A Touch of Notoriety

Beth felt what was becoming a familiar sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach.

Having no children of her own yet—never having come even close to being involved in a serious relationship, let alone thought of having children!—Beth found it hard to completely relate to the tragedy of having a child abducted when she was only two years old, followed by twenty-one years of not knowing what had become of her.

It became even more of a nightmare when she considered that the Navarros so obviously believed she was that child returned to them!

And no matter what Cesar and Raphael might think to the contrary, she really did like Carlos and Esther, and had no wish to hurt them any more than they had already been hurt over the loss of their young daughter…

She sighed. ‘Okay, I’ll agree to fly back in the private jet.’ She grimaced. ‘I’ll even agree to having Raphael accompany me—Don’t say a word,’ she warned hardly as he raised mocking brows. ‘But I draw the line at taking a leave of absence from my job—and if you dare to buy the company, Cesar, I will simply hand in my notice and go elsewhere,’ she warned firmly as he would have spoken.

‘At which time I will simply buy whichever company you seek employment with next,’ he stated mildly.

‘You really are a control freak.’

‘And you are as stubborn as a mule!’

‘Hah, it takes one to know one!’

‘I see now, Grace, why you came to the initial conclusion that Cesar and Beth may be related,’ Raphael spoke mildly. ‘Even without the proof of the blood tests, it is possible to see that the two of you are brother and sister,’ he explained as he found himself the focus of two pairs of identical chocolate-brown eyes, the one coolly questioning, the other accusing.

Grace chuckled softly. ‘It is pretty noticeable, isn’t it?’

‘Oh, yes!’ Raphael confirmed with feeling.

‘Everyone’s a comedian!’ Beth threw her hands up in disgust.

Raphael grinned, unabashed. ‘No doubt the situation is more amusing looked at from the outside.’

‘No doubt it is,’ Beth acknowledged dryly. ‘So, where were we? Oh, yes.’ She turned back to Cesar. ‘I’ve agreed, as the sister of your future wife, to the private jet, and having Raphael see that I’m safely delivered back to England, so now it’s your turn to agree to your half of the bargain and let me get on with the career I’ve worked so hard for.’

Raphael looked at Beth appreciatively; she was approaching this situation from a business angle Cesar could and would relate to. The only problem with these particular negotiations was that Cesar never compromised when it came to the welfare of the people who mattered to him. Stubbornly independent as Beth might be—and in denial as to her true identity—Cesar firmly believed her to be the sister he had adored when she was a baby, and for whom he and his parents had mourned these past twenty-one years.

Although none of them could possibly have realised that Gabriela would one day be returned to them a fully grown and independent young woman who refused to accept her heritage!

Cesar sat forward to take his coffee cup from his mother. ‘I do not believe you understood my earlier remark correctly. Raphael will not only accompany you back to England, but remain there for as long as you do.’

‘What?’ Beth gasped incredulously. ‘Not only is that utterly ridiculous, it’s also impractical!’

‘Nevertheless, that is my compromise.’ Cesar remained stubbornly decisive.

Beth turned to look at Raphael impatiently. ‘And you’re happy with that, are you?’

His eyes narrowed. ‘I go wherever Cesar wishes me to go.’

‘Oh, wonderful!’ She gave a disgusted shake of her head. ‘And exactly where do you intend staying while you’re there? Because you certainly aren’t staying in my home with me!’

Raphael eyed her coolly. ‘Hopefully I will have things in place before we leave tomorrow.’

She eyed him warily. ‘What things?’

Raphael maintained a blandly unsmiling expression as he held back his inner amusement at Beth’s obvious suspicion. ‘Things.’

‘Grace, do something!’ She turned to appeal to her older sister.

‘Darling, I know this is difficult for you, but—’ Grace winced ‘—in the circumstances—’ she glanced at Esther and Carlos ‘—I have to agree with Cesar and Raphael.’

‘Unbelievable!’ Beth stood up noisily from the table. ‘By all means, Cesar, you and Raphael arrogantly go ahead and finish making your arrangements—personally, I intend to go and start packing,’ she muttered emotionally. ‘The sooner I’m out of here, the better!’ She rushed out of the dining room.

‘She doesn’t mean it, Esther.’ Grace sat forward to reassure her future mother-in-law as the other woman paled. ‘Beth’s upset, and a little disorientated by all the changes being asked of her.’

‘She is spoilt and willful.’ A nerve pulsed in Cesar’s rigidly clenched jaw as a door was heard slamming down the hallway. Beth’s bedroom door, no doubt.

‘She is frightened,’ Raphael corrected softly, his gaze still turned in the direction in which Beth had just departed as he rose slowly to his feet. ‘Will you allow me to go and talk to her?’

‘Would you?’ Grace turned to him gratefully. ‘I would go myself, but at the moment Beth seems to see me as having defected to—’ She broke off with an uncomfortable grimace.

‘The enemy,’ Esther finished for her sadly.

‘No, not the enemy,’ Grace assured her instantly. ‘Try to understand this from Beth’s point of view,’ she continued gently. ‘Not only has she lost two sets of parents already, but she’s lived the past twenty-one years of her life in complete ignorance of all of you, and it’s going to take time, and patience on your part—’ she gave Cesar a pointed look ‘—for her to accept exactly who she really is.’

And, in the meantime, for all that Raphael understood and sympathised with Beth’s confusion of emotions, it was time for her to start considering feelings other than her own. ‘If you will all excuse me,’ he muttered with grim distraction before striding purposefully from the room.

Beth refused to cry as she threw her clothes into the open suitcase she had tossed on top of her bed a few minutes ago.

How and when had her life become such a nightmare? Including all of her carefully made plans for a future in publishing?

The moment Grace had met Cesar Navarro’s parents just over a week ago, that was when. And Beth refused to—

‘If you were my sister—newly returned to me or otherwise—I would have put you over my knee and soundly spanked your spoilt little backside by now!’

She hastily blinked back all evidence of tears before turning sharply to face Raphael, her spine straightening determinedly as he stood overwhelmingly tall and wide in the now open doorway. ‘Then it’s just as well I’m not your sister, isn’t it?’ she snapped.

Those laser-blue eyes narrowed in warning. ‘You hurt Esther just now, and that is as unforgivable to me as it is to Cesar and Carlos.’ The steely edge to his tone was unmistakeable.

Beth eyed him warily. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt Esther…’

‘And yet you did.’

Her gaze dropped guiltily from his. ‘I’ll apologise to her before I leave.’

He sighed heavily. ‘As I said earlier, why do you continue to fight what is inevitable?’

Her eyes flashed darkly. ‘And as I answered earlier—because to me it isn’t inevitable!’

Raphael gave an impatient shake of his head. ‘You are a fool if you believe that. Even more so if you think Cesar will ever leave you, his sister Gabriela, in a position of vulnerability ever again for even a moment! The fact that the Navarros are allowing you to leave at all—’

‘No one is “allowing” me to do anything.’

‘But they are,’ Raphael corrected harshly. ‘You think that Esther could not stop you if she were determined to do so? That she could not break down and cry, beg you not to leave them, and so make you feel too guilty to go?’