reception was terrible and Zander commented on it. ‘Where are you?’
‘I’m in the hills.’
‘The hills? I thought you were meeting me.’
‘I’m in a taxi and I’m on my way. Nico asked me …’ She faltered, for the mention of Nico’s name seemed to light a flare. ‘I had something to do for Nico.’
‘Something so important that you leave me waiting. You have my signature already, which was what he wanted.’
She looked to her watch. It was long after eight and though she must tell Nico first, it was Zander she loved. ‘Nico had a lead on your mother that he asked me to follow up. Zander, I’ve found her. I’ve just come from speaking with your mother.’
And all she heard was the click of the phone and for a moment thought he had lost the signal, but when she rang again and he didn’t answer, when she tried once more and it just rang, she knew he was leaving, knew that in his eyes it had happened again—that she had chosen against him.
She must ring Nico, must remember where her duty lay. ‘I’ve found her,’ she said when Constantine answered the phone. Unlike Zander, Constantine immediately asked how Roula was. ‘She’s fragile,’ Charlotte said, and told her a little of the story, arranging to meet with them tomorrow, to explain better face to face. ‘There’s one thing I don’t understand, though …’ Charlotte frowned as she spoke with Constantine, for there was one thing she wanted to sort out before she spoke with Zander. ‘Roula had the money when she sold Nico so why didn’t she go back to the lawyer? Why didn’t she use the money to try and get to Zander?’
‘Because the lawyer kept upping his fees. Because the lawyer did not want to work for Roula and have her exposing all that he had done.’
‘How do you know that?’ Charlotte asked.
‘Because that lawyer was my father.’
There was pain all around, Charlotte realised. A pain that ran so deep, perhaps too deep for healing, but surely if Nico and Constantine could work through it, then she and Zander stood a chance. She spent the rest of the journey pleading with the driver to please go faster and flew out of the taxi before it had even come fully to a halt. Dashing into the foyer, she saw luxurious cases on the gold trolley and almost wept with relief that Zander was still there.
‘Zander, please …’ She ran up to him as he walked out to the waiting car. ‘I’m sorry but Nico—’
‘Nico?’ He hated that word and this time it showed. This time he spat it out. ‘Nico snaps his fingers and you run. You had plans with me and yet you drop them for him.’
‘I met your mum!’ Charlotte said. ‘I spoke with your mum. Don’t you even want to know how she is?’
‘No.’ It was that simple to Zander. ‘I care nothing for her. She is a poor excuse for you to use. I asked you to be there tonight, I was going to …’ And he could not say it, for he had been a fool to even think it, think for a moment that they could ever be.
‘Going to what?’ she pushed, because she wanted to know, wanted to believe that love might have been on offer tonight, wanted to remind him of all he was losing.
‘Give you this.’ He handed her a thick velvet box, but it came with no meaning, for even rubies and diamonds shone dull without love.
‘Just this?’ Charlotte said, which seemed strange when the necklace was worth a small mortgage, but she was sure, so sure there had been more to come.
‘What else were you expecting?’ He frowned. ‘Oh, and by the way, I’ve reconsidered the job offer.’
‘Job offer?’
‘We discussed you working for me?’ He twisted the knife. ‘I prefer someone a little more reliable—someone who does not dash off when we have plans. Still …’ he gave a tight shrug ‘… we have had some pleasant times.’ He glanced at the box. ‘Have it.’
‘For services rendered?’
‘Don’t be crass.’
‘That’s how you just made me feel.’ And there was nothing left to dream, for it had always been impossible. ‘I’d say no anyway.’ She looked at the stone of his face, at eyes that refused to warm, at the immutable man that was Zander. ‘Even if it was more than a job, even if it was more than your mistress, no matter what you were going to offer, I’d still say no.’
Was that a smirk on his face, yes, it was, and it incensed her.
‘I would say no.’
‘Liar.’ It was the closest he would come to admitting that the night could have been very different, that had she not chosen Nico, he would have offered it all.
‘Of course I would. You’ve got a mother who loves you. You don’t know what happened, you don’t know what she went through …’
‘She’s had thirty years to come up with her excuses. Whatever she told you—’
‘It’s nothing to do with what your mother told me,’ Charlotte interrupted. ‘It’s to do with you, Zander.
You’ve got a whole family waiting, a whole parade of people who want to get to know you, and all you choose is pain. I would say no to whatever you offer, for it would be like living with my mother—and I’ve done my time with bitter.’ And then she looked straight at him. ‘It would be worse, in fact. My mother has genuinely forgotten her past, whereas you choose not to know. Your brother is grieving tonight but your black heart cares nothing for that.’
‘Nico has what he wants from me—he has the land. Tell him I am selling Xanos. Run to your boss with that bit of information and see if he pays you a bonus for giving him the heads up.’
‘It isn’t Xanos Nico wants!’ Charlotte said pleadingly. ‘Can’t you see that when you hurt Nico, you hurt me?’ Her words came out wrong, her thoughts too jumbled, but she didn’t attempt to explain. ‘I know what I want, so thank you for helping me see it. I know what I want now.’ She held out the box but he did not take it. Neither did he ask her to explain what it was she wanted, but she told him. She looked at him, and he did not flinch as she said it, but she watched his face turn grey, watched his jaw clench just a fraction.
‘I want what your brother’s got.’
She moved her lips closer to his ear and could have sworn she heard the thud of his black heart as she spoke on. ‘I want everything your brother has—a home, babies, love, acceptance and forgiveness, all the things that you can never give.’ How cruelly she taunted him, but better that than not say it, better that than he never see. ‘I want what Nico has.’
‘Well, you’ve made the right choice,’ Zander responded, ‘because you’ll never get it from me.’
He climbed into a car that would take him the short distance to the jetty, and she stood watching the seaplane lift into the sky and it hurt, for she wanted to be on it, wanted so badly to be with him, but not this way, never this way. She walked the streets of Xanos that night and wandered down to the beach. How she longed to ring him, but knew she must not.
She
