But Lucy was afraid to even look back at him. Afraid if she saw him, she’d scream out her anger and hurt. Or she’d rush across the salon and stand on her tiptoes (or possibly get a chair) to slap him hard across the face.
But why? Why did she feel so hurt? How could she possibly feel so betrayed, when she’d known from the beginning she couldn’t trust a handsome man who seemed too good to be true?
“Such a sweet baby,” Amelia said softly, stroking Chloe’s downy hair as they left the salon and started down the hall. “Maximo thinks I am wasting my time at university. He tells me to find a nice man and settle down.” She gave an impish grin. “I’ve always told him that he had to get married first! But now he’s finally found you, I no longer have an excuse…”
“For heaven’s sake, stay in school!” Lucy blurted out. “Love ruins everything!”
Amelia stopped above her on the wide staircase, looking down at her in surprise. “But you love my cousin. Surely you wouldn’t allow one moment of anger to make you forget that? Maximo is a great man. Bossy, certamente, but only to protect the people he loves.” She stroked Chloe’s hair again. “Whatever he has done to make you angry, I’m sure it is because he loves you, Lucia.”
Lucy felt a sudden lump in her throat. She envied the girl’s pure heart. Amelia loved her cousin and believed the best of him. Just the way Lucy had once had faith in people.
But looking at the girl’s idealistic, shining face, Lucy couldn’t take that same faith from her. Swallowing, she turned away. “Tell me about the villa.”
“Look at this room first.” Amelia stopped in front of the third door on the left of the second-floor hallway. “The nursery.”
Lucy couldn’t believe her eyes.
Just yesterday, she’d thought the Drake Hotel had the most elegant bedrooms she’d ever seen.
But this nursery was a pure extravagant fantasy. Wide windows overlooked the rosy twilight as the sun fell behind the lake and distant hills. The carpet was thick and pink, perfect for a crawling baby who would soon learn to walk. The crib was white with pale pink bedding. On the far wall, a built-in white bookshelf was lined with hundreds of children’s books. Brand-new toys cascaded from a white antique toy chest, and in the closet, carefully unpacked by unseen hands, were the adorable baby clothes she’d bought in Milan.
But their morning in Milan, the most fantastic morning of her life, had been nothing more than bribery, an attempt to convince Lucy to pretend to be the Ferrazzi girl.
Chloe saw the toys and started wriggling desperately, wanting to be put down on the floor to crawl and explore and play.
Lucy’s throat hurt.
This baby nursery was everything Chloe deserved. Everything Lucy wished she could provide for her. It was a fairy tale, and she desperately wished she could give it to her daughter.
But then she’d have to stay married to an ogre. No, worse: she’d be an ogre herself, hurting other people just to keep her own child in silks and toys.
“I’m sorry,” Lucy whispered, pressing her cheek to her baby’s. She felt like crying. “I can’t give you this.”
“Ugh. It’s getting dark.” Amelia turned the light switch, illuminating a wrought-iron chandelier that was a fantasy confection of white and pink flowers. “That’s better.” She held out her arms for Chloe. “Can we play a bit? She’s my second cousin now, and we need to get acquainted!”
Chloe eagerly shook her hippo at Amelia.
Lucy knew she shouldn’t allow them to be friends, not even for a second. She had to leave this place. Tell everyone that she was not Lucia Ferrazzi. She’d be unable to accept the hush money he’d offered her in the prenup, since her conscience wouldn’t allow her to earn it. She’d take her daughter back to Chicago. Back to their cold, threadbare apartment, to their ripped-up old carpet and sparse secondhand clothes. Back to the desperation of working multiple dead-end jobs, never seeing her daughter, praying the apartment manager would give her time to catch up on rent.
Maybe, if she begged Darryl, he would let her have her old job back at the gas station.
“Lucia?”
Fighting tears, she gave Chloe to Amelia without a word.
“That’s your room over there,” the girl said, nodding toward a door on the other side before she sat down on the floor near the toys. She smiled down at Chloe, showing her a baby-size grand piano. “Maximo knew you would want it to connect directly to Chloe’s room, so he had it refurbished for you.”
Lucy had a fantasy bedroom as well?
She knew she shouldn’t look. Mustn’t. Why give herself a taste of what she’d never have? In a few hours, she would return to Chicago, to the real life that fate had decreed for her. Why even allow herself a vision of what she’d lost? Why make her heart yearn for the fantasy?
She looked at the closed door.
Right or wrong, she had to see it. Even if it hurt. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life wondering…
Leaving Amelia and Chloe playing with toys on the carpet, she pushed open the door.
It was dark.