Page 26 of Crowned For The King's Secret

‘I led a different life. Shunted to boarding school, where I stayed. Sometimes even over the holidays. So I knowallabout leaving the care of your child to others. That’s not something I ever wanted to do to a child of mine. Why have one, if you’re going to send them away?’

She wondered why her parents had had another child at all. In the end, the only conclusion she could come to was that they’d wanted another boy, and that her gender had been a disappointment.

Sandro nodded. ‘Dora was never meant as a replacement parent. You needed close security, and I thought another female might make you feel more comfortable.’

Victoria relaxed a little more. Maybe her persistent fears of being replaced were misguided.

‘You are...’ The low light of the candles flickered over him, painting him in gold. Her breath caught. He was such a magnificent man. And she stupidly wanted to hear what he thought of her, as if it mattered at all. He took another sip of his wine. ‘A wonderful mother. That book, with pictures. The Italian and English words. You made it?’

She nodded.

‘Many people would have taken no interest in Santa Fiorina, but you showed Nic his heritage. You didn’t ignore this part of his life. When he recognised me... I never expected him to know me.’

‘I’d always wanted him to know you because I knew what it was like not to have my parents around or caring. Ineverwanted that for him. I was always prepared for you to see him, even though I had sole custody.’

Sandro looked out over the palace gardens.

‘I know.’ His voice was quiet, as if he didn’t want to really say the words.

She hesitated. Did she hear that correctly? ‘What do you mean,you know?’

‘This is what I need to say—’

Some staff made their way onto the terrace. Whisking away the remains of their entrée, replacing it with a chicken dish rich with the scent of garlic and herbs. They topped up Sandro’s glass, refilled hers too. She didn’t want food at this moment, she wanted to hear what he had to say. Yet Sandro cut into his chicken and began to eat, as if avoiding the conversation.

‘What do you need to tell me?’

The question came out more harshly than she liked, but she didn’t care. This was her life,Nic’slife, being toyed with over political machinations she had no interest in.

‘That... I’m sorry. You always told the truth. My security team have found evidence you contacted the palace.’

CHAPTER SIX

SANDROWASN’TSUREhow Victoria would react to the news. She had every right to be furious. The ground he had to make up now was vast. The distance was something he didn’t believe could be breached easily, but he had to try. He had a child with a woman whom he’d grossly misjudged.

This morning watching her with Nic in the garden, mother and son, it was so...wholesome. Bringing forth sensations that he couldn’t explain. He’d been transfixed at the pure joy of it all, leaving him with an ache in his heart. Had he ever experienced such simplicity as a child? If he had, he couldn’t remember much of it, those happier days clouded by the memory of being torn away from all his support, from the people heknewloved him. Yet here was a woman who loved her child fiercely, and he’d torn her away from everything she’d loved too.

He needed to reset because of what his security had discovered. Because of what he was furious they’d allowed to happen in the first place, because they were his eyes and ears and should have known.

The risks weren’t hypothetical any more. Not mere suppositions and guesses. This was what was imperative for her to understand.

She put her knife and fork down carefully, deliberately, her eyes narrowing.

‘You mean, more evidence than my phone records, the details of my meetings with your representative, my legal agreement regarding Nic and our custody arrangements?’

It wassomuch more than that. Much worse.

‘Yes. Knowing the date you contacted the palace made it easy enough to find the staff members on the palace switchboard that day. All calls are usually logged. Yours wasn’t.’

‘So you believe me? That proves I’m not scheming with your cousin. I can go home now.’

Sandro put his knife and fork down with a clatter. He wanted to shout,Never!Yet he’d been clear that she wasn’t a prisoner here. Instead, he reined in any emotion, refusing to examine why he was so happy when she’d shown an interest in Santa Fiorina’s animal-rescue organisations, in caring for the kittens in the walled garden. It suggested something longer-term...

‘No.’

‘What do you mean, no? Wasn’t this whole thing...’ she waved her arms about, vibrant and expressive ‘...because you believed I was scheming with your cousin? You can, I don’t know, interrogate this staff member. That’ll prove everything and I can go back to England.’

He shook his head. ‘It’s not so simple. The woman who we believe took your call resigned a month after Nic was born, to travel overseas. She died in an accident—’

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