Trapped by Vialli's Vows

by Chantelle Shaw

  Marnie became aware that her heart was beating painfully hard and dangerously fast. At her last antenatal appointment the nurse had said that her blood pressure was slightly raised—heaven knew how high it was now. Just as suddenly as it had swept over her the white-hot rage that had consumed her died away, and she could not hold back the tears that slid down her cheeks.

  ‘Let me take care of you,’ Leandro said softly, breaking her heart all over again.

  ‘Leave me alone.’ She could barely speak because her whole body was racked with sobs.

  She didn’t know what to do. Her nose was running, and when she wiped a hand over her wet eyes she saw black streaks of mascara and knew she must look like a clown. The pain in her head was making her feel sick, and panic made her breath come in shallow gasps as she faced the ultimate humiliation of throwing up at Leandro’s feet.

  As if from a long way off, she heard him speak.

  ‘Marnie, I need to take you to hospital. You’re in shock after regaining your memory.’ He curled his fingers around her wrist and ignored her desperate cry. ‘Let me help you.’

  ‘It seems to me that you’ve done enough.’ Uncle Brian came to stand beside Marnie and put his arm protectively around her shoulders.

  He was several inches shorter than Leandro, but something about the older man’s steady demeanour made Leandro look away in shame.

  He watched Marnie’s uncle lead her back up the stairs. The sound of her weeping hurt him in a way he had never experienced before—as if his heart had been ripped out of his chest. His gamble had failed spectacularly, and he was beginning to realise that he had lost something so precious and priceless that he had not even considered its value until now.

  She had loved him. But he had thrown her love away. And now she had demanded that he keep away from her and their child. She had said he was a monster, and she was right. What kind of man would offer the mother of his child money to give up her parental rights? A man like his father—the answer hit Leandro hard. With sudden insight he saw the similarities between himself and Silvestro, and he hated what he saw almost as much as he hated himself.

  Marnie was innocent of every terrible thing he had accused her of. She was not a liar, nor a cheat, nor a thief. She had gifted him her virginity and had remained true to him. Dio, she had given him her heart. And he had stamped on it like a spoiled child in the throes of a temper tantrum—twice.

  He watched her walk away from him and knew he deserved to lose her—but he could not accept that he would. ‘I know you hate me,’ he called after her. ‘But this isn’t just about us and our relationship. You have to think about what the baby needs.’

  She had reached the top stair and she turned to look down at him. Despite the black streaks of make-up smeared across her white face she looked heartbreakingly beautiful and utterly heartbroken.

  ‘We don’t have a relationship. That’s what you once told me,’ she reminded him. ‘And I am thinking of the baby,’ Marnie continued, in a hard voice that Leandro had never heard her use before. ‘For our child’s sake I intend to go as far away as possible from you, because you are cruel and manipulative and those are not the qualities of a good father.’ She tugged her engagement ring from her finger. ‘You can have this back. It’s beautiful to look at but completely soulless—just like you.’

  She threw the ring at him and the huge diamond glittered as it sailed through the air before landing with a thud at Leandro’s feet.

  She turned her back on him and started to walk along the corridor. Fear curled icy fingers around Leandro’s heart. She was leaving him and he could not stop her.

  He was hurtled back in time to when he was seven years old, following his mother down the hall and pleading with her to stay with him. ‘Don’t leave me!’ he had cried when he was a boy. Now he was a man and he cried the same words silently inside himself. He wanted to run after Marnie and pull her into his arms, but he did not have any right to beg her to stay with him after the terrible way he had treated her.

  For the first time he took an unblinkered view of his behaviour and he was appalled.

  He spoke to Marnie’s uncle. ‘Look after her...please...’ His voice was gruff and his throat felt as if he had swallowed broken glass. ‘I assume you will take Marnie to your home in Norfolk? I’ll come and see her in a few days, when we are all feeling calmer.’ His jaw hardened. ‘It’s my baby too.’

