Page 47 of Awakened On Her Royal Wedding Night
“Please. I’m very used to publicity.” Freja’s father had been a famous travel writer. She had toured the world with him and developed her own following after writing a book about him. More recently she had released a documentary on her life with him.
Perhaps what she was really most known for, however, was the fact that her husband had been presumed dead some years ago. Yet he was alive and well today, affably pouring wine that appeared to be from their personal vineyard.
“I’m far too thrilled to meet my cousin to let the way I found out tarnish it,” Freja continued. “I always knew my father’s brother had donated sperm to a clinic. It actually gave my father a lot of comfort, believing that something of his brother possibly lived on, but it seemed impossible that I would ever get the chance to meet any children he helped to make. It wasn’t on my radar at all. Not until Giovanni told me this morning that—” She looked to her husband, appearing unsure how much to say.
“Given Freja’s high profile, I have robust online alerts set around her name and those of any connections that might crop up,” Giovanni said smoothly, as though it hadn’t been a needle in a haystack for him to have put this together that fast. “Freja’s father wrote about his brother in this book.” He reached into the carry-all pocket that hung off his chair. “There are some photos of him, too. I’ve marked it. Freja thought you’d like to have it.”
“Giovanni knows my father’s books better than I do,” Freja said with a self-deprecating grimace. “But I have other copies, so please keep that one.”
“This means the world to me. Thank you.” Claudine hugged the book. “What else can you tell me about him?”
“Not much, I’m afraid. I was still very young when my uncle died. I don’t have any memories of him at all. You’ll be able to tell that my father adored him and missed him all the rest of his life.” She nodded at the book. “I remember him talking about Uncle Leif as someone who was endlessly curious, but never stuck with anything for long. He was more interested in the challenge and, once he learned all he needed to, he jumped into something else. He hated to lose any sort of game, whether it was checkers or even solitaire.”
“Oh?” Claudine glanced at Felipe, mouth twitching ruefully.
“They were supposed to go traveling together, but my father married my mom and had me. Uncle Leif then planned to go alone, but the night before he left, he went to a rave and took some party drugs that turned out to be toxic. Don’t believe what was said online. If he’d been a longtime user of heavy drugs, he wouldn’t have been allowed to donate to the clinic. This was a one-time thing that turned out tragically.”
“Very tragic,” Claudine agreed, mouth tilting downward with sadness.
“The reports around the circumstances of his death will be corrected, I assure you,” Felipe promised.
“My team is already on it,” Giovanni said. “You and I should discuss messaging. Let the women get to know each other and we’ll take this to my office.”
Felipe was surprised by that, but after one brief glance at Claudine, who nodded and immediately turned back to Freja, he rose and followed Giovanni into the villa.
An hour quickly passed. Talking to Freja was like talking to an old friend. Or, more specifically, to a close cousin she’d known all her life. It was remarkable.
When it was time to leave, she and Freja promised to keep in touch and hugged warmly. That signaled the girls to also give Claudine a hug. Claudine fought fresh tears all the way back to Sentinella.
“You haven’t said much,” Felipe noted when they entered the privacy of his office there. “Are you all right?”
“I’m so happy I feel like I owe Francois a thank-you card.”
“Ha!” Felipe barked.
She bit her lip, always pleased when she could get a laugh out of him. If it was at his brother’s expense, that was even better.
“I suppose I could say the same,” he said dryly. “Here I thought you came without valuable connections. As it turns out, your cousin’s husband is a lot more than the domestic family man he portrays himself to be.”
“You didn’t get that from his billion-dollar mansion and the mystique around his faked death? What did you talk about when you two went inside?” she asked curiously.
“Things I’m not at liberty to repeat, but he isverywell connected. He’s also under no illusions as to Francois’s true nature.” He narrowed his eyes, staring thoughtfully into the middle distance.
“Freja said her PR team has already begun correcting my father’s image. She said I’ll soon have an army of her father’s ‘travel bugs’ supporting me.” That had made her laugh.
“Giovanni said something along the same lines.”
“I liked them.”
“Me, too.”
Claudine paced a few steps, pensive. “I can’t help thinking Francois will look for some other way to attack me now that this route hasn’t worked.” It was causing her some dread. And a spark of rage. She was so tired of being Francois’s chosen victim. “I think it’s time.”
“Time?”
“To tell my story.” As she said it aloud, she felt the rightness of it.
Felipe’s mouth pressed into a line, but he nodded once, jerkily. “How would you like to go about it?”
