Georgia blinked, not wanting him to see her emotion. She thought she’d cried her only tears in the safety deposit room, but seeing Luca’s concerned face had made her realise how truly alone she was in the world. Coming to Geneva, a part of her had thought she might meet members of her father’s family she didn’t know about, that she might find a family to welcome her with open arms. Instead, she’d found out that no one even knewabout her grandmother’s existence, so there were certainly no long-lost relatives waiting to be reunited with her.
‘Do you remember the newspaper clipping I showed you?’ Georgia asked.
Luca nodded. ‘Of course. It was about Florian Lengacher, the businessman who died in a car accident. I think I told you it was his wife who made a claim against the tiara.’
She nodded, finding it hard to believe what she was about to say. ‘It turns out that he was my great-grandfather.’
Luca’s eyes widened. ‘But your great-grandmother…’
‘Wasn’t Florian’s wife,’ she clarified. ‘It’s why my grandmother was placed for adoption. She was born out of wedlock, the result of an affair. Which means that perhaps Florian’s family did have a legitimate claim after all.’
‘How do you feel?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know. Angry, heartbroken, sad,’ she said. ‘It’s a lot to take in. But ultimately my great-grandmother was a woman in love, and the man she loved with all her heart was taken from her. It was a scandal, yet it wasn’t, from what I can understand.’ Georgia took a breath. ‘And this necklace was hers, a gift from the man she loved.’ She touched her hand to the piece of jewellery.
Luca placed an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him.
‘Well, it’s beautiful. It suits you.’ He touched the diamond, as she dropped her head to his shoulder. ‘Would you like to try to connect with any members of the Lengacher family?’ he asked. ‘Would you like to find out more about that side of your biological family?’
‘No,’ she said firmly, even as her heart leapt at the thought of having a blood relative out there. ‘I don’t think that would be appropriate, not given that it was an affair. None of this is turning out as I’d imagined it might.’
‘What about your great-grandmother’s family, if you could find them?’
Georgia swallowed. ‘Maybe. I just need time to process it all, I think.’
Luca’s eyes searched her face. ‘Does this mean it’s time for you to return to London?’
She tried to avoid his gaze, but he touched her chin and gently tilted her face towards him.
‘Yes,’ she whispered, wishing she didn’t suddenly feel so tearful. ‘I think it does.’
The mystery was solved, her heritage discovered. There was no longer any reason for her to stay in Switzerland. Not a legitimate one, anyway. She wasn’t going to search for blood relatives, there was no one waiting to meet her; in fact, it seemed as if her family had been cursed with tragedy.
‘Georgia, before you leave Geneva, I’d very much like for you to meet my family,’ Luca said. ‘Would you join us for dinner before you go?’
Georgia looked up at Luca, her stomach twisting as she stared into his eyes. Part of her wondered if it would be easier to simply walk away now and try to forget that he even existed, but the other part of her wanted to enjoy every last minute with him. Part of her even wondered if it was Luca she’d been supposed to cross paths with, not descendants of her great-grandmother, but she knew that was just fanciful thinking on her behalf.
‘I would love that.’
‘Tonight then,’ Luca said, brushing a warm, toe-tingling kiss to her lips. ‘Let me make your final night in Switzerland one to remember. You don’t have to end your trip feeling sad.’
‘Luca, there’s still the matter of the sapphire,’ she said, as she tucked herself into his side and walked from the building. ‘And the tiara.’
‘We can discuss that tonight,’ he said. ‘But there’s no hurry. My family has kept the tiara safe for decades, and we will continue to do so until you instruct us otherwise. The worst thing you could do after all these years would be to make a rash decision about what to do with it.’
She appreciated his advice, and she knew he was one of the only people in the world who could truly have an opinion about what she should do, about the right decision to make. ‘Luca, I’d like to give you the letter to read,’ she said, reaching into her bag and taking it out for him. ‘I know you must have so many questions about how the tiara ended up in your family’s possession, and I think this letter is as much for you and your family as it is for me.’
‘You’re certain you want me to read it?’ he asked. ‘If it’s private…’
She passed it to him, closing his fingers around it. ‘I’m certain.’ She went to let go of the letter, now that Luca was holding it, but something about the way he was watching her made her stop. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ she asked.
‘I just…’ He cleared his throat. ‘You need to know that Florian had a son. I met him when his mother was contesting ownership of the tiara, but he passed away some years ago. I’m only telling you because I have a feeling you still don’t believe this tiara belongs to you, but Florian had no other descendants, and his son never had children of his own. There is truly no one else who could have a legitimate claim to it.’
Georgia inhaled, listening to his words. He was right; that was precisely how she was feeling. How could it possibly belong to her? She hadn’t known Delphine, it was supposed to be her grandmother’s tiara, a grandmother who hadn’t even wanted her in her life. But if Florian had no other children, then technically she was the only person who could claim it, and shewasn’t sure she liked the responsibility being bestowed upon her.
‘If not you, Georgia, then who?’ Luca said gently. ‘You are a direct descendant of Florian Lengacher. I have seen the paperwork confirming that he himself purchased the tiara all those years ago, and you now have a letter explaining how the missing sapphire was separated from the main piece. That means that you are absolutely the legitimate heiress to anything he left behind.’
‘You truly believe that? I thought your family would hate to find out that this is the end of the story. That the mystery ends with me, that there’s nothing more to it after all those years of searching.’ She sighed. ‘Should it not be returned to the descendants of the House of Savoy?’
