The Secret the Italian Claims

by Jennie Lucas

  But she was relieved it was almost over. Tonight, the Campania Hotel Cavello would have its grand opening gala, and then Cristiano would be able to spend more time in their new home. They could finally be together as a family.

  His constant absence had to be why, in spite of the beauty and comfort, this villa still didn’t feel quite like home to her. Maybe it would just take time. But she still didn’t have the feeling of home she’d had as a child, living with her family in the rickety wooden house in the mountains.

  True, there was a staff of four to oversee the house and gardens. It sometimes made her uncomfortable having servants cook and clean and pull weeds for her, but she’d told herself she’d get used to it. She should be grateful. All she had to do was care for her baby, decorate her home as she pleased, bake cookies if she felt like it, and water any flowers she wished.

  Still, in spite of being surrounded by servants and having Jack with her, sometimes her days felt lonely.

  Since they’d arrived on the Amalfi Coast, she’d seen Cristiano only at night, in the dark, when he woke her up to set her body on fire with bliss. Then, in the morning, when she woke, he was always gone. Like some tantalizingly sweet dream.

  Strange she should feel lonely when she was never alone. Even when she walked to the village with the baby, Cristiano insisted she take Salvatore with them. It bewildered her because there were no paparazzi here, and it was hard enough trying to make new friends, given her lack of Italian, without also having a hulking bodyguard standing behind her, scowling behind his sunglasses.

  But the villagers were friendly and interested in meeting the wife of the man who’d brought so much new employment to the area. And baby Jack, with his bright smile and chubby cheeks, charmed everyone he met, even on the rare occasions when he cried.

  Hallie was slowly learning Italian from Agata, who was very patient with her. Living in a brand-new country where she didn’t speak the language, she was trying her best to settle in, make friends, to find a dentist and doctor and grocery store, and do everything she could to make the Amalfi Coast feel like home.

  Except for the wistful memory of her childhood home, Hallie didn’t miss West Virginia. She missed New York. But she tried to push that feeling away. Hadn’t she told Cristiano that their home could be anywhere? If Italy was the place he loved most, then she would be happy here. She would try to forget New York, especially since every time she tried to text or phone Tess and Lola lately, they seemed distracted. No wonder, with newborns.

  But she missed their friendship.

  The afternoon before the gala, Hallie played with Jack in the huge formal salon, kissing his fat baby feet as he lay stretched out on a blanket beneath a flood of afternoon sunshine. Soon, Cristiano would come home and they’d get ready to go to the gala together. As she sang yet another song about true love, she knew tonight would be magical. After tonight, their lives could truly begin.

  Her voice suddenly choked off as she realized she did know happy songs after all. Love songs.

  Wide-eyed, Hallie looked out the wide windows at the palm trees and blue sky. She stared down at her cooing baby, his dark eyes exactly like Cristiano’s.

  And she gasped aloud, covering her mouth with her hand.

  There was a reason she’d been singing only happy love songs lately.

  Because she felt them.

  She was in love with Cristiano.

  Her husband. Her ex-boss. The man she’d once hated. The man she’d never thought she could trust.

  She trusted him now. He’d become a real father, a real husband. He’d brought her home. He’d given her what she’d dreamed of most: a family.

  She loved him for everything he’d done for her. For the way he’d made her feel. For the person he’d encouraged her to be. Bold. Fearless.

  Was she fearless enough to tell him she loved him?

  Hallie gulped.

  If she did, would his handsome face light up? Would he say, “And I love you, cara mia,” then kiss her senseless?

  Or would he just look at her coldly, and say nothing?

  Love had never been part of the deal. Cristiano had told her outright he didn’t think he was capable of it.

  Yet, he treated her as if he did love her. Marrying her. Buying her this magnificent home. Giving up his lifestyle of constantly traveling in order to remain here, in one place. Just to make her happy.

  She put her hand on her forehead. What should she do? Should she remain silent and keep things safely as they were?

