She’d swear he flinched, the idea confirmed as he took a step back, away from her touch, and a sudden hurt mingled with foreboding.
‘Luca? Did I say something wrong?’
A succinct curse dropped from his lips. ‘No. You said nothing wrong at all. You’re right,’ he said. ‘I do need to tell the truth. To you.’
‘What do you mean?’
He gestured to the table by the window. ‘Why don’t we sit?’
Emily frowned and the temptation to refuse, to simply cover her ears and go la-la-la, nigh on overwhelmed her. But instead she leant down, scooped up the trousers she’d discarded the night before and pulled them on, suddenly feeling at a disadvantage in the T-shirt.
She followed him to the table and sat in the wicker chair opposite him.
‘I don’t understand. What truth?’
‘My meeting with the royal representative. I didn’t make it to get an endorsement for my chocolate.’ His voice was even, matter of fact, as if now he had decided to tell the truth, whatever that meant, he would do so calmly. The only tell was the clench of his jaw, and the hand through his hair. ‘Or rather that isn’t my prime objective.’
‘Then what is?’ Emily closed her eyes for a second, tried to figure out what the hell was going on. A sense of foreboding rippled in her gut, one she tried to calm. There would be an explanation for this, a good one, one that would assuage the sense of doom.
‘I want to find out some information about Jodi.’
‘Your sister Jodi? I’m still not with you.’ What did Jodi have to do with anything?
‘Jodi was badly impacted by our father’s death. She decided to take some time out and go travelling and to begin with she loved it. She kept in touch, sent photos, we called regularly. Then she came to Jalpura, visited the cocoa farm, and got involved in organising the film festival. Then everything changed, her messages became less frequent and she sounded different. I can’t explain it, but I knew something was wrong even if she wouldn’t admit it. Then she left Jalpura and pretty much went incommunicado. She said she needed some space and I shouldn’t worry or pull any big-brother shit.’
Now concern for Jodi outweighed her own confusion. ‘So have you found out anything about Jodi? When did you last hear from her?’
‘All I found out was that whilst she was working on the film festival she made friends with royalty. A princess.’
Emily raised her eyebrows. ‘So either Princess Alisha or Princess Riya. I did some research partly to help you with the endorsement, but also as part of my plan to bring a flavour of royalty into the campaign.’
‘Yes, that’s what I figure. So I was hoping Pradesh Patankar could shed some light, maybe give me an idea of what happened to Jodi.’
The idea that he was willing to do all this for his sister touched her, more so because she knew no one in her family would ever do that for her. ‘So you came to Jalpura to find out what happened.’ Her voice was small, because, however much she lauded his concern for his sister, Luca had lied to her by omission. Worse. ‘The advertising campaign was a cover.’
‘No. The campaign is real.’
‘But you only did it now because it gave you a reason to come to Jalpura.’
He hesitated, rocked back on his feet as he looked away from her and then back. ‘Yes.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Because I couldn’t betray Jodi’s trust; she would hate for me to discuss her private stuff with anyone, let alone...’
‘Ava’s best friend,’ Emily completed. And in a way she could see that, understood that he couldn’t possibly have told her about this when he first met her. But it still didn’t make sense. ‘In which case, why me? Why did you bring me here? Why would you employ Ava’s best friend? Then bring me here.’
She stared at him, saw the discomfort in his stance, in his expression, and once again he looked away.
‘Luca?’
Now cold hard premonition froze inside her and she wrapped her arms around herself, knew that, bad as this already was, it was about to become worse.
‘I thought your name would help.’
‘My name?’ The penny dropped with a resounding leaden clang as everything fell into place. It all made sense now. Why Luca was neither bothered about seeing her portfolio nor cared about her lack of experience. ‘You hired me for my name.’ She started to pace, needed to move, to stoke the anger that she knew preceded the burn of utter, complete humiliation. ‘It wouldn’t have mattered how useless a photographer I was, you needed me here, on Jalpura, because of my name. You thought it would open doors for you.’ Hurt began to cascade through her along with mortification. Luca hadn’t believed in her talent, hadn’t hired her because of her photography skills. He’d hired her because her name might have helped in his quest for Jodi.
Her brain clouded, fogged with hurt, and she tried to cleave through. Luca had decided to come to Jalpura to look for his sister, had decided to come here under cover of a photo shoot and bring Emily Khatri with him. In case she could be of use. Correction. In case her name could be of use. However, he’d failed to apprise her of the fact and she hadn’t realised that was part of the deal.