‘Now, let’s get you looking even more beautiful. If that’s possible.’
Calvaneo Capital’s London headquarters sat on the top ten floors of one of the tallest skyscrapers in Canary Wharf. The lift was fast and efficient, and already crowded with people in the uniform navy and grey of the world’s financial elite. It was eight a.m. GMT. Three hours before Matteo was due to make his vows in Rome.
He was in no mood be kept waiting.
He stepped out at the fiftieth floor and made his way to the reception area. He stood out from the throng, as he always did, his hair longer, a foot taller, broader. But it wasn’t just his body that set him apart today. The white rose and the morning suit raised eyebrows and smiles in his wake.
He had phoned ahead, left a message, so the shape of Claudio coming along the teak-floored, glass-walled corridor towards him was no surprise. But the sight of him still made his heart pump and his fists clench and bile rise in his throat.
‘Matteo. How kind of you to drop by.’
He looked older, his skin lined, but well preserved. The hair slicked back from his face was a peppery grey, where it had once been black, and his jacket was buttoned over a paunch where before there had been a well-defined six-pack. But other than that he was exactly the same.
‘This isn’t a casual call, Claudio. As you can see I’m getting married later today, so I won’t be long.’
He walked straight past Claudio to the doorway he’d seen him emerge from. The gold letters of his name etched in the glass confirmed it as the CEO’s office. He walked right in and looked around.
It was a room for entertaining as much as business, laid out like a nineteen-twenties lounge, with overstuffed stylised furniture, beautiful objects and silver-framed photographs of the rich and the beautiful, clients and friends.
He turned around. ‘For someone who’s stock is spiralling out of control, you’re looking remarkably calm. But then you’re used to bad news, being the cause of so much of it.’
‘You came all this way to tell me how calm I look? Why, thank you. You look very well too. Very handsome. Your father would be proud. I feel compelled to say that.’
Claudio spoke in Italian, the language his father had spoken to him. Matteo ignored it.
‘New York closed with a ten percent decline in CC stock and London is just about to open. Tokyo will do so later. Your investors have abandoned you. You’re done. By the end of the day you’re not going to look so calm.’
Claudio merely shrugged. ‘Again, your journey is wasted. The only pleasure is seeing you here. So much you remind me of Michele.’
‘My father loved you, Claudio. My father loved you and look what you did to him.’
He hadn’t known what he was going to say, had only known he needed to say something, but seeing the shock on Claudio’s face he knew that he had hit the mark. Tears formed instantly in the man’s eyes and his jaw clenched as he swallowed hard.
‘He loved you. And my mother—and me. He was a good man who only wanted the best for all of us.’
‘You didn’t come here to tell me that. Why don’t you say what you really want to say?’
‘That I hate you? What good would that do? I’ve spent years doing that. Hating that you brought out a side of my dad that I never wanted to believe was true. But it was there, and maybe what you had together was beautiful once, but what you turned it into was sick and shameful, and you’ll have to live with that for ever.’
‘Michele was a coward...’
‘He was my father,’ Matteo said, launching himself across the room and grabbing Claudio by the collar in his two fists, bringing their faces inches apart. ‘And my children will be brought up respecting his memory.’
Claudio was the coward. The fear was real in his eyes. Matteo shoved him away.
‘Good luck in finding anyone who’ll respect yours.’
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
AT ELEVEN O’CLOCK precisely Ruby stepped from the bedroom and into the hallway. Light flooded down onto the mahogany floor...voices bubbled up from below. And panic clung to every fibre of her being.
‘Go to the top of the stairs and then wait there,’ whispered Coral behind her, resplendent in olive-green lace, scalloped-edged, knee-length and the perfect foil for her auburn hair.