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‘I thought they were.’ The air-conditioned tea lounge felt suddenly oppressively warm. Turning back to his PA, he nodded. ‘Thank you, Arnaldo. Shall we?’ he asked, turning to Dora.
He stood up, waited for Dora to get to her feet and then he moved swiftly through the casino, guiding her past the tables.
Lei could wait. It wouldn’t be important. Her turning up unannounced was just part of the long-standing pattern of their relationship—the incessant jockeying for position between siblings that had dominated all their lives.
Only pulling rank wasn’t what had made him get up and leave...
His hand tightened against Dora’s back.
He and his sisters put on a convincing demonstration of closeness, and up until a few minutes ago it had never bothered him that it was just a performance. But now he and Dora had shared a conversation of unscripted honesty—his first—and it seemed jarringly wrong to juxtapose the two, to taint such a genuine moment of trust and openness with something so elaborately false.
As they turned towards the exit she frowned, but without giving her time to speak he reached for her arm and propelled her through the doors and into his waiting limousine. Sliding in beside her, he released his grip.
She stared up at him, her face stiff with shock and confusion. ‘I don’t understand. I thought we were going to meet your sister?’
‘You thought wrong.’ He saw the harshness of his voice reflected in her eyes. ‘Now’s not the right time.’
It was certainly not the right place. To allow such a private, delicate matter to be aired in public would have most certainly provoked his father’s cool-eyed displeasure.
‘Why not?’ She hesitated. ‘You have told them we’re here, haven’t you?’
‘Of course.’
‘So why didn’t you introduce me? What’s the problem?’ Now her eyes were looking directly into his.
‘I don’t have a problem.’
She frowned. ‘Are you saying I do?’
‘Judging by how you’re overreacting right now, I would have to say yes.’
He knew he was being unfair. But he needed to take control of the situation, to shut down this conversation before it got out of hand.
‘Look, Dora, I thought it would be obvious, but clearly I need to spell it out to you. It’s not you they want to meet. It’s Archie.’
That was true—but only in the sense that his sisters had almost certainly not given Dora a second thought. So what if she was the sister of their father’s mistress? Their father had had many mistresses.
He wanted to close down this discussion.
Her eyes widened, and she flinched as if he’d slapped her. There was a short, impenetrable silence.
‘Right. Of course. I...’ Her voice trailed off.
In the rear-view mirror, he could see his driver’s dark eyes staring fixedly ahead. Just for a second he thought about trying to explain. But Dora was already sliding as far away from him as possible and, glancing over at her stiff profile, he felt a mix of relief and frustration.
As soon as they arrived back at the house she was out of the car and gone before he even had a chance to turn and speak to her.
He left her to feed Archie and put him to bed and, left alone, retreated to his study and tried to distract himself with a game of mah-jong. But he kept seeing her face in the limo.
Why was this his fault? Anger
clotted his throat. If she hadn’t kept pushing...
Staring down at his desk, he noticed the report his security team had compiled on her and, pulling it closer, he flipped it open.
It was hard to remember a time when she had been just a name. His eyes focused on a photograph. It had been taken outside the nursery. Dora was holding Archie against her face, and his chubby hands were gripping her neck.
Gazing down at the photo, he felt his anger ooze away. For years he and his half-sisters had played the part of being one big, happy family. Maybe now, for Archie’s sake, they should play it for real, he thought, pulling out his phone.
