by Lynne Graham
Gwenna studied him uncertainly. ‘Don’t you want to know why I needed to see my family yesterday?’
Angelo released his breath in a slow, expressive hiss. ‘I have a fair idea.’
Her smooth brow furrowed. ‘How? I mean...you didn’t say anything,’ she faltered.
‘How? I have senior staff at Furnridge and the rumours about the depredations on the local garden fund hit the grapevine there a few days ago,’ Angelo confided with precision. ‘I then made further enquiries, which is why I’m here.’
‘It’s not just a rumour.’
Level dark eyes gazed steadily down at her. ‘I didn’t think it would be.’
Gwenna moistened her dry lips. ‘My father took the money and used it to try and conceal the sums he had taken from Furnridge.’
Angelo lifted his hand to skate a warning forefinger gently across her full lower lip. ‘Let’s rewind and not have this conversation. I don’t like the direction I suspect it might be taking.’
Her lashes fluttered up on her bemused gaze. ‘How am I supposed to answer that?’
‘Hopefully with a change of subject. Your life has moved on.’
‘You don’t just move on from family.’
His lean face was sombre. ‘You could be surprised.’
‘You knew about this and you didn’t even mention it last night?’ Gwenna shook her head in genuine confusion. ‘No wonder you didn’t ask me what was wrong! How do you keep things in separate compartments like that?’
‘I’m a practical guy,’ Angelo quipped.
‘But just to ignore the whole issue like that...’
Angelo lifted and dropped a broad shoulder in silence.
Gwenna could feel the chill in the air. She also noticed that he was no longer touching her. ‘Angelo...’
‘Don’t go there, bellezza mia,’ Angelo cautioned.
Gwenna spun away from him and turned round again in a troubled half-circle. ‘You can’t know what I’m about to say before I’ve even said it!’
‘Can’t I?’ Angelo countered bleakly.
‘You’re making this very hard for me. Do you think I find it easy to ask you for money?’ she prompted unevenly and then groaned out loud. ‘And now I’m making a mess of it.’
‘Not at all. You’ve packaged yourself very prettily for the challenge. No jeans and T-shirt in sight,’ Angelo derided softly.
Gwenna scrutinised him in sincere shock. ‘You really think that that’s why I’m dressed like this? I’m packaging myself? I’m not like that—’
‘I thought you weren’t like that too. Sadly, you seem set on course to prove me wrong.’
Pale and taut, Gwenna stilled, her eyes full of strain. ‘Stop being clever and trying to scare me into silence. Don’t you understand that I can’t not ask?’
‘No, I don’t. Do you honestly believe that your father is a deserving cause? A truly penitent sinner worthy of a helping hand?’
His cold contempt lashed stinging colour into her cheeks. ‘He’s my father and I love him. Just at present, I’m ashamed of him too,’ she confided with a catch in her low-pitched voice. ‘He’s weak and he’s broken the law and he’s betrayed the trust of others, but he’s still my closest living relative—and I can’t forget how he stood by me when I was a child.’
Angelo vented a harsh laugh. ‘And what if he didn’t stand by you in quite the way you imagine?’
Gwenna gazed back at him in bewilderment. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Forget it. I was thinking of something else.’
Angelo veiled his granite hard gaze. She would have to deal with the truth some time. But now when she was already upset would be very poor timing. He would tell her in Sardinia and that would cut her loose. Like most con men, Hamilton was a seasoned liar and his life had more sordid secrets than a soap opera. Once she had been made to face the reality, she would soon rethink her sentimental take on family ties. And although he thought it regrettable that she would lose that trusting naivety in the process, he was determined to do it.
Gwenna laced her fingers through each other and threw back her slight shoulders as she steeled herself. ‘I desperately want my father to have the chance to turn his life around—’
Angelo threw up his hands in a gesture of total derision and walked over to the window to turn his back on her. ‘Oh...please,’ he said acidly.