  Or should she take the chance and risk everything in their marriage to tell him she loved him?

  “It’s just arrived from Rome, signora,” said Agata, coming into the salon with a designer garment bag in her arms.

  “The dress,” Hallie said, rising unsteadily to her feet. “Cristiano told me he’d called in a favor with a designer, to send me a special dress to wear tonight.”

  “Sì.” The Italian woman didn’t meet her eyes, but Agata had been acting strangely all day. Taking the garment bag from her, Hallie laid it across the elegant sofa. Unzipping the bag, she discovered a breathtaking strapless red ball gown with a sweetheart bodice and full skirts. It was a dream dress. A Cinderella dress.

  Hallie touched the fabric in awe.

  “Maybe he does love me,” she whispered.

  Agata made a strange noise.

  “What?”

  The Italian woman cleared her throat. “Cristiano told me not to say anything. He intends to tell you himself.”

  “Tell me what?” Hallie said, holding up the beautiful red gown and looking at herself dreamily in the mirror. Maybe she’d tell him she loved him tonight, while they were dancing at the gala. If she could just be brave enough, maybe she’d be rewarded. Maybe against all odds, he’d pull her closer in his arms and—

  “You are a good woman, signora. What he is doing is not right, keeping it from you.”

  Hallie turned in bewilderment. “What are you talking about?”

  “Then again, I understand why he hates this house and wants to be away as soon as he can.”

  Hallie sucked in her breath. “Cristiano doesn’t hate this house!”

  The older woman looked at her sadly. “He does, signora. Because of the man who used to own it.” She turned away. “And that is why, while you are at the ball tonight, he has ordered me to pack all your things. Tomorrow, you leave for Asia. Me, I have refused to go. I will return to Rome, close to my grandchildren.”

  “Leaving?” Hallie drew back. “But we just got here! It’s our home! We’re not leaving our home. And I don’t want you to leave us!” Agata had started to feel like family.

  “I’m sorry, signora. He said to pack everything,” she said quietly. “I doubt you’re ever coming back.”

  Anguish went through Hallie. It couldn’t be true.

  And, in a flash, she knew it was.

  She’d thought Cristiano had changed, that he’d been willing to sacrifice his restless travel for her and actually settle down in one place.

  But he hadn’t changed at all. This so-called home was temporary, like everything else in his life.

  And Cristiano had told Agata first. Before his own wife.

  Hallie’s hands clenched at her sides. While she’d been trying to compromise, to make this place her home, he’d been lying to her. He’d never intended to settle down at all.

  Hallie looked around the villa. This antique furniture wasn’t to her taste. It was too big, too fancy, but since they’d arrived, she’d convinced herself to overlook that, so badly had she wanted a home.

  Now he wanted to drag her and the baby back to his empty lifestyle of moving from hotel to hotel to hotel?

  All she wanted, all she’d ever wanted since her parents and brother had died, was a home. A family. A place in the world.

  Hallie choked out, “If
he hates this villa, why did he buy it?”

  Agata looked at her sadly, her wrinkled eyes mournful. “He bought it for the same reason he hates it. Because the man who once owned it was his friend, then his enemy. Luigi Bennato was the first to give him a real job. He taught him how to run a hotel. Then Cristiano turned on him. Ruined him.”

  Hallie shivered as she heard the echo of Cristiano’s voice. I met a man who owned a small hotel chain in southern Italy. I convinced him to hire me and teach me everything he knew. Then I betrayed him.

  She wasn’t sure she wanted to know more. In a small voice, she said, “What happened?”

  “I worked for Luigi,” Agata said. “Before I worked for Cristiano. I still don’t understand. For three years, they worked together, as close as father and son. Cristiano used his charm and Luigi’s money to convince a widowed countess to sell her palazzo in Rome. Then, instead of developing the hotel together as they’d planned, at the last minute Cristiano took the information to one of the international hotel chains. He cut Luigi out of the deal. Left him bankrupt.”

