Being stuck in the apartment with Riley made it impossible for her to think straight and she could no longer shake the feeling of unease she felt around him. As she stared at his laptop setup that had taken over the table, it was clear that she couldn’t work here anyway. She suddenly decided it would be better to leave.
“I’m feeling frustrated about everything,” she said, feeling as though this was a waste of time. He had answers for everything she threw at him. “This has been a lousy few days for me, for my business and my livelihood. It’s hard to get a clear head.”
He didn’t move at first, even when she held onto the back of the chair for support. Then he asked her, “How’s the insurance claim coming along?”
“I’ll get it all back. But it’s not going to be without its obstacles. This will set me back a few weeks, a month, or more, who knows?” She wondered about telling him about the allegations of arson and then thought better of it. That would have to wait, maybe until she’d spoken to Leo. He would know what to do and with any luck he might even have remembered more. She knew something wasn’t right but she didn’t know what it was. She suspected Riley was up to something, but she couldn’t pin down what that might be.
He moved swiftly and hugged her close to his chest and she didn’t move away because the energy had drained right out of her body. “You’re one of the strongest and most level-headed people I know, Andrea. I’m sorry this happened to you. I wish…I wish there was something I could do to help you. I feel like I’m in the way and you need to move on.” She wanted to lift her head and look into his eyes because this felt like a goodbye. And his voice sounded different; he never spoke this way before, gently, with a touch of sadness to it. She kept her head against his chest and listened.
Once, they had been good together yet over time things had changed along the way. She preferred to remember how things had been in the beginning.
“I have to sort out a couple of things,” he said, his voice solemn as he pulled away from their embrace. He looked at her for the longest time. Blue Eyes. She remembered the nickname she’d given him before she’d even known his name—back at the Villa Costanza when he was just a gorgeous guy in his baseball cap and shorts.
“You go ahead and sort your things out,” she replied, picking her handbag up again. “I’ve got some errands to run.”
She wasn’t sure if it was a smile that he gave her, the way his lips lifted at the edges. What she remembered the most as she left her apartment was the look of sadness in his eyes.
39
Leo.
She needed to see Leo.
Andrea rushed to the hospital and marched straight into his room without knocking. He spun around, startled, having just taken off his top and now stood in only his Jeans. She blushed at the sight of his firm body. “Sorry,” she mumbled as he stared back at her, looking just as embarrassed. Frozen at the door, she wasn’t sure whether to take a step in or to retreat with grace.
“Uh, I won’t be long.” He picked up his shirt and at the same time pointed to his hair. “How bad does it look?”
“What?”
“The hair.”
She was too busy staring at the lines on his stomach to pay any attention to his hair. “What’s wrong with your hair?” she asked, reluctantly dragging her eyes away as he slipped arms through his shirt.
“Not so bad then, if you didn’t notice it,” he replied, venturing a smile.
“No, Leo, and it’s the last thing you should be worried about.” She tried to look out of the hospital window but she ended up watching him as he slowly did up his buttons. “So, you’re free to go?” She swallowed and prayed that her face didn’t betray signs of her anxiety.
“Sounds like I’m getting out of jail, doesn’t it? But, yeah. I’m free to go. Thanks.”
“For?”
“For coming to see me every day. You didn’t have to.”
“I’m only doing that because I have no office to go to,” she replied with a smile. She looked at his discarded hospital clothes on the bed. “I wanted to see how you were doing. Pretty good by the looks of it. I mean—because they’re releasing you.” She added quickly.
“And not a moment too soon.” He sat on the chair and slipped on his shoes.
“You’re one hundred percent fine now?”
“Not quite one hundred percent but I feel well enough to leave.”
“Thank god, Leo. I’ve been so worried about you.” The overwhelming sense of relief she felt at his recovery took her by surprise. She couldn’t understand it. Was it because he was going to be fine or was it more that she needed him by her side?
“None of this is your fault,” he told her.
“I know.”
“You’re saying it as though it is.”
She winced, unsure when would be the right time to share her suspicions with him. “How’s the amnesia?”
“I’ve been told that I should start remembering things but it might take a while. Not too long, I’m hoping.”
“But it will come back?”
“The doctor says he sees no reason why it shouldn’t. I still don’t remember what happened on that day, in case you’re wondering.”
She shook her head. “In your own time. You have to get better first.”
“I don’t even remember the bookshelf falling on me.” He paused and stood up. “The doctor doesn’t believe that’s what happened, though.”
She leaned against the edge of the hospital bed. “What does the doctor think?” she asked in a voice that sounded like a child’s. She was almost too afraid to hear his answer.
“He doesn’t think the bookshelf fell on me. And I happen to agree. Think about it, Andrea. That’s a hanging shelf mounted on the wall. If it suddenly came loose at the hinges, don’t you think it would fall straight down?”
She thought about it and knew his words to be true. “What does he think happened?”
“He didn’t say.” Leo’s voice was quiet.