  Maybe he had lost Marnie, and maybe—definitely—he did not deserve her. But he would fight for his child and he would never give up.

  * * *

  ‘Marnie, love, you need to try and stop crying,’ Aunt Susan said gently. ‘You’ve cried for the whole journey from London to Norfolk and it can’t be good for the baby that you are in such a state.’

  Her aunt’s words broke through the mantle of misery that had swamped Marnie since she had discovered the shattering truth of Leandro’s deception. He did not love her. He had never loved her. She had been such a fool.

  Yet more tears filled her eyes, but she forced herself to sit up straight in the back of the car and blew her nose on a tissue her aunt handed her.

  ‘You’ll stay with us, of course, for as long as you like.’ Aunt Susan’s tone became fierce. ‘I hope Leandro does visit in a couple of days, as he said he would. I’d like to tell him exactly what I think of him.’

  ‘I don’t want to see him.’ Panic surged through Marnie. ‘I never want to see Leandro again.’ She did not dare. She couldn’t trust herself not to be charmed by him, she acknowledged with self-disgust. Nothing could excuse Leandro’s behaviour. He had lied to her repeatedly, destroyed her trust and he did not deserve a second chance.

  ‘I can’t stay with you and Uncle Brian if Leandro might turn up,’ she told her aunt urgently. ‘I need to go somewhere where he won’t find me while I think about what I am going to do once the baby is born.’

  Her aunt hesitated before she opened her handbag and took out a letter. ‘Your father wrote to me a few weeks ago and asked after you. I wrote back and told him that you were expecting a baby and about to get married. Yesterday this letter arrived, addressed to you. I was going to wait until after the wedding to give it to you.’

  With a trembling hand, Marnie took the envelope.

  ‘Your dad said in his letter to me that he would love to see you again,’ Aunt Susan murmured. ‘Perhaps you could visit him in Bulgaria?’

  CHAPTER TEN

  THE WIND BLOWING off the sea whipped the tops of the sand dunes and stirred the marram grasses so that the slender fronds whispered to one another. Marnie huddled deeper into her coat, glad that her woollen hat and gloves gave her some protection from the icy January air. She liked to get out of the house and stretch her legs with a walk along the beach. Not that she was able to walk very far or fast now that she was so heavy with her child.

  She felt like a lumbering hippopotamus. But there was not long to go now. The baby was due in three weeks, and she was enjoying this final part of her pregnancy. It was such a special time, and she loved staying on the remote north Norfolk coast. She had not seen another person for several days, and it felt as though it was just her and her baby bump alone in the bleakly beautiful landscape.

  Her thoughts drifted to a very different landscape. The village in the mountains of Bulgaria where her father lived would be a winter wonderland, with thick snow on the ground and piled on the roofs of the houses like icing on a Christmas cake.

  Visiting her father and his wife and two children—half-siblings whom she had never met before—had been strangely cathartic. Marnie hadn’t known what to expect when she’d walked through the arrivals hall of the airport in Bulgaria, but despite not having seen her dad for twelve years she had recognised him instantly, and he had swept her into a bear hug. He had been just as she remembered him, funny and easy-going, and his wife and the two childr
en—Katya and Ben—had made Marnie feel welcome.

  ‘Things had got so bad between your mum and me that I thought the family would be better off without me,’ her father had explained. ‘The constant rows and your mother’s accusations that I was unfaithful made a bad atmosphere for you and the twins. It’s not an excuse, but your mum’s obsessive jealousy drove me away.’ He’d sighed. ‘I tried to keep in touch with you, but it seemed like you didn’t want to talk to me.’

  ‘I felt disloyal to Mum when I spoke to you on the phone,’ Marnie had admitted. ‘I suppose I blamed you for making her unhappy. All she wanted was for you to love her.’

  As she’d spoken the words Marnie had recognised that she was the same as her mother. Wanting Leandro to love her had been the most important thing in her life.

  ‘Your mum mistrusted me because she lacked self-confidence and didn’t believe she was worthy of being loved. But you can’t make another person responsible for your happiness. You have to love yourself and believe that you deserve to be loved in order to have an equal relationship where there is respect and trust on both sides.’

