She tensed. ”What sort of surprises’?’
‘she would appear to be living with your stepfather-Dennis.’
‘oh, my word-have they got back together again? That’s wonderful…she’ll be over the moon! ‘ Lydia declared with satisfaction.
Cristiano reached for her hand.
‘l can’t let you walk into this unprepared-‘ ”Unprepared for what’?’
‘l believe that you’ve been the victim of some very cruel scams. I’ve checked out certain facts. That nightclub in which you invested did not go bust to the tune of anything like the amount of money you lost. 1 think your stepfather used the club venture to strip you of your savings.’
Lydia studied him in horror.
‘Were you serious? You honestly believe Dennis is a crook’?’
‘He’s a conman with a criminal record for petty theft.’
‘But he’s an accountant-‘ ‘He has no professional qualifications. I’m afraid so. I also suspect that Dennis did not work alone. 1 know you don’t want to hear this,’
Cristiano imparted grimly.
‘But all the evidence that I’ve seen indicates that your mother was fully involved at every level-‘
‘stop it-you’re right, 1 don’t want to hear it! ‘
Lydia told him, more in dismay than anger.
”You’re a terribly cynical person, Cristiano. I’m willing to believe that Dennis is dishonest, but not my mother too.’
The limo had come to a halt while a member of
Cristiano’s security team spoke into the intercom beside a tall wooden gate. Beyond it she could see the roofline of a substantial villa.
‘But this can’t be where they’re living,’
she reasoned when the gate opened and the car moved forward again.
”The police had got hold of some mad rumour about a big house in France as well. 1 think we’re on a wild-goose chase.’
‘lt wasn’t a rumour. Dennis and Virginia had to disappear to enjoy their ill-gotten gains,’
Cristiano advanced harshly.
‘They go by the names of Janette and Brian Carson here. Your stepfather has set up as a property developer.’
”This can’t possibly be my mother’s home. It’s a case of mistaken identity…it’s got to be! If Virginia had this kind of money, why would she have taken the Happy Holidays funds? How could she have been in debt? Why would she have begged me to tell the police thatd took the missing cash’?’
‘Greed. A last little sting before they embarked on their new life as well-heeled ex-pats. You’d never have heard from them again.’
”You are wrong …’ Lydia almost fell out of the car in her haste to vacate it.
A middle-aged maid answered the door. Behind her, Lydia saw her mother, clad in a sunhat and a stylish shift dress.
‘Lydia’?’
Virginia studied her daughter in horror.
‘1 thought it was a furniture delivery! How did you get in? How did you find us’?’
LYDIA was trembling. She was afraid to look at her mother, and found it easier at that moment to appraise her surroundings instead. What she saw shattered her hope that there might be an acceptable explanation. This was definitely Virginia’s home. The paintings, sculptures and luxurious furniture were all recognizably in her parent’s theatrical decorative taste.
‘Did Dennis ever walk out on you? Or was that just part of the sob story you fed me’?’
Lydia enquired tightly.
”We’ve just reconciled,’ Virginia said shrilly.
Unimpressed by that claim, Lydia walked past the older woman into a spacious reception room. Her stepfather, wearing shorts that did not flatter his rotund dimensions, was watching football there, on a giant plasma screen.
When he saw his stepdaughter his jaw dropped.
”Where did you get the money for all this’?’
Lydia asked her mother painfully.
Cristiano appeared in the doorway.
‘Who on earth have you brought with you’?’
Virginia lit a cigarette with a bold flourish.
‘Never mind who he is. You told me you were in debt and broke, but that was obviously untrue,’
Lydia continued tightly.
‘For how long have you owned this villa’?’
‘We’re only minding this house,’ the older woman told her.
‘The villa is in your mother’s name. She bought it with cash a couple of years ago,’
Cristiano contradicted drily.
”You were a very generous daughter, but they wanted everything you had. They siphoned off thousands from your bank accounts.’
‘That’s a dirty lie’
Her stepfather’s heavy face was brick-red.
Cristiano dealt him a look of derision.
”You left a paper trail of evidence any good accountant could follow. Moderate your tone and your attitude. Lydia has enough documentary proof to put both of you in prison for fraud for a good few years.’
‘But she won’t do it,’ Virginia declared, with a complacent smile of challenge.
‘l’m her mother, and what was hers is mine. Didn’t you often tell me that, Lydia’?’
Lydia found that she was both hurt and shamed by her mother’s behaviour. Clearly the older couple had been stealing from her for a very long time, but Virginia’s blue eyes, which were so eerily like her own, remained hard and defiant. There was no apology, no regret there.
‘Didn’t you care that 1 might go to prison for your crime’?’
Lydia could not help whispering.
The blonde woman made no answer.
Lydia could feel tears welling up, and she fought them with all her might. In that silence lay her answer. Gwenna had once called her the family cash cow, and now she saw the truth of that wounding label.
She had been valued only for the money she could bring home. Recalling how much
Virginia and Dennis had resented her decision to retire from modelling, she almost shuddered. When the cash cow had run dry they had had to devise new ways of stripping her of her savings.
With as much dignity as she could muster, Lydia walked straight-backed out of the villa and climbed into the limo. It moved off, and she stared out of the window with blank eyes. Fierce emotion was warring within her.
Then, without a word, she scrambled along the seat and flung herself into Cdstiano’s arms. He said nothing, which was fortunate, for she believed that words of sympathy would make her break down completely. Her eyes burned but she didn’t cry.
‘she never loved me…and deep down inside 1 always knew it too,’
she muttered shakily.
‘But 1 used to try so hard to please her’
‘1 won’t let her hurt you ever again, gioia mia.’
He held her close and she shut her eyes tight, loving him with so much force and passion she quivered. Desperate to offer something back, she said,
‘1’ll try getting on your yacht again…okay’?’
Above her head, Cristiano drew in a slow deep breath.
He smoothed her tumbled hair in a soothing gesture.
‘Maybe some time. It’s really not important.’
The helicopter flew over the vast roof that distinguished Cristiano’s country home in England. Welbrooke Park was a very beautiful country house, and as the helicopter landed Lydia was recalling her last fateful visit, which had concluded with her early-morning departure in Mort Stevens’s ridiculously small sports car. She smiled at that tragi-comic memory. The agony of pain and disillusionment she had suffered that weekend was far behind her now. In a couple of hours she would be greeting the guests invited to their engagement celebrations.
Cristiano, who had been in London on business for two days, strode out of the drawing room to greet her. ‘Come and meet some of my friends,’
he imparted, and then, half under his breath, thorny, ‘I had hoped to have you to myself for a while, but it’s not to be.’
; Preceding him into the room, she stiffened when she saw Philip Hazlett, but relaxed when she was introduced to his languid fiancee, Jodie.