‘You think I am a cynic?’
‘Of course you are! You think I’m marrying your brother for all the wrong reasons. That’s very cynical of you.’
‘Maybe you are right.’ He examined the contents of his glass. ‘I have allowed some bad experiences with women to colour my judgement.’
‘Have you ever been in love, Carlo?’
He raised his eyes to hers. ‘It is somewhat of a legend, Anna, that the Ventressi males fall in love once in a lifetime. They love deeply and completely but if crossed in love they never forgive.’
‘You didn’t answer my question.’
‘It is a hard question to answer.’
‘You don’t want to tell me?’
He smiled at her. ‘I have not yet been in love, but I am on the…’
‘Lookout?’ she offered.
‘You are very good for my English, Anna. I am learning so much from you.’
‘You’re a good pupil, Carlo.’ She smiled and raised her glass. ‘To my new brother-in-law—the erstwhile playboy of the Ventressi males.’
He raised his glass and chinked it against hers. ‘To family love, Anna.’
They made their way through another bottle of French champagne, and even though Anna knew she was getting increasingly tipsy she began to relax enough to really enjoy the easy repartee of Lucio’s younger brother.
Once he let his arrogant guard down she caught a glimpse of a rather nice but slightly insecure young man, a man who had constantly lived in the shadow of a high-achieving, older, more successful brother.
‘Of course our lives changed for ever when our father died,’ Carlo confessed, staring into his glass, his brow creased in a frown.
‘It must have been very hard for you,’ she said softly. ‘How old were you?’
‘I was Jenny’s age, Giulia seventeen and Lucio nineteen. It was such a shock, for my mother particularly, but for us all really.’
‘An accident?’
He nodded. ‘He was working hard to build up the business. He was on his way home from Naples and he fell asleep at the wheel. He died instantly.’
‘I’m so sorry.’
He gave her a brief smile. ‘You too have had your grief to bear. Lucio told me your mother has not long departed this world.’
She couldn’t help smiling at the old fashioned term. Yes, her mother had departed this world—her world, the world of her two young daughters.
‘Yes…I miss her terribly.’
‘But you have Jenny.’
She gave him a brief smile. ‘Yes…I have Jenny.’
‘And now you have a new family.’ He topped up her glass once more. ‘You are shortly to be a Ventressi, part of one of Italy’s most noble families.’
‘I only hope I live up to everyone’s expectations,’ she said, reaching for her glass.
‘Oh, I think you will,’ he said and raised his glass in a toast. ‘I think you will very definitely live up to everyone’s expectations.’
Anna could recall very little more of that night. She remembered joining him in another toast, laughing again at one of his misuses of English, even remembered playfully correcting him and his mock-injured response.
She woke the next morning to find herself in Carlo’s bed, the light from the windows too bright for her eyes, but it was nothing to the glare in Lucio’s when he thrust open the door and stared down at her in disbelief.
‘Anna?’
‘Lucio!’ She began to sit upright but suddenly realised she was totally naked.
His eyes raked her mercilessly. ‘What are you doing in Carlo’s bed?’
She looked at him blankly for a moment as she tried to think how she came to be in his brother’s room.
‘I…’
He threw a savage word in Italian at her which she loosely translated as ‘slut’.
‘Lucio, I—’
His jaw was tight with barely controlled rage, ‘You shameless little gold-digger. Carlo was right about you. You are nothing but trash—on the hunt for a rich husband.’
‘No!’ She clutched at the sheet to cover her shame.
He gave her a disparaging glance that cut her to the quick. ‘I turn my back and you seduce my brother in my absence!’
‘No!’ She scrambled from the bed, snatching up the sheet to cover herself haphazardly. ‘Lucio, I didn’t do—’
He cut her off with a slash of his hand. ‘Do not try and dig yourself out of this hole. Carlo has told me it all.’
‘Told you what?’ She gripped the sheet with shaking fingers.
His eyes raked her from head to foot. ‘He told me how you came on to him.’
‘I didn’t!’
His nostrils flared with distaste. ‘He was inconsolable about what you’d led him to do.’
She opened and closed her mouth.
‘He is so deeply ashamed that he was caught off guard.’
She couldn’t get her head around it. Carlo had said she’d…
‘And you believed him?’ She gaped at him.
‘Why would I not believe him?’ he asked. ‘He is my brother.’
Why, indeed? she thought, but didn’t articulate it.
‘I don’t remember what happened last night, Lucio, but I know I did not sleep with your brother.’
‘Do not lie to me!’ he roared at her. ‘You gave yourself to him in his moment of weakness. He is traumatised by what occurred.’
Carlo? Traumatised?
‘I can explain…’
‘Do you think I want to hear your explanations?’
‘I—’
‘You disgust me.’
‘Lucio, I didn’t—’
‘I don’t want to continue this discussion,’ he interjected. ‘I have organised for you and your sister to leave immediately.’
‘But—’
‘Do you think I could overlook such an indiscretion?’
‘I didn’t do any—’
‘Damn you to hell!’ he shouted. ‘I loved you, Anna. How could you do this to me?’
‘Lucio…’ She reached out a hand to him pleadingly.
