Whatever had motivated Carrie to set out to destroy him, she thought she had right on her side. She was set for a humiliating disappointment.
‘Okay, let us establish some facts to begin with. The paper you work for has a reputation for excellent journalism and I include you in that. When it splashes on a big story the rest of the media follows. It is rarely sued for libel and when it is it rarely loses—namely, it backs up its stories. It is a serious, weighty newspaper. It doesn’t print spurious gossip. It stands to reason that there was evidence for your editor or whoever is in charge of signing investigations off to think it worth their time and expense sending you to investigate me. What was that evidence?’
She dropped her gaze from his and took another sip of the whisky she professed to hate.
‘The evidence?’ he repeated, his patience waning.
‘There were rumours.’
He drummed his fingers on the table. ‘Rumours? About what?’
Her chin lifted. ‘That you were embezzling your clients’ funds.’
‘What a pile of rubbish. Where did these rumours come from? Because I can assure you they are lies. Markets go up and down but I invest my clients’ money with the same care I would if it were my own. I defy you to find a single investor who would say otherwise.’
Something flickered on her face, a shamed, guilty expression she tried to cover by taking a bigger sip of her whisky.
But it was too late. He’d seen it. Seen her guilt.
‘The rumours came from you, didn’t they? What did you do? Go to your editor and say you had a credible tip-off about me that was worth investigating?’
She lifted her head to look at him, her lips drawn tightly together. The truth was right there in her eyes.
He breathed deeply, trying to contain the anger swirling like a maelstrom in him. ‘Come on, Carrie. It is just you and me. There is no one to hear what we say. We have both been playing games and now it is time for them to stop. Be honest and admit the truth. You went to your editor with a pack of lies about me, didn’t you?’
Carrie’s chest had compacted so tightly that she couldn’t draw breath.
They’d both been playing games?
This had never been a game for her. This had been her sister’s life, which Andreas had destroyed.
Everything she had done, the risks she had taken, the lies she had told, had all been for Violet and now she had to face that it had all been for nothing.
He’d rumbled her before she’d even set foot in his office and any secrets he had would remain secret.
She would never be able to expose him. Violet would never see justice.
Pulling air into her cramped lungs, she looked him square in the eyes. ‘Yes.’
‘Yes?’
‘Yes. It was a pack of lies. I told my editor that I’d had a tip-off from a credible source that you were embezzling funds and, yes, he believed me.’
‘He authorised your investigation into me on nothing more than your word?’
She leaned forward, willing him to feel every atom of her hate for him. ‘I have spent three years dreaming about bringing you down and when the time came, there was no way I was going to let it slip through my fingers. Believe me, I was very convincing.’
‘You have been plotting this for three years?’ He shook his head slowly. ‘I assume this has something to do with your screwed-up sister?’
His words cut through her like an arsenic-laced blade. ‘Do not speak of Violet like that.’
Now he was the one to lean forward, close enough for her to see the stubble breaking out on his jaw. ‘I have no idea what kind of a woman she’s grown into but do not delude yourself as to what she was like three years ago. She was a mess.’
Carrie’s rage consumed her so totally that it took what felt an age before she could speak. When she finally managed to get the words out, they tumbled from her, three years of pent-up heartbreak and anger spilling out in a torrent.
‘Yes, Violet was a screwed-up mess. And do you know why? It was because you let your drug-peddling friend seduce her under your own roof. Between you and your bastard friend, you ruined her life, so yes, the reason I’m here is for Violet. I knew all I had to do was find a way into your life and I would find the evidence I needed to expose you as the monster you are and kill the squeaky-clean image you’ve fooled the world into believing.’
‘What the hell are you talking about?’
Andreas had listened to the venom pouring from Carrie’s tongue with growing incredulity and outrage. He’d suspected her motives were personal, that she had a grudge linked back to her sister’s expulsion, but had assumed she had seized the opportunity to investigate and potentially expose him when the opportunity had come.