Page 42 of Bound By Her Shocking Secret

But now he wasn’t thinking about any of that. He scanned the sea, growing more and more tense. No sign of her.

Just when he was starting to feel panic he saw her, waist-deep in the water, wading out. For a moment his heart stopped. He thought she was naked. But then he realised she was wearing a skin-coloured swimsuit. One of those they’d photographed her in earlier. Evidently they’d let her use it for her swim.

She came out of the water, body glistening, bringing her long hair over one shoulder and squeezing it. She looked like a goddess. Aphrodite. More than one person almost stumbled as they passed by.

Daniel forced oxygen to his brain. She was okay.

She looked up at that moment, as if she could hear his thoughts, and he saw how she tensed. She started walking towards him and he could see that she was self-conscious. It amazed him how she could be so beautiful and not take advantage of it, like every other beautiful woman he knew. But her lack of arrogance added to her allure. It was what had captivated him from the moment he’d seen her in real life.

She came closer. ‘Sorry, am I holding you up?’

Daniel handed over the towel even as he lamented the fact that she would cover her body up. She took it and wound it around herself, tying it under her arms.

‘No, not at all.’

She made a motion with her head towards the water. ‘You should have a swim—it’s glorious.’ Then she frowned. ‘Actually, I’ve never seen you use the pool at the house...don’t you like swimming?’

A solid weight lodged in Daniel’s gut. He knew he could say something flippant, but some force was compelling him to admit, ‘I know how to swim, but I don’t. Ever.’

Mia stopped. Eyes widening. ‘Why not?’ And then she said, almost to herself, ‘You were weird that day...when you came back and saw me with Lexi in the pool... You said something about putting up a protective rail. Did something happen to you?’

Daniel regretted whatever force had compelled him to tell Mia something he’d never told anyone else in his life. But it was too late now.

‘I told you my sister died...’

‘Yes.’

‘She drowned in the pool at our chateau.’

The pool that had subsequently been filled in and covered over.

Mia put a hand to her mouth. ‘Oh, Daniel... I’m so sorry. She was only six?’

He nodded. ‘We’d been playing. I ran back into the chateau to get something, and while I was gone I heard her scream, and then a splash. It seemed to take me for ever to run back to the pool...and when I got there she was floating face-down in the deep end. She’d only just started learning how to swim. She had no armbands on. I jumped in. I knew how to swim but I was panicking, and it was so deep. I tried to push her, to turn her over, but she was heavy. And then I couldn’t breathe...she was on top of me... I blacked out—’

‘You obviously nearly drowned too.’ Mia’s horrified statement cut through the painful memory.

‘I suppose I did. I never saw it like that.’

‘Where were your parents?’

Daniel’s mouth thinned. ‘Probably fighting. The gardener was the one who pulled us out...it was too late for Delphine, though.’

‘Delphine... The new jewellery collection is named after her?’

Daniel nodded. How could he explain that everything he did was infused with the loss of his sister? She was one of the reasons he’d accepted his inheritance—because she’d always loved the jewels so much. At every step along the way he was aware of how old she would be now. How beautiful. Living her life. And it washisfault. He hadn’t been able to protect her.

Mia was shaking her head. ‘You blame yourself, don’t you?’

Yes. But he didn’t admit that to Mia. ‘My mother blamed me for Delphine’s death. They were pretty much the last words she said to me before she left the chateau for good. For years I thought I was the reason she’d left... But then I found out that she’d been having an affair.’

Mia looked angry. ‘She was projecting her own guilt onto you.’

‘Perhaps. But the fact remains that I was there. I should’ve been watching Delphine. Iknewwe couldn’t count on our parents for care because they’d never given it.’

Mia said, ‘I trained as a lifeguard as a strong, athletic teenager, and I know how difficult it is to save someone panicking or unconscious in the water. It’s almost impossible unless you’re strong and trained. You were nine.’

When she put it like that, Daniel could appreciate it was perhaps irrational to blame himself, but Mia’s words weren’t any comfort. They just rubbed along all the jagged edges he’d held deep inside him for years.

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