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Battling against a sense of bitter failure, she looked at him expectantly. ‘Please go on,’ she said quietly. ‘Don’t hold back.’
His mouth tightened. ‘You mentioned that the refurbishment of the cafés cost more than you’d anticipated and I found out the reason for that, too. Your father agreed a cost with the builder that was far more than the going rate. Again, they split the difference. Are you following me?’
Oh, yes, she was following him.
She licked her lips. ‘Go on.’
‘Director’s payments.’ His voice was clipped and he thrust his hands in his pockets and paced again, this time back to his desk. ‘Did they ever discuss those with you, Grace? Consultancy fees? Did you know about that figure?’
She nodded. ‘My father told me that there were going to be some one-off payments to the consultant who did the design work for the new cafés. Did he overcharge?’
‘To the tune of a quarter of a million pounds. Take all those figures together, and you have your profit. Except that someone took it out of the company and left you with a business that was just breaking even. They were clever enough not to let you go under because then they would have lost their source of income.’ Rafael let out a long breath and picked up a set of papers from his desk. They were covered in circles and lines of red ink. ‘Your father has stitched you up, Grace. He’s the reason your business isn’t in profit.’
Feeling faint and shaky, she nodded. ‘Yes.’ ‘Why would he do that?’
‘Oh,’ she managed a smile, even though the effort was almost painful, ‘I expect he was driven to it by having a daughter like me. I wasn’t exactly a rewarding child to have around. I was never top in anything, you know, and I had two left feet when it came to sport. For a guy like my father, I must have been a bitter disappointment.’ And it hurt. It still hurt.
‘But he went into business with you.’
‘Yes. At school I spent my whole time dreaming. I was full of ideas and I just knew I could do something good and useful with my life, even if I didn’t take a conventional route. My father said he’d help me.’ She turned away from him and walked to the window, staring into the rainforest without seeing anything. ‘I suppose he saw a way of finally turning me from a disappointment to an advantage. I was never going to be able to check, was I?’
‘So now what do you want to do?’
Scream? Cry? Thump someone? Slink into a deep hole and never emerge? ‘I don’t know. Let them know that I know.’ She straightened her shoulders. ‘I’ve basically been very stupid.’
‘No.’ His voice was fierce. ‘You haven’t been stupid. I see now that you have amazing vision and a huge capacity for hard work. The salary that you pay yourself is nothing.’
She frowned, not understanding the relevance of that statement. ‘I wasn’t ever interested in money, I’ve told you that.’
He inhaled sharply and dropped the papers on his desk. ‘What were you interested in, Grace? Tell me.’
‘Proving myself.’ She wrapped her arms round her waist. ‘I grew up with everyone telling me that I’d never make anything of myself. That I was never going to be anything or anyone.’
‘Who told you that?’
‘Everyone. My teachers. My father. Have you any idea how it feels to be told that you’re nothing? To be told that you’ll never achieve anything?’ She looked at him, her eyes lingering on the hard lines of his handsome face. Then she thought of the autocratic way he ran his business and realised that this man
wouldn’t have a clue what she was talking about. ‘Never mind.’
‘Why did they let you think you were nothing? Because of your dyslexia?’ He frowned, his expression uncomprehending. ‘Why was it such an issue? Why didn’t they just help you? Schools are geared up to handle things like that these days.’
‘Not mine.’ She gave a laugh and turned away so that she didn’t have to look at the question in his eyes. ‘To start with they thought I was just naughty, unruly and stupid.’ Stupid. Stupid. She tilted her head back and blinked back the tears. It always came back to that word. ‘I hate talking about this.’
‘Tough.’ He stood up and paced towards her, his hands turning her to face him. ‘This time you’re going to keep talking until I’ve heard everything I need to hear.’
‘Why do you need to hear any more?’ Didn’t he know enough?’
His fingers tightened on her arms and he gave her a little shake. ‘Talk.’
Why not? How much worse could she feel? ‘At school I was slower than everyone else. The class idiot.’ She hated saying it and had to force herself to remember that he’d already formed his opinion of her. ‘The teachers used to be really impatient with me. My father—’ She broke off and his mouth tightened.
‘Your father?’
‘It was difficult for him,’ she said quietly, moving away from him and wrapping her arms around her waist in an unconscious gesture of comfort. ‘He always wanted a son to follow him into business and what he got was a girl who couldn’t even add up basic numbers.’
Rafael watched her. ‘It didn’t occur to him that you had a problem?’
‘Oh, he knew I had a problem. He thought I was slow, lazy—’ she chewed her lip ‘—stupid. Once or twice he tried to help me but I just couldn’t understand him so he gave up.’
