The Marriage Ultimatum (Contemporary Romance)

by Christine Glover

  Roxy stared at her project while racking her brain for a way to get rid of Doug. First, Gian had taken care of everything, then Doug had crawled back for more money, and clearly he wasn’t going away. She didn’t want to burden Stefano with this mess… maybe she should leave if only to protect her family from her brother’s machinations.

  I’m not sending you a dime unless I hear from Maura.

  Your cash will give you what you want.

  I’ll need time. Time to coordinate a trip, sell her jewelry… she had to end this insanity.

  You’ve got a week.

  Roxy swallowed hard, then took a deep breath and waited for her head to stop whirling like a crazy Ferris wheel. She needed to think and plan and yet she couldn’t figure out where to start. She didn’t want the people she loved to get hurt. That included Maura—the one person who had helped Roxy salvage her broken life.

  Her heartbeat steadied and she ran her hands over the soapstone, tracing the design with her fingertip. When she’d started this project, Roxy had believed that there might be a permanent, loving future with Stefano. But now? How could she guarantee Matthew’s safety if Doug continued to resurface? Maybe Stefano had been right all along, especially when they’d first reunited. As long as Roxy was in the picture, she’d bring trouble and danger into all of their lives.

  But Stefano loved her. She was sure of it though he’d never spoken the words. He’d shown her day and night how much he adored her and their son.

  She drew the tarp over the statue and her throat scraped raw. If only she’d never welcomed Doug back all those years ago. If only she’d been honest with Stefano before that damn background check. And if only she’d had the courage to bulldoze back into Stefano’s life long before the accident that had propelled him into hers.

  But Roxy had grown more than a spine during the years that she’d been raising Matthew alone. She was no coward. Not anymore. Yes. She’d made a lot of mistakes. And she’d paid for them in full. No one had the right to steal her happiness or the future of her family, especially not her brother.

  Straightening her shoulders, Roxy realized there was only one solution. She’d have to tell Stefano the truth and pray he didn’t think she was conning him again.

  She shoved her cell phone back into her dusty jeans back pocket, then removed her apron. Placing it on the table next to her soapstone sculpture, she decided to clean up, put on her prettiest dress—for extra feminine courage—and then she’d go to Stefano’s office where she’d confess the truth about her brother’s ongoing blackmail schemes.

  Together, they’d find a solution to protect all of them. As she moved toward her studio’s door, a frisson of trepidation snaked through every vertebra in her back. What if her heart had tricked her into having faith in Stefano’s? What if she’d confused their physical connection for something more? She shoved the thoughts aside. Roxy had to believe in the man she’d grown to love all over again, or they could lose everything.

  * * *

  “Grandfather signed over his shares to me this morning,” Stefano said, leaning in his office chair and watching the sun’s rays dance across Matthew’s toys at the opposite wall of his desk. “You should get the turnover document by tomorrow. But from this point on I’m officially CEO of Durante Enterprises.”

  “So there’s no chance you’ll lose control?” Gian asked over the intercom.

  He heard the tension in his cousin’s voice and straightened. “Not legally,” he said, glancing outside. “Why? Do you foresee a problem?”

  Gian didn’t answer right away, and the sound of a pen rapping on wood echoed through the phone’s speakers. “Perhaps,” he said after several beats of silence.

  Stefano watched puffy white clouds billowing in the cerulean blue sky. The wind had kicked up, rustling through the waxy green leaves, bending branches and contorting in the lemon trees that lined the villa’s garden.

  His skin prickled like a thousand needles piercing beneath the surface. “Perhaps isn’t good enough,” he said. “You’re worried about something. Spill.” Though for the life of him, nothing in the thoughts racing through his brain about the possible scenarios that could derail his coup surfaced.

  “The transfer of power should go off without a hitch,” Gian said. “We’ve got time to adjust for unforeseen surprises as long as you’re CEO.”

