Page 44 of Desert Wind

“Good.” Jenna felt as though she’d been slapped. She took a step backward, and Nash started to move forward. Jenna gripped his arm.

“It’s alright, Nash. I expected that we would look alike,” Jenna said calmly, following the woman who had already turned to walk into another room. It was obviously a private room meant for just them. On a large grand piano were several photos, and Jenna stared at them.

“This is you as a young woman,” smiled Jenna. “Beautiful.”

“Yes. I was quite beautiful.”

“I don’t see our resemblance other than our nose,” she said quietly. The others just watched as she stared at the photos. Finally, she stopped at one, picking it up.

“Put that down.”

“Who is this?” she asked. “He isn’t the man in your wedding photo. Who is he?”

“Put that down!”

“Answer me,” said Jenna firmly.

“I can tell you, my dear,” said another older woman walking into the room. “That’s my husband.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

“Your husband. Who are you?”

“Lydia Cipriani. Perhaps it’s time she knew it all,” said the woman, staring at Claudia.

“Shut up, Lydia. You weren’t invited to this ball.”

“I was invited in your very covert way, darling. As you always did things.”

“Will someone just tell us what the hell is happening here?” asked Nash.

“It’s quite simple. This whore was sleeping with my husband because her own was infested with disease,” sneered Lydia. “Anthony was so smitten with you he would have given you the world. And he did. He gave you a daughter.”

“If you loved him, why did you not try to find me?” asked Jenna.

“Find you?” laughed Lydia. “She had you kidnapped. She hired those pathetic people to care for you and keep you away.”

“Wh-why? I don’t understand. Why would you do that? You let your only child live away from you, grow up in another home? Why? No money, not a decent home, no education?” Jenna stared at the woman, who only stared back in silence. “I deserve to know!”

Her scream echoed in the cavernous room, and even Claudia jumped.

“He couldn’t leave Lydia as we planned, and Jacques refused to divorce me. We were trapped in loveless, horrible marriages. I looked at you and only saw him. It was a reminder every day of what I couldn’t have.”

“But you had me!” yelled Jenna.

“Oh, that’s not all,” said Lydia. “Tell her the rest.”

“I despise you,” said Claudia, staring at the old woman.

“Same.”

“Anthony put you in his will. If Lydia dies, everything, all of his businesses as they are today, go to you.”

“What?Why?”

“Because you’re his only heir.”

“But why would that anger you? Isn’t that what you want, for your daughter to have it all? All of it?” asked Kane.

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