She’d been too afraid to face the truth of it and though she had images floating around in her mind, pieces of the puzzle coming together—she still didn’t like what it was presenting to her. Perhaps when he had fully recovered, between the two of them, she and Leo could put it all together again.
“Why do you look so worried?” Leo asked, raising himself to standing. “Andrea?” he put his hand out and she wondered whether he was about to touch her cheek. She wondered what that might feel like. But he moved his hand away before she’d had a moment to hold that thought. Swallowing, she told him. “Riley was the one who found you.”
“I know. Or at least that’s what I was told.”
“Don’t you wonder what he was doing there? I was away in Milan that day. Do you remember?”
He closed his eyes as though trying to recall the memories from the darkest recesses of his mind. “That’s the problem. I only remember the day you left. We were in the office, talking.”
“Just before I left?”
Leo winced. “I think so. Riley needed a suit.”
“For what?”
“The wedding. He didn’t have one and asked me where he could buy it.”
“That must have been before I went to Milan,” said Andrea. “Do you remember if you saw Riley on the day of the fire?”
He shook his head. “I don’t even remember him taking me out of that place, but people tell me he did.”
Andrea swallowed. “Riley told me that he’d been at the coffee shop. He said he’d come by to see you even though he knew I was away.”
“See me?” Leo frowned. “What about?”
“You two didn’t exactly get on too well—do you remember?”
Leo nodded, as if trying to find the memory. He nodded slowly. “Yeah, now I remember. He came by…” his words trailed off. “He came by and I asked him about the wedding.”
“The wedding happened before, Leo.”
“Not your friends’ wedding. Riley’s wedding.”
“Ri
ley’s wedding?” She frowned in consternation. “What are you talking about? Riley wasn’t getting married. I think you’re getting confused.” But she stood up straight, felt her body beginning to shake.
“In Bellagio. The place where you met. He was going to get married. Wasn’t he?” Leo’s words took an eon to filter through to her brain.
“No, Leo. No. He was there by himself. He’d gone to attend a friend’s wedding.” Her heart hammered in the back of her throat. Something was stuck in there and words choked her. But Leo was adamant. “It was his wedding that was supposed to have taken place there. But it was canceled a month before.”
“You’re mistaken.” She told him with conviction.
“You didn’t know?” Leo asked her. He seemed to be pretty sure he had his facts right.
She let out a cry, of pain. “I didn’t know because it’s not true! You’re mixing your memories up.” She held her hand to her chest, her breathing quick and ragged. Because if this were true, it meant that her whole relationship had been based on monumental lies.
Leo scratched his head. “Andrea, you have to go slow with me.” He leaned against the edge of the bed. It seemed as though things were coming back to him but in pieces all scattered around in different directions and he was having a hard time connecting it all together. She hoped he had somehow mixed up two wrong pieces together and she waited for him to tell her that he had it all wrong and that he’d made a mistake.
Except, he didn’t.
“I don’t even remember when this was. It might have been the same day that you went away. I’m not sure.” He looked at her in confusion, a frown settling on his face. “He said he wanted to talk; that we could try to get on better, to make amends.”
But she only listened with half an ear. The insides of her gut churned and she tasted bitterness in her mouth. She couldn’t move past the news of his wedding. Canceled or not. The lying, cheating bastard. She thought back to that moment she had first laid eyes on him and how cool and casual he’d been that day. It couldn’t be true. Leo was wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Leo looked at her with worried eyes.
“I told you something you didn’t know, didn’t I?” This time his hand slipped down to hers and gripped it softly.
“You don’t like him,” she said suddenly.
“I don’t hate him,” Leo replied, slowly.
“But you’re not close. So how do you know about the engagement or the so-called wedding? How did that even come up in the conversation?” There was no way Riley would be forthcoming about something as personal as that to someone like Leo.
“I called the hotel—the place you stayed at in Bellagio.”
She stepped back, startled, and pulled her hand away. “You did what?”
“I had a hunch. I needed to follow it up.”
“You called the Villa Costanza and asked about Riley? Jesus Christ, Leo. Why would you do that?” She was angry and taking it out on Leo, but she knew, even as she shouted the words out, that she was afraid of discovering something. And worse, she knew that Leo already knew what that something was.
“I mentioned something to Riley about how he met you and there was something about his reaction I didn’t like.”
Hairs bristled along her neck as she listened to his words. She wondered what it was that he’d seen so much sooner than she had. Her doubts had been so faint, so subtle that she’d barely noticed them in the beginning. She’d been in total lust with Riley, had come to enjoy being with him, had placed him high up on a pedestal thinking he was the final missing piece in her life—a man who loved her. Except that now the lies were getting too thick.
“So you picked up the phone and called the Villa Costanza to ask for information about a guest?” There was hope yet. A patient suffering from retrograde amnesia wasn’t going to be the most reliable when it came to recounting past events.
Leo nodded. “I know it’s unforgiveable, but I needed to know. I don’t even know what I was looking for. Signs of something.”
