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“David found out and he told me I had to give him a million pounds to make up for the commissions he had to cancel because of me, or else he’d expose me,” Lia said. “But when I was ready to pay him, he said he didn’t want the money. He just wanted to tell the world.”
It was shockingly easy to tell her parents the truth. It all just came out in a big whoosh of words.
“You got those commissions because of me,” her father said to David, then shook him a little again. “This is how you thank me? Hurting my wife? Hurting my child?”
“Lia,” her mother said. “Go to your room and wait for us. We’re going to have a little talk with David.”
“There’s no point,” David said. “You know you aren’t going to kill me. And trust me, even if you do—which you won’t—I have friends who will make sure the truth still gets out about her. I’m not an idiot. I’ve got my ass covered.”
“We’ll see about that,” her father said. “Lia, you heard your mother. Go.”
“Please don’t hurt him, Daddy,” Lia said. “Not for his sake, but for yours and mine.”
“Do as you’re told,” her father said.
Lia did as she was told.
She would have stayed and listened at the door, but she didn’t have the heart for it. Once she’d said it all, the fury went out of her and she was left with nothing but the terrible need to tell August what had happened.
She got to her bedroom and dug her phone out of her bag. Maybe...just maybe, if she got to August in time, she could tell him she didn’t need his mother’s help anymore. She’d already told her parents. They knew everything. They were with David right now, and her father was either going to beat some sense into David or bribe him into silence. Lia would believe either of Daddy in the mood he was in. But whatever happened, at least now there was the tiniest chance she could keep August from having to get married and give up his freedom to some girl—or fawn or cloud—he’d never met.
She called his number and put the phone to her ear.
Immediately she heard a strange tone followed by, “This number is no longer in service.”
Lia held out her hand and stared at the phone.
She was too late.
He’d told her his parents were powerful. They must be some of the richest, most powerful people in the world if they could shut down August’s life that quickly. He was probably on an airplane at that very moment, heading toward Greece or Cyprus or a yacht on the Mediterranean. There were probably already movers in his house, packing up his things so that by tomorrow morning the existence of “August Bowman, sacred prostitute of Eros” would be completely erased.
Lia dropped her phone and rested her head on the fireplace mantel.
She’d ruined August’s life and hurt her parents, and all for nothing. For nothing at all.
Lia raised her head and the first thing she saw was her statue of Aphrodite, sitting so pretty and placid on her mantel.
She grabbed the statue and threw it into the fireplace grate where it shattered into four pieces.
“That wasn’t very nice.”
Lia spun around.
A woman sat in her grandmother’s armchair, a woman in pink with a stole wrapped around her arms. She had a perfume bottle in her hands and was spritzing herself.
Lia knew that perfume, that scent. Hermès.
And she knew that woman, too.
“You’re August’s mother. How did you get into my room?”
“Oh,” the woman said as she rose to her feet and then...began to float two feet above the floor. A crown of roses sprouted on her regal head. “I have my ways.”
“Oh my God,” Lia breathed.
“Oh your goddess, you mean. Aphrodite. Very pleased to formally make your acquaintance, my dear.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
