Sidonie’s eyes seemed to clear and she reached out with a hand that Alexio stepped back from. ‘You don’t understand. I didn’t mean a word of it. I was just saying what I could to reassure her—she was upset.’
Alexio could have laughed at her earnest expression, which was a travesty now that he knew everything was twisted and black and nothing had been real. He felt betrayed, and that made him even more incandescent with rage. He never let women get close enough to do this to him.
‘You expect me to believe a single word from the daughter of a criminal? You obviously learnt well from her—but not well enough. If you had had the decency to tell me about this—come to me and merely asked me for help—I might have given it. Instead you insisted on this elaborate charade. Maybe you got off on the drama?’
CHAPTER SEVEN
FOR AN AWFUL second Sidonie thought she might faint. She couldn’t actually believe that Alexio had just said those words...daughter of a criminal.
She went icy cold, despite the heat, and forced words out through numb lips. ‘What do you mean, the daughter of a criminal?’
His voice flat, he admitted, ‘I know all about your mother, Sidonie. I know that she blackmailed her married lover and went to jail.’
The words fell like shattered glass all over her. The old shame rose up to grip her vocal cords so she couldn’t speak, much in the same way as had happened when she’d been eight years old in the schoolyard and her classmates had surrounded her, jeering, ‘Your mother’s going to jail...your mother’s going to jail...’
Sidonie could not believe she was hearing this. It had to be a nightmare. Perhaps any minute now she’d wake up to Alexio saying, Sid...wake up. I want you.
She blinked. But nothing changed. Alexio was still standing there. A stranger. Cold and remote. Condemnatory. She felt dazed, confused.
Somehow she managed to get out, ‘How on earth do you know about that?’ Something else struck her. ‘And how do you know about my aunt’s debts?’
Alexio crossed his arms and now he looked completely forbidding. ‘I had you investigated.’
This information made Sidonie literally reel. She had to put her hands behind her on the railing just to hold onto something or she was afraid she’d fall down.
‘You had me investigated?’ she whispered incredulously, looking at him, at this complete stranger.
Alexio lifted one shoulder minutely and didn’t look remotely ashamed or sheepish. ‘I can’t be too careful... Someone, a complete stranger, comes into my life... I got suspicious.’
‘My God,’ Sidonie breathed, horrified. ‘Who are you?’
She felt sick. And then angry. It was a huge surge of emotion, rising up within her. She stood up straight, let go of the railing. She was shaking.
‘And how dare you pry into my private life? What my mother did has got absolutely nothing to do with you.’
Sidonie had lived with that shame all her life but had finally come to terms with what her mother had done—not least because she understood a little of why she’d acted the way she had. Something that she could never explain to this cold stranger. She hadn’t even let her guard down enough with him to tell him of her deep private secrets. He’d gone looking for them.