Laure wasn’t finished. ‘You wanted funding, which you got. He wanted to be a hero. You thanked him for rescuing you and your project so very thoroughly.Brava.’ She said it all so matter-of-factly and gave an unpleasant smile.
‘It wasn’t like that,’ Ari protested.
‘Everything is a transaction with my brother, with my family, as I believe you were warned. Gwen said she’d tried to tell you, and she would know. Oh, not in so many words. She’s not a gossip. You should understand it now. Everything is complete, all sides of the balance sheet match. He can move on from Jacqueline. He’s had his bit of rebound fun.’ She crossed the room and shoved the clothes at Ari, who took them in stunned, unfeeling arms, gathering them against her chest. ‘I’ll ring Jason for you. I’m sure he’ll come and pick you up.’
What was it Gwen had said to her?When they want something, they get it. They’ll use anything and everything at their disposal to have their way.
From somewhere in the depths of her spiralling despair, Ari summoned up the last remnants of her backbone. ‘Don’t bother. I know the way.’
Laure shrugged, as if to say ‘whatever’, and pulled the door to behind her.
Ari dragged on the clothes as quickly as she could. She didn’t look at the bed, with its tossed sheets, or the bathroom or…or…anything.
Running away. Well, she wasn’t running away. A strategic retreat, perhaps. Entirely different. And if she wanted to run away that was her decision anyway. Not his.
‘Don’t worry about returning the clothes,’ Laure called after her merrily, as she left the room and headed for the stairs. ‘They were going to charity anyway.’
God, she was enjoying this, wasn’t she? Every second of it. The bitch was loving it.
Halfway down the stairs, Ari heard Rafael’s voice again. The light was on in the study and his voice carried, angry but not rage-filled. That same quiet cold that was so much worse. The same tone he had just used upstairs. But even colder somehow, the businessman, the CEO…
‘Very well. Cancel the funding. That will take care of it.’
Ari froze on the staircase, caught between dread and concern. Was she mistranslating that? What funding was he talking about?Theirfunding?
He couldn’t.
‘No. She won’t understand, but I will deal with it. It means nothing. This has to be done and done quickly. A clean break.’
Ari’s heartbeat thundered away in the back of her head, deafening her, and she clung to the banister to stop herself from falling. What was he talking about?
It means nothing.
Did he even really care about finding Ys, about ending the curse? He’d been so convincing and she had been taken right in. Everyone had warned her about him, that he would manipulate her, that he was used to getting his own way, that he always got what he wanted…
What had Ari been thinking? That they’d live happily ever after, following one night together? She’d never been that stupid. They were from completely different worlds.
She hadn’t even been able to make it work with Simon. She should have stayed with him, or persuaded him to come with her and—
Simon. She’d betrayed Simon. She had run away from him. It was like a punch to the stomach, as if all the air had been driven out of her.
And Rafael was right. She was running away again. But she couldn’t still be there when he deigned to come back, waiting to be turfed out like yesterday’s garbage.
Ari made for the back door in a breathless rush.
Nolvene was in the kitchen as she entered and gave her a confused smile. ‘Oh, you are so early. I almost havepetit dejeunerready,mademoiselle, but not quite. Acaféperhaps while you wait?’
Ari forced a smile, glanced down at the ill-fitting clothes Laure had provided her with. The shoes were simple slip-on trainers with a garish pink logo on the side. She was going to hurl them into the sea at the first opportunity. ‘I’d better just go. But thank you.’ She could barely get the words out. She needed to get outside. To find Simon. To explain.
‘Are you running? At this hour? It’s not even light out yet.’ Nolvene gave an exasperated sigh, unaware of the way the word struck Ari. ‘Oh, you young people, always running somewhere. I will feed you. You need it.’
And with that, Ari slipped out of the back door and ran as fast as she could through the growing dawn, towards the cliffs and the path towards the gîte.
Away from Rafael du Lac.
CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE
The moment Ari set foot back into the gîte, Jason seized her, pulling her into his embrace and burying her face in his shoulder. She staggered against him, helpless.