  Hallie stared at the older woman, cold with shock. “But why?”

  “I still do not know. Yet, even after Cristiano betrayed him, Luigi tried to protect him. He even convinced me to accept Cristiano’s job offer in Rome. ‘The boy’s still so young,’ Luigi told me. ‘He’ll need someone he can trust.’ So I left Luigi’s hotel for Cristiano’s. And now he’s a broken man. He has no family, no money. He lives in an old shack. I feel badly for him.”

  “Why are you telling me all this?” Hallie whispered.

  Agata looked at her. “He wants to talk to you.”

  “Who?”

  “Luigi Bennato.”

  Hallie stared at her in shock. “Why would he want to talk to me?”

  “I do not know.” The white-haired woman looked at her steadily. “All I know is your husband owes him a debt.”

  Meet the old man Cristiano had betrayed? Hallie felt caught between fear, curiosity and loyalty to Cristiano. “I couldn’t. Besides,” she said hesitantly, “how do I know he wouldn’t attack me or something?”

  “Luigi?” Agata gave a low laugh. “He has a good heart. Better than Cristiano’s. Luigi is no risk to you. He’s waiting in the forest on the other side of the gate.”

  A trickle of fear went down the back of her neck. “He’s here? Now?”

  “Tomorrow you leave Cavello, possibly never to return. He might not live until your next visit. I told him I would ask you. If you wish to see him, it is your choice.”

  Hallie stared at her, a lump in her throat.

  “I’ll leave you to get ready for the gala. I need to pack for your trip.” She sighed. “And my own back to Rome. Tonight will be my last time watching Jack, while you’re at the gala.” Agata smiled sadly. “I will miss you both.”

  “Won’t you come with us?”

  “I’m sorry.” The older woman’s eyes lifted apologetically. “I do not want to leave Italy. It’s my home. My place is here.”

  Hallie hugged her hard. After Agata left her in the salon, she was still blinking back tears, but she couldn’t blame the older woman for not wanting to endlessly circle the globe. Hallie didn’t want to do it, either.

  She wanted a real home. She wanted to be surrounded by the people she cared about and who cared about her.

  She wanted to love her husband, and she wanted him to love her back.

  Hallie sucked in her breath. What would she do about Luigi Bennato?

  Her eyes fell on her baby, playing happily on his blanket. She couldn’t go behind Cristiano’s back to talk to the man he’d betrayed. He wouldn’t like it. At all.

  But then—Hallie’s face suddenly hardened—he’d done a few things lately that she didn’t like, either.

  She picked up her cooing baby. Crossing to the foyer, she grabbed the stroller in quick decision. If Cristiano wouldn’t explain anything to her, if he wouldn’t tell her about his past or open his heart, she would find out without his help.

  If she loved him, she had to try to understand.

  “Going somewhere?” Her bodyguard, Salvatore, stood in the doorway, looking at the stroller.

  Blushing, she said quickly, “Oh, no, I just wanted to clean the stroller.”

  “All right. I’m going to lunch.”

  Hallie waited until the bodyguard had gone into the kitchen to have his usual lunch and flirtation with one of the maids. Quickly she tucked Jack into the stroller, along with a pacifier, a blanket and an extra diaper just in case, and crept quietly out of the villa.

  It felt scary and exhilarating to go by herself. She realized that this was the first time she’d gone out alone since the day she’d told Cristiano about the baby, back at his hotel in New York.

  Jack cooed happily in the sunshine as she walked swiftly toward the rough stone walls leading to the gate. Around the side, some distance up the hill, she saw an old man peeking through the trees. She stopped, wondering if she was making a mistake.

  Gathering her courage, she took a deep breath and pushed the stroller forward.

  “Signora Moretti—you are she, yes?” said the old man anxiously as she came forward. He was plump, and his hair was gray, and there was something about him that seemed oddly familiar.

  Hallie took a deep breath. “You wanted to talk to me?”

