The Divorce Party

by Jennifer Hayward

  The urge to put his fist through the bulletproof window overwhelmingly strong, he switched his attention to the traffic on Fifth Avenue instead, curling his fist on his lap. Lilly had called in to her clinic to say she wouldn’t be in. After she hadn’t picked up her cell he’d called Alex, to see if she was with her. Which had, in turn, opened him up to her sister’s sarcastic demand to know what he’d done now.

  He ran a hand over his chin, his uneven shaving job making him frown. Where in Dio’s name was she? And why wouldn’t she at least pick up the phone and let him know she was okay?

  Paige handed him a stack of messages when he walked in. He crumpled them up and threw them on his desk.

  “Everyone’s here,” she murmured, moving her gaze from the wad of paper back to him. “You okay?”

  Did he look okay? He gave her a curt nod, dropped his briefcase by his desk and took his laptop out.

  His father gave him a nod as he walked into the boardroom. “Siete pronti?”

  “Pronto.” Ready.

  Gabe took the chair beside him. “You look like hell, fratello. Too much champagne last night?”

  “I can’t find Lilly.”

  His brother blinked. “Scusi?”

  He powered up his laptop. “We had a fight last night and she needed some space.”

  “You have no idea where she went?”

  “None.” His jammed his palm against the table. She was pregnant. Driving his far too powerful car. And emotional.

  Antonio opened the meeting and ran through the agenda. Riccardo looked down at the notes for his speech. There were only five words on the cue card. Vision. Courage. Expertise. Timing. Domination. They would define De Campo’s future.

  His father began his pitch to endorse his son as CEO. Riccardo checked his messages on his phone. Nothing.

  “As you have seen over the past three years, my son Riccardo has transformed De Campo into the multifaceted global brand that it is today...”

  Antonio’s voice droned on, blurred into nothingness. It was only when his father turned to him and put his hands together, and the board followed suit, that he realized it was time.

  “I am throwing my full support behind Riccardo De Campo for the position of CEO of this company.”

  The board members stood and clapped.

  It was happening.

  This time as he made his way to the podium and shook Antonio’s hand there was no mistaking the pride gleaming in his father’s eyes. He felt strong and weak at the same time—as if he was both that boy who’d trailed after his father into the vineyard asking a million questions and the man he’d become.

  He cleared his throat and stepped to the microphone.

  “For the last three years I have watched the De Campo Group grow from a fledgling global brand to a force to be reckoned with in the industry. We gambled. Our vision was big. Our vision was ambitious. But our vision was right.” He paused and cast his gaze around the room. “And now we sit poised on a precipice. We can either move with the future or we can lose our way, as so many other brands have done. I say we move—that we have the guts and the vision to—”

  Paige stepped into the back of the room. It was highly unusual for her to interrupt a meeting of this importance, and the look on her face stopped him cold.

  Lilly. He knew it as instinctively as he knew the sun rose in the east.

  “Excuse me.” He stepped down from the podium and walked toward the back of the room. Antonio frowned and stood up as he passed. The buzzing in his ears got louder the closer he got to Paige. Her eyes were glued to his face and she stood wringing her hands together—something his PA never did.

  Antonio announced they would take a quick break.

  “I have Lilly on the line,” Paige whispered to him. “Riccardo, she doesn’t sound good.”

  He sprinted to Paige’s desk and picked up the line. “Lilly?”

  “Riccardo?”

  “Yes,” he barked. Her voice was faint. Not right. “Lilly, where are you?”

  “I—I’m not feeling well. Ric, I—”

  “Lilly?”

  The line went dead. He slammed the receiver down and stood staring at it.

  Paige’s hand flew to her mouth. “She said her phone was dying.”

  He was already halfway into his office. “Call the security company and have her phone traced. Now. I need to know where she is.”

  Antonio and Gabe joined him in his office.

  “What the hell are you doing?” his father demanded. “They’re waiting to hear from you.”

  “There’s something wrong with Lilly,” he said grimly. “I’ve got to find her.”

  Antonio gave him an incredulous look. “Surely it can wait fifteen minutes?”

  “No, it can’t!” Riccardo roared. “Gabe, I need your keys.”

  His brother dug them out of his pocket. “I’ll come with you.”

  “You should stay here and hold down the fort.”

  “I’m not sure you should—”

  He ripped the keys out of his brother’s hand. “I’ll call when I know something.”

  Mid-morning traffic was still thick. He crawled forward, trying not to think about how weak and scared Lilly had sounded. Why had he let her go last night?

  Paige called. Lilly had last been tracked in Westchester. She was at the house. He changed lanes and headed for the interstate, relieved, and then his heart started to pound as all sorts of disturbing images crammed his head. What if something was wrong with her pregnancy? The house was on the water. What if she’d taken one of the boats out and started to feel ill? Or gotten weak while swimming?

  What if she was lying somewhere helpless?

  He put his foot down on the accelerator and gunned the Maserati, weaving in and out of traffic as if he was in the Monaco Grand Prix. When he hit the interstate he put the pedal to the floor. The powerful car ate up the miles, but it wasn’t fast enough. Not for the torturous images running through his head.