  “I’ve covered all my bases,” Stefano said. “Donatello is on board with the company’s new direction, and Nonno trusts me.” Thanks to his marriage to Roxy, his son occupying his grandfather’s mind, and the first fiscal returns bearing higher profits than even Stefano had anticipated. “There shouldn’t be any surprises, but I gather you have one for me.”

  “Roxy’s brother slipped off my radar.”

  A chill slid down his back, behind his rib cage and iced his veins. Roxy had been acting very secretive during the last several weeks, asking him to give her fair warning before he turned up in her sculpting studio, and evading questions.

  Stefano had assumed she needed her privacy to create, think, and plan her new pieces along with starting her commission for her small town’s sculpture. Now suspicion replaced that foolish assumption. “I bet I know how to find Doug,” Stefano said, then quickly called up his bank’s online data on his computer. “She drained her account a few weeks ago.” Ice became frost when he read the date… the same day she’d comforted him about his mother and followed that up with playing the perfect wife and mother.

  “Don’t jump to conclusions,” Gian said. “Roxy’s not like any of the other women in your life.”

  “Cristo. You’ve got to be kidding.” He’d come close to tearing up that prenup and asking Roxy to stay with him forever. Now he realized he’d been conned again. “I’ve been played for an idiot.”

  “Cool down before you talk to her,” Gian said quietly. “There has to be an explanation.”

  “I can’t believe you of all people would say that.” Stefano pushed away from his desk and stood. “I won’t let her endanger our son with her con games.”

  “What if she’s not conning you?” Gian asked.

  His wife had done the impossible. She’d conned his cynical cousin—they’d have to discuss Gian’s loyalties after Stefano dealt with Roxy. “There can be no other explanation,” he said as anger flashed hot and dissolved the glacier filling his chest with dread. “This ends today. Dig up what you can and get back to me with anything you can find that will guarantee me full custody of Matthew,” he ordered, then ended the call.

  He exited his office and hurried down the hallway past the kitchen where his Nonno sat in his customary chair reading the newspaper. Carlotta bustled around the table, picking up empty plates and carrying them to the sink. When she caught him pausing at the door, she rolled back on her heels. “Are you okay?”

  “I will be after I talk to my wife.” He glanced around the expansive space to see Matthew playing with his favorite trucks. “Whatever you do, don’t let my son near Roxy. Understand?”

  Carlotta’s brows lifted, but she nodded. “Si. Whatever you say.”

  Nonno remained oblivious to their exchange, his hearing poor and his attention riveted to the paper. Stefano had no idea how he’d explain Roxy’s betrayal to his grandfather, but he’d worry about that later.

  First he had to explain it to himself.

  He left them and reached the stairwell that led to Roxy’s studio. Climbing the steps two at a time, he burned with rage. How could he have been so blind to her schemes? He remembered the night she’d seduced him with candlelight, how she’d pleasured him with her mouth and her body.

  He directed his anger inward, punishing himself for being susceptible to the oldest trick in the book. He’d allowed their physical union to fuck up his good sense. He’d read love when he should have read deceit in those sultry silver eyes. He’d believed the lies her body told him because he’d wanted the illusion to be real.

  They were supposed to be a family… sharing custody had been pa
rt of their divorce arrangement after his Nonno passed away, but now that Stefano had everything he wanted he didn’t need a counterfeit marriage to a liar to keep it all.

  Before he entered, the door opened and the object of his rage stood in front of him. “Stefano,” she said, wringing her hands. “I was just coming to see you.”

  “I’m sure you were,” he said harshly, then moved around her and stepped inside. “What do you want? More money? Jewelry? What will it take for you to go away and never come back?”

  He would keep it all. His son. His corporate position. And the world he’d created for his family didn’t need Roxy to complete it.

  Chapter 16

  “I don’t want anything,” Roxy said, her heart beating wildly in her chest as she closed her studio’s door and turned to face Stefano. “But there is a problem that only you can solve. I just wish I’d come to you before things got out of hand.”

