Page 17 of A Diamond for My Forbidden Bride
In the main living area, on a low table, a phone and a laptop had been laid out and, since it was clear they were for my use, I went to them immediately.
I couldn’t get hold of Constantine so I left him a voicemail. Then I called Rachel, my PA, and the first thing she said was, ‘Why are you calling me when you’re supposed to be on holiday?’
‘Holiday?’ I echoed, staring out through the big glass doors at the view of the lagoon. ‘What holiday?’
‘You took leave, remember? I’ve been telling you that for ages, and just last week you took a month’s leave.’
I hadn’t taken a month’s leave. In fact, there was no way I would have, not with the company being at such a delicate stage, so why on earth did Rachel think that?
‘Are you sure?’ I asked. ‘I don’t recall...’
‘Mr Silvera called a couple of days ago while you were in Madrid. He said he was planning to whisk you away for a special holiday.’
‘Mr Silvera called you,’ I repeated blankly, a sudden suspicion nagging at me.
‘Yes. He sounded quite pleased about it.’ Rachel gave a little sigh. ‘So, come on, spill. Where did he take you? He said he wanted to surprise you.’
I gritted my teeth, the suspicion nagging even more insistently. ‘Tell me, Rachel. Has anything...happened in the world recently? No kidnappings or abductions?’
‘Kidnappings?’ Rachel sounded surprised. ‘I mean, probably somewhere. But there haven’t been any in the news recently. Why?’
Mr Silvera had called my PA about a surprise holiday. And there had been no reports of kidnappings...
Constantine wouldn’t take me away on a surprise holiday. He didn’t do surprises in any shape or form, still less holidays. And as for the lack of reports of kidnappings...
Apparently, Constantine hadn’t reported my abrupt abduction by the twin brother famously back from the dead. Why not?
‘Thanks, Rachel,’ I said shortly and disconnected the call, my heart beating fast.
I opened the laptop and turned it on, bringing up a web browser and doing a quick search of all the news websites.
There was nothing there about the return of Valentin Silvera. Nothing about how Olivia Wintergreen had been kidnapped from the wake for her late father-in-law-to-be. Nothing about any security incident at Constantine’s Madrid mansion.
My heart thumped harder as I closed the laptop and stared at it.
It was Valentin who’d called Rachel, wasn’t it? Valentin who’d pretended to be his brother, telling Rachel I was going on leave. And then, for some inexplicable reason, Constantine had somehow managed to keep his brother’s sudden reappearance and my kidnapping out of the media.
Why? What were his intentions? Did he not want to find me? Did he not care? What on earth was going on?
I picked up the phone and rang my home number.
My mother picked up. ‘Oh,’ she said when she heard my voice, ‘it’s you. How is your holiday?’
So Valentin had called her too, pretending to be Constantine, letting her know that he was taking me away for a surprise holiday.
Perhaps I should have been grateful that he’d contacted people to let them know what was happening, but I wasn’t.
The bastard had planned this down to the nth degree, hadn’t he?
‘I know everything about you, little star... Everything.’
My mother was blithely unaware of my distraction, even being the one to disconnect the call so I could get back to ‘being with my fiancé’. He was a special man, she told me. I had to remember to pay him lots of attention.
But then, that was my mother. As long as the men were being paid lots of attention, everything was great.
After I’d finished speaking to her, I sat on the comfortable couch, staring out over the lagoon, Valentin’s words ringing in my head.
My palm stung as I remembered the crack of it across his cheek.