Trapped by Vialli's Vows

by Chantelle Shaw

  ‘Making love for hours.’ He finished her sentence.

  ‘If we’ve been having a relationship for a year I suppose we must be happy together?’ Marnie didn’t know why a little niggle of doubt in her mind prompted her to ask the question.

  Leandro smiled. ‘Of course we are happy, cara.’

  ‘It’s just that I don’t remember a lot about us. I know you work long hours, and I’ve been busy studying for my degree.’ She looked at him questioningly. ‘You do know that I go to university and study astrophysics? I don’t remember when I told you about my dream of one day being an astronomer.’ She sighed. ‘It’s strange that I can recall everything I learned in my lectures, but I don’t know if I passed my final exams.’

  ‘You gained a first-class honours degree.’

  ‘Did I?’ Her face lit up. ‘How wonderful!’

  Leandro waited for Marnie to talk about the offer she had received of a placement on the internship programme with NASA, but she did not mention it and neither did he. There was no point in confusing matters even more by reminding her that she had planned to spend nine months studying in California. He would not allow her to take the baby to the other side of the world and leave it in childcare for hours while she pursued her career dreams. He was determined that his child would feel loved and secure—unlike the way he had felt when he was growing up.

  He pulled his mind back to what Marnie was saying.

  ‘I assume I had intended to carry on studying for my masters at the same university in west London, but I don’t remember the plans I made.’ Her voice cracked. ‘What’s worse is that I don’t remember finding out that I’m pregnant.’

  She bit her lip.

  ‘I’m guessing my pregnancy was an accident? It’s not something I would have planned at this stage of my life.’ She put her hand on the slight swell of her stomach. ‘But it’s quite exciting to think that our baby will be born in a few months. Are you pleased that you’re going to be a father?’

  Leandro let out a controlled breath. ‘I’m over the moon, cara. Your pregnancy was only confirmed a few weeks ago and, yes, it was a surprise, but I couldn’t be happier.’

  ‘I’m so glad. I wasn’t sure how you felt.’ She visibly relaxed and her smile lit up her face.

  Leandro ruthlessly ignored the tug on his conscience. He was a gambler, he reminded himself. He had made his multi-million-pound fortune by taking risks that other men did not have the guts to take. Gambling on Marnie’s memory loss being permanent was crazy, even for him, but he was willing to do anything to claim his child.

  ‘I can’t wait for our baby to be born,’ he assured her. ‘But before we become parents we have another special event to look forward to.’

  He reached into his jacket pocket and took out a small velvet box bearing the name of the jewellers in Florence where he’d bought the ring before returning to London.

  Marnie gave a little gasp when he opened the lid to reveal a stunning diamond the size of a small rock.

  ‘I had your engagement ring resized,’ Leandro told her smoothly as he lifted her hand and slid the ring onto her finger. ‘Good—it now fits you perfectly.’

  He looked into her stunned eyes and dismissed the irritating voice that said it was wrong of him to trick her into marriage.

  ‘I think we should carry on with the wedding plans we made before you lost your memory.’

  ‘Wedding plans! That means you must have proposed. I’m so sorry, but I don’t remember.’

  Her mouth trembled and Leandro felt his gut twist, but he ignored the pang his conscience gave.

  ‘Try not to get upset,’ he said soothingly. ‘We will make new memories—starting now. Will you marry me, mia bella?’

  Marnie stared at the huge diamond sparkling on her finger and wondered why she didn’t feel ecstatic, the way a bride-to-be should. Leandro was waiting for her to respond, and she felt guilty that this must be almost as difficult for him as it was for her.

  She gave him a strained smile. ‘Of course my answer is yes. But are you sure you want to marry me? What if my memory never returns?’

  ‘Perhaps it will over time.’

  Leandro knew it was selfish of him to hope she would not remember his recent behaviour. If she regained her memory he would face a far harder task to convince her to marry him.

  He lifted her hand and pressed his lips to her fingers. He would make her happy, he assured his conscience. While she had been his mistress she had fallen in love with him without any effort on his part.

  Fate had worked in his favour, and Marnie did not remember that he had demanded a DNA test to prove the baby was his. He saw no point in reminding her. All he had to do was convince her that their marriage was a love match and she would never guess that he was marrying her for the sake of convenience.

  ‘As soon as you are fit enough to be discharged from hospital we will go to my villa in Florence, so that you can recuperate and be ready for our wedding in a month’s time.’

  Marnie’s brow pleated as she tried to remember the plans that she and Leandro had presumably discussed for their wedding day, but the fog obscuring her memory would not budge. It felt so strange that she was effectively missing several months out of her life. It was as if there was a veil drawn across her mind. Every so often she had a tiny glimpse of the past, but frustratingly the snatch of memory always faded.

  One thing she was certain of was that she had fallen in love with him within the first month of moving in with him. She’d thought about him all day while she was working at the cocktail bar or attending lectures at university, and felt like a lovesick teenager as she’d waited for him to come home from work. Sometimes they hadn’t even made it out of the hall and had made love up against the wall. She blushed at the memory of their mutual and very urgent desire for each other.