  Stefano crossed his arms and her ears buzzed. The room went from being warm and inviting to damn near glacial temperatures.

  “I thought you were different.” He stared at her like she was some bug he wanted to squish with his fancy Italian leather shoe. “I trusted you.”

  Though the air chilled, beads of sweat formed on her forehead and dampened the back of her neck. “You can still trust me.” Roxy bridged the distance between them. “But I….” I was afraid to burden you.

  He held up a palm and she stopped in her tracks, her words lodging in her throat. “Where is your brother and how much were you going to give him before you stole my son from me and took off?”

  “He’s in Mountain Brook, I think.” Maybe there was hope if she could just explain that she’d been trying to protect everyone—a mistake, but surely Stefano would understand that she had the best of intentions.

  “You’ve been sending him money.”

  Stefano’s terse tone brooked no argument. Nor did the dark planes in his face, which had hardened to stone. “Yes,” she said. “He contacted me on the same day you booted Viviana out of your life.”

  “How convenient.”

  Her heart turned to glass and she realized she was treading on very thin ground where Stefano was concerned. Where was the man she’d grown to love? What had happened to make him forget the love that they had forged between them?

  She held his dark, gleaming gaze. “He got to Maura.”

  “Your other partner in crime, no doubt.”

  The cracks in her heart fissured, shattered into a thousand tiny pieces, and each shard stabbed her brutally behind her breastbone. Despite all that happened between them, Stefano refused to see beyond his anger and distrust. Not now, and perhaps not ever. Still, she had to try to reach him. “I wanted to protect you and Matthew—help you become CEO of Durante Enterprises. We already had to deal with Viviana’s fifteen seconds of fame, and the last thing we needed was for Doug to go to the press when you were so close to accomplishing your goal. You’d already done so much to keep your mother out of your life… I didn’t want to burden you with my brother’s demands.”

  “I’ve got what I want, and your brother can’t hurt me.”

  “He might hurt Maura… we have to stop him.”

  “A likely story.” He flashed a cold smile. “As I said, what will it take to get you and your con team out of my family’s life? I’ll wire the money today and you can be out of here on the next flight to the United States to claim your prize—but be warned, Roxy. I won’t let you have Matthew. He’s mine.”

  Pain sliced through her, piercing her lungs. “If you think I will let you take Matthew without a fight, you’ve got another thing coming,”

  “Why? So you can pretend to be a loving wife and mother?”

  “I haven’t been faking how I feel.” She closed the distance between them, and stood toe-to-toe with Stefano. “I married you to protect our son and guarantee my parental rights. Despite how little regard you had for me, I helped you develop a relationship with Matthew because I love our son and I wanted him to have what I never had… what you didn’t have either. Two parents who adored him.” She raised her chin, and though her throat scraped raw and hot tears pricked behind her eyes, she refused to let Stefano see her cry. “I wanted a partner to raise our son in a home spilling over with love. I wanted a safe place to fall every night and day. I know I should have gone to you weeks ago, but I wanted to comfort you and take care of this myself because I love you.” God, please let him understand that her motivations had been driven out of the purest reasons. Please let him let go of the anger driving him to say and do such horrible things. Please let him accept the love she’d given so freely in the hopes that his heart had become filled with the same emotion.

  “You don’t know what love means.”

  “No, Stefano, you’re the one who doesn’t know how to love someone no matter what happens.” She shook her head. Everything she’d longed for had been his for the taking, but he couldn’t give her what she needed most. His heart. And without that they had nothing to bind them together but their child. “I can’t remove your emotional scars any more than I can erase mine, but unlike you I refuse to let everything that was for shit in my life destroy my dreams for a bright future. I’m taking charge of my happiness and I’ll fight for what’s rightfully mine even though I had hoped for so much more for all of us.”

  She waited several beats, praying that she’d carved through Stefano’s stubborn refusal to see reason.

