Page 14 of The Exposed Heiress

She looked away from him. Her family described her as someone who sought the truth. She could see through their insecurities and bad decisions. But she hadn’t suspected her father of lying to her about the financials. Had her father lied to her?

Taking hand cream out of her bag, she smoothed it over her fingers. “I knew the situation was dire, but I didn’t know it was to the point that we were going to fold.”

Leo ran a hand through his hair. “The decision to close is a possibility, but there are other solutions. It just depends on how creative you want to be.”

She looked out the window. “Where are we?”

“I live in Rotherhithe. I called in lunch to be delivered.”

She glanced at Leo. “I haven’t been to this area in a long time. My grandfather loved coming down to the docks.”

He nodded. “The area still has ties to its maritime heritage, but most of the docks are gone and the old wharfs have been bought up by developers.”

The car pulled up to a commercial four-story brick building.

Stepping out, she asked him, “Are your offices here?”

Leo said to the driver. “Thank you. I’ll drive her back.”

Emma smiled at the driver and he nodded before getting back into the car.

Leo guided her to a wrought iron gate. “No. My ad agency is in the city proper, but I prefer to live out here.”

He put in a code and opened the gate for her. Stepping through, she looked at the potted evergreen trees that gave the small space privacy.

“This had been a small factory that made wooden boxes for shipping years ago, but it had been vacant for decades.”

Something her father had told her years ago about the Bloom family surfaced in her memory. His uncle had discovered his two nephews living in an abandoned warehouse and brought them and their mother to live with him in London. Did Leo come from this area?

He opened the front door and she stepped into a spacious foyer. “This doesn’t remind me of a warehouse at all.”

“Come and see the living room.”

Emma walked through and looked at the light coming in from the large windows. “I can’t believe the size of this room.”

“The windows have been upgraded and the brick repointed, but I wanted the sheer magnitude of the space left.”

She took in the grand scale of the room. Modern furniture filled the space with various seating arrangements and different carpets anchored the separate areas.

“What do you do with this area?”

“I hold parties for the ad agency a few times a year.”

Emma turned to him. “It doesn’t seem practical, but it is a lovely space.”

Leo nodded. “I mainly live on the top level. There’s a commercial kitchen and bar area on the other side of the foyer.”

She followed him to an elevator. “What about the second and third floors?”

Stepping onto a small, ornate elevator, Emma waited for Leo to close the iron doors. “Is this original to the building?”

He laughed. “No, but I liked it so I had it rebuilt here. The second floor has guest suites and third level has other amenities.”

The elevator effortlessly rose to the upper floor and then Leo undid the intricate doors.

“You live here alone?”

He nodded. “I have various staff come onsite to clean and maintain the property, but only I live here.”

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