‘Why? Because I’m thick, stupid and I can’t add up?’ Her voice shook as she faced up to her father again. ‘I can prove it, Dad. Print one story about Rafael and I will prove it.’
Her father stared at her. ‘You wouldn’t do that to your dad.’
‘Actually I would.’ She straightened her shoulders. ‘You’re still my dad and I love you, but I don’t like you and I don’t respect you. Somebody told me recently that I should toughen up and I’ve discovered that they’re right. So I’m staying away from you until you’ve had time to think about what you’ve done. When you’re ready to apologise, you can start with Rafael. Oh, and one more thing—’ she lifted her chin ‘—the money that you made from that newspaper story. I want you to donate it to a charity for preserving the Brazilian rainforest.’
And then she felt Rafael’s fingers close around her wrist and allowed him to lead her from the room.
Curled up on the sofa in Rafael’s luxurious home in Mayfair, Grace stared sightlessly at the painting on the wall.
After her confrontation with her father, Rafael had virtually dragged her into the comfort of his limousine and instructed the driver to take them to his house. And now she’d been sitting on her own for ten minutes while he answered a pressing phone call.
‘I’m sorry to leave you like that …’ Rafael strode back into the room and cursed softly as he saw her sitting so still. ‘Stop thinking about him! He isn’t worth it.’
She stirred and looked at him. ‘How did you know I was thinking about him?’
‘Because it’s obvious. Knowing you, you’re sitting there trying to make excuses for your father’s appalling behaviour.’ He spread his hands in a gesture of exasperation and strode across to her, sitting on the edge of the sofa and taking her hand in his. ‘There is no excuse. You should have let me punch him again and then you should have told him that he was out of your life.’
Grace shook her head. ‘I couldn’t do that,’ she muttered. ‘He’s still my dad.’
Rafael let out a stream of unintelligible Portuguese and eventually switched to English. ‘You are incredible, no? Your father tries to destroy you and what do you do? You tell him that you love him! He doesn’t deserve your love!’
‘Everyone deserves to be loved.’ Grace wiped the tears away with the tips of her fingers and Rafael cursed softly and sat down on the sofa next to her.
‘You’re very upset, but now you must forget him for the time being.’
‘Yes.’ She managed a smile. ‘Sorry about this. You hate emotions and you’ve been subjected to a bucketload today. Newspaper stores, arguments with my father, emotional scenes. It must be your worst nightmare. How’s your hand?’
‘It’s fine and none of that amounts to anything when compared with the stress of the last week,’ he assured her, reaching across and pulling her onto his lap. ‘The moment you left I realised that I shouldn’t have let you go. There was no way you should have had to face your father on your own.’
‘It was my fight, Rafael.’ But she didn’t feel like fighting now and she snuggled on his lap, taking the comfort that he offered.
‘You’re not built for fighting. You don’t have an aggressive bone in your body. The moment you left I knew I’d made a mistake letting you go alone.’
‘Is that why you came after me?’
‘Yes.’ Rafael slipped his fingers under her chin and lifted her face to his. ‘I couldn’t stand the thought of you facing your father and then I discovered that you’d disappeared.’
‘When I saw that newspaper, I was terribly upset.’ She bit her lip. ‘Sorry. I know you don’t like emotional discussions, but you have no idea what it feels like to be completely let down by the only family you have.’ There was a long, throbbing silence and she felt him tense against her.
‘Actually, I do,’ he said hoarsely. ‘I know exactly what it’s like.’
She sat up straight on his lap so that she could see his face. ‘I thought you didn’t have a family? Are you telling me that your father let you down?’
‘My father let me down before I was born by leaving my mother to bring me up alone.’ He shifted her off his lap and rose to his feet, his shoulders tense as he strode across the room to the window. ‘Until I was eight years old she raised me on her own.’
Sensing instinctively that those demons were finally about to reveal their shape, Grace watched as he stared down into the street below. ‘You’ve never mentioned your mother before. You lived in Rio?’ Her gentle prompt made him turn.
‘Yes.’ His eyes glittered hard and cold. ‘In one tiny room, wi
th barely enough space for one person to live, let alone two. It was a miserable existence. And then my mother met a new man.’
‘She fell in love?’
He gave a faint smile and there was mockery in his eyes as they lingered on her face. ‘Always the romantic, aren’t you? No, meu amorzinho, it wasn’t love. But he was very wealthy and she saw how marriage to him would significantly improve her lifestyle. There was only one problem. He wasn’t prepared to take on someone else’s child.’
Shocked, Grace stared at him. ‘He told you that?’
‘I overheard them talking.’ He stuffed his hands in his pockets. ‘They were in the process of arranging for me to go into a local children’s home.’