  “I’m sure you’ll find plenty of happiness when you access the million dollars I’m transferring to your account,” he said harshly. “Now leave before I lose what’s left of my temper and carry you out of here myself.”

  “No amount of money is worth losing my son,” she said, her heart shattering all over again. “You of all people should know that by now.” And then, no longer banking her tears, Roxy turned away from the only man she’d ever loved and walked out of the studio.

  She didn’t want to have a long, drawn out custody battle. Nor did she know how she’d save Maura and punt Doug out of her life without Stefano’s assistance. But unless he trusted her 100 percent she had to do both, and she had to do it on her own.

  If only she hadn’t fallen so completely in love with Stefano. Then maybe, just maybe, fighting to win the battle of her life wouldn’t taste so bitter. But Stefano had another thing coming if he thought he’d make her give up the one thing that gave her joy. After all, she’d signed a prenup that guaranteed shared custody and she fully intended to hold Stefano up to the letter of the law.

  * * *

  Stefano’s heart clenched when he caught sight of Roxy’s tears before she exited the studio, but he’d had no choice. She was a dangerous element in his life and in the life of his son. He couldn’t let her do to Matthew what had been done to him by Viviana. Though he wanted to believe Roxy’s lies, Stefano was no fool when it came to crocodile tears and false claims of love.

  Quickly, he texted Gian about the circumstances surrounding the money transfer, then he ordered his cousin to investigate the speediest way to expedite his divorce from Roxy and gain full custody of Matthew.

  The tiny bubbles of Gian’s answer appeared, then disappeared, then appeared again.

  I’m taking all matters into consideration then proceeding with caution.

  Don’t move too slow. I want this done fast. Stefano texted back.

  More bubbles appeared, disappeared and then finally Gian sent his reply. Be careful what you wish for cousin.

  No kidding be careful what you wish for—understatement of the year. Stefano had wished for a loving family and he’d ridiculously fallen for all of Roxy’s lies and subterfuge. He kicked a sandbag and welcomed the pain shooting through his foot and up his leg.

  Particles of dust and a cloud of smoky sand filled the air. He’d given her this space as a way of compensating her for forcing her into a loveless marriage. He turned the thought round and round, making the room spin dangerously.

  She’d been happy here, an
d proud of her sculpture that she’d created for Durante Enterprises’ new office building’s grand opening in Naples.

  No. Damn it all to hell. Roxy had been hiding here for weeks and planning her escape. He’d fallen for her bullshit about needing privacy to complete her pieces of art, especially her commission for Mountain Brook’s city council. And he’d made sure she’d had the opportunity to fulfill that commission. Another foolish mistake… she’d taken advantage of him.

  Stefano crossed the room to stand in front of her finished sculpture and read the title. Fireworks in Sand. He admired the talent that had created the piece. It flamed with life, stars rising out of the expensive Italian marble she’d been excited to carve when it had first arrived in June. She’d never had access to the precious material before he’d come along.

  Stefano paused. Roxy had been hiding for years while trying to forge a name and raising their son. He shook the knowledge out of his head.

  She’d claimed she was hiding from her brother, but Doug had found her quickly enough after she’d married Stefano. He scratched the back of his head, fumbling slightly as he stepped away from the statue to gather his thoughts.

  Anger evaporated and confusion filled the gap. She’d been terrified when Doug had first contacted her, and had risked Gian’s wrath in order to get her brother out her life. Why give the jerk money now? What were her plans?

  She’d gone to him the same day Viviana had turned up asking for yet another handout. His throat tightened and his chest felt as if an anvil had dropped into his lungs. Roxy had spent the entire day taking his mind off the encounter, and later, when the tabloids had given his mother her fifteen minutes of fame, she’d gone out of her way to give the press and Internet stories about their loving family—picnics in public, dates in Positano and Ravello where they’d held hands and kissed like the lovers they’d become since Naples.