He brushed it aside with a furious gesture. ‘I never want to see you again. Do you hear me? I never want to see your treacherous face again. You will leave in the morning; the servants are, as we speak, packing your bags. I never want to hear your name mentioned in my presence again.’
‘But Lucio, I—’
‘Get out of my sight, Anna,’ he warned. ‘For I am this close—’ he held up two fingers in a pinch ‘—to losing all control with you.’
She stared at him in consternation. He was like a stranger to her. Gone was the gentle lover of a few days ago; in his place was a man stretched to the limits of control, his pulsing anger like a force separating them.
‘I didn’t sleep with—’
‘Get out before I throw you out.’
‘I love you, Lucio!’
His dark gaze stripped her of all dignity. ‘You are worthless. Take your sister and get out of my house before I call the authorities. You have brought shame on the Ventressi name and I will not forgive you for it.’
He turned away from her and strode towards the door of his brother’s bedroom, his back rigid with injured pride.
‘I didn’t sleep with Carlo…’ Her words trailed away ineffectually. ‘I didn’t…’
But he had gone.
Anna woke to find Lucio beside Sammy’s bed, one of his long-fingered hands holding the tiny starfish hand of her infant son.
‘He is doing very well, the nursing staff tell me,’ he said.
She blinked the drowsiness out of her eyes and looked up at him. ‘How long have you been here?’
He gave her an unreadable look. ‘Long enough to hear you murmur my brother’s name in your sleep.’
She lowered her eyes to stare at the floor, not sure how to respond.
‘No doubt you are feeling guilty for not telling him about the existence of his son,’ he observed.
She bit her li
p in agitation. It had crossed her mind many times to inform Carlo of Sammy’s existence. However, her firsthand experience of the cold-blooded ruthlessness of the Ventressis had always prevented her from acting on the impulse. The Ventressi wealth and influence meant they would have had no trouble taking charge if she’d told them of her son’s birth, and even now it was apparent to her she still stood on increasingly unsteady ground.
She was a single mother with few resources; it wasn’t too hard to imagine an Italian legal advisor insisting Sammy had a right to his paternal origins, even though the circumstances of his conception were hardly what one could describe as ideal. The very fact that she’d fallen pregnant to one brother whilst engaged to the other would have worked against her suitability as a mother, leaving her at the mercy of a judge’s decision in a plea for custody.
‘I’m surprised you haven’t told him yourself,’ she said after a tight silence.
He gave her a hard look from beneath dark lashes. ‘I told you before—Carlo is happily married with a child expected in a matter of weeks. I do not think he needs to have his marriage compromised at this time by such a disclosure.’
‘Have you told him you’re…living with me?’ she asked.
‘I have told him what he needs to know.’
‘Which is?’
‘I told him we are having an affair.’
Anna could feel the heat rising in her cheeks at his blunt statement. ‘What did he say to that?’
‘He was surprised…Even a little shocked, maybe.’
‘I can just imagine.’ Her tone was deliberately dry. ‘What did he say? What a fool you are to get your fingers burnt all over again?’
He watched her for a long moment before answering. ‘No, he didn’t say anything of that nature.’
Anna became increasingly aware of the stretching silence, its long drawn out passage measured by the steady beeps of Sammy’s ECG monitor beside them.
‘My brother finds it very painful to speak of that night,’ he said at last. ‘It seems he feels the burden of guilt much more keenly than you.’
Her head came up at that. ‘What do you know of what I might be feeling? What can you possibly know? You’re a man—no doubt you’ve slept with hundreds of women, never once stopping to consider the implications. I made one mistake! A mistake I can’t even recall making, even though there is more than enough evidence to convict me. But because I’m a woman I’m judged more harshly. I have a child, a child who was conceived out of wedlock, a child who doesn’t have a normal relationship with his father because of one stupid slip-up. Don’t tell me your brother feels more guilt than me. I feel enough guilt for both of us.’
‘Carlo must not find out about Sammy,’ he said. ‘His wife would not understand. It would cause untold trouble in the family.’
‘Did I ever say I wanted him to know?’ she asked. ‘I have not asked for anything from the Ventressis. I’d rather scrub my fingers to the knuckles than take a handout from any of you.’
‘I will adopt Sammy as my own child.’
Anna swivelled her head to stare at him. ‘What?’
He drew in a deep breath and met her steely gaze. ‘I will marry you and take on Sammy as my own.’
She sprang to her feet in consternation. ‘You would go that far to protect your brother from the truth?’
‘I will do anything to protect my family from exploitation. We shall marry as soon as Sammy is out of hospital. I will claim him as my own. No one will question it.’
‘No one but me, that is!’ she pointed out. ‘I can’t marry you!’
‘Why ever not?’
She gaped at him incredulously. ‘You can ask that?’
He gave a dismissive shrug. ‘You will soon get used to the idea.’
‘I will never get used to it!’ she said. ‘I can’t think of anything worse.’
‘Can’t you?’ His dark eyes hardened. ‘Think about it, Anna. I could engage the best legal team to whip Sammy away from you within days of applying for custody. You’re reputation will be examined and the truth will come out. You seduced my brother and have kept the existence of his son a secret from him. You are living on the breadline, your sister is—’
‘Don’t you dare to drag Jenny into this!’ she railed. ‘She has nothing whatsoever to do with this.’
