Page 110 of A Diamond Deal
Her jaw dropped as her heart began to race, and, for the first time in she couldn’t say how long, something inside her began to lift, giving her a strange kind of hope. Dreams she’d given up on suddenly flared to life once more, tempting her. Tantalising.
But at what cost?
Marriage to a stranger? All so he could trade on a name she’d long ago disavowed. A name she associated with betrayal and hurt, with a side of herself she wished didn’t exist. And what would this marriage even look like?
‘You could come home, to your grandparents.’
‘Italy is not my home.’
‘Fine. You could move there for a while, temporarily, and get to know them.’
Her heart turned over and she spun away from him, desperately needing to put physical space between them.
‘I don’t want to know them,’ she said, aware that it was so much more complicated than that. Wanting to know them went hand in hand with not being able to understand why they hadn’t ever contacted her. The thought of seeing them brought with it a certainty she would need to take care of herself, for surely they were as cold-hearted as her own mother.
‘Are you sure?’
She closed her eyes on a wave of frustration, hating that somehow he was able to see beneath her words, to the truth of her heart.
‘I can’t marry you,’ she said, turning around. ‘It goes against everything I believe in.’
‘Which is?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘What is it you believe a marriage should be that makes it so hard to imagine agreeing to my proposal?’
‘It’s supposed to be a relationship of love, and trust. A couple who want to spend the rest of their lives together.’
His nostrils flared as he expelled a sharp breath. ‘That is not what our marriage would be.’
‘Obviously.’
‘Yet it would still be beneficial, to both of us. Better than the alternative.’
‘Are you saying I’m the only person you could possibly marry to fix your family’s reputation?’
He stared at her across the diner, features unreadable, eyes dark. ‘Your financial situation—and that of your grandparents—makes it more likely you will be reasonable when it comes to negotiating the details of this marriage.’
‘You mean, you think you’ll have me over a barrel financially, so I’ll be more compliant than some fancy society woman with money?’
His eyes glittered, showing the truth of that, and he nodded to confirm it.
‘I’m twenty-three,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘I have my whole life before me.’
‘Exactly.’ He swept across the diner, minimising the space she’d put between them. ‘You have had every disadvantage, Amelia. Life has not been kind to you. So marry me. Become wealthy, and then do whatever the hell you want, without the financial impediments you currently face.’
Her heart twisted. He made it sound so easy. Sogood. But in her experience, there was always a catch.
‘Okay, I’ll humour you,’ she said. She wasn’t stupid. While her first instinct was to shut him down, there was no harm in at least hearing him out fully. Her father would encourage her to do that. To get all the details, take some time, then make a decision. She almost heard his voice in her mind, so strong was her certainty that his advice would be thus. ‘Tell me exactly how you would imagine this working.’ She lifted a hand then. ‘I’m not saying yes. I’m just…getting all the facts.’
He nodded, but she could see from the way his body relaxed slightly that he was taking her agreement as a foregone conclusion.
‘We would marry quickly. I want my grandfather to have time to enjoy the rewards of this. I can procure a special licence, meaning we’d have the ceremony within a week.’
Her jaw dropped, but she didn’t interrupt.
‘There would be a financial settlement for you on the day of our wedding—enough to pay off your debt, and make you more comfortable than you can fathom. You would be able to breathe easily for the first time in a long time.’ She closed her eyes against the relief of that thought. ‘In three months, I would start to clear your grandparents’ mortgages.’
