Trapped by Vialli's Vows

by Chantelle Shaw

  Not that there was any medical solution for a broken heart, she thought as she stepped into the consulting room.

  The doctor looked grave, and Marnie felt a flicker of concern. There couldn’t be anything seriously wrong with her, could there?

  Moments later she grabbed hold of the edge of the desk as the GP’s words sank in to her stunned brain. ‘I can’t be pregnant! It must be a mistake.’

  But it wasn’t a mistake. The results of the blood test she’d had two days earlier showed that she was sixteen weeks pregnant, and also that she was anaemic due to an iron deficiency, which was apparently a fairly common condition in pregnancy.

  ‘I’ve never forgotten to take my contraceptive pill,’ she said almost pleadingly, as if the doctor could somehow change the result of the test.

  ‘The pill is not one hundred per cent reliable, and it can be affected by certain types of antibiotics, for instance.’ Dr Leyton glanced at Marnie’s medical notes. ‘Although you don’t appear to have been ill in the past few months.’

  ‘I had a bout of food poisoning, but the sickness only lasted for a couple of days and I didn’t need medical treatment.’

  ‘Did you use another method of contraception for the rest of the month after you were sick? The pill’s effectiveness would have been reduced—especially if you vomited soon after taking it.’

  Marnie remembered that in France, on Leandro’s yacht, she had woken one morning and taken her pill first thing, as usual, but when she’d got out of bed she’d felt sick and had to rush to the bathroom. Leandro had insisted on calling a doctor, who had suspected that she had food poisoning after eating mussels for dinner the previous evening.

  The holiday had been four months ago.

  Disbelief turned to panic as the clues added up. Her weight gain and increased appetite...her tender breasts and an inexplicable urge to burst into tears—although the reason she had cried herself to sleep every night for the past two weeks had less to do with hormones and everything to do with her missing Leandro.

  She tried to focus on the implications of discovering that in another few weeks she would be halfway through her pregnancy. ‘I had no idea that I’d conceived and I continued to take the pill every day.’

  ‘There is no scientific evidence that the foetus will have been affected. The next step is to arrange for you to have a scan, which will determine the exact date the baby is due.’ The doctor looked intently at Marnie. ‘Because you are at least sixteen weeks you will have to make a decision quickly as to whether you want to proceed with the pregnancy.’

  It took a few moments for the doctor’s meaning to sink in, and when it did her response was unequivocal even as she was bombarded with a hundred reasons why it was utterly impractical for her to have a baby.

  ‘I do.’

  Although she certainly had not planned to have a baby fate had decided otherwise, and she did not believe she had any option but to continue with her pregnancy. She had always known that the internship with NASA was too good to be true, Marnie thought as she realised she would have to turn down the opportunity of a lifetime. There was no way she could spend nine months at a research centre in California when she would be a mother in five months.

  A mother. Dear God, she hoped she would be a better mother than her own. Her panicky feeling escalated to full-blown fear. She had no job, no home and a pile of broken dreams for a career that was as out of reach as the planets she would have loved to study if she hadn’t fallen pregnant by a man who had humiliatingly told her he only wanted her for sex.

  * * *

  Leandro dropped his briefcase onto the hall table on his way into the sitting room and went immediately to the bar to make himself a martini. For some reason he remembered that Marnie had said she’d paid for the exclusive brand of vodka he preferred in his favourite cocktail with her wages from her waitressing job.

  He pictured her the last time he had seen her. She had still been flushed with a post-sex glow, but she’d been unable to disguise her hurt when he had admitted that he had never considered a future with her.

  ‘I am not your mistress,’ she had told him proudly.

  Dio! He ground his teeth. She had proved to be the same as every other woman he’d been involved with and had wanted more from him than he was prepared to give. Why couldn’t she have settled for what they’d had—great sex, easy companionship and no expectations of commitment?

  The truth was that he missed her, and it irritated the hell out of him. It wouldn’t have been so bad if he’d gone to Florence, as planned. He was sure he would have soon forgotten her. But the refurbishment work on the theatre had been delayed and he had spent the last two weeks living at his house in Eaton Square. He was reminded of Marnie every time he caught sight of her collection of potted plants on the windowsill that looked half-dead since she had left, despite the fact that he had watered them every day.

  His phone rang and he smiled for the first time in days when he saw the caller’s name on the screen. ‘Stephanie.’

  ‘Leandro, I’ll be in London tomorrow, before flying to Ireland for a photo shoot. I want to wear some of Maman’s jewellery for the modelling assignment. I can collect it in the afternoon if you will be at home.’

  ‘Tell me which pieces you want and I’ll leave them on the desk in my study in case I’m not here. My housekeeper will let you in.’

  ‘The sapphires, and the pearl and diamond choker. Don’t worry—I’ll take good care of them.’

  ‘Giulietta left her jewellery to both of us, but I’m not likely to wear it,’ Leandro told his half-sister drily.

  He chatted with Stephanie for a couple more minutes and at the end of the call finished his martini and decided to take the items of jewellery out of the safe while he remembered.

