Trapped by Vialli's Vows

by Chantelle Shaw

  ‘Sure he is,’ Leandro mocked. ‘It’s odd that you have often spoken about your aunt and uncle who live in Norfolk, and your cousin who recently married, but you never once mentioned that you had a brother.’

  ‘That’s because I’d lost contact with Jake and I found it painful to talk about him.’

  ‘How convenient that your long-lost brother has turned up now.’

  ‘Jake is my brother. Why are you being so nasty?’ Marnie said shakily. She felt as though Leandro was tearing her emotions to shreds. ‘Jake came to see me before he went to Scotland to start a new job. I tried calling you to ask if it was okay for him to spend the night here, but your phone was switched off.’

  ‘So, your brother...lover—I don’t give a damn what he is,’ Leandro sneered, ‘has rushed off to Scotland? It makes sense that he would want to get away from London as quickly as possible.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Dio—stop the pretence!’ His temper exploded. ‘You think I’m being nasty? Trust me—I’ll get a whole lot nastier if you don’t give me some answers. And a story about you being pregnant with my child will not lessen my anger—quite the opposite.’

  ‘Leandro, what are you doing? You’re scaring me.’

  Marnie gave a cry when he gripped her arm and jerked her to her feet. He ignored her attempts to free her arm as he pulled her behind him and strode down the hallway and into his study. He halted in front of the panel on the wall, which had been moved aside to reveal the metal safe behind it.

  Marnie was surprised to see that the safe door was open, and she felt a prickle of foreboding when she noticed numerous black velvet boxes, which she knew contained jewellery that had belonged to Leandro’s mother, lying empty on the desk.

  ‘Give me one good reason—other than a ridiculous tale about you being pregnant—why I shouldn’t call the police and have you arrested for stealing my mother’s jewellery collection?’ he said savagely.

  ‘But I didn’t... I swear...’

  Marnie’s voice faltered as a terrible thought struck her. Could Jake have broken into the safe and taken the jewels? Of course he hadn’t, she argued with herself, feeling guilty for suspecting her brother. Leandro must be the victim of a professional burglar.

  ‘Have you looked round the house for signs of a break-in?’

  ‘My security team have scoured the building and found nothing. They are as convinced as I am that the theft was committed by someone who had keys to the house. I didn’t rob myself,’ he said sardonically, ‘and my housekeeper assures me that the only reason she goes into the study once a week is to do some dusting. Besides, Betty has worked for me for ten years and I don’t suspect her of stealing the jewellery.’

  ‘But you do suspect me?’ Marnie wondered if it was possible to feel any more hurt and humiliated, but Leandro’s next words showed her it was.

  ‘You had access to the house, you knew the code to unlock the safe and six years ago you were issued with a fixed penalty notice by the police for shoplifting.’

  He ignored her gasp and continued relentlessly.

  ‘My security officer ran a criminal disclosure check on you, and although a penalty notice is not a criminal record it proves to me that you are a thief as well as a two-timing slut,’ Leandro said through clenched teeth. ‘It’s obvious that you brought your lover to my house, opened the safe and took my mother’s jewellery—which you gave to your boyfriend, presumably so that he could sell it.’

  ‘I am not a thief!’ Marnie gulped back a sob as she felt her heart splinter into a million fragments. ‘The shoplifting charge was a mistake. I had picked up an expensive handbag in a shop to look at it. Then I thought I saw my brother Luke through the window and I ran outside, forgetting that I was still holding the bag.’

  ‘I thought you said your brother’s name was Jake. You need to remember your lies.’

  She flushed. ‘I had two brothers. Jake and Luke were twins.’

  ‘Oh, twin brothers.’

  His mocking disbelief felt like a whiplash on her soul and she wanted to run from his study, from his house, from him. She’d never, ever wanted him to know about the shoplifting charge that was the most embarrassing event in her life.

