Page 51 of Sinful Beauty

“If that’s not your goal, why come on board? Why return to a city you don’t love?”

“There comes a time when duty calls.” He straightens and scratches his jaw. “And, you know, restrictions on trust funds tighten.”

Ah, Graeme had been right. He’s coming on board because he has to. He’s being forced to grow up.

“What about you?”

“Oh, my trust fund is not the reason I work.”

He snorts at the ridiculousness of my statement. I grin.

“No, tell me. What sent a young girl to Portugal, then to university in Great Britain, and to Switzerland? Wander lust?”

I think of my father and brother languishing in prison. My mother’s sobs when my father had apprehended in the middle of the night. She’d worried that my brother and I would follow in his path. She used every bit of money she had to send me to Portugal once Aline and Gerald agreed to let me live with them. My brother was older and angry. He didn’t want to flee. Three years later and he too was imprisoned.

My mother could have joined me in Portugal. But she refused to give up hope that one day my father and brother would be released. I was nine when I last saw her, and I’ve seen photos, but my memories are fading.

“Lucia? Did something happen to you?”

“What?” I blink as an oncoming car’s headlights blur my vision. “No. Nothing happened to me. My father supported the opposition party and he and my mother didn’t think it was safe for me to stay. So they sent me to live with her cousin in Portugal.”

“That must have been tough.”

“It was supposed to be temporary, or at least that’s what they told me.”

“Do you want to return?”

“There’s nothing to return to. My mother passed away last year.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Missing my mother had been my normal. Her death had been difficult because the hope of seeing her, the promise of seeing her, dissolved.

“And your father?”

The last thing I want is to admit to Tristan that my father and brother are in prison. They were arrested for smuggling drugs, but I don’t believe it’s true. And even if it is true, I don’t blame them. My father lost his job. I was a child, but I sensed the situation was dire. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. Over a quarter of the country is in prison. But to someone like Tristan, I would still be the daughter of a criminal. And worse, a drug dealer.

I don’t actually answer him, but he must read an answer in my expression. He squeezes my hand and says, “I’m sorry,” right as the car turns off the road. I stopped paying attention to our surroundings when the landscape transitioned to headlights blurring the nightscape. He points to a stunning chalet lit with landscape lighting tucked into the hillside, and says, “Here we are.”

Chapter19

Tristan

She leans forward in the seat, visibly impressed. From the outside, the chalet isn’t much to look at. It’s been in our family for three generations now. My father hires a local to oversee the property. All it took was one phone call to confirm it wasn’t in use this weekend, and Henri promised to have the place prepared.

It’s in a ski in ski out location, but this time of year when there’s no snow on the ground, there are no remarkable attributes other than four fireplaces and its ability to sleep fourteen. But, the views of the alps are breathtaking and there’s a chance of flurries in the morning which could lead to a dusting of snow. The system won’t bring enough to endanger our ability to return home. Back in Geneva, the system will come through as rain, so not only is this an escape from my mother’s unwelcome intrusion this morning, it’s also a retreat to a picturesque weekend.

“This is your place?”

“A friend’s.” The answer comes without thought.

At boarding school, my friends were in similar situations. Multiple family-owned properties were expected. University offered more economically diverse friendships, but my closest friends shared similar backgrounds.

I’m fairly certain none of my old friends currently occupy an attic.

It shouldn’t matter, and it doesn’t matter, but why did I lie?

“Come,” I say, opening the passenger door for her and offering her my hand. We’ve come here to get away from it all, and that begins now.

---