  And Leandro must have fallen in love with her as he had asked her to be his wife. The engagement ring on her finger felt unfamiliar, but he had said that the ring had needed to be resized, so perhaps she had not had a chance to wear it.

  A flicker of uncertainty made her say, ‘Perhaps we should postpone getting married until my memory comes back?’

  She wondered if it was her imagination that he suddenly seemed tense. But then he gave her a sexy smile that made her toes curl. He was so gorgeous, and his grey eyes were as soft as woodsmoke as he held her gaze. Her indefinable doubts disappeared and all she could think of was how incredibly handsome he was.

  ‘You have to accept that you might not regain your memory,’ he said gently. ‘Our baby is due in a few months, and it means a lot to me that our son or daughter will be legitimate and have parents who have made the commitment of marriage. I want us to be a family and I thought you shared my feelings.’

  ‘I do,’ Marnie whispered, deeply moved by his words. She loved the thought of being part of a family with Leandro and their baby. Her own childhood had not been particularly happy after her father had left, and she wanted her baby to grow up feeling safe and secure.

  Tiredness swept over her, and she closed her eyes as the headache that had been a permanent feature since she had regained consciousness became a throbbing pain.

  ‘You’re right. We should carry on with our wedding plans even though I can’t remember what those plans are. I don’t want my stupid accident to spoil things, but I might have to leave the arrangements to you.’

  ‘I’ll take care of everything, cara.’

  Satisfied that stage one of his plan to make Marnie his wife as soon as possible was underway, Leandro was impatient to submit the necessary paperwork which would allow them to marry in a minimum of twenty-eight days.

  An unfamiliar emotion that was perhaps tenderness swept over him as he watched her eyelashes drift down and fan on her cheeks. He wanted to wrap her up in cotton wool. But his concern was for his
child, he reminded himself.

  Believing that she was asleep, he walked noiselessly over to the door, but as he was about to step out into the corridor her voice halted him.

  ‘Leandro, do you love me?’

  ‘Why else would I have asked you to be my wife?’ he murmured after a slight hesitation. ‘Rest now, cara, and I will talk to the consultant and find out when you will be well enough to fly to Florence.’

  It had not been the most romantic declaration.

  Marnie blinked away the tears that inexplicably filled her eyes as she watched Leandro walk out of the room and shut the door behind him. She wished he had kissed her, or said that he loved her with more enthusiasm than he had demonstrated. But perhaps he had been told by the medical staff not to overexcite her. She certainly did not feel overwhelmed by his visit, she thought ruefully.

  The brain trauma specialist had explained that it was common to feel emotional following a head injury, and she told herself that was probably the reason she wanted to cry. It was a horrible feeling to have a great big gap in her memory and, although she hadn’t said so to Leandro, he seemed more like a stranger than a loving fiancé.

  She held up her hand and studied the huge diamond on her finger. Leandro must love her because he had asked her to marry him. But she could not dismiss the sense that there were undercurrents between them she did not understand.

  As she rolled onto her side she felt a strange fluttering sensation in her stomach. Holding her breath, she placed her hand on her belly and felt a faint but distinct movement. Her baby! One of the nurses had explained that expectant mothers were usually able to feel their baby move at about four and a half months pregnant. Suddenly her pregnancy seemed much more real. A new life was developing inside her and the prospect of motherhood was miraculous and daunting.

  She wondered how Leandro had reacted when she had told him she was expecting his child. Why did she think that he had been angry? He seemed pleased now, and she told herself that once she had got over the shock of discovering that she was soon going to be a mother she would relax.

  But as she rested her aching head against the pillows she felt very alone, and afraid of what the future might hold.

  * * *

  The Villa Collina was located on a hill above Florence and the view from the terrace over the historical city and surrounding Tuscan landscape was breathtaking.

  ‘Have I been here before?’ Marnie asked Leandro. ‘I can’t believe I wouldn’t remember such a beautiful place.’

  She could not hide her frustration that nearly two weeks after she had been knocked unconscious her memory hadn’t returned.

  ‘This is our first visit to Florence together,’ he reassured her. ‘You must try to stop worrying about your memory loss. Stress isn’t good for the baby.’

  ‘You don’t know what it’s like to have months of your life obliterated from your memory.’

  Marnie sighed as she looked around the villa’s gardens, where manicured lawns were bordered by late-flowering lavender bushes that filled the air with a heavenly scent. The only sound to disturb the still air was the low drone of bees, but even the tranquillity of the surroundings did not give her a sense of peace.

  She had hoped that if she went back to his house in London it might trigger her memory, but Leandro was keen to return to his work on a theatre restoration project in Florence and he had persuaded her to fly out to Italy with him and stay at his villa, so that he could keep a close eye on her.

  She could not fault his attentiveness, she acknowledged. He constantly fussed about her health, and of course she was glad that he was taking such an interest in her pregnancy, but sometimes she wondered if his concern was more for the baby than for her.

  Pushing away the uncharitable thought, she turned her head to study him. When he had visited her every day in the hospital he had looked gorgeous, wearing a three-piece suit, and Marnie had found it irritating that all the nurses had sent him admiring looks. Today he looked ruggedly sexy, dressed in hip-hugging jeans and a light blue denim shirt. His dark hair was ruffled by the breeze and the golden afternoon sunlight accentuated the angular beauty of his face.

