Innocent Wife, Baby of Shame

His hands fell away from her as if she had burned him, his expression becoming mask-like. ‘Then you have rather a strange way of showing it, agreeing to meet with your lover without my knowledge,’ he said.

She lifted her tortured gaze to his. ‘Do you feel anything for me, Patrizio? Anything at all, in spite of what I did?’

It was a moment or two before he answered and it was not the answer she had hoped for.

‘If you are holding out for a declaration of love then you are going to be disappointed,’ he said. ‘I no longer have such feelings towards any woman and most particularly not for you. Ever since I found you had been unfaithful, all my relationships have been affairs of the body, not the heart. Thank you for the valuable lesson; fool that I am, I should have learned it long ago from my mother’s example. She used my father in the way you did me. I stupidly thought it would never happen to me. I was wrong.’

Keira felt her spirits sink under the weight of her crushed hopes. ‘I realise how bitter you are and I would be the same if the situation was reversed,’ she said. ‘But can’t you find it in yourself to forgive me?’

His eyes hardened. ‘No, I cannot.’

She swallowed the lump of pain in her throat. ‘I guess there’s no point in going on with this, then…’

‘Is that why you gave yourself to me so willingly?’ he asked after a taut pause. ‘In an attempt to lure me back into your life on a more permanent basis?’

She looked at him in shock. ‘No, of course not! I didn’t want to see you any more than you wanted to see me and if it hadn’t been for the boys I wouldn’t have agreed to it.’

His dark gaze became suspicious. ‘Did you cook this up with them?’

‘What are you talking about?’

He gave a derisive laugh. ‘Do not play the innocent with me, Keira. I am surprised I didn’t guess it before now.’

‘Guess what?’

His expression was full of contempt. ‘You were not happy with how the divorce proceedings were going,’ he said. ‘So you decided to engineer a situation that would force us together long enough for me to recall how good we were together in an effort to soften me up when it came to pay out time.’

‘That’s not true! I didn’t do anything of the sort!’

‘I must admit I’m impressed with how you got Bruno onside,’ he went on. ‘He’s certainly playing the role of the arrogant bully rather well, is he not?’

‘I knew nothing about the boys’ feud until my mother called,’ she said. ‘Jamie mentioned nothing to me and I’d only been speaking to him a day or two before.’

‘Oh, come on, Keira,’ he derided her. ‘You expect me to believe that after tonight’s little performance?’

She looked at him in confusion. ‘What performance?’

‘Bruno knew too much,’ he said. ‘He knew you had been in recent contact with Merrick; why else would he have mentioned your phone and then brought it to you with a message from your lover?’

‘He must have guessed or something. He probably heard my phone beeping with a message in my purse and wanted to cause trouble.’

‘He used to be very close to you,’ Patrizio said. ‘He spoke so highly of you until your affair. Up until then, he thought you were the best thing that had happened to me.’

Keira bent her head in shame. ‘I know…’

‘So you deny orchestrating the feud between the boys?’ he said after he’d let another tense silence pass.

She brought her eyes back to his. ‘Yes, of course I’m denying it. I was as surprised as you to find out they weren’t getting on any more.’

He held her look for interminable seconds.

‘I didn’t do it, Patrizio,’ she said. ‘Why would I ask Bruno to insult me the way he has done? What good would that do if I had hopes of us getting back together permanently?’

‘You think they have cooked it up themselves?’ he asked with a frown.

She lowered her gaze again and chewed at her lip for a moment. ‘I’m not sure…it’s possible, I suppose…I know Jamie’s been concerned about me lately.’

‘Concerned? Why?’