He was standing by the door reading the front page of a newspaper Mrs. Blake, the housekeeper, had just handed him, scowling down at it as though something had displeased him.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Well, we wanted publicity; just not this sort. I was expecting a mention in the gossip columns, a write-up in that magazine. I’m sorry, Lia.”
A stab of unease jabbed her in the gut. “Sorry for what? What’s happened?”
Luc came across the room, moved her coffee, and placed the newspaper on the table in front of her. Lia glanced down reluctantly. Then stared. That couldn’t be her on the front page of a national Sunday newspaper, could it? She knew it was wishful thinking. That was definitely her and Luc, all dressed up in their party finery and looking pretty good. She stared at the picture again, but only to put off reading the words. She only hoped that they hadn’t brought up Luc’s criminal record. What if they wrote about his past, his time in prison? Finally, when she could put it off no longer, her eyes scanned the headline:
Italian Billionaire to Wed Crime Boss’s Daughter
She swallowed, feeling a sudden wave of nausea, then closed her eyes for a moment. Crime boss’s daughter? Was that her they were talking about? She opened her eyes and forced herself to read the article.
“I don’t understand,” she said. She had known her father wasn’t a good man, but wasn’t crime boss a bit of an exaggeration?
Luc came to sit beside her. He took her hand. “It’s not so bad, cara.”
She shook her head. “But this can’t be true. They can’t print this. You have to make them take it back, Luc.”
She looked at him as if she could will him to help her and caught a curious, almost guilty expression in his eyes that she didn’t understand. She turned back to the article and forced herself to reread it carefully. It was horrible; it talked about her father, said he had a record, had been in prison. She truly hadn’t known that. She had thought her father was some small-time crook, but this was making him out to be the closest thing to the godfather.
But somewhere inside of her, she knew that it was true, recognized now how her mother had sheltered her from so many of the darker aspects of their life. It was all so glaringly clear, she couldn’t believe she had been so blind.
Luc was watching her closely. “You really didn’t know?”
“Of course I knew he was a crook,” she mumbled. “Just not like this.”
“Then I’m sorry.”
“What have you got to be sorry about? You’ve done nothing wrong.”
She turned back to the article and finished reading. It said that her father had disappeared shortly before a warrant for his arrest had been issued, due to information pertaining to his crimes being sent anonymously to the police. She couldn’t believe it.
“Where did you think he had gone?” Luc asked. “Why did you think he had left?”
“I presumed he’d gotten bored with family life and run off. He seemed to do that at regular intervals anyway; just this time he didn’t come back.”
Luc brought her a fresh cup of coffee and sat down next to her. She waited to see the anger and resentment he must be feeling. After the way he had reacted to her bringing up his criminal record, she expected him to be furious about this. But she could make out nothing from his expression, as if he was hiding his reaction from her. She sipped her coffee, trying to think through what this meant, what effect it would have on them. There was no mention of Luc’s record, but it could only be a matter of time before it all came out.
“Would you like to phone home, cara?”
Luc’s question interrupted her thoughts, and she glanced up to find him sitting back in his seat still watching her intently.
“Sorry?” she asked.
“Would you like to phone your housekeeper, warn them about this? Make sure your brother doesn’t see it?”
“Oh my God, yes. I never thought of that.” But she didn’t move.
The phone rang. Luc picked it up and said something before replacing the receiver. “The press want a statement.” He looked at her thoughtfully and then seemed to come to a decision. “I think it would be better if you go away for a while.”
Lia’s heart dropped. Of course Luc would want to distance himself from her. There was nothing derogatory about him in this article, but someone was bound to get around to it. She’d hate for him to be publicly humiliated because of her. She was bad news.
She had been planning on leaving anyway. There was no way Luc would actually use those pictures against her, and she had decided she had to go before it was too late and she got herself in even deeper. But his asking her to leave hurt.
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.”