  Marnie thought it was amazing that a man as handsome and sophisticated as Leandro had chosen her to be his wife.

  ‘I feel that I don’t know you,’ she burst out. ‘I suppose you must have told me about your family, for instance, but I don’t remember.’ She looked towards the elegant three-storey villa. ‘Why did you buy this house in Florence? Were you born in this part of Italy?’

  ‘As a matter of fact we’ve never really talked about our respective families.’ Leandro realised that he would have to open up about himself a little more as Marnie was going to be his wife. ‘I was born and grew up in New York. My paternal grandfather had moved to the States from Naples and established a property development business there. When he died my father took over the company and built Vialli Holdings into a billion-dollar business.’

  Marnie frowned with the effort of trying to force her mind to see into the past. ‘I don’t remember if I have met your parents.’

  ‘My mother is dead, and my father rarely socialises unless it is for business reasons,’ Leandro said shortly.

  He led Marnie into the villa, where pale grey Italian marble floors and whitewashed walls offered a cool sanctuary from the sun-drenched garden.

  ‘My mother grew up in this house. My parents divorced when I was seven and I lived with my father, but I spent holidays here with my grandparents, and occasionally with Giulietta if she wasn’t working on a show.’

  Something jolted in Marnie’s mind. ‘Oh, your mother was Giulietta Fargo—the famous singer and Broadway legend.’ She felt a rush of excitement when Leandro gave a nod of affirmation. ‘I don’t know why I remember that, but the fact that I do must be a good sign that I’m starting to regain my memory.’

  Leandro’s reaction was more cautious. ‘My mother was an international star—most people have heard of her. The specialist warned you it could take months, maybe years, for you to regain your memory, and it might never come back. His advice was for you to get on with your life.’

  He caught hold of her hand and led her through the villa.

  ‘Come and see the rest of the house.’

  Marnie was enchanted with the villa’s homely feel. Colourful rugs on the floors and paintings of Tuscan scenery on the walls lent charm to the elegant rooms.

  Walking up the wide staircase, she paused to look at a photo on the landing of a boy of about ten years old and a woman with long black hair. ‘Is that your mother? She was very beautiful. Why did you live with your father after your parents split up?’

  ‘My mother’s career meant that she was constantly travelling around the world. I didn’t actually see her very often. She tried to be here when I visited my grandparents, but her stage performances always came first.’

  There was no bitterness in his voice, simply a flat note of resignation, but Marnie’s tender heart ached as she studied the photo of Leandro as a boy and saw loneliness and a haunting vulnerability in his grey eyes.

  ‘Who is the little girl?’ she asked, indicating the toddler in the photo.

  ‘My half-sister. After my parents divorced, my mother had an affair with a French businessman, which resulted in a daughter. In the same way that she had left me to be brought up by my father, she left Stephanie in the care of her father. When we were children I only met her occasionally, when my mother brought her to Villa Collina, but after Stephanie’s father died a couple of years ago we became closer.’

  Leandro picked up another photo of a stunningly beautiful young woman. ‘This was taken of Stephanie last year. She’s a successful model based in Paris.’

  Stephanie. Marnie had no idea why she felt a reaction to the name. ‘Have you spoken about your half-sister before?’ she aske
d Leandro.

  ‘Possibly not. Like I said, we didn’t tend to talk about our families.’ There was an odd note in his voice when he went on. ‘I only found out fairly recently that you had brothers who were twins, and that one of them had died.’

  ‘Luke’s death is one memory I wish I could forget.’ Marnie sighed. ‘For a long time after he was killed I couldn’t accept that I would never see him again. Once, I even...’

  ‘What?’ Leandro prompted.

  ‘Oh, there was a terrible incident when I was in a shop and I thought I saw Luke outside the window. I ran after him, not realising that I was still holding a handbag that I’d picked up. Of course it looked like I was trying to steal the bag, and I was arrested, but it was a genuine mistake. I miss both my brothers so much.’

  Marnie put down the photo of Leandro and his mother, and the one of his half-sister, thinking that his childhood did not sound much happier than hers had been.

  ‘My dad left when I was eleven and moved to Bulgaria to be with a woman he had met there,’ she explained. ‘At first he used to phone me, but after a while he stopped calling and I’m no longer in contact with him. I will never live apart from my child,’ she said fiercely.

  Talking about the past had made her think about her worries for the future.

  ‘I hope we’re doing the right thing by getting married. My memory loss makes it feel like we’re almost strangers,’ she admitted.

  She twisted her engagement ring round on her finger.

  ‘This ring, for instance. It’s the biggest diamond I’ve ever seen, and it must be worth a fortune, but it’s not me.’ She struggled to explain what she meant. ‘I don’t think I would have chosen such a flashy ring. I’m not interested in statement jewellery.’

  She bit her lip as it occurred to her that Leandro might have chosen the ring for her.

  ‘I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I suppose what I’m actually worried about is...can we make our marriage work if I never regain my memory?’