Lies and Weddings(120)
Eden’s mother.
I
HOTEL BAUER
VENICE, ITALY ? TWO DAYS LATER
Wearing Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses, a Pucci headscarf, and a vintage loden-green Ungaro swing coat, Arabella emerged from the elevator and approached the gleaming black marble reception desk.
“I believe there’s a package waiting for me,” she said to the man in the navy suit with the face of a Bronzino youth.
“Buongiorno, signora. What is the name?”
“Tina Chow,” Arabella answered.
“Ah yes, Signora Chow,” the young man replied, rifling through a stack and handing over a large DHL envelope. Arabella took the envelope and walked over to one of the art deco club chairs in a quiet corner of the lobby. With trembling hands, she tore open the envelope and slid out a slim burgundy leather folder. As she paged through the materials couriered to her by Rosina in Hong Kong, she could feel her heart thumping excitedly. Rosina was right—what she had managed to unearth over the past forty-eight hours with her team of private investigators not only benefited her, it was a game-changer.
Arabella discreetly placed the precious folder into her Camille Fournet tote bag and walked out the door onto Campo San Moisè. She strolled down Calle Larga XXII Marzo past all the glitzy boutiques, thinking how sad it was that Venice had succumbed to the curse of every city and was now filled with the same brands selling their imitation of luxury to the masses. Halfway down the block, she turned down a tiny narrow lane that led to the Hotel Flora. Passing the quaint wood-paneled bar, she emerged into a secret courtyard garden charmingly overgrown with ivy and saw the person she was there to meet seated at a table in the back corner, punctual as always.
“You came,” Arabella said, sitting down on a white wrought iron chair across from her.
“Yes, Lady Arabella,” Eden replied civilly, even though she was still furious with her.
“Are you staying at the Aman?”
“No. Why does everyone I bump into keep asking me that?”
“You wouldn’t understand. You’re sure you weren’t followed?” Arabella asked as she glanced around the garden. The only other guests were an elderly couple enjoying their tea next to the burbling stone fountain.
“I don’t believe so.”
“Where did you tell Rufus you were going after you got my text?”
“No one asked me anything. Everyone’s busy preparing for the wedding. Why all this cloak-and-dagger business?”
“I don’t want anyone to know I’m here.”
Eden rolled her eyes. “You haven’t decided whether to attend the wedding, have you?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“You know the wedding’s postponed until next weekend so that more of Gopal Das’s family have time to get here? I’m sure Bea would be happy if you came.”
“So you’ve forgiven my daughter?”
“There wasn’t much to forgive. I was very upset at first, but I understood why she did what she did. She wasn’t trying to hurt me intentionally—she was much more afraid of hurting you.”
Arabella took off her sunglasses and gave Eden an assessing look. After a few moments, she continued, “You know, when Francis first asked my permission to let your father and you come live next door to us in Greshamsbury, I have to be honest, I was hesitant. I wondered whether it would be a good idea for my children to live so close to a little girl from Texas who had just lost her mother. Over the years, I’ve come to see how genuinely devoted you are to my children.”
“I love them,” Eden said simply.
“So how can you just sit here and watch our lives get destroyed? Within a fortnight, we will all be thrown out of Greshamsbury Hall forever!”
“Lady Arabella, you do realize that my father and I will be losing our house as well. I have no memory of another home besides the cottage.”
Arabella paused for a moment. She had clearly not thought of that at all, but it occurred to her that she could use that to her advantage. “All the more reason for me to ask you why you are doing this to yourself. Why are you so intent on destroying your own life, as well as ours? Are you that heartless?”
“You know perfectly well I am not. I’m absolutely gutted about everything that’s happened to your family, ever since the first volcanic fissure at your resort. I know how devastating it must be for you to see all your beautiful work destroyed, to see Augie’s marriage fall apart so soon, to—”
Arabella swatted away her words of support. “You say all this, and yet you could solve all our problems by simply marrying Luis Felipe Tan.”
“Lady Arabella, Luis Felipe doesn’t actually want to marry me. He’s trying to pull an outrageous stunt and push us all to our limits. Money is meaningless to him. Do you know when I was in LA, he offered me three million dollars just to attend a party at his house?”
“Did you take the offer?”
“Of course not.”
“That was stupid of you.”
“This is just an escalation of the game he’s playing. He knows I would never marry him, that I have no intention of getting married in the first place.”
Arabella snorted. “But you dream of marrying Rufus!”
Eden shook her head calmly. “No, that’s always been your assumption.”