“And?”
“And that’s when they told me that he’d stayed there that weekend—the weekend he was supposed to be getting married but the wedding had been canceled about a month ago. I’m sorry, Andrea.”
She stared at a spot on the floor, finding it hard to believe the news. But she sensed that it was true. She’d always known there was more to Riley than he’d shown her.
“Oh, god,” gasped Andrea, holding her forehead with her hand. “Oh god, what have I done?”
“You haven’t done anything.”
“He was at the coffee shop,” she said, lifting her head. “He was at the coffee shop on the day of the fire and that’s why he was able to rescue you.”
Leo listened.
“He told me he’d gone there because he’d misplaced one of his screens and he thought he might have left it there. But Giuseppe told me that incident happened a month ago. I don’t know why he lied to me. Though I have my suspicions.” She broke off her eye contact with Leo, unable to stare at him as she confessed that the man she’d let into her life was not the man she thought he was. Leo didn’t say a word the whole time. “Giuseppe said that Riley had been there the whole afternoon.”
“Do you know why he lied?”
She shook her head.
“Maybe he mixed events and dates up, Andrea. Remember he’s also been through an ordeal. He went into a blazing warehouse and saved me at the risk of his own life.”
“Don’t you think it’s odd?” She asked, “all these events happening? You must do, because you called the Villa Costanza for a reason.”
He perched alongside her on the bed.
“We can speculate on what might have happened.”
“Maybe I’m too scared to find out.”
“I’ll be by your side when the investigators come up with their findings. You won’t have to deal with this alone. We can face the facts together when we have them, Andrea.”
“I think I have enough facts to be dealing with for now.” She felt his fingers accidentally brush against hers as they both held onto the edge of the bed. He moved his hand away first.
It wasn’t easy holding onto the suspicions any longer and she now felt she needed to share her troubles with Leo. After all, who else did she have to help her?
“I think Riley started the fire. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. But I realize that there’s a lot about him that I don’t know. He walked into my life and I thought he was the best thing to happen to someone like me. But clearly, my choices in men leave much to be desired.” She said bitterly.
Leo stared at her silently. “He’s a very good player, Andrea. Think of that poor woman who was going to marry him.”
“Do you know why they called it off?”
“No idea. But it doesn’t matter. That’s one woman saved, the way I see it. I never had a good vibe from him. I don’t take people at face value. But I listen to what they say and what they do. Riley had something fishy about him from day one. The good thing to come out of this is that you won’t fall for his charm again. Or whatever it was you saw in him.”
“I was blinded by him. And now he’s probably the only person I can think of who might have had something to do with this. He destroyed my business and he almost killed you.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” said Leo. “Don’t jump to conclusions until we have all the facts, Andrea.”
“But the truth has never been clearer. You were right all along.”
“That’s still not enough to convict him of anything.”
“Tell me about the engagement.”
“I don’t know much.”
“You know about it and that’s a hell of a lot more than I know.”
Leo stood up and turned to her. “I think that’s something you need to ask him. It’s not my place.”
“You were right all along, Leo.”
“I need to leave this place.” He said, getting up off the bed.
“Can I give you
a lift back to yours?” she asked.
“Actually, Gianna asked me to come over to hers. So if you could give me a lift to hers that would be a great help.” His words were like a wrecking ball crashing into her heart.
“Gianna?” She watched him get his belongings together. “You and your ex seem to spend a lot of time together.” She managed a false laugh. “It wouldn’t surprise me if you got back together again.” She gave him a once-over but he didn’t reply.
Her heart continued to sink slowly towards her stomach as she dropped Leo at his ex-wife’s apartment—the place they’d lived in when they were married, he told her as she parked outside.
The week wasn’t getting any better and she couldn’t remember the last time she had felt even remotely happy. The debris of wrecked relationships and twisted lies littered her world.
Her personal life aside, her business life was no better. She had no viable business, she’d abandoned her new suppliers in Milan, she’d messed things up for Ava and no doubt left Nico in trouble with his new wife. She had nowhere to go and she didn’t relish the thought of returning to her apartment knowing that Riley would be there sweating over the table with that same stressed out look on his face and a heart full of lies.
Her last hope of comfort had been Leo and the first place he had turned to was his ex-wife.
She had no-one to turn to and nowhere to go.
40
Riley stared out of the window as soon as Andrea raced away. He knew things had changed and that this was goodbye, even if they hadn’t said it in as many words.
He felt a heaviness in his chest that he had never before experienced. Looking around the neat and tidy apartment, he knew he didn’t want to leave this—or her. It had been perfect—the whole setup. It had been more of a home than he had ever known in the past few years. It wasn’t only that he was able to use her apartment freely with its fully set up fast internet, but Andrea had been so easy-going to live with. She hadn’t asked questions, hadn’t been suspicious.
Hearts on Fire: Romance Multi-Author Box Set Anthology Page 94