‘Matteo is my son, Kelly. Mine and Sophia’s.’
‘IF YOU’D wait in here, I’ll make sure Matteo is all right and come straight back.’
Kelly didn’t say a word as she walked into the sitting room—she couldn’t. She wasn’t even sure how she had got to the villa. She’d just put one foot in front of the other and kept going. Now she could feel herself trembling as she stopped in the middle of the room.
‘Sit down and make yourself comfortable. I’ll get my housekeeper to bring you a drink. What would you like—tea, coffee, or something cool perhaps?’
‘Nothing.’ Her voice sounded cracked and thin, like the voice of a very old woman. She cleared her throat because it was important that she maintain her dignity. ‘I don’t want anything to drink. Thank you.’
‘If you’re sure…?’
Luca let the question trail off but she didn’t answer him. She’d used up every scrap of strength and had nothing more to give. She sat down on the sofa after he left the room and closed her eyes. She could feel her heart beating, hear herself breathing and knew she was alive. It was just the core of her that had died, the vital spark that made her who she was. It had been snuffed out by those words: Matteo is my son. Mine and Sophia’s.
Pain welled up inside her and she bit her lip. The only positive thought she’d had to cling to these past two years was that there’d been nothing premeditated about the way Luca had treated her. Now she could see what a fool she’d been to believe that. Luca had carried on an affair with her even though he must have known that Sophia was pregnant.
Tears swam to her eyes but she blinked them away. By the time Luca reappeared, she had herself under control. She obeyed without question when he placed a small table in front of the sofa and told her to rest her arm on it. He’d brought a basin of water and a towel with him, and she didn’t object when he bathed her elbow. She didn’t care if he touched her. She was numb, immune to him now, inured against any future pain by his past betrayal.
‘This should help to reduce the swelling.’ He wrung out the towel and wrapped it around her elbow. ‘You’ll still have a bruise in the morning but this should alleviate some of the stiffness at least.’
‘Thank you.’ Kelly barely glanced at him as she stood up. ‘I’ll let you have the towel back tomorrow.’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ he said dismissively.
‘I would prefer to return it,’ she said, walking to the door. She crossed the marble-floored hallway without glancing either to left or right. Any desire she’d had to explore the house had disappeared. She was no longer interested in it or its owner.
She stopped when she reached the front door and turned to look at him. Ever since she’d discovered they would be working together, she had been afraid that she wouldn’t be able to separate Luca, the man she had loved, from Luca, her boss, but it was no longer a problem. The person standing before her was a stranger, someone who had lied and cheated to get what he’d wanted. She couldn’t even feel angry about what he had done; she just felt numb.
‘Are you sure you feel all right? You don’t have a headache, do you?’
‘I’m fine,’ she said flatly. ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’
‘Of course.’
He didn’t say anything else as he let her out. Kelly didn’t look back as she made her way down the drive. She had no idea if he was watching her, but it didn’t matter if he was. He meant nothing to her now. He was just someone she worked with, someone she could learn from so she could improve her skills. The children she treated would benefit from her knowing Luca, but for her, personally, it was a matter of indifference.
It was only when she reached the end of the drive and discovered that she couldn’t see where she was going that she realised she was crying. Tears were pouring down her face, blinding her so that she stumbled and had to grab hold of the gate to steady herself. Luca had had a child with another woman. Sophia had been carrying his baby while he’d been making love to her. What kind of a man slept with another woman when his girlfriend was pregnant?
‘Kelly? Are you all right? What’s happened?’
All of a sudden Luca was there and she rounded on him in fury. ‘How could you, Luca? How could you sleep with me when Sophia was expecting your child?’
‘Because I had no idea she was pregnant!’ He caught hold of her arms and held onto them when she tried to pull away. ‘I only found out about the baby when I returned to Italy.’
‘You really expect me to believe that?’ she scoffed.
‘Yes, because it’s the truth.’ His grey eyes flashed as he gripped her even harder and she winced as his fingers bit into her bruised arm. He uttered something harsh as he swiftly released her. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you, Kelly.’
‘Didn’t you?’ she said brokenly.
‘No.’ He ran a gentle finger down her cheek and wiped away a tear. ‘Not now and most definitely not then. You were far too precious to me.’
‘Don’t,’ she pleaded, because she couldn’t bear to hear him say such things when they weren’t true. ‘Please, don’t say anything else, Luca. I don’t want to hear it.’
‘I know and I don’t blame you, either. But you have to believe that I never meant any of this to happen. All I’ve ever wanted was to protect you, Kelly.’ He cupped her cheek with his hand and his eyes were filled with sadness. ‘I know I failed in the past, but I swear that I won’t fail again.’
She wasn’t sure what he meant and didn’t care. She twisted her head to the side so that he was forced to release her. ‘I don’t want you to protect me. I suggest you concentrate on your wife and your son from now on and leave me alone.’ She laughed harshly, whipping up her anger rather than give in to the despair that threatened to overwhelm her. ‘I wonder what Sophia would say if she found out that you were making promises like that to another woman. Or maybe it’s something you do on a regular basis and she’s used to it? Perhaps I should ask her.’
‘That isn’t possible,’ he said roughly.
‘No?’ She shrugged. ‘I can understand you not wanting us to meet but don’t worry, Luca. I’ll be very discreet. I won’t say a word about the fact that you were sleeping with me when she was pregnant.’
‘Sophia is dead.’
The words cut through the still evening air and Kelly gasped. She stared at him in horror. ‘Dead?’
‘Yes. She died eighteen months ago.’
‘But Matteo must have been only a baby,’ she said blankly.
‘He was six months old.’ Luca took a deep breath, but the pain in his voice was so raw that it brought fresh tears to her eyes. ‘She had a highly aggressive form of breast cancer.’
‘And there was nothing anyone could do for her?’ she whispered.
‘If she’d received treatment as soon as it was diagnosed then she might have had a chance, but the odds were always stacked against her.’
‘What do you mean, if she’d received treatment sooner? What was to stop her having it immediately?’
‘Sophia found out that she had cancer the same week she discovered she was pregnant.’ He ran his hand over his face and Kelly could tell how much it hurt him to talk about what had happened. ‘She refused to undergo any treatment in case it harmed the baby. Her consultant pleaded with her, but she refused. In her eyes, it would have been