Phantom Marriage

A heavy sigh wafted down the line. ‘I suppose so, love.’

‘Why do you doubt it?’

‘It was just something he said at the time, back when he found out I was pregnant. He seemed keen to see how much you were like him. He had this thing for passing on good genes, as you know. He lived and breathed his work.’

Veronica pulled a face. ‘Sounds like I was just an experiment for him.’

‘No, no, I wouldn’t go that far. It was only natural that Laurence would be interested in seeing what you looked like. You have to understand…he probably would have liked to have a relationship with you. To love you like a real father. But he couldn’t. He was hamstrung by his love for his wife. He adored her. She came first with him.’

‘Then why didn’t he contact me after she died?’ Veronica snapped.

‘I don’t know, love. Oh, please don’t get all worked up about this. Life and relationships are complex things. And people don’t always do the right thing. I dare say Lau

rence regretted a lot of things in the end. Maybe he tried to make up for his absence in your life by leaving you that villa,’ her mother suggested. ‘You have to admit, it’s a very beautiful place.’

Veronica opened her mouth to tell her mother he’d had her investigated recently, but then decided against it. She needed to think about her father’s reasons for doing what he had without her mother confusing her with endless speculations.

‘Maybe he didn’t expect you to sell it,’ Nora went on regardless. ‘Maybe he wanted you to live there.’

‘Maybe. I guess we’ll never know now, Mum,’ Veronica said, hoping to stop her mother from any further speculating. ‘Anyway, I can’t live here. Not permanently.’ She could not bear the thought of running into Leonardo whenever he came home, or being within a short plane trip of wherever he was.

‘Why not rent it out as a holiday place? You’d get a good rental. And then you could holiday there yourself occasionally.’

‘No, Mum. I need to come home,’ she said firmly.

Her mother was always good at picking up her feelings. ‘It’s because of that man, isn’t it?’ she said sharply. ‘Leonardo Fabrizzi.’

‘Yes, Mum.’

‘You haven’t fallen for him, have you?’

‘I think I might have. A little.’ She gave a dry laugh. ‘Actually, more than a little. So I need to get out of here before it gets more serious. On my side, that is. Leonardo isn’t the kind of man to get serious over any woman.’

‘Oh, dear. It’s all my fault, telling you to get out there and have fun. I should have known you’d be extra vulnerable after all these years of having no man in your life.’

‘It’s not your fault, Mum. I’m just a fool. Anyway, I’m going to ring the airlines and move my flight forward a week. So expect me home on Friday week. There’s no risk before then. Leonardo can’t make it back here until that weekend, by which time I’ll be safely gone.’

‘Lord. You make it sound like you’re afraid of him.’

‘Not of him, Mum. Of my own silly self.’

‘Is he that irresistible?’

Veronica closed her eyes, her mind immediately conjuring up an image of him looming over her in bed last night, his dark eyes glittering wildly, his voice rough with desire as he told her what he was going to do to her. All night long.

‘He is to me,’ Veronica choked out. And possibly to all the swathes of women who’d come before her.

‘Then you had better come home.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

BY THE TIME Leonardo picked up his car at Milan airport he’d come to the conclusion that he was actually falling in love for the first time in his life. He’d missed Veronica like mad within minutes of leaving her. At first, he’d put his feelings down to missing the fantastic sex they’d had together, not realising that his feelings came from something way deeper than that.

Lunch with his parents had been tedious as he tried to sidestep their escalating hopes over his relationship with Veronica. He’d lied, saying that they weren’t romantically involved, but he could see they weren’t buying it. They kept looking at each other with that knowing glint in their eyes until in the end he stopped bothering with the lies, saying instead that, yes, he liked Veronica a lot, but she was going home to Australia in three weeks’ time and there was no point in pursuing the girl. He scoffed at the suggestion that he invite her to stay with him in Milan for a while.

He was no longer scoffing at that idea. In fact, he thought it was a very good idea. He could not wait to ring her and suggest it. It was a pity that the ski season hadn’t started yet. Then he could have taken her skiing. But no matter. There were many other places he could take her. Venice, perhaps. Girls loved the romance of Venice.

By the time Leonardo arrived home—he owned a house not that far from the airport—he could hardly contain his excitement. Of course, he couldn’t tell her he loved her. Yet. That would be premature. And not conducive to achieving his goal, which was her loving him back. He could see Veronica was wary of relationships, though why that was, he wasn’t sure. Her fiancé had been killed. He hadn’t run off with some other woman. The hurt he sometimes glimpsed in her eyes when talking about men must have come from some other earlier man’s treatment of her.