LAKE GENEVA, 1991
There was something about knowing that she didn’t have long to live that was making Delphine question every decision she’d ever made. The hardest of all, even forty years later, was knowing that she’d chosen to give up her own flesh and blood. Some days she forgave herself, and other days she simply couldn’t accept what she’d done.
But most of all, she thought about what could have been. With Florian, her life would have been full of love and laughter; there would have been a lightness that had been missing from her life since he’d been taken from her. She knew it was mad, when she’d known him for such a short time compared to the course of her life, but no one had ever made her feel like he had. Her children had brought her love and selflessness, happiness in a different way, but only Florian had truly brought her to life. Only Florian had shown her the woman she could be; only he could have given her the life she’d come to believe she was destined to have.
But now, as her body began to fail her, the cancer slowly spreading and taking hold in ways that could no longer be stopped, she was ready to say goodbye to her children and be reunited with Florian. It pained her that she’d never found hermissing daughter despite writing to Hope frequently over the years to ask for information. Hope had made it clear that she wasn’t allowed to share anything, that the information had been sealed at the request of the adoptive parents, and she’d also never answered Delphine’s questions about the box. Delphine couldn’t help but wonder why the tiara was still in hiding, waiting to be claimed. Whether it was because her daughter was yet to be given the box, yet to open it, or simply because she didn’t want to know what was inside, she would never know.
Delphine’s hand shook as she took out the newspaper she’d saved, turning it to the second page so she could reread the article about the House of Savoy, the former Italian royal family—it had piqued her interest from the very first time she’d seen it.
Instead of sitting in her depressing room in the care facility, she’d decided to go for a walk and sit by the lake. Someone would start worrying when they noticed her gone, but Delphine wasn’t a prisoner and she refused to be treated like one. She was an old woman with all her faculties; it was simply her body that was giving out on her. Her hand shook as she held the paper, reading the headline and then dropping her gaze to read the article.
Unlike many former royal families who sold all their jewels immediately after being sent into exile, the House of Savoy retained almost all of the pieces in their extensive collection. Although the family are in the throes of petitioning the state for access to the collection that was left behind in Italy for safekeeping, many of the younger would-be royals have been seen wearing special pieces from the family’s personal collection.
The tiaras are often the most coveted of a monarch’s jewels, and although the former princesses have been photographed wearing the family’s tiaras over the years, one notable tiara is missing from the collection. It isassumed that the sapphire tiara, previously held in the family since it was made for the then Italian queen in the late 1800s, was sold soon after the family fled Italy for Geneva. Although subject to a confidentiality agreement at the time, the tiara was owned by collector Florian Lengacher, and became the object of a dispute after his death. In a further twist, it is understood that the tiara is missing one of the pink sapphires that makes it unique, the location of which is unknown.
Florian Lengacher was a renowned collector of fine things. He was one of Switzerland’s most successful financiers, and boasted a collection of vintage cars, paintings, and fine jewels that would have been worth an estimated forty million francs, had his estate still been intact at the time of writing. The tiara was entrusted to the Kaufmann family in Geneva, who were involved in the acquisition of rare pieces for notable Swiss collectors, and they intend to honour the instructions given to them confidentially many years ago. They are hopeful that one day the missing sapphire will be found, although after so many years it seems unlikely that it will be reunited with the tiara from which it was taken.
Delphine shut her eyes, wishing she’d left clearer clues all those years earlier. She hadn’t been intentionally cryptic, but when she thought back about what she’d left, all this time later, she could see how hard it would be to understand what it all meant. Which was why, after all this time, she’d instructed the law firm she’d worked with for the past four decades to secure a safety deposit box. She intended to sit by the lake and write for as long as it took to pour her feelings from her heart onto the page. She’d already sent them the diamond necklace that Florian had given her. It wasn’t an item of jewellery that her daughter Isabella had ever seen, so she knew it wouldn’t be missed. She’dtaken it out of her box of precious things every day since Florian had passed, wearing it openly only when she was at Hope’s House, when no one from her day-to-day life would see her, so that she felt close to him. Once she’d given the baby up, she’d hidden it away, knowing that it would have to be buried along with her love for Florian and her heartache over their baby. But it hadn’t stopped her from taking it out each night before bed and clasping it around her neck, staring in the mirror at the diamond resting beneath her collarbone, remembering the kiss that had been placed in the little hollow there before Florian had given it to her.