‘He’ll never do it if nobody believes in him. He’ll go to prison if the garden committee has to press charges and what choice do they have? Some very influential people donated money to the fund. Please consider replacing the money,’ she whispered shakily. ‘Even as a loan.’
‘Dio mio... A loan with what security?’ Angelo swung back and rested sardonic dark-as-night eyes on her. ‘You almost had me convinced that you were different and I liked that idea. A lady with principles. Until now you had the unique distinction of being the only woman who has never asked me for money... Or jewels to the value of.’
The blood drained from below her fine creamy skin. She wanted to sink through the floor in shame and could not sustain his challenging gaze. The line that divided right from wrong was no longer as well defined as she had once believed it to be. Even while she felt bound in duty to try and protect her father, she was appalled by what she was doing.
‘You also told me that you couldn’t be bought,’ Angelo reminded her darkly. ‘But you just named your price.’
Hot, prickly tears hit the backs of her eyes. ‘Angelo...I really didn’t want to do this—’
‘Yet you did. If I wanted to play games, I could ask you what’s in it for me. But it would be cruel to put you on the spot when I have no intention of giving you a positive response. Do I care what happens to your father? No. Do I wish to please you to that extent? I’m afraid not,’ Angelo completed with chilling cool.
That final assertion hurt as much as an unexpected slap in the face. It was one thing to tell herself that her sole value to Angelo Riccardi was sexual, quite another to be confronted with his unapologetic confirmation of the fact. Indeed he was so cold, so unemotionally distant, that he frightened her. It was as though the last month hadn’t happened and he had reassumed the guise of a callous stranger.
Gwenna straightened her taut shoulders. ‘I’m sorry I made the mistake of believing that you might have some compassion.’
‘I reserve compassion for worthy causes and your father will never feature in that category.’
‘Yet you can squander a fortune on stupid clothes for me! Hang diamonds worth...whatever round my neck!’ she protested in a feverish rush of incomprehension. ‘Even the way you sneer at me for caring about what happens to my father—’
‘I don’t sneer—’
‘Your voice does it for you!’
‘Your father is trying to use you again. Where’s your common sense? Can’t you tell? Does a decent man let his daughter pay for his freedom with her body?’ Angelo raked at her with derision.
Gwenna gulped. ‘That’s not fair. Dad thinks we’re really involved—’
‘We are really involved—’
‘You know what I mean. He thinks we care about each other,’ she shot back wretchedly. ‘And since you said it first—does a decent man ask a woman to pay for her father’s freedom with her body?’
Outrage flashed in Angelo’s punitive appraisal. ‘Per meraviglia. Don’t pair me with your father in the same sentence. If people could still be bought and sold like goods, he’d be the first to sell you to me at a profit!’
‘That’s a filthy lie! My father loves me—’
‘He’s a con man and a swindler,’ Angelo sliced in with cutting hauteur. ‘I’ve an even better question for you to ask yourself. What sort of man steals his eight-year-old daughter’s inheritance from her?’
Her feathery brows lift
ing in a frown of incomprehension, Gwenna stared back steadily at him. ‘What are you saying? I’m sorry...what’s that supposed to mean? What inheritance?’
Lean, darkly handsome features taut, Angelo swore under his breath for he had not intended to reveal that information. ‘Donald Hamilton forged his own version of your mother’s will.’
It took so much effort to concentrate that Gwenna felt dizzy. ‘Forged? I beg your pardon?’
‘There’s a lot of solid evidence. Handwriting experts have been consulted. The will is not even a clever fake. One witness and the solicitor involved have since died,’ Angelo explained. ‘The second witness, however, has been tracked down abroad and he’s prepared to swear that the will is not the document he originally signed in your mother’s presence. Your father forged another will and named himself as the main beneficiary. He wanted the Massey Manor estate and he took advantage of your mother’s death to steal it from you.’
