The Sicilian's Marriage Arrangement

She had said she loved him.

The reminder caused more disquiet in the region of his heart. She hadn’t repeated the words since he returned from his business trip abroad, but he could not forget the sweetness of them on her lips when their bodies were intimately joined.

He wanted to hear her say it again, which enraged him. What was the love of a deceitful woman worth?

Nothing.

Only if that were true, then why did the lack of those words weigh on him in the dark of the night? She slept in his arms, but felt separated from him in a way he could not define?

He was not used to feeling like this.

He did not like it.

He did not like the confusion, or the need she engendered in him.

He did not like the way he doubted the wisdom of including Hope in his revenge, his weak desire that she not find out what he had done to hurt her.

He did not like the feeling that his actions had been stupid rather than decisive.

A short buzz alerted him that his next appointment had arrived. Business was much more comfortable than wallowing in conflicting and destructive emotions, so he forced himself to focus on it.

Stepping out into the sunshine from the air-conditioned building, Hope asked herself where she could go. Looking up and down the busy street, she knew she wanted only to get away from the crush of people. An image of the grounds surrounding the di Valerio villa rose in her mind like Valhalla to her ravaged state. She would take a taxi to the grounds and then when she was ready, she could walk home.

Having a plan of action helped calm her churning emotions enough to wipe her tears away and wave down a cab.

She had the driver drop her on the outskirts of the di Valerio estate. Luckily, she remembered the code for the small gate in the far wall. She and Martina had used it once before on an afternoon walk.

Once inside the estate’s walls, she walked only far enough to hide herself in the trees, then sank to the ground. Her back resting against the trunk of one of them, she let the tears fall freely. It hurt so much.

Not only had she made a huge mistake in marrying Luciano, but she was pregnant with his baby. No matter what she wanted from life, she was now inexorably linked to a man who had as much affection for her as the man on the moon. Less even.

The sobs came harder and she cried out her grief over the years of neglect in her grandfather’s house followed by marriage to a man destined to treat her the same way.

A long while later, her mobile phone chirped. She had stopped crying, but had not moved from her place against the tree. She dug the phone from her purse. The display identified Valerio Industries as her caller.

Luciano.

She didn’t want to talk to him.

She wanted to shoot him, which didn’t say much for the gentle nature others were so convinced she possessed.

He had taken the joy of her discovery and turned it to ashes. His rotten attitude was tearing her apart and she knew that tonight there was no way she could lie with him in their bed and pretend nothing had happened.

She could not bear the thought of being just a body and their baby meaning nothing to him.

The phone stopped ringing.

Ten minutes later it rang again.

She refused to answer it.

He kept calling and finally, she turned off the volume on the ringer.

She stood up and dusted off her skirt before starting the walk toward the villa.

It took her twenty minutes because she didn’t rush in any way.

A maid saw her approach and went running inside. Seconds later, both Martina and Claudia came rushing toward her.

Claudia was babbling at her in Italian, much too fast for her to understand, but Martina spoke English.

“Where have you been? Luciano is worried sick about you. We all were. What happened to your cell phone? Why didn’t you answer? You’d better call him right away. He’s ready to call in the authorities.”

She couldn’t understand why a man who treated her the way her husband had would worry. Surely if she disappeared, he would be off the hook for a marriage he clearly no longer wanted. Then she remembered the baby. Maybe he cared more about their child than he had let on.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset anyone. I wanted to take a walk.” Which was true as far as it went. “And I turned off the ringer on my mobile.” Which was also true, but she neglected to mention she had turned off the ringer after Luciano started calling.

“Why would you turn off your ringer?” Claudia demanded in heavily accented English.

Hope felt really badly for upsetting her mother-in-law so much, but she wasn’t about to tell her the truth. Hope’s problems with Luciano were private and she refused to visit them on the other women.

“You don’t even carry a mobile,” she said instead.

Claudia grimaced. “I also do not dismiss the driver and disappear for hours.”