She made the connection. “They’re bankers. They were in a position to loan you money for Romano Restoration.”
Darkness descended. “Yes. D’Angelo and I met at Oxford. I had the name. He had the money. I didn’t think anything of it. We were…” He shrugged. “Friends. Or I thought we were. I didn’t realize at the time that he deliberately set out to cultivate a friendship. He liked bragging about his close relationship with a Romano.”
“I assume at some point he met Ariana.”
“It happened on a vacation we took with the d’Angelos when Ariana was in her early teens.” There was something in his voice when he said that, something unbearably painful and forbidding. Something he wasn’t telling her. “At first, I didn’t think anything of it. When I looked at my sister, I saw a child. D’Angelo saw a toy that he didn’t yet own. And he needed to own all the toys.”
She thought about David’s Jag and Rolex and suite at the Ritz. “He still does.”
“I’m not surprised.” Constantine scrubbed a weary hand across his face. “At some point, d’Angelo made a comment about dating Ariana and I came on like the typical big brother. She was too young, the differences in their ages too great.”
“I gather that didn’t stop David.”
“Not at all. If anything, it made him want her all the more.”
“Because she was forbidden fruit.”
“Yes. It caused a rift between us. I began to really look at him, listen to him. When I did, I heard rumors about d’Angelo and women. Ugly rumors that perhaps not all the women were willing. I learned afterward that d’Angelo’s father kept it all hushed up with huge payoffs.”
Constantine trailed a finger along her arm. He did it in an absentminded manner, not really paying attention to his actions. The featherlight caress sent desire cascading through her and she shut her eyes, fighting to focus on the story instead of his touch.
“What happened then?” Gianna managed to ask.
“By this time we’d become somewhat estranged. But one day he came to me unexpectedly and offered to arrange an interview with his father. He said Aldo was extremely interested in financing my start-up restoration business. It surprised me. But hell, I’d talked about it for years. I thought perhaps d’Angelo extended the offer as an olive branch.” He hesitated. His mouth compressed and he shook his head. “I’m deluding myself. I went along because I wanted the opportunity so badly—”
“Stop it, Constantine.” She wouldn’t allow him to shoulder so much of the blame. “David is responsible for his own choices, not you.”
He didn’t argue the point, but she didn’t think she’d convinced him that he didn’t bear some fault in what happened. “A time was set,” he continued the narrative, “and I showed up in my best suit, prospectus in hand, my sales pitch polished. David should have been there, but I wasn’t too surprised when he wasn’t.”
“Why not?”
“His family is—or maybe was—ridiculously wealthy. He didn’t need to work and invented as many excuses as possible to avoid it. Still, as my former friend and considering he’d set up the interview—”
“You expected David to be there.”
“Yes.” Constantine closed his eyes, all emotion draining from his voice. For some reason the very lack of emotion made the telling that much worse. “At some point I asked where he was and Aldo gave this laugh.”
“Oh, no.”
“I knew then. Aldo realized he’d given the game away and told me to let it go. That he’d make it worth my while. That it was only a little fun between consenting adults.”
“How many teeth did you knock out?”
A cold smile slashed across Constantine’s mouth. “Only one. It took me forever to track down my former friend. I arrived just in time.”
“Ariana doesn’t remember any of this?”
“Nothing of that night, no. Despite my attempts to hush it up, she later found out that David and some of his friends took bets to see who’d be the first to have her. Fortunately, whoever told her the tale prettied up the details somewhat. She assumed that d’Angelo and his friends were trying to make her fall in love with one of them in order to relieve her of her virginity. She thinks it was because of her name and status.”