Page 71 of Masked Hearts

I pass the bell boy a hundred Euro note for his time and he disappears.

“So, care to explain why I had to drop everything and return home?” I ask as I place the water down.

“Where is Theá?” Kylian asks.

I ignore him, looking at Gabriel for an answer to my question, but he simply looks at me expectantly, clearly wanting that answer first.

“With my brothers and Valerie at the concert you made me leave.” I bite back as much venom as I can from my tone, but the truth is, I am bitter. I’m fucking pissed because all I wanted to do was get lost in tonight with her and not have to deal with reality. Because whenever reality rears its ugly head, it brings problems like last night.

“You left her somewhere alone?” Kylian fires.

“Are you hard of hearing? I said she’s with my brothers and Valerie, which means she’s surrounded by ample security. You may be able to inconvenience me as you please, but you definitely won’t be ruining her night.” I glare at him and he falls silent.

“We need you to appraise a few artworks for us,” Gabriel says calmly as he puffs on a cigarette.

I push an ashtray in his direction. The smell doesn’t irritate me as much as it does for Ambrose. If anything, it’s nostalgic, bringing back memories of sitting in meetings with my father as he built the company from the ground up.

“Should I ask how you knew I was qualified as an art appraiser?” I look over at Enzo who is suddenly very consumed by the view from the penthouse.

“Best to not waste time with technicalities,” Gabriel says.

“This isn’t something that happens in an evening, it takes time and research,” I say, walking towards the cart with the artwork on it.

“Good thing we researched for you,” Kylian says.

I raise a brow in his direction, pulling a canvas out. “I’m not following.”

“We know exactly how much each piece can be sold for, we just need you to sign it off,” Enzo says.

“Hmm…these are fakes,” I say absent-mindedly as I pull out another canvas, scanning it the same way I did the first one.

“How do you know?” Gabriel leans back on the sofa, his curly, grey hair catching the light.

For a brief moment, I catch a glimpse of a resemblance to Theá. They may be related, but his personality clouds just how much they look alike.

“Because I care about art, and anyone who does would know they’re fakes, too.”

“Impossible, the artist who worked on these replicas is one of the best,” Kylian fires, rising to his feet and walking over.

“One of the best, but not the best,” I scoff. “The colours are all off in this one. It’s tonal, but it’s noticeable. And in this one, it’s the scale.” I hold another up.

Kylian looks over at Gabriel who seems irritated.

“You told me they were perfect. The men buying these are rich, not stupid. They have to pass as the original,” Gabriel grumbles.

“What about the others?” Kylian asks, gesturing to the rest of the cart. “The rest aren’t copies, they’re just artworks we want to inflate the value of.”

I head back to the cart and pull them up, scanning them. “I’ll do these, but I’m not touching the others,” I say and Kylian glances over to his father.

“We don’t have time to fix them. You’ll appraise them all tonight for the values we say.” Gabriel shrugs. “The auction is in a few days.”

“It’ll put my reputation as an appraiser at risk. Isn’t that the whole point of this? You want to use my reputation?” I fire back. I’ve worked insanely hard outside of Vitale Holdings to develop my name in the art world. Outside just curating, I’ve built trust as an appraiser, trust I’m not willing to break for a few poorly done fakes.

“Exactly, and you haven’t lied before. That means they’ll believe you regardless.”

“And what happens when they realise the original exists somewhere else?” I raise a brow.

“Trust me, they won’t come running back. We’ll make sure of it.” Kylian smirks.