He’d given me his last words and hopes, his last dreams written on flimsy sheets of paper I wished I could cast in stone so they would never fade.
After I read the letter for a second time, I turned my attention to the stapled sheaf of papers and lost my breath to the enormity of the declaration written there.
“Oh my God,” I whispered looking up at Emelie with round eyes.
“Did you find everything you thought you would,” she asked kindly, offering me her hand to help stand. “Any life changing revelations?”
I curled the papers into my chest and grinned so widely it hurt. “Absolutely.”
17
BIANCA
I visited Lombardi & Ghorbani law offices in the city on my way home to Bishop’s Landing. The day had taught me a valuable truth about people and life. There were very few people who were all good or all bad, and few deeds that could fit solidly in one corner of that spectrum. My dad had called me his dove not because I was all good and all pure, but because I had a strong heart and he believed it wouldn’t lead me astray.
And it hadn’t.
My heart had led me to Tiernan Morelli, to a man that yearned for family and deserved peace more than anyone I had ever known.
And I was going to give him that. That happily ever after I’d promised him.
Even if it meant exacting revenge.
The plan I loosely formed the night before took concrete shape now that I had Lane’s hidden will. The potential to exact a pound of flesh from Caroline Constantine was in my power to enact and I was just foolhardy enough to try to see it through.
Happily, the moment I crashed into Elena’s offices and harassed the receptionist for an appointment, Elena took one look at my harried appearance and promised to help me.
Three hours later, I was opening the door to the Constantine Compound with my heart lodged like an animal stuck in the pipe of my throat. I knew without a doubt Tiernan wouldn’t approve of my plan, so I hadn’t told him. Instead, I’d texted Henrik again to tell him I would be late. Now, I was stepping into a potential minefield with only Elias and his mother as back up.
I checked my phone one last time to make sure they were in place and then stepped into the expansive foyer of the Constantine’s mansion.
A mess of noises floated through the open archways leading deep into the house. The tangled voices of the Constantine family and the chime and clink of dishes as they finished their Christmas tea and present exchange.
Despite my resolve, the decision I’d made to eschew my Constantine roots and focus on my future with one particular Morelli, I felt a momentary burn in my gut to be included in the family’s festivities. I’d dreamed of being in this house with this family for so long that the idea still haunted me like a mirage.
But the miraculous thing was that whatever residual yearning I felt for the Constantine was surpassed tenfold by my longing for Brando, Tiernan, and The Gentlemen of Lion Court. I couldn’t breathe without thinking of Tiernan, without wondering how he was and if he was thinking of me. It was madness, but it was ours, and I couldn’t wait to finally go back to a house that felt like a home and make a life with my brutal and beautiful lover.
“Bianca?” my voice drifted down the hall a moment before the click of tall heels reached me.
Seconds later, Caroline appeared in the archway in a gorgeous navy silk dress that made her look fifteen years younger than she must have been with six children. Her hair was perfectly coiffed and clusters of large diamonds glittered at her ears, throat, and wrists. She was absolutely extraordinary, every inch of her beautiful and immaculate. But there was something about that perfection that was almost repugnant.
It made you wonder what she was hiding beneath it.
“I thought you were unwell?” Caroline asked, stopping a year yards away from me as if I might be contagious. “But when Cook took soup up to your room, you were gone. Where have you been? If you were with that filthy Morelli, I expect you to turn around and leave immediately.”
I sniffed miserably, forcing tears to my eyes. “I-I’m sorry, C-Caroline. A man called me today saying he had something he needed to tell me.” I looked up at her with wide eyes. “I h-have something I n-need to confess.”
Caroline studied me for a moment, her haughty regard cool and careful. Only when I began to cry in earnest did she move forward with a kind of cooing noise that didn’t around natural in her mouth.
“Awe, you sweet thing,” she said, unconsciously using a version of Tiernan’s endearment for me. It made me want to claw her goddamn eyes out, but I had to maintain the façade if I was going to pull this off.
When she was close enough, I launched myself into her arms, hugging her tightly as I cried into her shoulder. She was stiff as a plank of wood in my embrace for a brief moment before she softened enough to pat me lightly on the back.
“What’s happened, Bianca?” she asked, genuine interest in her voice.
“N-not here,” I begged, pulling away to wipe my nose. “I don’t want anyone to hear us.”
She considered me for a moment then nodded. “We’ll go to my office.”
I smothered my smile in her shoulder, sobbing there for a second. “Thank you,” I hiccoughed.
She led me down the hall, comforting me almost robotically when one hand steering me by the shoulder as I continued to sniffle into my cupped hands. When we reached her office, she pushed me into one of the twin velvet chairs before her desk then locked the door after us.
“Now, stop crying, Bianca, and compose yourself. What has you weeping so uncontrollably?” she demanded as she settled her bottom against the front of her desk and looked down her nose at me.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered through my raw throat, because I truly had cried a lot that day. “I’m just so overwhelmed and I feel so awful,” I wailed. “After you’ve been so good to me.”
“Start from the beginning,” she insisted, flashing me a terse smile when I looked up at her for comfort. “What happened?”
I dashed at the wet on my cheeks but allowed my lip to curl under in a pout the way Aida used to do when she wanted something. “A man called. He said he’d been searching for me for years, but it wasn’t until I came to Bishop’s Landing that he found me. H-he…” I cried loudly again, almost choking on the forced sob. “He said my dad left me something in his will.”
Instantly, the air the room charged, suddenly pulled into a high voltage outlet. Caroline shivered so delicately, if I hadn’t been watching her, I would have missed it.
“Oh? This is the father who passed away some time ago?”
I nodded miserably, refusing to meet her eye. “The thing is…” I sucked in a deep breath. “The thing is, Lane Constantine was my biological father. He and my mother had an affair a-and they had Brando and me.” I squeezed my eyes shut, tears springing from the compressed corners. “I should have told you sooner, but Dad always spoke so highly of you and his other children a-and I was s-so desperate to me you all. T-then you were so kind to me and I just felt awful.”
Caroline was silent as I wept for a moment, but there was calculation in her gaze as she looked out the window at the perfectly manicured yard blanketed in snow. It was tinted nearly the same pale blue as her eyes in the descending dusk.