Page 74 of Meet Me at Sunset

But Camille didn’t hear anything further. There was a roaring sound in her ears, as though a tsunami was heading her way, ready to destroy everything in its path, and there was nothing she could do to escape it. She had to tell Nicolas the truth.

Camille swallowed. ‘Dr Bachmann, could you give us a moment alone?’

‘Of course. I’ll be back in a few minutes,’ he said, looking from one to the other, before heading back into the operating room.

The door swung shut and the corridor was silent.

But before she could speak, Nicolas lowered his voice to a whisper. ‘Lucas was driving.’

‘What? How do you know?’

‘The stress fracture on his collarbone. It runs from left to right across his body, he must have been sitting in the driver’s seat when the car crashed.’

Camille’s eyes widened and she inhaled sharply as she realized the implications of what he was saying. Andre was in a coma, on life support, and was not expected to live. Lucas was responsible for that. ‘Nicolas, this will destroy him, it—’

‘It’s OK.’ Nicolas took Camille’s hands in his, trying to calm her down. He didn’t want her to become hysterical in the hospital, or draw attention to them. ‘I’ll take care of it.’

Camille’s forehead creased as she searched his face for answers. ‘What will you do?’

‘It doesn’t matter. I’ll do whatever it takes for Lucas.’

Her hands were still nestled in his. They felt small and protected, Nicolas’s hands large and warm and strong. ‘Thank you,’ she said sincerely, but she felt dread in the pit of her stomach at what she was about to tell him.

‘Nicolas, the blood transfusion … Andre isn’t a match for his blood group and … neither am I.’

Camille hardly dared to meet Nicolas’s eyes, and when she finally looked up, the expression on his face was a mixture of heartbreak and anguish.

‘Camille,’ he said, his voice ragged with emotion. ‘What are you telling me?’

‘I should never have kept it from you,’ Camille whispered. ‘You’re the only one who can give him blood, Nicolas … but I always thought you knew, deep down …’

‘Yes,’ Nicolas whispered. ‘Lucas is my son.’

In the backstage area of the palacio, Lucas had turned pale. ‘You knew,’ he said, turning to Nicolas, shock and betrayal written across his scarred features.

Nicolas swallowed. ‘I’d suspected it long before it was confirmed, but it wasn’t my place to—’

‘You two had an affair?’ Lucas’s voice was growing louder. ‘Behind my father – behind Andre’s back?’

‘It was one night,’ Nicolas said gently. ‘It should never have happened. Though I’ve loved your mother as long as I’ve known her. Andre didn’t always treat Camille well, and—’

‘So you thought you’d step in?’ Lucas shot back. His eyes were blazing with indignation and confusion, uncertain where his loyalties lay.

‘That’s enough, Lucas,’ Camille interjected. ‘Nicolas saved your life. He donated his blood for you.’

It was possible to hear a pin drop in the silence that followed Camille’s announcement; the sense of astonishment in the room was palpable.

‘Let’s talk about this later. In private,’ she added pointedly, looking around at everyone else. ‘There’s a lot to discuss.’

Lucas set his jaw, but didn’t argue. He felt as though he’d been hit by a bulldozer, and knew it would take time to process everything he’d been told today.

‘There’s one thing I don’t understand,’ Camille frowned, addressing Paulo. ‘How did you know? That Nicolas was Andre’s father?’

There was a long pause, and Paulo merely smirked, saying nothing. Then an unexpected voice spoke up.

‘It was me,’ Isobel said quietly, as everyone’s head whipped round to look at her. ‘I’m so sorry, Camille. I bumped into Paulo the other night in Palma. We were drinking, and indiscreet and …’ Isobel lowered her gaze, a blush suffusing her cheeks, as the others filled in the blanks of what had likely happened between them.

‘I was furious with you for … well, the reasons we discussed earlier,’ Isobel went on. ‘There were always rumours, you know, when I worked at Camille Andre. Andre’s indiscretions were well known, but there was office gossip that you had been unfaithful too, a couple of months before you announced your pregnancy. It was all based on hearsay – some unnamed employee had seen or heard something years ago – but the whispers had never quite gone away, recirculating on nights out and passed down to new staff members.