Gwenna was shaking her head back and forth like a metronome. ‘This is nonsense, totally ridiculous nonsense—’
‘And when your father rushed to offer you a home and adopt you, everybody was surprised but impressed. Nor did anyone ask why a woman who had been known to have hated him would have left him everything she possessed.’
‘Angelo...this is wicked, what you’re trying to insinuate, what you’re saying,’ Gwenna told him jerkily, words and phrases getting jumbled as she attempted unsuccessfully to master her shock.
‘I’m sorry. It’s the truth.’
‘No...no, it can’t be.’ Gwenna grabbed up her bag from the seat where she had left it the night before and hauled out her phone.
‘Who are you calling?’
‘Toby.’
Angelo snatched the phone off her. ‘What do you need with him?’
‘Give me my phone!’ Gwenna screeched at him.
‘Think before you spill the beans...can you trust Toby James with such highly sensitive information?’ Angelo set her phone down on the table between them as though it were a very dangerous weapon. ‘He’s on that garden committee, isn’t he?’
Gwenna snatched up her phone but she did not make the call. She wanted to hit Angelo for making her think twice about contacting her best friend for support. Her throat was thick with emotion. ‘Dad did not forge my mother’s will and this entire issue is nothing to do with you.’
‘He signed over the property against his debt to Furnridge. If he didn’t legally own the estate, he committed another act of fraud. Perhaps you would prefer the police to investigate the matter.’
A chill settled over Gwenna then. She felt as if she were trapped in a nightmare from which there was no escape. Angelo settled a hand to her spine. She pulled away in a violent movement of rejection.
‘You had to be told some time, bellezza mia.’
Gwenna shot him a defiant glance. ‘I intend to discuss your insane allegations with my father.’
‘You should see the evidence first.’ Angelo removed a file from the drawer of the desk and walked back to hand it to her.
‘Go away,’ she urged unevenly.
Angelo went out to the hall where Piglet had been corralled in disgrace. The little dog’s morning walk had concluded with the noisy harassment of a driver climbing out of his car. Angelo had been quite heartened when he’d heard about that unprovoked attack. It was good to know that he wasn’t the only man that Piglet hated. Purposefully leaving the door back into the drawing room ajar, Angelo watched Piglet take the bait and pelt past him to join Gwenna with a triumphant burst of barking.
Clutching her pet below one arm, Gwenna sat down at the desk and opened the file. There were legal letters, samples of her mother’s signature, expert opinions. But when she came on the deposition from the man who had witnessed her mother’s will, her tummy turned queasy. The witness was prepared to swear in court that Isabel Massey had left her estate to her child.
When Angelo reappeared half an hour later, Gwenna was proud that she had hung onto her composure. She stood up. ‘I want to see my father.’
‘He’ll give you a pack of excuses. My staff tell me that that’s how he operates,’ Angelo advanced.
‘I can handle it.’ Her blue eyes were bright as stars with defiance as she looked steadily back at him.
‘I’m sorry but I can’t agree.’
‘What the hell has it got to do with you? How would you know?’ she practically screamed at him, the sudden uncontrollable flare of her temper taking her by storm and shocking her.
Angelo remained tactfully silent.
‘You think I’m going to lose it. Well, I’m not going to. I only lose it with you!’ she muttered defensively.
* * *
Gwenna sat in the limo like a stone statue, but below the surface she was seething with a mess of disturbed emotions. The vehicle pulled up outside her father’s home.
‘You don’t have to confront him. Why don’t you let me deal with this?’ Angelo asked levelly.
‘He’s my father.’ Clutching the file, Gwenna climbed out. ‘And don’t you dare come in!’
CHAPTER NINE
DONALD HAMILTON leafed frantically through the file Gwenna had presented him with. Finally he thrust it down on the table. His complexion had taken on an unhealthy grey hue, his shock palpable. ‘Did Angelo Riccardi put all that stuff together for you?’
