Heirs Book Two: American Lady (30 page)

Beaucopas inclined his head. “As you know I
have just returned from Chicago, your Highness, and can report that
your suspicions about Cabrini look correct. In 1958 he did indeed
immigrate from Palmero, Italy.”

“I knew it!” Maix cried excitedly. “I just
knew he had to be involved.”

“Well, it’s not conclusive but it does give
us something else to work on from the Italian end and I’ll see what
I can dig up about the Cabrini family and whether or not Cesare and
Giuseppe Cabrini, whom we know is a Mafiosa, are related.

“Now, while I was in Chicago I hired a
private investigator to dig into Cabrini’s life. I didn’t want to
make a fuss with the police in case they started asking questions
we don’t want to answer right now. Cabrini seems clean as a whistle
but there may be things that haven’t made it to the police files.
I’m hoping to have a report from the investigator very soon.”

“Great, Gilles. I’ve been going through the
SBT reports but with no joy. I’m waiting for the June quarterly
financial report to come out and I’ll check through that. By now
I’m so familiar with the mundane workings of the SBT that I hope to
be able to spot anything out of the ordinary.”

Anouk buzzed. Maixent answered his
intercom.

“A call from New York, your Highness. I
thought you would want to take it,” she said discreetly.

Joy surged through Maixent. It had to be
Charley.

“Would you excuse me, Gilles?”

“Certainly, your Highness. I will contact
you when I receive more information from the investigator or about
the Cabrini family,” Beaucopas excused himself.

Maixent picked up the receiver. “Charley,
darling, I’ve been waiting to hear from you,” he murmured
happily.

There was a long silence at the other end of
the line, then Charley’s voice, sounding tremulous and brittle came
on. “I’m sorry, Maix, but I want to call off the engagement.”

Shock robbed Maixent of his own voice for a
minute. Surely, he must have misheard her. “What did you say?”
Maixent’s voice was hoarse with concern.

“I think it’s better if we don’t see each
other again.” Charley’s voice was muffled as if she might be
crying.

“Charley! Tell me what’s happened! Why have
you changed your mind?” Maixent’s voice was now edgy and frantic.
Holding a telephone receiver was no substitute for holding her in
his arms. “Charley, I know I’ve been busy and haven’t been able to
spend as much time with you as you deserve, but believe me once I
get this financial mess out of my hair we will have all the time in
the world,” Maixent pleaded.

On the other end of the line he could hear
Charley sobbing even harder as though his words were a catalyst for
more anguish.

“I love you, Maix, but I can’t do this,”
Charley finally gulped.

Maixent’s mind was a whirling frenzy. What
the fuck had happened in the past two weeks?! Was it the paparazzi?
Was it her ex, Dan Tonkin? Was she having second thoughts about
living in a celebrity fishbowl? He cupped a palm over the receiver,
frantically buzzing Anouk on the intercom. “Book me a flight to New
York immediately,” he ordered.

His heart was flopping around in his chest
like a dying fish. Taking a deep breath to steady his voice, he
removed his hand from the receiver. “Charley, don’t make any rash
decisions. Let’s wait and talk…”

“I really don’t want to talk about it or
drag things out any longer. I’ve agonized over this decision for
the past two weeks. Please don’t contact me again,” she spoke more
calmly and then resolutely hung up.

Maixent sat in stunned silence, the receiver
buzzing in his ear. Was she trying to wound him because he hadn’t
given her the attention she deserved? But her words hadn’t sounded
like a ploy, they had sounded absolutely, irrevocably final. His
hand still rested on the receiver. His fingers itched to punch in
her number. To hear her laugh and say it was a joke in bad
taste.

He dropped his head into his hands. What was
the point of negotiating all the hurdles in their path just to have
her deflate his hopes like a burst bubble economy? Was it his fault
for proposing too quickly? He should have been more patient, given
her time to adjust to becoming a royal. He was prepared to go back
to dating without any pressure, he thought. In order not to lose
Charley he would do whatever it took. The only problem was he
didn’t know what she wanted.

His heart, which had been racing throughout
their conversation, now beat so slowly he thought it might stop. He
prayed that it would stop, to end the pain that was constricting
his chest and crippling his breathing.

So this utter devastation was how it felt to
have your heart broken. He was used to being the one sliding
gracefully out of relationships, leaving Thiérry to deflect their
anger or anguish because he hated dealing with his ex-girlfriends.
He always wanted a clean break and once it was over he rarely
thought about the girl again. Was that how Charley felt about him?
He cringed. Was he nothing but a nuisance to her?

Anouk poked her head around the door. “Your
Highness, there’s a flight leaving Nice at 8.20 pm. Shall I book
you on it?”

* * *

Leigh paced up and down her office, chewing
her nails in agitation. Maixent had just left, heartbroken about
Charley’s brutal farewell. She had never seen her son so distressed
and despairing. Even so, she had stripped him of any lingering
hope, persuading him not to act rashly and fly to New York. She had
offered barren platitudes, suggesting he give Charley space to sort
out her emotions, all the time feeling like a traitor. If she
hadn’t planted doubt in Charley’s mind, Charley would still be with
Maixent.

She blamed Nikki and her Puritan background
for being so paranoid about the young lovers. What were the chances
that they shared Jean-Luc as a father? Practically nil, she fumed.
And yet she had allowed her fear to overcome rationality.

