The Cuban Daughter

THE CUBAN DAUGHTER A TOTALLY UNFORGETTABLE AND HEARTBREAKING PAGE-TURNER FULL OF FAMILY SECRETS SORAYA LANE BOOKS BY SORAYA LANE The Lost Daughters The Italian Daughter The Cuban Daughter CONTENTS Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Epilogue Hear More from Soraya Books by Soraya Lane A Letter from Soraya The Italian Daughter Acknowledgments * For Richard King Thank you for believing in this series and telling the world about it. PROLOGUE THE PRIVATE RESIDENCE OF SUGAR BARON JULIO DIAZ, HAVANA, CUBA, LATE 1950 Esmeralda had her arm linked through her sister María’s as they walked into the sitting room to join their father. Their maid had come dashing upstairs in a hurry to tell them there was a visitor, and that they were expected to come down immediately, but it wasn’t an unusual request. Her father liked to show his daughters off; they were his pride and joy. Before, when her mother was alive, her parents would have likely entertained guests without need for their daughters to do more than whisk in and out of the room for show, but now her father preferred his 1 LONDON, PRESENT DAY Claudia had the music blaring loud, paintbrush in hand as she touched up the white windowsill. She’d spent the past six months working on the flat, breathing life into the once-dated interior, and she only had a few days of renovation work left before it was finished. She stood back and looked around at what she’d created, nostalgic about having to part with the place despite never having intended on keeping it. This is a business, she told herself. No falling in love with the project. This is not home. It was the second flat in Chelsea that she’d renovated in the past year, and she’d loved every second of