  From deep inside her she dredged up what was left of her pride. ‘I knew as I ran after the man I’d seen that he couldn’t be Luke, because he’d died when he was twenty. But I carried on running because then I hoped it was Jake, who I lost contact with after Luke’s death.’ She gave a ragged sigh. ‘It turned out that the man was a stranger, of similar height and colouring to my brothers, but the security guard who had chased after me from the shop refused to believe my story and accused me of stealing the handbag.’

  Leandro gave a snort of impatience. ‘I’m not surprised the security guy didn’t believe you. I’ve heard enough of your lies. Either you tell me where the jewellery is or you can tell the police, who will want to know the identity of the man you brought into my house.’ His eyes bored into her, hard as steel. ‘Did you open the safe?’

  ‘I...’ Marnie’s throat constricted.

  She pictured herself entering the code to unlock the safe and taking out her grandmother’s pearls. Jake had been standing behind her, and it was possible, she acknowledged painfully, that her brother had made a mental note of the eight-digit code. Jake might have stolen the jewellery, but if she admitted her suspicion to the police they would discover that her brother had already served a prison sentence for theft and it was probable that he would be sent back to jail.

  Images from her childhood flashed into her mind. She had idolised her big brothers, and Jake and Luke had been protective of their younger sister. Jake had been the more daring twin, and she remembered how he had stood up to a gang of bullies at school who had made her life hell. He wasn’t a bad person, but he had never come to terms with Luke’s death.

  ‘I never want to go back inside... I’m sorting my life out,’ Jake had told her. If only she could talk to him and persuade him to return the jewellery—if he had indeed taken it, Marnie thought desperately. But her brother had disappeared without saying goodbye.

  She lifted her eyes to Leandro’s face. His hard features looked as though they had been carved from granite. He had every right to be furious, but her poor grief-stricken brother deserved one more chance. She could not betray Jake.

  ‘Dio, Marnie,’ Leandro swore, and then repeated his question. ‘Did you open the safe? Yes or no?’

  The savagery in his voice made her flinch. The walls of the study seemed to be closing in, and the room was so hot and airless that she couldn’t breathe. The sky outside the window had become ominously dark, although it was the middle of the day, and a sudden thunderclap sounded like a bomb exploding.

  The shock of the storm breaking so dramatically caused Marnie’s heart to pound, and with a low cry she toppled into blackness, unaware that Leandro sprang forward and caught her in his arms.

  * * *

  ‘Drink this.’

  Marnie’s eyelids fluttered open and it took her a few seconds to register that she was lying on the sofa in the sitting room. Leandro must have carried her here from his study, and now he was leaning over her, holding a glass to her lips.

  She smelled whisky and shook her head. ‘I can’t drink alcohol. It might harm the baby.’

  He muttered something unrepeatable as he put the whisky down on the table and handed her a glass of water. She took a few sips and rested her head against the cushions, glad that the dizziness had passed and she no longer felt as if she was riding on a carousel.

  Satisfied that she was not going to faint again, Leandro abruptly moved away from her—as if he could not bear to be near her, Marnie thought miserably. She wondered who he was texting on his phone. How dare he accuse her of having a secret lover when a photo of him with a French model had been p
lastered on the gossip page of a newspaper?

  Bitterness joined the host of other emotions swirling inside her, but she refused to humiliate herself by asking him if Stephanie Sedoyene was his mistress—especially as his answer might further break her heart, which was already in pieces.

  ‘How did you fall pregnant?’ Leandro asked harshly. ‘I thought you were on the pill.’

  ‘I am on the pill, but I forgot that it would be less effective for the rest of the month after I had food poisoning when we went to France.’

  He stopped prowling around the room and strode back over to her, his heavy brows drawn together in genuine confusion. ‘But that was four months ago.’

  ‘I’m almost seventeen weeks pregnant. The type of pill I was taking prevented me from having periods, so I didn’t miss a period—which is the most common sign of pregnancy—and as I didn’t suffer from morning sickness I had no idea that I was pregnant.’

