Page 237 of The Rebel Billionaire

“How do you know her mother? Is she really a friend’s daughter?”

Mother surprises me by chuckling.

“Francesca is the reason I’m married to your father.”

I frown, not understanding what she means.

“Your grandfather had arranged my marriage to another man when I was barely a teenager.”

“Another man?”

“Robert Frazer, to be precise.”

I sit and stare at her. She was engaged to Robert Frazer, Harper’s father?

She smiles.

“When I eloped with your father, your grandfather cut me off. Francesca helped us, and so did Robert. It was only when your grandfather got sick that he relented. He needed an heir, and despite our differences, he wanted St Clair to stay in the family. It’s why you were raised and schooled in England.”

“I need to go after her,” I say.

Her smile widens. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.” She pauses. “Wait here.”

She disappears, returning a few minutes later.

“When you see her, you need to return this.”

I look up at the pendant dangling from her fingers. A ruby pendant. A custom-made St Clair design.

“I promised her I would keep it safe,” she says. “It was a gift chosen by her mother and father before he died. But she only received it after his death, on her twenty-first birthday.”

“You took it off her?”

Something churns in my chest as I realise what this must have meant to Brooke. No wonder her hand kept going to her throat before dropping as if it were searching for something.

“It’s a distinctive piece.”

I know she’s right. And Harper has been hiding in plain sight. Brooke would never have worn something like this.

She takes my hand, turns it over, and lowers it into my palm.

“I’m trusting you to return it with my love.”

I nod.

“Now get out of here, Sandro. Enzo is expecting you.”

CHAPTER 71

HARPER

With the press camped outside the main gates of Frazer Manor, Dan drops me at the edge of the estate, despite risking the wrath of The Seamstress.

“You take care,” he says as I clamber out of the car, grabbing my phone and bag.

The Seamstress finally returned my phone after our final debrief, late last night.

This morning I gave him an ultimatum. Either take me home, or I’d find my own way there.