Page 264 of The Rebel Billionaire

“We were told it was safer not to show our hand. These people moved in our circles.”

“Keep your friends close, your enemies closer,” I say.

“Exactly.”

“But Montague? Dad didn’t know about him?” Kat asks.

Mum shakes her head. “Montague…” Her voice catches. “Montague was the man your father trusted.”

A silence descends as Mum’s words sink in.

“Your dad was closing in. Some of the group were getting sloppy, greedy. The only thing I can think of is that Montague was scared they would sell him out.”

“So, Montague arranged to have Dad taken out?”

Mum shakes her head. “No, I think that was more likely his son and his friends, trying to earn their stripes. A show of allegiance.”

My stomach turns over, and I choke down a sob.

“Your father knew the risks he was taking if they ever found out what he was doing. They threatened me after his death, wanting the evidence. I told them it would remain hidden unless something happened to one of my children or me. There are letters lodged with multiple solicitors, around the world, that would have been sent to law enforcement should anything have happened to any of us.”

“The sex tape. You kept up your end of the bargain?” Kat asks. “Why did they go after Harper?”

“Elijah unwittingly stirred up a hornet’s nest the day he stepped in to protect April. Leonard became unstable, and it’s since come out that he was in a lot of debt. But that’s not important. When his files were uncovered, the threat that I might hand over your father’s findings became real. The sex tape was their way of telling me they were still in charge. They knew we could prove it was a fake, so it was the equivalent of a shot across the bow. It’s also why The Seamstress and I felt it was safer to send you away.”

“But those tapes, they may have helped put them away sooner,” Kat says.

Mum shakes her head.

“The Seamstress knew about them and had seen them. After your father’s death, she came to visit me, but there wasn’t enough evidence in them alone. Your father had never been able to work out who the kingpin was. When I told her about their threats, she told me to keep them hidden, and when the time was right, she’d come for them.”

“But I found them first,” Kat says.

Mum smiles.

“You did, but you simply bumped up the timeline.”

“So, it’s really over?” I ask.

Mum nods and squeezes my hand. “It is. I’m sorry you got dragged into this. Your father was trying to protect you. He would never have wanted any of this to have touched you.”

“You’re right, Dad did have a strong moral compass,” Kat says.

Mum smiles. This time it reaches her eyes.

“Believe me when I say we may not have begun life as a love match, but I loved your father with every ounce of my being, and I miss him every day.”

I wrap my arms tightly around Mum and Kat, holding them while we all cry for the man we loved and lost.

CHAPTER 80

HARPER

The elevator dings, and Alex enters, a large bouquet of flowers in his hands.

“You look better,” he says, crossing to me and dropping a kiss on my mouth.

“For me?”