‘Threats mostly,’ Luca admitted with a grin that melted her insides.
‘I can’t wait to go home,’ she said softly, and his eyes locked onto hers.
‘Me, too.’ He hesitated and his smile faded. ‘There is something I need to talk to you about. Something I should have said to you a long time ago.’
Tia felt as though she’d been showered with cold water.
Was he going to talk about Luisa? Now, after all this time?
Now that the baby was here, was he going to decide that their relationship was over?
Surely not. He adored Lily as much as she did.
But maybe he just wanted to be with Lily and not with her…
Hiding her panic, she concentrated her attention on the baby and barely noticed when Luca excused himself to answer his bleeper.
She barely saw him for the rest of the day and when she finally went to bed her mind was still tormented by worry and she couldn’t settle.
Finally giving up on sleep, she glanced at the clock by her bed and saw that it was still only two o’clock in the morning.
Facing the fact that she wasn’t going to get to sleep when she was this worried about Luca, she decided to pay an impromptu visit to Lily. Tucking her feet into her slippers, she told the midwife in charge where she was going and walked gingerly to the lift.
She was managing to get around very well, although her wound still nagged painfully at times.
The lift moved silently upwards and the doors opened with a clatter that was magnified by the strange silence of the night.
The lights in the SCBU had been dimmed and Tia stopped to wash her hands and then walked onto the unit.
She stopped dead, surprised to see that Luca was there, his broad-shouldered figure bending over their daughter’s cot.
And by his side was a tall, elegant, dark-haired woman whom she recognised in an instant. It was the same woman she’d seen talking to his mother on the day of the wedding.
Luisa.
Even as she watched in mute horror, he slipped an arm around the woman’s shoulders and bent to drop a tender kiss on her forehead.
Dear God, no!
With a whimper of denial, Tia turned and shuffled from the room as fast as she could, determined to get back to the sanctuary of the ward before she collapsed.
Because collapse she would. She was only too painfully aware of that.
How could she have been such a fool?
She’d known all along that he had a secret, that he’d been involved with Luisa, but the truth was that she’d fallen so deeply in love with the man that she’d allowed herself to trust him.
But now that the baby had been safely born, he clearly wanted to be with the woman he loved.
And that woman was Luisa.
She was lying on the bed, tears pouring down her face, when the door opened and Luca walked in.
He gave a sharp exclamation when he saw that she was crying and was by her side in an instant.
‘What’s the matter?’ His Italian accent was suddenly very pronounced. ‘Are you in pain? Or is it hormones?’
Hormones?