  Thinking of what her father had said, Marnie acknowledged that her relationship with Leandro had not been equal. She had been too amenable and too anxious to please him. She had lost respect for herself.

  She watched the herring gulls swooping above the white-crested waves before she turned back to the remote wooden beach house half-hidden among the dunes that had been her home for the past week. As she drew nearer she noticed a figure standing at the top of the path leading to the cottage. Marnie occasionally saw birdwatchers on the beach, but something about the watchful stance of this figure put her on high alert.

  It could not be him, she assured herself. But even from across the beach her body recognised Leandro and her heart slammed against her ribs. For a moment she was tempted to run away, but the baby kicked and reminded her that running wasn’t an option in her advanced state of pregnancy. Nor did she need to run from Leandro. He could not hurt her any more than he had already done. She had spent the last two and a half months getting over him. She had.

  It was a steep climb up the sloping path, and she was flushed and out of breath when she halted a few feet away from Leandro. He was wearing a sheepskin jacket with the collar pulled up around his face and he looked ruggedly sexy.

  But when Marnie studied him more closely she was shocked by how thin and drawn his face was. His previously cropped hair was no longer in a sleek style and had grown down past his collar. Several days’ growth of dark stubble covered his jaw. But it was his eyes that shocked her most. They were as dull as the grey winter sky and as bleak as the lonely beach. He looked as if he had spent the past months in hell and her heart softened.

  Stop that, she ordered herself firmly. She would not let him work his magic on her again.

  ‘I don’t believe my aunt and uncle would have told you where I’m staying, so how did you find me?’

  His eyes narrowed, as if he was surprised by her aggressive tone, and there was a curious huskiness in his deep voice when he replied. ‘I found this house a couple of weeks after you did your disappearing act.’ He exhaled heavily, and his warm breath formed a white cloud in the freezing air. ‘I remembered you had once told me that your aunt and uncle owned a beach house in Norfolk. I couldn’t blame them for refusing to tell me where the house was, but it was easy to check with the land registry and find the address.’

  He dug his hands deeper into his pockets and did not take his eyes from her face.

  ‘I rushed to Norfolk, hoping to talk to you, but you weren’t here and the house was shut up. It still seemed like my best bet, and I haunted this place, but you never came—until now. When I arrived today and saw a car parked by the house I prayed you were here.’

  ‘I can’t imagine why you went to so much effort. I have nothing to say to you.’

  ‘There is a lot I need to say to you. I want to explain—’

  ‘But I don’t want to listen.’

  She cut him off abruptly, and again a flicker of surprise crossed his face. When they had been together she had always hung on his every word, Marnie remembered grimly.

  ‘I no longer care what you want, Leandro. In the past I tried too hard to please you and make you happy. You knew I loved you and you used my feelings for you to manipulate me. But I have seen the man you really are, and I don’t love you now, so I’m afraid you’ll have to find some other pathetic fool to play your mind games with.’

  ‘I never thought you were pathetic.’

  She shrugged. ‘I really don’t care.’ Tiredness swept over her, as it often did these days. She stepped round Leandro and walked towards the house. ‘I assume you wanted to find me to check that the baby is okay? There are no problems with my pregnancy and the baby is fine, so you can go. I’ll phone you in a few weeks, when your son or daughter has been born.’

  She heard his breath hiss between his teeth and when she opened the front door he was right behind her.

  He wedged his shoulder against the doorframe. ‘I’m not going anywhere, cara. I’m staying.’

  ‘The hell you are. I don’t want you here.’

  Anger and panic combined in a rush of temper. It was all very well to tell herself she was over him when she had not seen him for months, but now he was here, more gorgeous and more heartbreakingly handsome than she remembered, she had to protect herself against his dangerous charisma.

