The Sicilian's Bought Cinderella

Suddenly furious at her refusal to listen, furious at the emotions she dredged up in him, furious that even now when they were saying goodbye there was an ache deep inside him to haul her into his arms, even furious at the shocked widening of her eyes, he slammed his hands on the steering wheel.

Everything he’d been suppressing in the hope of being rid of her without a scene spilled out like venom.

‘This is not about chances. I do not want them in my life. I am sick of family and all the lies and deceptions that come with them. Sick of it. What does Orla want from me? My money? She has a million euros of it. She has lived her life for twenty-seven years without me, why want me now? My father... Damn him to hell!’

With a roar that erupted from nowhere, he punched the whe

el hard enough to bruise. ‘All my adult life I have bailed him out. I kept a roof over his head when he blew everything my grandparents and their parents before them built. I helped him whenever he needed me. I loved him, and all that’s left is this monstrous lie, and don’t let me start talking about my self-obsessed mother, who bores of everything and everyone, even her own child.

‘I look at my extended family and see nothing but misery; siblings hating and bitching about siblings, spouses cheating, hypocritical parents moralising, all pretending that their lives are great, when underneath it’s all rotten. I don’t want any of it. I am not a gambling man but, even if I were, I know the odds would not be in my favour of anything good coming from a sister who I already know is a liar like our father. Whoever the father of her child is, he has a right to know, but she keeps it a secret from him when she knows the damage such secrets cause.’

Aislin had shrunk back during his diatribe, but now she leaned forward, bright red colour slashing her cheeks. ‘If you knew Orla you would know she would only keep such a thing secret for good reason.’

‘I have only your word for that.’

‘Is my word not good enough? Hasn’t the time we’ve spent together this past week proven that I’m a woman of my word?’

‘I take no one at their word,’ he bit back.

‘And I thought I was distrustful...’ Aislin shook her head and tried to control the tempest raging within her.

Bad enough he should be so cynical about Orla but to be so cynical about her, after everything they had shared... That hurt more than she had dreamed possible, more than his offhand refusal that she stay the extra days as she had offered.

He’d had his fun with her and, now their time was up, he was happy to discard her as if nothing had happened.

‘You know, sir, you’re not the only one who has been hurt and let down—it happens to everyone. My mother left the country when I was nineteen and I don’t think she’s ever coming back. She left me to deal with the fallout after Orla’s accident—and, while we’re talking about Orla, need I remind you that she is the one who has spent her life with a father who is only a name and a mother who couldn’t be bothered to visit her when she was close to death or meet her seriously ill grandson? You don’t see Orla feeling sorry for herself.’

Warming to her theme, she straightened her shoulders. ‘My good-for-nothing ex cheated on me when my sister and nephew were hovering between life and death in that godforsaken hospital. I honestly thought I would never trust anyone apart from my sister again. I came this close...’ she put her thumb and forefinger together, right in his stony face ‘...to trusting you. I thought you were an exaggerated version of him but then I got to know you and I stupidly allowed myself to believe you were one of the good guys, but you’re not. You’re worse. You let me believe you would come to Finn’s party...’

‘You let yourself believe that.’

‘Stop with the lies and excuses!’ The angst and panic that had been clawing at her suddenly exploded. ‘You’re nothing but a liar and I cannot believe I was so blind and so stupid!’ She slammed her clenched fists onto her lap in her rage. ‘Orla and Finn think you’re going to be a part of their lives. You’re the one who gave me the false hope to let them believe that. You’ve made a liar of me, and now I’m going to have to hurt them with the truth when I would rather cut a limb off than see them hurt.

‘You’ve tricked Riccardo into believing you’re now all family orientated, when you’d rather puke on your own shoes than have a family, and you have the nerve to call Orla a liar? You’re the biggest liar of all. You’re just another selfish bastard but you have the money to throw at your problems and make them go away. Ooh, I need to fake an engagement...let’s pay someone. Ooh, a sister I’ve never met...have some money. Ooh, a seriously ill nephew...have some money. Job done, because obviously that’s all they would ever want from you, and it’s a good thing that’s all you have to offer because you’re not fit to lick my sister’s boots.’

A sharp rapping on the window brought them both up short.

Dante punched the button to open the window and a uniformed attendant immediately stuck his head in, blabbering rapidly. Aislin didn’t need to speak the language to know they were being told to move.

‘Don’t worry, I’m going.’ She pulled the engagement ring from her finger and threw it on the car floor, unwilling to look at his lying face one more time. ‘Have a nice life, sir.’

Then she grabbed her handbag, jumped out of the car and slammed the door shut behind her.

The roar of his engine and squealing tyres rang in her ears as she walked into the departure gate.

Only when the member of staff who held Aislin’s name on a board asked where her luggage was did she remember she’d left it in the boot of Dante’s car.

* * *

The chartered plane hurtled down the runway and lifted into the air.

Aislin kept her gaze fixed on the English magazine she’d brought. She would not watch Sicily disappear from view.

She would not think of the man she was leaving behind.

She would never think of him again.

In a few hours she would be back with the two people she loved the most in the world.