  Leandro raked his hair back from his brow with an unsteady hand. Of all the surprises Marnie had sprung, the news that she would give birth in five months was the most astonishing. His eyes were drawn to the slight swell of her stomach beneath her thin cotton dress and his heart gave a violent leap as it occurred to him that perhaps she really was carrying his child.

  His common sense immediately reminded him that he had been in this situation before, with his ex-wife. Marnie might well be pregnant, but it was possible she had been having an affair with the man she had invited to the house and her hippy lover was the baby’s father.

  Leandro read the text message on his phone and his jaw hardened with resolve. Marnie was still pale, but he cursed himself for feeling concerned about her. If the child she was carrying was his then obviously he would ensure that she had the best medical care for the rest of her pregnancy. But it was a big if.

  ‘I want a DNA test,’ he said abruptly. ‘And I don’t want to wait for five months until the child is born to find out if it is mine.’

  Marnie swung her legs down from the sofa. Her eyes were drawn to his laptop on the coffee table and the image on the screen of her leading Jake into the house. The evidence looked bad, she admitted, especially in light of the jewellery theft from the safe, but it still hurt to realise that Leandro did not trust her.

  ‘I promise you a DNA test is unnecessary. You must have realised I was a virgin the first time we had sex, and you’re the only man I’ve ever slept with.’

  He shrugged. ‘I’ve learned that promises are meaningless. And if you gave away your virginity so that you could live rent-free in luxurious surroundings in Belgravia, what does that say about you?’ he drawled.

  The faint colour that had returned to her face drained away again, but Leandro ruthlessly ignored the inexplicable tug he felt on his heart.

  ‘A non-invasive prenatal paternity test involves no risk to the unborn child. I have a doctor friend who owns a private practice in Harley Street, and Alex has just messaged me with the information that all that is required for the test is a blood sample from both of us. Foetal DNA found in an expectant mother’s blood can be analysed and compared with DNA in the alleged father’s blood. If the DNA test proves that I am the father I will accept responsibility for my child.’

  ‘That’s big of you.’

  Marnie’s temper simmered in response to Leandro’s coldness. His curt statement that he would accept responsibility for his child should have been a relief, but he sounded so uncaring—as if he viewed having a child as an unwanted encumbrance.

  Her father had not wanted her, she remembered, and her mother had relied on her only to cook meals and clean the flat. Sheena’s depression had meant that she’d taken little interest in any of her children.

  She would love her baby, Marnie vowed, feeling fiercely protective of the fragile scrap of humanity inside her. The steel backbone she’d developed during her difficult childhood and teenage years gave her the courage to meet Leandro’s cynical gaze. She would be everything her mother hadn’t been, and she would love her baby twice as much to make up for Leandro’s lack of interest.

  ‘I’ve already told you there is no point in having a DNA test, because this baby can’t be anyone’s but yours. If you choose not to believe me that’s your problem. But I don’t expect you to take responsibility—I never expected anything from you. I simply thought you had a right to know that I am carrying your child.’

  She was determined not to break down in front of him, but when she took a step towards the door he caught hold of her arm and swung her round to face him.

  ‘You seem to have forgotten about the missing jewellery. Perhaps the reason you are in such a hurry to leave is so that you can alert your hippy boyfriend to the fact that the theft has been discovered. You knew I rarely opened the safe and you gambled on the likelihood that I wouldn’t find out the jewellery was missing until you were long gone.’

  ‘If that was true, why would I have come to tell you I’m pregnant?’ she fired back at him, incensed and deeply hurt by his accusations.

  ‘I haven’t quite worked it out yet, but it’s possible your boyfriend has refused to accept responsibility for his child and has disappeared with the jewellery, leaving you with nothing, and so you’ve decided to try and blame me for your pregnancy. You were unaware that a security camera had filmed you letting your hippy guy into the house, and you believed that when the theft from the safe was eventually discovered the assumption would be that it was the work of professional housebreakers.’

