees in the foreground.
Suddenly her eyes filled with tears once more. Although she knew it was crazy, she wanted to talk to Marco about the sunset. She knew it was an irrational desire brought about by the memory of the relationship she’d once believed in—the relationship that had been a total sham—but that didn’t make the longing to talk to Marco any less real.
They’d talked about anything and everything—she’d thought it was part of what had made them grow so close. He’d always understood what was on her mind, and never teased her when she wanted to talk about things other people might find silly.
Her discovery that Marco had been using her should have obliterated any positive feelings she had for him. Those feelings had been built on a web of deceit and should have come crumbling down when that web was destroyed.
Instead, she wanted to talk to him about the sunset, and she found herself longing to go back to when things between them had been good.
Why did her heart still yearn for him?
Why did she want to talk to him when he had hurt her so badly?
Because she was in love.
Her heart skipped a beat and she clutched her hands together on her lap. She was still in love with Marco. After everything that had happened, every horrible thing he had said and done to her, she still loved him.
She squeezed her eyes shut but she couldn’t squeeze out the truth. Marco had set her up. Lied to her. Manipulated her in the worst possible way.
How could she still love him?
‘Are you going to answer that?’ Marco’s voice cut through her thoughts and she suddenly realised her mobile phone was ringing.
She shook her head, trying to pull herself together, and drew the phone out of her bag. It was Francesca. Her stepmother had called repeatedly over the last few days, but after the first time Claudia had left her phone on silent, letting her voicemail pick up. She hadn’t wanted to speak to the woman who was in cahoots with her blackmailer. She’d agreed to do what they’d asked of her—wasn’t that enough?
But now there was something important she wanted to ask Francesca.
‘Claudia, darling? Where are you?’ Francesca’s voice rang in her ears. ‘Why haven’t you returned my messages?’
‘I told you that I’d be there. And then I left you a message confirming when and where we’d meet in the Caribbean,’ Claudia said. ‘There was nothing else to say. I already told you I didn’t want to discuss the arrangements any more.’
‘But there’s so much to finalise. You haven’t chosen your—’
‘My father is not dying,’ Claudia interrupted. ‘Why did you lie to me?’
There was a deathly silence.
‘What do you mean?’ Francesca asked. It was the first time Claudia had ever heard her sound so uncertain.
‘I was at the hospital today. The doctors explained everything—he’ll be well enough to come home soon.’
‘Yes, isn’t it wonderful?’ Francesca’s voice was falsely high and enthusiastic. ‘I was going to tell you the good news when I saw you in person—it’s not the sort of thing to leave on voicemail.’
