‘Every word.’ he assured her.
She couldn’t believe how calm he was, though alert like a wolf on point.
‘Your five minutes are up.’
There was no warmth in his voice as he swung around to head back up the bank. ‘But—’
‘I promised you five minutes,’ he said, briefly turning. ‘You’ve had that and more.’
‘But, please, I—’
‘Don’t,’ Cesar warned quietly. ‘How could the chance to see your by-line above an article in a national newspaper prove such a lure you were prepared to throw your brothers under a bus and me along with them?’
‘Weren’t you listening? It wasn’t like that. Those weren’t my words.’
‘So you say. What I read was invented scandal. Maybe you dressed up the facts until they provided outrageous amounts of click bait with no basis of truth. How do I know? How can I be sure of you, Sofia? The dates on which your accusations were based were entirely accurate, but the events you wrote about never happened.’
‘Because I didn’t write them!’ she exploded, growing increasingly frustrated. ‘Believe me, Cesar. Have I ever given you cause to doubt me before?’
‘How well did I know you before?’ he countered.
‘Do you seriously believe I would hurt those I love—or, almost worse, those vulnerable individuals recovering at my retreat? If you think so little of me, I’m wasting my time.’
‘Maybe you are,’ he agreed.
‘I need help,’ she admitted grimly as she clambered up the bank to join him. ‘What started out as what I thought was a normal relationship between an enthusiastic amateur journalist and a newspaper mogul quickly turned sour. If Blake can do that to me and get away with it, how many more people are at risk? He has to be stopped, and I can’t do this on my own.’
There was a silence she thought would never end, and then Cesar said the words she had hoped and prayed he would. ‘This is not something you can handle on your own,’ he agreed. ‘I know Blake from our schooldays together. We attended the same boarding school. He was the class bully, picking on younger boys with no one to defend them.’
‘So you defended them,’ she said.
A grim smile firmed Cesar’s lips as he thought back. ‘It was a full-time occupation.’
‘And one he never forgave you for,’ she guessed.
Cesar nodded briefly. ‘Blake was the type to bear grudges. I always suspected him of being behind the swindler who tried to steal the throne by cosying up to my mother. There have been numerous attacks over the years.’
‘Of which I’m just the latest?’
‘Don’t beat yourself up,’ Cesar said, to her surprise. ‘You couldn’t know how devious he was, or how he would use you to get at me.’
Hope surged through her. ‘So you believe me?’
‘I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt,’ Cesar prevaricated.
‘I handed him ammunition on a plate.’
‘To help your retreat.’
‘Yes.’ Still reeling from the thought that Cesar might believe her, and that he might help after all, she asked the obvious question. ‘Why have you never hit back at him before?’
‘Make myself as small as him?’ Cesar shook his head. ‘There are other, more efficient ways to deal with a bully like Blake, subtle ways that will keep him in a moral cage.’
CHAPTER TEN
CURIOUS TO HEAR MORE, Sofia continued with her explanation. ‘To start with, it seemed as if fate had dropped an opportunity into my hand. ‘Writing “a piece of fluff” for the features page was how Lord Blake put it. It seemed such a good opportunity to bring in much-needed money to support the expansion of my retreat.’
‘Easy money?’ Cesar challenged. ‘There’s no such thing. You should have been suspicious right away.’