  ‘I am expecting your baby. If you carry out a basic check on my background and family you will discover that Jake is my brother.’ Marnie took a deep breath. ‘All right, I agree to the DNA test—which I am a hundred per cent sure will prove you are the father. And I don’t know how the jewellery came to be missing from the safe.’

  She couldn’t be certain Jake had committed the theft and she urgently needed to talk to him.

  She was pulled from her thoughts as Leandro tightened his grip on her arm and swept her out of the room and along the hallway towards the front door.

  ‘I’ve arranged with Alex for us to go to his surgery immediately.’

  He speared her with a lethal glance that hurt her more than anything else he had said or done.

  ‘If I find out that you have lied and tried to pin another man’s baby on me you had better make sure you hide some place where I’ll never find you.’

  CHAPTER SIX

  AT THE PRIVATE doctors’ practice in Harley Street, blood samples were taken from Marnie and Leandro. They would be sent to another clinic for DNA screening.

  ‘I’ll never forgive you for putting me through that,’ she told him after they had left the surgery and were in the car, driving across west London in traffic that was heavier than usual due to the torrential rain.

  He frowned. ‘Did you find the blood test painful?’

  ‘No, but I find it humiliating to have to prove that you are the baby’s father when I’ve told you that you are the only man I’ve ever had sex with.’

  ‘You have told me a lot of things that turned out to be lies. Only a fool would accept a paternity claim without proof.’

  Leandro recalled that his father had said the same thing when the truth of Henry’s paternity had eventually been established. Silvestro had not minced his words.

  ‘You should have insisted on a paternity test when the boy was born, and certainly after you divorced Nicole and agreed to pay maintenance for a kid who turned out not to be yours. You were a damned fool to wait six years before demanding a DNA test.’

  Don’t worry, Dad, lesson learned, Leandro thought bitterly. His father’s scorn had been almost as hard to bear as his own devastation at discovering that Henry was not his son.

  ‘You can drop me at the underground station and I’ll take the Tube to Brixton. It’s only a short bus ride from there
to my cousin’s flat in Dulwich.’ Marnie interrupted Leandro’s thoughts. ‘It will be quicker than you driving me across town.’

  ‘You’ve got to be joking. I’m not letting you out of my sight until I get the result of the paternity test in a week’s time. You can stay at my house, and if it is proved that the child you are expecting is mine we will discuss how we are going to deal with the situation.’

  ‘I’ll tell you how I’m going to deal with it.’ Marnie was infuriated by Leandro’s superior tone. ‘I’m going to be the best mother I possibly can to my baby, and I don’t want or need anything from you. We have nothing to discuss, and you can go to hell for all I care.’

  ‘I’ve already been there.’

  Leandro flexed his hands on the steering wheel and flicked a sideways glance at Marnie. She had never lost her temper with him before, and it crossed his mind that her emotional state might not be good for the baby. If the child was his he would make sure that nothing upset her while she was pregnant.

  He focused on the road ahead and tried not think about her voluptuous breasts, rising and falling swiftly beneath her cotton dress. If he took her to bed he could guarantee she wouldn’t stay angry for long. Dio! He cursed beneath his breath as he felt himself harden. There was a good chance that she’d had sex with another man, he reminded himself, welcoming the cold fury that replaced his desire.

  ‘Where do you plan to live once your cousin returns from her honeymoon? I assume you won’t be going to California now.’

  ‘Obviously I can’t take up the internship with NASA this year,’ Marnie said flatly, ‘but there is a possibility that I can defer the placement until after the baby is born. Apparently there are excellent childcare facilities at the research centre.’

  Leandro digested this unexpected news. ‘Are you saying you would leave a young baby in a nursery for hours every day so that you could study? It doesn’t matter how good the childcare facilities are. A baby needs to be with its parent to form a bond so that it feels secure and loved.’