  The guy in front of him was driving like his grandmother in the left lane. He jammed his foot on the accelerator and sent the car to twice the legal speed limit, passing him on the inside.

  The sirens started ten minutes out of Westchester. Red flashing lights blazed in his rearview mirror. For a split second he contemplated ignoring them. He could outdrive them in this car, he knew. But the whir of a helicopter overhead convinced him the cop on the ground wasn’t the only one after him.

  He slowed down and pulled onto the side of the road. The cop pulled in behind him and got out of his car. He’d just explain what was going on and then he’d be on his way...

  A tall, beefy cop stopped by his window. “License and registration.”

  Riccardo handed it to him. “Officer—I—”

  “Do you have any idea how fast you were going, sir?”

  “About a hundred. But, Officer, I—”

  The cop jabbed a finger at him. “You, sir, are a dangerous driver. You aren’t walking away with this car today. I can tell you that.”

  “Look, I—”

  The officer looked at his license and started to laugh. “You’re kidding me? Riccardo De Campo the racecar driver?”

  “Former racecar driver,” Riccardo corrected. “I can explain why I was driving so fast. My—”

  “Save it. You’re not the first superstar to think you can flaunt the rules.”

  “Officer!” Riccardo yelled. “My wife is sick. She’s pregnant. I was racing to get to her.”

  The cop blinked. “Where?”

  “Our Westchester house. It’s ten minutes from here.”

  “Did you call an ambulance?”

  He closed his eyes. “No.” Why hadn’t he?

  The cop gave him a considering look. “Yo
u better be telling the truth.”

  “I am,” Riccardo rasped desperately. “Can I go?”

  “You will follow me,” the cop said sternly. “You so much as step one inch out of line and I will impound both you and your car.”

  Riccardo nodded and gave him directions. The cop put on his siren and thankfully was no slouch in the speed department either, getting them to the house in just under fifteen minutes.

  He found Lilly in the living room, lying on the sofa.

  “Cara.” He dropped down on his knees beside her. She was curled in the fetal position, her face about five shades paler than it normally was.

  “I didn’t mean to scare you,” she murmured. “The phones here aren’t working and my cell phone died.”

  “They’ve been working on the lines out here. Lil—” He took her hands in his. “Can you tell me what doesn’t feel right?”

  She bit her lip. “I don’t know. I—I’m nauseous and I’m having bad pains.”

  Riccardo looked up at the cop, who’d come in behind him, but the officer was already on his radio, calling for an ambulance.

  A tear rolled down her cheek. “I didn’t want to bother you. You had that meeting...”

  He gripped her hands tighter. “I don’t care if I’m having lunch with the Pope. You need me—you call me.”

  A river of tears ran down her cheeks.

  “Are the pains getting worse or better?”

  “Worse. There’s more of them now.”

  His insides went cold. “When did they start?”

  “A couple hours ago.” She closed her eyes as a tremor ran through her slim body. “Ric—something’s wrong. I don’t feel right.”

  He sat down and pulled her into his arms. “It’s going to be all right, tesoro, I promise you. The ambulance is on its way.”

  She burrowed into him. The tension in her body made his own stiffen with fear.

  “I’m so sorry. You should be in that meeting, and if I screw up your ch—”

  “Ssh.” He pressed a kiss against her hair. “You’re the most important thing in the world to me, Lilly.”

  “Yes, but the job is—”

  He pressed his fingers to her mouth. “The job is nothing without you. I am nothing without you. Haven’t you realized that yet? I do these stupid things because I love you. Because I can’t bear the thought of losing you.”

  Her lashes fluttered down over those beautiful hazel eyes. “I spent the morning walking along the river, thinking.”

  His heart jammed in his chest.

  The tears streamed harder down her face now, running over the edge of her chin. “I love you, Riccardo. I’ve never stopped loving you. Not even for a minute.”

  He felt as if the sun had come out on this dreary, overcast summer day. The flash of joy that swept through him was powerful. Followed by sick, overwhelming relief that he hadn’t lost her.

  “Please forgive me,” he whispered. “That was my last big mistake. Ever.”

  She shook her head. “It was my running too. I can see that now. I was so scared that once you saw the truth of me—how messed up I am still—you wouldn’t want me anymore.”

  He brought her hand to his mouth and pressed his lips to her knuckles. “We all have our baggage, cara. Look what you’ve done with your life. You help little boys walk again. Nothing I’ve ever done comes close to that.”

  Her eyes glittered with an emotion that stole his breath.

  “We have to be honest with each other. No more lies. No matter how little or how painful the truth.”

  “Agreed.” He held her tightly as another shudder racked her body and glanced up at the cop. The officer held up two fingers.

  “I mean it.” Lilly bumped her hand against his chest. “Three strikes and you’re out, Riccardo De Campo.”

  “Then it’s a good thing I don’t need anymore,” he murmured. “You are all I need.”

  “Ambulance is here.” The cop abandoned his post at the window. “Let’s go.”