‘Yes,’ Gwenna breathed. ‘Please don’t tell me any lies. I need to hear the truth.’
‘It looks a lot worse than it is,’ Donald declared defensively. ‘Let me explain how it happened—’
‘It wasn’t something that just happened. Don’t talk as though it was something that you had no control over,’ Gwenna broke in tautly. ‘You forged my mother’s will so that I was left penniless. That’s what it comes down to!’
‘You’re making too much of this,’ the older man argued vehemently. ‘It all started out quite innocently. When you were a baby, I tried to persuade your mother, Isabel, into a business partnership. I hoped that together we could build houses on the Massey estate.’
‘Build?’ Gwenna parroted. ‘But it’s against the law to develop a site that’s been listed as being of historical significance.’
‘It was over twenty years ago and the estate wasn’t listed then,’ he reminded her doggedly. ‘I wanted to make some money for us all. Isabel was as poor as a church mouse, but she went crazy when I suggested the property deal. Playing lady of the manor, even if the big house was in ruins, was very important to your mother.’
‘I know,’ Gwenna acknowledged reluctantly.
‘By the time you were born, my relationship with Isabel was only a friendship,’ Donald Hamilton contended.
That was not how Gwenna remembered it. The affair had waxed and waned according to her father’s mood. Her mother’s bitterness had escalated when she had finally begun to appreciate that the man she had loved for so long had never cared for her the way she cared for him.
‘My first marriage was a disaster and I wanted a divorce. Developing the Massey estate seemed like my only escape route,’ the older man continued with determination. ‘I needed to make a lot of money. I had a wife to keep, I had you and your mother to support and, by then, I’d also met another woman.’
Gwenna could not say that she was surprised by that admission. ‘Didn’t that happen to you rather too often? Off with the old, on with the new?’
Her father grimaced. ‘I don’t expect you to understand but Fiorella was different. She was an Italian, very glamorous. I hoped to marry her but that affair blew up in my face—’
Gwenna frowned. ‘I don’t see what all this has got to do with my mother’s will.’
‘I’m trying to explain why I did what I did.’
Unimpressed by what struck her as a clumsy attempt to somehow excuse the in
excusable, Gwenna stared at the damning file, which lay on the coffee table. Beneath the table, Piglet sighed in his sleep. She was beginning to wonder why she had even bothered coming to see her father. She felt empty. Nothing he could say was going to make her feel better about the fact that he had stolen her birthright and held onto it for so many years at her expense. She had felt so guilty about his first marriage breaking up. He had allowed her to believe that her adoption had led to his divorce. Yet he had just admitted that he had wanted out of that marriage.
Things she had closed her eyes to, comparisons that it hurt to make, were now crowding in on her. Her stepsisters had grown up in a lovely big house with their mother and her father, while Gwenna had been exiled to a down-market boarding-school that she’d hated. During the holidays, her presence in her father’s marital home had been barely tolerated by her stepfamily. Gwenna had scrimped and saved and worked part-time through all her college courses. From the age of eighteen, she had lived in a cramped and shabby little flat that was basically just the roof space above a glorified shed of a shop and she had run the nursery for a meagre wage. Yet a mere word of approbation from her father had been sufficient to keep her walking on air for days afterwards.
‘Gwenna...’ Donald Hamilton spoke with unusual urgency. ‘You have to listen to me.’
‘If you want me to listen, tell me something relevant. The story of your romance with some glamorous Italian woman isn’t,’ she muttered with distaste.
‘In this case, it is,’ he insisted. ‘One day three men walked into my office in broad daylight and told me I’d been messing around with a very important man’s daughter, who already had a husband. I was warned that if I wanted to stay alive and prosper I had to get out of Fiorella’s life.’
‘Really?’ Gwenna only registered that her father had been indulging in an affair with a married woman and she thought it served him right if he had for once been called to account for his behaviour. ‘Maybe my mum would have had a happier life if she’d had a father capable of pulling the same stunt.’
