‘Don’t doubt it, Arabella.’ But instead of more anger at her, Luchino looked up, ahead of them, and his steps slowed.
Such an expression of anguish came over his face then that Bella almost stumbled at his side. ‘Luchino? What…?’
But he didn’t seem to hear her.
She followed his gaze, realised they were near his car again. Saw…a little girl and a middle-aged woman standing beside that car. A girl with curly black hair and olive skin who clung to the woman’s hand while her gaze followed Luc’s every movement.
Luc’s daughter?
But here? With him? How? Why? Bella struggled to comprehend even the possibilities but all she saw was a scared little girl, clinging to the older woman’s skirt, her face pinched and anxious as she watched Luchino’s approach.
Thoughts came. Memories. Her sisters’ faces had borne the same scared, confused expressions this child wore now. Over and over and over for years until Bella finally managed to rebuild enough of a life for them, enough security for them that they began to recuperate from the loss of their parents.
Bella had given her sisters all the love her parents refused to give. Had given and given it. Now her throat tightened and a stifling, smothering feeling suddenly swept over her.
‘Papa?’ The little girl took a few tentative steps towards them. ‘You were gone a long time. Nanny Heather was scared you wouldn’t come back.’
This statement brought raised eyebrows and a solemn look from the woman who stood at the child’s side.
‘Grace.’ Luc murmured the child’s name as though it hurt somehow to say it.
The air hummed with emotion.
‘I accept your terms.’ Bella blurted the words and knew she had no choice. ‘I’ll work to get all my gowns sold as quickly as possible, I’ll attend functions with you until Maria’s finances are in a better state, then I’ll go on without you.’ How long would it take to get to that point?
Luchino inclined his head. ‘A sensible choice.’
When he started to move forward again, Bella remained where she was. ‘I have to go now. I’ll miss my tram. It’s—it’s that way.’ She pointed randomly in a different direction. ‘I’ll be in contact about our…arrangement.’
‘You don’t have my number.’ Luchino drew a business card from his pocket and handed it to her.
‘OK. Now I have it. Goodbye.’ Without waiting for his response, Bella rushed past Luc, blended into the pedestrian traffic and took the fastest possible route away from his daughter and the nanny.
CHAPTER THREE
BELLA made her way to the flat, tried to pull her emotions back under control but too much had happened too fast and she didn’t know where to begin to try to come to terms with it all.
‘I’m home.’ She called the words out, stepped through the door, closed it and leaned on it as Soph came out of the kitchen area to greet her.
‘Hi. How do you like this hair colour? It’s supposed to be a rinse-out but it seems rather…’ Soph stopped. ‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’
‘Yes.’ A laugh escaped Bella and she snapped her mouth shut because it held an edge too close to hysteria to be comfortable. ‘I’ve seen a ghost, and if I don’t do what he wants he’s going to take my lifelong dream from me.’
Soph peered at her for all of a second, then grabbed the cordless phone off the coffee-table and punched a speed-dial number. ‘Can you come? I think we need a family council.’
‘I’m fine, Sophia. There’s nothing to worry about.’ Bella stepped away from the door and tried to pull herself together.
But it was too late. Soph had already ended the call, and their sister arrived not long after, and Bella wasn’t pulled together, anyway.
Chrissy stepped inside the flat while Bella was brewing a pot of chai and trying to sort out her thoughts. Her sisters both stared at her, and Bella realised she couldn’t avoid this. She would have to explain.
Maybe it would help to talk about it…
‘I saw Luchino Montichelli today.’ She got through two cups of tea and half a Pilates routine in her comfortable black catsuit before she finished her story with an explanation about his child. ‘He—his daughter was with him. Not with him with him, but there, waiting by the car when we got back to it, with a nanny at her side.’
‘He’s taken the child back?’ Soph’s tone made it clear she found this incomprehensible. ‘Didn’t you just say he deserted her after his divorce?’
Bella fought to overcome the upsurge of pain Soph’s simple question invoked. ‘I find it hard to believe, too, and I have no idea if the girl is with him permanently or what. With everything else, I’d had it by then and I just left.’ In fact, she had reacted in a blind panic. Bella still didn’t know why she had rushed off like that!
‘I wonder if he loves the child now.’ Chrissy’s hand caressed her distended tummy in a gentle, circling motion, but her gaze was fierce as she asked the question. ‘Because a child needs to be loved and if a parent can’t give it that, they have no right to even be near it.’
Soph slid her arm around Chrissy’s shoulders and squeezed. ‘You love your baby to bits. We all do. I can’t wait to be an aunty.’
‘What are you going to do, Bella?’ Chrissy accepted her sister’s hug, but her gaze remained fixed on Bella. ‘You can’t accept his ultimatum. You’d have to see him constantly, put up with his ridiculous view that you’re money-hungry and used Maria.’
‘I don’t see that I have any choice.’ Bella began to pace the floor in front of the TV.
Chrissy stepped towards her. ‘Nate and I can buy your gowns back so you can leave Maria’s altogether. We can set you up on your own, Bella, so you can start again. Your own shop, any location, whatever you want. I’m sure Nate would see it as a good long-term investment, and at least then you wouldn’t be beholden to this Montichelli man.’
‘It’s either that, or the three of us all get loans for whatever the banks will lend us, and pool it to take care of the problem.’ Soph nodded so that her bright pink hair flew in all directions around her face. ‘That’s doable as well.’
‘That might work to get Bella out of Maria’s.’ Chrissy pushed her glasses up her pert nose as she considered Soph’s suggestion. ‘But I don’t think we’d get enough money to set her up in a new shop. It would be rather a lot.’
‘I suppose so.’ Soph turned her face up and blew at a strand of hair, then looked directly at Bella. ‘I guess it has to be Nate, then, and I know you and he didn’t get off to a great start what with him getting Chrissy pregnant and everything, but look how well it turned out. Anyway, he’d help, and the main thing is, we don’t want you back near the creep who hurt you when you were in Milan.’
‘One of the creeps,’ Chrissy reminded her. ‘Remember the show manager lured Bella to his room that final night, too.’
‘You should have told us the whole truth when you came back from that trip.’ Soph launched into a protective tirade over the sleazy show manager’s behaviour.
Chrissy added her voice to it.
Bella stood between her sisters and ached inside. She loved them. They wanted to help her but ultimately she couldn’t let them. And why was it so hard to have them try to care for her?
Because the order’s been reversed and you don’t know how to cope with that.
‘Have you told