The Secret to Marrying Marchesi

‘You’re here to ask questions about the wedding. Do your damned job,’ Nicole said quickly, before moving a hand to her mouth with instant regret.

Rigo sat forward, pressing a button on the digital recorder swiftly. ‘I think we need to take a break.’ He stood, gesturing for Nicole to follow him.

The woman—Diane—spoke quickly. ‘Oh, no, I am here to do my job after all. So as a matter of interest for the article, does your fiancé know the kind of family he’s marrying into?’

‘Diane...’ Nicole shook her head sadly, a bleak look in her eyes.

‘This is not proper conduct when in the home of your subjects.’ Rigo walked towards Diane, using his height to appear imposing towards the woman.

‘I just thought that you might want to know a few things about your wonderful bride-to-be. Like the fact that she and her mother are the most slippery creatures to walk this planet.’

‘You have personal experience with my fiancée that gives you this opinion?’ Rigo asked.

Diane spluttered at his challenge. ‘Her mother is a witch, a horrible—’

‘Goldie Duvalle is not in this room, and I would like to know why you are attacking her daughter—unless you have some personal reason.’

The woman froze, her mouth opening and closing twice in quick succession.

‘That’s what I thought.’ Rigo shook his head, looking down at his designer watch. ‘I don’t have any more time for this. Leave now. All of you. You’ve got what you came for.’

Nicole sat completely still, with her shoulders down so far he thought she might be trying to disappear into the settee. As the magazine crew packed up their things and filed out into the hall, the interviewer looked pointedly at Nicole one last time.

‘Oh, and, Diane, was it?’ Rigo said darkly. ‘I’d expect a call from your superiors this afternoon if I were you. You’ll want to start job-hunting.’

‘You people think you run the world!’ she said angrily as Rigo herded her out through the door. He closed it with a resounding snap as she continued to curse him from the other side.

Rigo looked down at his fiancée, his gut tightening as he noticed her pale face. He refilled her glass of lemon water, offering it to her.

She took a sip, looking away from him towards the windows. ‘I didn’t know it would be her doing the interview.’

‘I take it from that display of hostility that you are previously acquainted?’

‘Yes. You could say that.’ Nicole shook her head sadly. ‘The man my mother is currently getting a divorce from is Diane’s seventy-year-old father.’

CHAPTER SIX

NICOLE FELT THE tension in her temples rise to breaking point. ‘That’s the third time she has confronted me like that and I still never know what to say to her.’

‘Why would you say anything at all?’ Rigo shrugged. ‘She is clearly angry at your mother and using you as a scapegoat.’

‘I sympathise with her. I feel guilty about what my mother did to her family. Her parents had been happily married for decades before...’ She felt sadness encompass her, knowing exactly what it felt like to have your parents disappoint you that way. ‘My mother has this uncanny knack for taking someone’s life and turning it completely upside down.’

She had been sure that Diane knew about her mother giving that interview, had braced herself for the other woman to announce it and ruin the shaky friendship that she and Rigo seemed to have come to. But now she was gone, and they were standing here discussing her mother. She knew the time had come to tell him.

‘You are not your mother’s keeper, Nicole. Do you realise that?’ Rigo said softly. ‘She is a grown woman who is responsible for her own actions.’

‘Most of the time her actions directly affect me in some way or another.’ Nicole cleared her throat, looking up at him. ‘Diane was right. I was arguing with her last night.’

‘That’s why you ran out?’

She nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. ‘She told me something so awful that I just couldn’t bear to stand across from her a moment longer.’ She stepped away from him, taking a deep breath as she tried to find the right words. Wringing her hands, she turned back to face him. ‘Goldie was the anonymous source, Rigo. She’s the one who leaked the story.’

He was completely silent for a moment, looking at her with something akin to curiosity. ‘Why didn’t you tell me this last night, when you were confessing all your sins?’

‘I was afraid of how you might react.’

‘In other words, you thought I would believe you had a part in it?’