Even after so many years, it still only felt like yesterday that they’d been together. But in reality, it was a lifetime ago.
And so Delphine sat back and began to write, her hand steady despite her pain, remembering the happiest moments of her life and committing them to paper. But the happiest moments were also followed by the saddest, and her pen moved more slowly then, her eyes damp as she apologised to the child, the daughter, who’d had to grow up without her.
It may have only been forty-odd years ago, but times had been so different then. The expectation to stay married, the weight held by family to dictate who a young woman should be betrothed to—they all seemed such foreign concepts now. She could only imagine how hard it would be for Isabella and Tommaso to understand, especially when she’d spent so much time living apart from their father. Now, when she looked back, she wondered if she could have had the baby in secret and then pretended to adopt her; whether she could have made up a story or convinced her husband to make love to her,anythingother than adoption. But, of course, hindsight was a wonderful thing.
She signed the letter and reread it, picturing her daughter opening it, wondering what she would think, hoping that she would discover it at all. And when she was content with whatshe’d written, Delphine addressed it and affixed the stamp she’d bought earlier, before rising on aching legs to walk to the post office.
An hour later, she was back at the same spot by the lake, her eyes watering from pain as she realised she’d done too much. She’d intended on going back to the care facility, but somehow she’d ended up right back where she’d started.
As she sat, her breath started to come in sharp, short pants, and the pain she’d felt earlier in her legs was suddenly everywhere. But she refused to cry, refused to feel sorry for herself. If this was to be her final moment, then at least Florian would find her. It’s where they’d first walked together, first sat side by side under the moonlight and envisaged a time when they didn’t have to hide what they meant to each other.
The piece of newspaper she’d been holding caught on the wind, and Delphine tried to hold on to the low wall she’d sat down on, her knuckles burning as she tried not to fall. She heard someone call out to her, but no matter how hard she tried to stay upright, she couldn’t. When she fell, she hit her shoulder and it felt as if it shook the breath from her, and she was so, so tired.
She only wished she’d been able to say goodbye to those she loved.
Delphine tried to reach for the necklace, tried to feel for the diamond Florian had given her, but her hand wouldn’t move. Then she remembered she’d already sent it away for safekeeping, that it had been left for her daughter, for the child she’d never had the privilege of meeting as an adult. For the child she’d never had the joy of raising.
I sent the letter. I sent the letter before I died, and that’s all that matters.
Please God, let her find it.
29
GENEVA, PRESENT DAY
Georgia still hadn’t decided whether going back to Geneva was a sensible idea or not, so instead of calling Luca the moment she arrived, or going to surprise him, she’d stayed in her hotel. She’d started consulting to a charity over the past weeks, and was working on a business plan for a non-profit concept she’d been toying with for some time, so she’d buried herself in work and ordered in room service rather than going out.
Which was why she found herself walking up the steps to the Museum of Art and History alone, and standing outside as if she were an imposter. Somehow, the most important detail of the trip had eluded her—she’d forgotten to RSVP.
‘If you could just use your radio and tell June Meier that Georgia is here—’ Georgia couldn’t believe it when the security guard turned his back on her, ignoring her, and greeted another patron.
‘Excuse me,’ she tried again. ‘If you could…’ It was no use. For reasons unbeknown to her, it was harder to get into the museum than through security at Heathrow Airport. Perhaps making her donation anonymously hadn’t been such a great idea after all.
‘You came.’
Georgia’s blood immediately ran hot. She turned around and saw Luca standing there, looking devilishly attractive in a black tuxedo paired with a crisp white shirt and a black bow tie. It made his features look even darker, his hair midnight black as he stood a few steps below her, impossibly handsome.
There were so many things she wanted to say, but nothing came out of her mouth.
