Page 263 of The Rebel Billionaire

“Yes, his family owned a small jewellery shop near the school. Sophia met him when she was buying a present for her mother. It was love at first sight.”

“Are you telling me St Clair jewellery is Edoardo’s business?”

“It’s more complicated than that. Sophia probably told you she lived in the UK until Alessandro was ten. All their children were born here, including Enzo and Gabriella. Her father disowned her after she and Edoardo eloped and embarrassed him.”

I drop back into the chair. “Wow.”

“Hang on, so how did you end up with Dad?”

“He needed a wife. My parents owned a small group of boutique hotels, although they weren’t called that then. They weren’t fancy or grand, but I had a lot of input into their design.” Her eyes twinkle as she is transported back in time. “He decided I was the next best thing.”

“And you agreed?” Kat says.

“Your father needed a wife to appease the hotel board, and he could be rather… persuasive when he wanted to be.”

“What did Dad do?” Kat asks.

She simply smiles at us both. I know they loved each other, anyone could see it, and they never hid their love from us children.

“But you loved him?” Kat says, unable to mask the horror in her tone.

She knew Dad better than any of us and understood his ruthless streak.

“I did, still do, with all my heart. As I said, fate has a strange way of throwing the right people together. You just have to be open to it. Now it’s chosen Alessandro for Harper, the same way you and Jaxson were destined to be together. It always finds a way.”

We sit in silence, letting her words sink in.

“How did Dad get mixed up in the mess with Montague Peregrine and Leonard Crawley?” I ask, needing to know the answer.

Mum sighs.

“You do know?” Kat asks, placing a hand in our mother’s lap.

Mum laces her fingers through Kat’s, then beckons me over and takes one of mine with her free hand.

“I do,” she says, her smile fading. “Your father was a good man with a strong moral compass.” She looks at us both. “And I would not have had him any other way.”

She sighs.

“Your father always employed ex-military men and women as part of the hotel security teams, offering jobs to those who had left the services. Something you still do today, Kat.”

Kat nods.

“One evening, one of his team came to him. Something had come up on one of the security feeds. A meeting.”

“But…”

“All the tapes I found,” Kat whispers as Mum nods.

“Your father realised they were using the Frazer hotels to hold their meetings. He couldn’t ignore it, so he spoke to one of his friends in the House of Lords, someone he thought he could trust.”

“He introduced him to The Seamstress?” Kat asks.

“Yes. These men were involved in some nasty business. Young women had been going missing. It was all over the news. But on the tape, they talked about drug runs and arms deals. If it was illegal, they appeared to have a hand in it.”

“But we had Sir Leonard in our house,” I say, a shiver running down my spine.

What would have happened to April if Elijah hadn’t intervened?