  She was startled to see tears in the old man’s rheumy eyes. “Cristiano’s wife,” he whispered. “I have seen pictures of you.” His gaze fell to Jack, who was waving his fat arms, as he whispered, “And his son?”

  He’d seen pictures of them? Oh, yes, right—she was famous. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Bennato. I don’t know the whole story between you. But I know my husband betrayed you. You must hate him for what he did to you.”

  “Hate him?” The old man’s dark eyes looked strangely familiar. She tried to think who they reminded her of. He shook his head. “I am proud of him for doing so well. I am glad for him to have my villa.”

  Her lips parted. Surely no one could be that kind, no matter what Agata had said. “That is very generous...”

  “An old man like me, I don’t need a big house.” He looked at the baby with longing, then lifted his tearful gaze. “I’m so happy to meet you both.”

  “But why? After the way Cristiano betrayed you, why would you...?”

  Then she looked more closely at the old man’s eyes. Black, like obsidian. Like her baby’s.

  Like her husband’s.

  “Cristiano’s your son,” she whispered. “You’re the father who abandoned him.”

  Luigi gave her a tearful smile. “I saw a picture of Violetta in the paper after she died in the fire. Her last name had changed, but I recognized her. When I read she was survived by an eighteen-year-old son, I was desperate to find him. Before I could—” he took a deep breath “—Cristiano himself showed up at my hotel, asking for a job.”

  “You knew he was your son?”

  “I thought...maybe. He looked like I did when I was young. And Violetta had told me she was pregnant with my child. But sometimes she lied to me, especially when she was drinking. One day, I could take it no longer and told her we were through. She said she was pregnant, so I tried to make it work. I made her stop drinking. But she screamed I was making her a prisoner. When she was six months pregnant, she disappeared. I never saw her again.”

  “Why didn’t you tell Cristiano? He thinks his father abandoned him!”

  “I did abandon him.” The old man’s voice trembled. “I tried so hard to find them. But I should have tried harder. I never should have given up. What I read about the life Violetta was living before she died...” He shuddered. “I cannot imagine what that boy went through as a child. When Cristiano showed up at my door asking for a job, he seemed to have no idea I might be his father. He said he just wanted to work at the best boutique hotel
in Italy. I thought it was a miraculous coincidence.”

  “Why didn’t you tell him?”

  “I decided I couldn’t reveal myself as his father, not until I was sure it was true. But I kept putting off the test. I think I was afraid,” he said quietly. “By the time I finally stole a hair off his brush and sent it in for the test, it was too late. The day he betrayed me...” His voice trailed off as he looked out at the sea. “That was the same day I got proof he was my son.”

  “So why didn’t you say something?” Hallie cried. He gave her a small smile.

  “It was too late. I didn’t want to cause him pain. He had no idea I was his father when he betrayed me. And I thought...perhaps I deserved it. So I let him go.”

  Closing her eyes, Hallie took a deep breath, pain filling her heart. She looked down at her happy baby. She couldn’t imagine the pain of losing him. “Why are you telling me all this?”

  Luigi gave a wistful smile. “He has done well, my boy. He’s built his own hotel empire over the last fifteen years. He’s been more successful than I ever was.” He blinked fast. “He is my only family. When he refused to answer my phone calls, I tried to accept it. But then I read about him having a wife and child...” More tears filled his rheumy eyes as he gently stroked Jack’s head. “He’s my grandson. You’re my daughter-in-law. But my son...” He lifted his gaze. “Please. You must convince him to speak to me.”

  Hallie hugged the old man tightly, wiping away her own tears. “I’ll make this right,” she said softly. “I swear to you.”

  When she finally returned to the villa, the afternoon was growing late. Hallie was still shivering with emotion and regret. How would she tell her husband that the man he’d betrayed had been his own father?

  Her baby had fallen asleep in his stroller so she left him in the foyer when she heard Cristiano calling her from the salon. Nervously she went to see him.

  She found Cristiano pacing angrily. When she entered the salon, he turned to her, his expression furious.