Page 21 of Be My Traitor

“Thanks to Penelope, I learned how to cry on cue, so if anyone asked me about my sister, I’d burst into tears so I wouldn’t have to say anything that might give away the truth about where I came from. Fortunately, there weren’t that many people around to ask. Penelope might have been rich but she wasn’t exactly popular and we were so busy traveling the world that we were rarely in any one place for long enough for people to get suspicious about who I really was.

“Maybe if we’d stayed in one place longer someone would have noticed that things weren’t quite right. I was always starting fights but Penelope just called it the typical Donatello spirit. I don’t know if you noticed the scars on my back when we slept together.”

I nodded, remembering the feeling of raised skin beneath my hands as I clung to him.

“Penelope gave those to me because I ‘only’ got a merit in my piano exam. She beat me so hard I had to sleep on my front for days because my back was so sore and she promised that she’d do the same again if I ever got anything less than top marks in an exam. She said I was the symbol of Donatello achievement and I was letting down the family name to be anything less than the best.

“I knew she meant what she said, and I never got less than an A after that. It’s why I graduated the Academy with straight As and why I’ve been able to bring out the best in my students. I know how to motivate people –withoutthe scars.”

“I’m so sorry, Lucas.” I could feel tears welling up in my eyes.

“It is what it is.” Lucas leaned back in his chair, taking another sip of his wine. “Penelope’s been gone a long time now and I have the freedom to do whatever I want. For all her wealth, she couldn’t cheat death and I know how much she resented that in the last few months of her life. She got worse in the last year or so of her life. She resented me for my youth and the fact that I was going to take over the business she’d worked so hard to build and she would have absolutely no control over me. To be honest, I thought she would disinherit me in one final act of cruelty. When they read her will, I was expecting to hear that she’d left everything to an animal charity, but she made me sole heir – under the guidance of Solomon Archaic. He had control of my trust fund until I was 25, which is why I wound up marrying Ivy. Solomon manipulated me into believing an alliance with the Archaics was the best way to take the business forward. After his death, my trust fund was in the hands of the lawyers. They told me that they would make decisions in accordance to what they thought Penelope would have wanted, which was hilarious. They had no idea what a bitch she really was, so they didn’t realise that they were being way more generous than she ever would have been! Still, when I hit 25, it was a relief to be completely in control of my life and not have to run every little decision past a man in a suit.”

“So, you set up your Academy and started to look for your birth mum?”

“Exactly.” Lucas nodded. “I wanted to help kids who might be suffering the way I did and looking for my mum gave me hope that maybe there was someone out there who would love me for me. I want to hear why she gave me away. If she did it because she thought I would have a better life with Penelope, I can’t blame her for that, even if she made a huge mistake in going to Penelope. Maybe I’ll have a connection with her, finally get the family I always wanted.”

“You already have a family,” I reminded him. “You’ve got Amber… and me.” I gave him a meaningful look.

Careful, Milly. Lucas could just be playing you.

I’d promised myself I’d keep Lucas at arm’s length until he’d proven that he was committed to being a proper father to Amber, but hearing his story melted my heart. If it was true –right, Milly.Ifit was true! –it explained a lot about why he was the way he was. He seemed genuine about wanting to help the students at the Academy and I knew from Ivy that he’d handled their arranged marriage with dignity and grace, never pushing her into doing something she didn’t want to do.

I’d always been attracted to Lucas and now maybe, just maybe, I had the chance to do something about it.

“Would you like to see the dessert menu?” Dave came back to clear away our empty plates.

“I think I’ll just have a coffee,” Lucas replied. “But you’re welcome to have something if you like, Mills?”

“Coffee’s fine for me,” I said.

“Coffee it is.” Dave smiled as he took away our dinner things. Soon after he was back with two freshly made coffees. He placed them in front of us, as well as a generous slice of chocolate cake and two forks. “I know you said no dessert, but Dinesh insisted you have a piece of her cake on the house. She made it today and I can tell you from personal experience, it is todiefor!”

“Thanks, Dave.” I smiled. “And say thank you to Dinesh as well. I know how amazing her cakes are.”

As Dave backed away, I picked up a fork and broke off a piece of cake. Placing it in my mouth, I closed my eyes as the creamy chocolate melted over my tongue.

“It’s even better than Dave said it was,” I gasped. “Youhaveto try this, Lucas!”

Without thinking, I put a piece of cake on my fork and reached across the table to feed it to Lucas. As he leaned forward to take it, I realised how flirtatious a gesture it was and my heart skipped a beat. I was really enjoying our date, but I still wasn’t sure whether I wanted to take things to the next level. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been out with a man and at the back of my mind, I thought about what it would be like for Amber if I started seeing her father only for it to not work out. It wasn’t fair on her to put her through that.

“You look very serious all of a sudden,” Lucas remarked. “I didn’t realise my opinion about the cake was so important to you. If it reassures you, yes, the cake is very good.”

I could feel my cheeks going red. “I was just thinking.”

“What about?”

I gulped and took a deep breath. “Us. Where…thisis going.” I waved my hands around, making a circular ‘you and me’ gesture.

“Where do you want it to go?”

“Oh, Lucas. You always did know how to put a girl on the backfoot.” I laughed nervously. “Where doyouwant it to go?”

“Well, I don’t want to waste your time with a fling if that’s what you’re asking,” he said. “I’m getting to an age where I don’t want to bother with a relationship if I don’t think it has a future. At the same time, you’re Milly Knight and I’m Lucas Donatello. We both have to tread carefully. I don’t enjoy seeing my love life splashed all over the tabloids, so if we’re going to move forward, I think we should take things slow, see how we both feel. Does that work for you?”

“Yeah. Sounds great.” I faked an enthusiasm I didn’t feel. I couldn’t help the little bit of disappointment that ran through me. Okay, maybe it was a bit much to expect for Lucas to profess his undying love for me on our first date, but I’d have thought he’d be a little more passionate and a little less calculating than this. I wanted him to be carried away with desire for me, willing to do something stupid because that’s how I made him feel. I wanted him to want to take risks for me, like the Lucas who’d taken me home that night.

Maybe I was better off putting an end to this before someone got hurt, because it was obvious that that someone would be me.

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