Except, her conscious smote her, that wasn’t
the real reason she had agreed to Nikki’s scheme of separation. The
fact was Leigh didn’t want Nikki and Charley in her life. The past
had to remain a secret unthreatened by Nikki’s paranoia. She didn’t
trust Nikki not to reveal the truth to Charley to stop the
marriage. It was better this way, wasn’t it?

She paused, placing her hands on either side
of her aching head. Surely Maixent would fall in love again?
Heavens, he was the most eligible bachelor in Europe, women were
tripping over themselves to be in his life.

God, she was a terrible mother! She recoiled
from her own selfishness. She was placing her own interests above
her child’s. But ultimately it was for the good of the whole
family, she convinced herself. If the past stayed secret they were
all protected. At least this way, their lives would go back to
normal. Crisis averted.

Her secretary knocked. “A special delivery
has just come, Madam,” Sasha said.

“Just leave it in my in-tray,” Leigh said
irritably.

Her desk blotter was littered with papers
and files, paper trays filled with unopened mail and unsigned
letters stood like sentinels on either side of her desk. Sasha
placed the small manila envelope, stamped several times with
“confidential” across the front, on top of her blotter. “If there’s
nothing further, Madam, I’ll be leaving the office now.”

“That’s fine, Sasha. I’ll see you in the
morning,” Leigh spoke absently, unaware of her secretary’s curious
gaze at seeing her boss so distracted that she had kicked off her
shoes and looked as though she had stuck her hair in front of a
turbine engine.

“Oh, wait, Sasha, could you bring me some
headache tablets?”

Despondently she walked over to her desk and
flicked through the remains of the day’s mail as she waited for her
secretary. As she did so she dislodged the small envelope sitting
on top. The sharp edge of the envelope struck her thigh and then
slithered to floor. She ignored it.

Sasha returned to the office with a crystal
glass of water and a bottle of headache tablets on a silver tray
that she placed on the edge of the desk, then quickly bent and
picked up the fallen envelope. “Anything else, Madam?” She dropped
the envelope in front of Leigh and waited to be dismissed.

“No, thank you Sasha.”

“Thank you, Madam. Just a last reminder that
Hyacinthe is still waiting for final approval for tonight’s
menu.”

Tonight she had to face a family dinner to
farewell her brother and sister-in-law who were returning to Paris
in the morning.

“Thank you, Sasha. I’ll call him
directly.”

Sasha turned and backed quickly from the
room.

Leigh swallowed two tablets, again rubbing
her temples. Her eyes fell to the envelope sitting in front of her.
It was a normal sized manila envelope, overstamped several times
with the word “Confidential” which was why Sasha hadn’t opened it.
Leigh wasn’t expecting a delivery, but more people were trying to
be creative in their requests for sponsorship or personal
appearances in order to circumvent her secretary’s censorship.

Using her antique oriental letter opener she
slit the top of the envelope with the mother of pearl blade and
upended the envelope. A single photo floated out and landed
gracefully on the only clear space on her blotter.

She gazed intently at the black and white
photo of a beautiful young woman. Her face could be seen clearly,
framed by tumbled blond hair, her eyes closed and her head thrown
back revealing a swanlike neck merging into delicate shoulders and
firm high breasts. At the edge of the photo the back of a man’s
head and his broad, muscular shoulders could be seen leaning over
her and kissing her in a very private place.

She easily recognized herself nearly thirty
years ago. It was one of the photos Jean-Luc had sent her to revive
their affair when she had ended it just before her marriage to King
Henri. Leigh’s heart pounded in shock and apprehension.

Abruptly she pushed herself away from the
desk as though a snake had reared its hissing head. But her legs
gave way and she crumpled onto the Aubusson carpet, her dress
spreading around her like the petals of a single flower.

Dear God, just a few months ago her life had
been under her control. Now, like a spreading stain, the tragic
past and ugly truth were invading it. No! No! No! It simply wasn’t
fair! Wracking shudders tore through her body. It was as if the
strain of the past thirty years was now flooding out of her.

Her whole married life had been a pretense
because deep down she was simply too passionate to live a composed,
placid, respectable life. Marrying Henri to please her father had
been a terrible mistake! She had done her best to conform to
society’s mores, to subdue her passions, but her appetites had led
her astray. If she hadn’t been crazy in lust with Jean-Luc thirty
years ago, she wouldn’t be making Maixent suffer today! Naively,
she had thought that if she acted like a lady – wore her white
gloves, behaved politely and presented a serene face to the public
– she could have her passion in the dark.

Tears poured down her cheeks and she wiped
them angrily away. It was too late for regret! She wouldn’t stake
the future of her children’s lives on having the truth come out.
But how much longer could she keep it hidden?

Painfully she climbed to her feet, holding
onto the seat of her office chair. At the desk she tore apart the
envelope but there was no note inside and no return address.

What did the photograph mean? Where had it
come from? Had someone been digging into her past? Had someone
found the negatives that Jean-Luc took and which she had never
located? She looked searchingly at the photo again. Yes, she would
swear it was one of the photos Jean-Luc had taken. How had it been
resurrected?

In a paroxysm of fear and loathing she
ripped the envelope into tiny pieces and then shredded the
photo.

THE END

Dear Reader,

Want to know what happens next? Follow Leigh, Nikki,
Charley, Maixent and the rest of their families in
Book Three: Crowned Hearts
, coming soon.

Thank you so much for downloading and reading this
book. I loved writing it so I hope you loved reading it. If you
enjoyed it, please remember to leave a short review for my ebook on
the page where you got this book. Word of mouth is crucial for any
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gratefully appreciated. Reviews also make a huge difference to
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Thank you again - you rock!

Elleby

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