  Leandro’s grey eyes gleamed with steely resolve. ‘When I arrived I was concerned that you didn’t answer my knock on the door. I phoned your aunt and she guessed you had gone for a walk on the beach. She told me that she and your uncle are worried about you living alone, miles from the nearest town, when the baby is due soon.’

  ‘I’m fine. Aunt Susan lives less than an hour away. When I feel the first signs that I’m in labour I’ll phone her and she will come and drive me to the hospital. Everyone says that first babies take hours to arrive.’

  ‘Are you going to risk the baby’s welfare simply to score a point over me?’ Leandro carefully squeezed past her into the porch. ‘For your aunt and uncle’s sake, if not mine, let me stay and take care of you.’

  ‘I don’t need to be taken care of.’ Marnie hated the way her heart leapt at the gentleness in his voice.

  She sat down on the bench and struggled to bend down over her swollen belly to unlace her boots.

  ‘You are heavily pregnant. Of course you need someone to look after you and keep you safe,’ he murmured as he knelt down in front of her and removed her boots.

  She should demand that he leave, but right now she did not have the energy for a fight, Marnie acknowledged. She pulled off her hat and felt his eyes on the thick braid of hair that slipped down over her shoulder. Ignoring him, she walked into the open-plan living room. The white-painted walls and big windows made it a bright room even on a dull winter’s day, and the glowing embers from the log burner added warmth and cheer.

  She threw another log into the burner before taking off her coat, and grimaced when she turned round and saw the expression on Leandro’s face as he stared at her.

  At this late stage of her pregnancy, her leggings and a soft grey wool jumper dress were comfortable, but definitely not stylish, and she knew she looked enormous. ‘This is what thirty-seven weeks pregnant looks like—get over it,’ she said waspishly.

  ‘You look beautiful.’

  She ordered herself to ignore the husky note in his voice that tugged on her emotions. ‘Forget the charm offensive. I’m the size of a double-decker bus, but I don’t mind.’ She placed her hand on the hard swell of her stomach. ‘I love being pregnant and knowing that the baby will be a healthy weight when he or she is born.’

  Leandro shrugged out of his sheepskin jacket and walked around the breakfast bar into the kitchen area. He filled the kettle a
nd opened cupboard doors until he located mugs.

  ‘Tea or coffee? Do you want something to eat? I make a mean omelette.’

  ‘Just a cup of tea, please.’ Marnie’s legs ached from her walk and she sank down on the sofa in front of the fire. In a minute she would tell him he had to leave. But it was nice to be fussed over...nice not to be on her own, a traitorous voice in her heart whispered.

  Her deep sigh was unconsciously wistful as she watched Leandro. He was wearing jeans and a cream jumper that moulded his powerful chest. His over-long hair gleamed like raw silk and she longed to run her fingers through it.

  He walked over, carrying a tray with their drinks and a packet of biscuits, and after he had placed the tray down on the coffee table he sat down next to her—too close for Marnie’s comfort. He smelled divine... The spicy fragrance of his aftershave was evocative, and she closed her eyes to try and block out her mental image of his naked, tanned, muscular body, his limbs entwined with hers.

  ‘My ex-wife hated being pregnant. She said it ruined her figure.’

  Marnie’s eyes flew open as his words registered and she jerked her head towards him.

  ‘You were married?’

  ‘Briefly. Before our second wedding anniversary Nicole and I both knew we had made a mistake,’ he said drily.

  ‘But...you have a child?’ She was so shocked she could barely speak, and her confusion grew when Leandro shook his head. ‘You said your wife was pregnant.’

  ‘Not with my child, unfortunately.’

  He sipped his drink and turned his eyes towards her.

  ‘I met Nicole soon after my mother died.’ He shrugged. ‘Maybe I was looking for love because when I was growing up I believed that my mother cared about her career more than she loved me. Whatever the reason, I fell for Nicole hard, and when she told me she was pregnant I was keen to marry her. But cracks started to appear early in the marriage. I was busy establishing Vialli Entertainment, and although Nicole enjoyed spending the money I earned she resented the long hours I spent working for it.’