His family owned the estate. Hers worked on it. Unfortunately she’s had a crush on him all her life…

“I’m sure I can count on your discretion, Anna.”

Reynaldo narrowed his eyes and added, “Neither of us wants our parents to be the subject of prurient gossip.”

“Oh, really?” she said. “Perhaps your father gave my mom those jewels to buy her silence. Paid her to be invisible, a nobody. A secret mistress.” She rose to her feet, heart pounding, and threw her napkin on the table next to her untouched dessert. “Well, I’m ashamed to know you. Any of you DeLeons.”

“You don’t understand the situation.” His icy voice chilled her.

“I understand all I need to,” she said. Fists clenched against the onslaught of all she’d learned and couldn’t even begin to process, she rushed from the dining room, tugged open the heavy front door and flew down the stone steps.

He didn’t come after her. She hadn’t expected him to. He knew she’d be back for her money.

She knew it, too. And that made the long, dusty moonlit walk back to the cottage more grueling than ever.