  In the study, he slid back the panel on the wall and entered the code to open the safe. The numerous black velvet boxes contained within were labelled with a description of their contents, which made his task easier. His mother had owned a significant collection of precious gems, but a stunning sapphire necklace had been her particular favourite. Out of an idle curiosity to see again the jewels his mother had loved, Leandro opened the lid of the box and stared at the silk lining where the necklace should have nestled.

  Frowning, he searched the safe, assuming that the necklace must somehow have fallen out of the box—although he couldn’t understand how. He tried to remember if Stephanie had worn the sapphires recently and perhaps put them back in the wrong box.

  After a fruitless search he removed the lid of the second box he had taken from the safe and discovered that the pearl and diamond choker was also missing. With grim foreboding he checked every box in the safe and found them all empty.

  What the hell...? He swore as he tried to comprehend who could have opened the safe. The only people who had access to the house were himself, Marnie when she had lived with him, and his housekeeper, Betty, who had worked for him for years. He would have sworn the housekeeper was absolutely trustworthy.

  Having discounted the three people who had a set of keys to the house, he concluded that his home must have been accessed by someone else who had known the location of the safe and the combination, and also been able to deactivate the alarm system.

  He raked a hand through his hair. Whoever had committed the burglary had left no evidence of a break-in, and Leandro realised it was weeks since he had last opened the safe—which meant he couldn’t give the police any idea of when the theft had happened.

  He phoned his security officer and instructed him to look through the CCTV footage from the cameras which were situated at the front and back of the house. ‘Jim, let me know immediately if you see on film anyone loitering around outside the house. I want to gather information to give to the police.’

  * * *

  Later that night Leandro replayed the film
clip from the CCTV camera that his security officer had alerted him to and his initial sense of shock turned to fury as he watched Marnie hugging a man before she led the distinctly unsavoury-looking character up the front steps and into the house.

  It was possible that the scruffily dressed man was someone she knew from university, his rational brain reminded him. The guy looked like a hippy, which seemed to be a popular dress code among students these days.

  He played the film clip again and wanted to punch something—preferably the scruffy guy’s face. Marnie’s tender expression as she looked at the man and then flung her arms around him suggested that the two of them shared a more intimate relationship than friendship. Leandro clenched his fists. Was the guy her lover?

  There could be an innocent explanation for why she had invited the man into the house, but it was impossible to believe that the missing jewellery from the safe and the appearance of a stranger were not linked. There was no sign that the safe had been forced open, which meant that whoever had opened it had known the code to unlock the door.

  With grim fascination Leandro watched the film of Marnie leading her friend...lover—whoever the guy was—through the front door of the house. She had known the safe’s combination, and in fact must have opened the safe a few days prior to when this film had been recorded because she had worn a pearl necklace that she’d kept in the safe to the Vialli Entertainment staff party.

  Leandro fast-forwarded the film and watched the scruffy guy leaving the house early the next morning. Violent anger surged through him as he was faced with proof that Marnie had invited the man to spend the night with her. In his house, Leandro thought furiously, with his mistress. Dio, had the pair of them slept in his bed? Even his ex-wife had not stooped to that level.

  He poured himself another whisky, not caring that he’d already drunk half a bottle, and lifted the glass to his lips with a hand that he was startled to see was shaking with the force of his emotions. Logically he knew he should not jump to conclusions about Marnie’s relationship with her hippy friend. But his usual cool logic was obliterated by a red mist of rage that he recognised with a sense of furious disbelief was jealousy.

  How the hell could he feel jealous if Marnie meant nothing to him? Why did he want to hunt her lover down and rearrange the man’s admittedly good-looking features with his fist? It was his pride that was hurt, Leandro concluded.

  He ran a hand across his eyes and picked up his phone to call the police and report the jewellery theft. But it was past midnight and there was no point in calling them until the morning.

  Why did he feel reluctant to tell the police of his suspicions that Marnie was implicated in the theft? If, as seemed likely, she had opened the safe for her lover to steal the jewels she deserved to rot in prison. His jaw clenched. He had trusted her.

  He made another call to his security officer. ‘Hi, Jim. Sorry it’s late, but I need some information on Marnie Alice Clarke—specifically, if she has ever been in trouble with the law. Let me know if you find anything on her as soon as possible.’

  There was nothing more he could do tonight, and Leandro knew he should go to bed, but he felt too wound up to sleep. A more inviting alternative was to drink enough whisky to anaesthetise the dull ache of emptiness inside him.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  THE LATE SUMMER heatwave still hadn’t broken, despite warnings from the weather forecasters of an imminent storm. The pavements in Eaton Square were dusty and the parched plane trees in the communal gardens drooped against the backdrop of a strangely colourless sky.

  Marnie’s chest felt tight as she walked up the front steps of Leandro’s house. The GP had said that the breathlessness resulting from her anaemia would improve now that she had been prescribed a course of iron tablets, but as she stood on the top step and hesitated before pressing her finger on the doorbell she could feel her heart beating painfully hard beneath her ribs.

  She had assumed that Leandro was in Florence, but when she’d phoned him earlier he had informed her that he was in London. To her surprise he hadn’t queried her request for them to meet.