He gave her an arrogant look down the length of his nose. ‘I will use any means at my disposal to make sure you are held to account for what you’ve done.’
She swallowed the lump of fear in her throat. ‘You’d go that far to achieve your ends? Even to the point of marrying me?’
He gave her a smile that chilled her to the marrow.
‘I will do whatever it takes to have you back in my bed—permanently. Make no mistake, Anna. I will extract my revenge piece by piece until you are in no doubt of which side your bread is buttered. I will own you, control you and make love to you whenever and however I feel like it. You will be mine, body and soul.’
‘You can’t do this!’
‘Watch me.’
‘This is outrageous!’
‘This is justice.’
‘I can’t believe how you’ve changed,’ she said with a desperate edge to her tone. ‘You used to be so…so…’
‘I used to be a fool,’ he said. ‘But I am wiser now. I know exactly how to deal with someone like you now. You are mine now, Anna. Don’t ever forget that. You are mine.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE next week was a form of torture for Anna. Each day spent by Sammy’s bedside was hard enough to deal with without the added burden of Lucio’s plans hanging over her head like the sword of Damocles.
She couldn’t escape her anguish over his plan to bring her to justice. He was after control. Control of her, control of her son, control of her responses to him as if she had no mind of her own.
She was so inextricably caught in the mesh of his net she couldn’t think of a possible way out of it. Every way she turned she confronted his determined purpose. He was calling all the shots and there was nothing she could do to stop him.
She knew he could scoop Sammy away from her at a moment’s notice. He would use Jenny as leverage, citing her disability, exploiting her vulnerability to achieve his own goal in securing Sammy as a Ventressi.
He would let nothing stand in his way. He wanted her to pay for her indiscretion—an indiscretion that had wounded his pride. It was his idea of justice and she would have no choice but to do as he commanded.
But marriage?
How could she go through with it? She would be committing herself to a lifetime of his disdain; every time he looked at her she would be reminded of what he thought of her, of how she’d betrayed him.
And Sammy?
Yes, he would finally have a father figure, but at what price? The secret of Sammy’s paternity would lie between them like something unpleasant beneath the carpet of their lives. They would have to skirt around it, never bringing it to the surface for Sammy’s sake, but it would never go away, no matter how much they tried to ignore it. She’d had a child via his brother, and he had made it very clear he could never forgive her for that.
Lucio came regularly to the hospital and Anna thought anyone watching from the outside would imagine him to be a doting father and an attentive partner to her. He brought her drinks and snacks and sat and read or played with Sammy so she could take a much needed break. In the presence of the staff he was polite and solicitous towards her, giving the impression he cared for her deeply. If only they knew of the way he’d coerced her back into his life! How, within days of Sammy leaving hospital, he planned to put a ring on her finger and a noose around her neck, thus tying her to him indefinitely.
The day before Sammy was being released she came back from a bathroom visit to find Jenny sitting beside his sleeping form with a pleased expression on her face.
‘Hi, Jen.’ Anna kissed her affectionately. ‘You look happy; what’s going on?’
‘I’ve got a job!’ J
enny signed excitedly.
Anna frowned. ‘What sort of job?’
‘Lucio has organised some work for me in his company. I start tomorrow.’
Anna sat on the edge of Sammy’s bed and faced her. ‘Are you sure that’s wise?’
‘What’s the matter?’ Jenny looked confused. ‘I thought you would be pleased. After all, you and Lucio are getting married now, so it’s all worked out. I can work for the summer before I go back to university. It will be good experience for me.’
‘He told you we were getting married?’
‘Yes,’ Jenny said. ‘He said he had a special licence to get married next week.’
‘Next week!’ she gasped.
Jenny gave her a funny look. ‘Are you not happy, Anna? You love him, don’t you? You’ve never stopped loving him so why are you balking at it now?’
She gnawed her lip, seriously considering telling her sister the full and gory details of what had happened, but before she could frame her response Jenny continued signing. ‘I realise he is still angry over you not telling him about Sammy but he is prepared to put that aside to give your relationship another chance. Surely you owe him that, especially as he’s paying for Sammy’s surgery?’
What could she say? Yes, she did owe him. She owed him more than she could ever repay but that still didn’t change what lay between them—the bitterness, the pain…the betrayal.
‘You’re right, of course,’ she said instead. ‘I’m worrying about nothing. It will all work out in the end—it has to.’
‘You are so exhausted.’ Jenny touched her hand. ‘Why don’t you go home and have a decent sleep? I can stay with Sammy until the morning.’
Anna squeezed her sister’s hand. ‘You’re such an angel, Jenny, but I really need to be here. I’m his mother, after all.’
‘He has a father now,’ Jenny said. ‘You don’t have to do this alone any more. Lucio told me he is coming in after work; he should be here shortly.’
As if she’d summoned him by mentioning his name he appeared in the doorway, his tall, imposing figure casting a shadow into the room.
‘Hello, Anna.’ His dark eyes sought hers. ‘How is my boy?’
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