He frowned. She had the numbers wrong, but then she was hysterical and there was no point correcting her.
‘I thought you’d changed,’ she continued, her voice softer, resigned, with a hint of melancholy. ‘I thought the fact you insisted the wedding would be held here, the way you insisted I should stay to make all the arrangements on site…’ She shook her head, her eyes uncomfortably direct as they searched his out. ‘I know you’re desperate to protect your sister because she’s all you have, and you’ve been looking after her ever since your parents died, but I thought for once that you might be more interested in her happiness than shutting her off from the world. I thought that over the last few days you were at least coming to terms with this wedding, even if you couldn’t openly embrace it.’
She drew breath, kicked up her chin. ‘I thought there might actually be hope for you. I’m sorry. I was wrong.’
Her last few words were the kick that set his blood pressure rocketing. She didn’t know him. She didn’t know the first thing about him. And yet she stood there and made out that he was some kind of disappointment?
‘You don’t know the first thing about it!’
‘I know you can’t bear the thought of anyone else loving your sister, so much so that you pay anyone who gets close to get rid of them.’
His spun round, needing to hit something, his open palm slamming against the wall before he turned back. ‘And you don’t think I have reason?’
‘Sure you have reason—you’re jealous they’ll steal her away from you—and you use the excuse of them being nothing more than fortune-hunters to drive them away.’
‘No!’ With a few purposeful strides he was before her. ‘Did Monica tell you about her first boyfriend, the charming Cal, her first true love?’
Sophie backed away, her eyes wide, but there was strength in them too, he could see, and a determination not to be cowed. In the very next moment her chin cocked up. ‘Not specifically. She said she’d had a few boyfriends but none of them had stuck around long. And we all know why that is, don’t we?’
‘Do we? Let me tell you about Cal. He was ambitious and determined to make a million dollars before he was twenty-one.’
‘And this was a reason to resent him? Didn’t you do something similar yourself?’
‘Not that way. Not by blackmailing the brother of the girl you’re supposed to be in love with. Not with a movie of them having sex.’
Her eyes widened and he awarded himself a mental victory. At last she might begin to understand where he was coming from. ‘He did what?’
‘Either I paid up or he’d plaster the images all over the Internet. My sister. Her first time. Do you know what that does to a brother when you’re supposed to be looking out for her? Of course I paid him out.’
‘Daniel, I had no idea.’
‘No, you didn’t. You were too happy to judge from a distance. But maybe now you can understand why I never hesitated to get in first with an offer, before any damage was done, before they found a way to extract it by other means. And they took it. Which proves something, wouldn’t you say?’
‘It proves that this Cal was a monster. It proves that maybe they weren’t deeply involved with Monica and taking the money was easier. But it doesn’t mean that every man is like that. And it doesn’t mean that Monica should be punished for ever. Don’t you think she deserves a chance at happiness? Or do you intend dispensing with every man she ever shows an interest in, ensuring she leads a long, lonely life thinking there is something wrong with her. Is that what you want?’
He looked skywards. Of course he didn’t want that. He wanted his sister happy, with a man who would put her on the pedestal she deserved, not some fortune-hunter. ‘She’ll find someone worthy of her one day.’
‘What about Jake? Doesn’t it occur to you that the reason he’s saying no to your offers is because it’s not the money he wants? He loves Monica. Can’t you see that?’
‘He’s not marrying my sister!’
‘What is your problem? What have you got against my brother, other than the fact he grew up poor and you grew up rich. Maybe he gave you some schoolboy grief at high school? What else did he ever do to you?’
‘What did he do to me?’ He laughed as blood fired the furnace of his eyes, painting her outline red. ‘Your sweet and innocent Jake did nothing, nothing at all, apparently. Clearly I should welcome him into the bosom of my family.’
The tone of his voice put chills down her spine. ‘Tell me,’ she said, simultaneously too afraid to hear, too frightened not to find out what it was that had driven this man to such bitterness and to take the measures he had. ‘Why is it that you hate Jake so much?’