  ‘Come to the house at one o’clock’ was all he had said.

  Marnie would have preferred to meet him on neutral territory, but she acknowledged that it would be better if their conversation was in private.

  She was expecting the housekeeper to admit her into the house, but when the door opened she stared at Leandro. The breath rushed from her lungs as she raised her eyes to his brooding steel-grey gaze. He was casually dressed in jeans and a black polo shirt, and his dark hair was ruffled as if he had been running his fingers through it.

  Marnie felt her heart break all over again. Her legs trembled beneath her and she grabbed hold of the doorframe for support.

  ‘I thought you were going to see a doctor about these dizzy attacks you’ve been having,’ he said as his arm shot out and curled around her waist. He half carried her into the lounge. ‘Sit down before you fall down.’

  Marnie rested her head against the back of the sofa and felt heartened by the concern she could see in Leandro’s eyes. His face was so near to hers as he leaned over her, and she longed to close the tiny gap between them and press her lips to his sensual mouth. But they were no longer lovers and she had no right to kiss him. She had assumed she would never see him again, and the only reason she was here in his house now was because she was carrying his child.

  Her stomach lurched and she abruptly sat up straight and pushed her hair back from her face. ‘As a matter of fact I have seen a doctor, who has assured me that the dizzy spells are a symptom of a slight iron deficiency. Apparently it’s quite common for women in...in my condition.’

  Leandro’s brows lifted. ‘Your condition?’

  ‘I’m...pregnant.’

  It was the first time she had spoken the words aloud and they shattered the sense of unreality that had cocooned her for the past twenty-four hours.

  She stared at Leandro when he laughed. ‘I’m not joking,’ Marnie said tautly. ‘I fail to see what’s so funny.’

  ‘Oh, cara, it’s a hilarious joke.’ His bitter tone was at odds with his laughter. ‘Next you will be telling me that I’m the father.’

  Marnie was glad she was sitting down, because she didn’t think her legs were capable of supporting her. ‘Of course you’re the father. You’re the only man I’ve ever slept with. And this...’ she placed her hand on the faint swell of her stomach beneath her loosely cut cotton dress ‘...this is most definitely your baby.’

  ‘Stop right there,’ Leandro commanded.

  His eyes were drawn to Marnie’s hand, resting on what he now saw was her slightly more rounded stomach, and sheer unadulterated rage swept through him.

  When she had phoned and asked to meet him he’d felt an overwhelming sense of relief that she must have had a good reason to take his mother’s jewellery from the safe and obviously wanted to see him to explain. He didn’t know why it crucified him to think that she was a thief, but if she intended to return the jewellery he was prepared not to involve the police.

  The sight of her standing on the front step, her blonde hair tumbling in luscious waves around her shoulders and her delectable curves enhanced by a simple yet inexplicably sexy white cotton sundress, had forced him to acknowledge how much he had missed her. He’d wanted to sweep her up in his arms and carry her off to bed. After two weeks of celibacy he was desperate for sex, but annoyingly he hadn’t felt at all inclined to sleep with any of the women he’d taken to dinner recently.

  He let his eyes roam over Marnie. Her breasts looked fuller, and she seemed different in a way he could not define—softer, somehow, making him long to press his body against her lush curves. Maybe she was pregnant. But was he the father?

  An image of the man she’d invited into the house flashed in his mind. ‘Like hell it’s my baby.’ />
  She paled, but quickly firmed her lips to hide their betraying tremor before she stood up and faced him. For some reason the proud tilt of her chin made him feel uncomfortable.

  ‘I don’t know what reason you have for refusing to believe that you are the baby’s father—’

  ‘I’ll show you the reason,’ Leandro interrupted her, anger roaring through him with the ferocious heat of a forest fire as he pictured her with the hippy guy who, the evidence strongly suggested, was her lover.

  ‘Sit down!’ he barked, and felt a vicious sense of satisfaction at her startled expression. Marnie would learn that it was unwise to try to make a fool of him.

  He sat down next to her on the sofa, opened his laptop, which was on the coffee table, and seconds later an image of Marnie with the scruffy guy standing on the front steps outside the house flashed onto the screen.

  ‘Oh...’ Her little gasp was barely audible, but it confirmed Leandro’s suspicions that she was guilty of a gross betrayal.

  ‘You treacherous bitch.’

  The words rasped from his throat before he could prevent them, and they made him even angrier. He didn’t want her to think he actually cared that she’d cheated.

  ‘A lesson, cara—’ he made the endearment sound like an insult ‘—if you want to screw around, don’t do it in view of a security camera.’

  He stared at her shocked face and told himself he wouldn’t waste his energy on hating her because she wasn’t worth it.

  ‘How dare you bring your lover into my home?’ he said with icy disdain as he paused the film clip on the image of the scruffy man leaving the house. ‘You will see the date at the top of the screen is the day following on from when your lover arrived, which proves that he stayed the night.’

  ‘He...he’s not my lover. I can’t believe you would think I’d been unfaithful,’ Marnie choked. Her initial shock at Leandro’s accusation gave way to anger that he could think so badly of her. ‘Jake is my brother.’