She blinked and stared down at the paper, pretending to reread it, wanting to get herself under control before facing him. At last, she found the strength to look up.
Luc’s eyes were focused on her. He didn’t appear particularly upset by it all, but she knew that unlike her, Luc was exceptionally good at hiding his feelings.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“What for, cara?” His voice was gentle; Lia had never heard that tone before. It didn’t help the tenuous grip she had on her emotions. She bit down on her lip to stop the trembling.
“For getting you this negative publicity,” she said. “I’ll pack and be out of here. I’ll go home. You can release a statement saying we’ve split.”
“And how would that make me look? Dumping my fiancée because of a bit of bad press, and not even bad press about her.” He spoke soothingly. “There’s absolutely nothing bad about you in there, Lia, only your father.”
“I know, but they’re bound to dig deeper. They’ll find out about you.”
“About me?”
“About prison.”
He gave her a curious glance as if she was not behaving as expected. “My time in prison is a matter of record. It’s no secret.”
“Yes, but it’s not on the front pages yet.”
He smiled. “Don’t worry about me. But we do need to get you away until all this dies down, which it will, given time. I have the perfect place for us to go.”
Lia felt a strange unexpected lift. “Us?”
“Of course.” He cast her a glance that she didn’t quite understand. “After all, you wouldn’t want me to come out of this a heartless bastard, would you? No, I definitely think it’s best if we go away together. I’ll take my beautiful, innocent fiancée away from the horrible muckraking press. I may even come out of this a hero.”
Lia felt like she was missing something. “Why aren’t you more upset about this?”
“I’ve lived with the press for years and truthfully, unlike you, I really don’t give a damn what people I don’t know think of me.”
Lia blinked. This was all moving too fast. Luc didn’t want her out of his life. He wanted them to go away together? “I can’t leave Mike and Sally to cope with this alone.”
“I’ll send Gary over. He can make sure they’re okay, and if any reporters do turn up he can always take them over to Shellwood for a few days. Security there will make sure no one bothers them.”
“So is that where we’re going, Shellwood?”
“No. We’ll go to my place in Italy—it’s more private. Give it a few days, and this will all blow over, and we can come home.”
“I can’t go to Italy. I don’t have my passport.”
“Gary can pick that up as well.”
She frowned. “You’ve got this all worked out, haven’t you?”
He smiled blandly. “Planning is my forte, cara. Just leave it all to me. Now, drink your coffee, and I’ll organize everything. I’ll be in the office.” He bent down and gave her a soft kiss on her forehead.
Why was he taking this so well? She would have expected him to be furious. Then the truth of the situation hit her. She was going to Italy with Luc. She couldn’t believe it. It felt like a huge weight had lifted from her, and she realized with something approaching fear how much she had actually dreaded leaving him. This would only put it off, and that was as it should be; she didn’t want anything permanent, even if it was an option. But to have some time alone with Luc, in Italy, was beyond anything she could have imagined.
She finished her coffee and made some phone calls. Sally took it extremely well and said she would talk to Mike. She only appeared concerned when Lia mentioned she was going abroad with Luc, but Lia managed to put her mind at rest. She also called Kelly, who was bubbling over with excitement.
“Did you know all this about my father?” Lia asked.
“Of course I did. I just never talked about it because I presumed it was a bad subject. I’m sorry, Lia, but don’t let it upset you; it’s nothing to do with you and the person you are.”
“I can’t believe my mother kept it from me, told me all those lies.”
“Can’t you?” Kelly made no effort to hide her disbelief. “Knowing your mother, I would have found it stranger if she had told you the truth. You know how obsessed she was with keeping up appearances. She probably lived in constant fear of someone mentioning her husband, the bank robber.”
“Bank robber?”
“Oops. Is that something else you didn’t know? Honestly, Lia, sometimes I think you lived your whole life with your head in a hole.”