  Riccardo picked up Lilly and strode outside. She was going to be fine. She had to be fine. There was no other way to think.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  THE GRAY-HAIRED emergency room physician walked into the waiting room where Riccardo, Gabe, Alex and—surprisingly—Antonio, who’d shown up a couple of hours ago sat, just over three hours after they’d taken Lilly in. He wore the unsmiling, grim look of a man who’d been working too many hours straight.

  Riccardo’s heart dropped to the floor.

  The elderly physician stopped in front of him, a tired smile curving his mouth. “They’re both fine. Lilly’s suffering from pre-eclampsia—a high blood pressure condition associated with pregnancy. Very common, but she’ll need to see her doctor often.”

  His shoulders sagged with relief. “And the pain?”

  “Under control. You can take her home as soon as we can do the paperwork, but you’ll need to schedule an appointment with her obstetrician as soon as possible. Get some more detailed tests done.”

  He released the breath he’d been holding in a long, heavy exhale. Lilly was fine. Their baby was fine.

  Thank God.

  The doctor smiled. “Glad I could give out some good news today. There hasn’t been a surplus of it.”

  “Grazie,” he murmured huskily. “I can’t say it enough.”

  The doctor waved him off and headed back into the chaos. Alex went in and spent a few minutes with her sister before Riccardo took her home. Gabe went to get him a cup of coffee for the ride.

  He rested his elbows on his thighs and dropped his head into his hands. Moisture stung the backs of his eyes, mixing with a relief so profound it was all-consuming.

  A hand gripped his shoulder. “Your mother suffered from pre-eclampsia. Lilly will be fine.”

  He looked up at Antonio through glazed eyes. He’d been shocked when his father had arrived and waited with them without a word. The emotion darkening his father’s silver eyes shocked him even more.

  Antonio straightened, as if the show of affection had thrown him off balance. “You don’t need to worry about the board,” he said roughly. “I made sure you have a hundred and ten percent of their support.”

  Riccardo held his gaze for a long moment. “Grazie.”

  He had Lilly. Now he could think about the future.

  * * *

  Lilly prided herself on the toughness at her core. It had carried her out of Iowa and into a life she could only have dreamed of. It had helped her give that same strength to her patients when they were intent on giving up. But the vulnerability she felt walking toward the front door of the hospital was so soul-searing it was hard to keep walking in a straight line.

  A nurse pushed the door open for her and she walked out into the light drizzle to Riccardo, waiting with the car at the curb. Her legs trembled as her husband walked toward her—tall, imposing, with a determined set to his mouth that made her want to fling herself into his arms.

  What if he hadn’t come after her? What if she’d lost him?

  Her knees wobbled as he took the last couple of steps and pulled her into his arms. She closed her eyes and absorbed his strength, that determination. It was enough for both of them.

  “Let’s go home,” he said quietly.

  They made the drive back to Manhattan in silence, an acknowledgement of what they’d almost lost heavy in the air. Riccardo held her hand in his lap the entire way, as if he couldn’t bear to let her go.

  Their stately old limestone townhouse awaited them—the scene of her rollercoaster marriage which had run from perfect to miserable to all she’d ever wanted. Majestic, it glimmered in the late-afternoon sunlight, so solid with its heavy brick façade it would stand forever.

  She stepped out of the car, h
er mind traveling back to that night four and a half months before, when limos had lined up in this driveway to witness the destruction of her and Riccardo.

  Tonight it was unusually quiet. There were no limos. No drivers chatting. No false illusions of perfection on either part. There was only the here and now and what they chose to do with it.

  Riccardo came around the car and slid his arm around her waist. “What are you thinking?”

  “We have a blank slate,” she said huskily. “The story is ours to write.”

  He tugged her closer and lifted her chin with his fingers. “I predict a very happy ending.”

  She drank him in—the hard, strong lines of his face that could soften into devastating humor, the sensuous pull of his lips that could make her crazy for him. He loved her. He was crazy about her. That much she was sure of. And that was enough.

  Her lips curved. “You think so, Signor De Campo?”

  “I know so, Signora De Campo.”

  He swung her into his arms and carried her up the front walk.

  For her and Riccardo this past year had been simply a twist in the road of a lifetime together.

  And tomorrow was another day.

  EPILOGUE

  Westchester, New York

  “I DON’T KNOW about you, but I think he needs a strong, manly name to match his personality.”

  “Papà.”

  One-and-a-half-year-old Marco ducked under Lilly’s arm and ran as fast as his short, stumpy legs would carry him across the terrace to where her husband stood, indecently attractive in a navy pinstriped suit. Her heart contracted as her son flung himself around Riccardo’s legs. The two males had a love affair going on that was a joy to watch.

  She would normally have let herself drool a little longer over the suit that set off her husband’s swarthy good looks to perfection, but the squirming bundle of fluff in his arms demanded her attention.

  It looked suspiciously like a chocolate-brown Labrador Retriever puppy.

  “Cucciolo!” Marco squealed, tugging on his father’s pant leg. “Giù,” he ordered, in an imperious tone that was already so close to his father’s Lilly was afraid he was going to skip the baby stage entirely and move straight to domination.