by Lynne Graham
Rio presented her with a perfect golden omelette and she was undeniably as impressed as though he had owned up to being a rocket scientist. Washed and fed, she was taken over by exhaustion again and she slid down in the blissfully comfortable bed, quite unaware that Rio went for a shower and then slid in beside her.
When she wakened it was afternoon the next day and she was alone. She was shocked that she had slept so long and anxious to get to the hospital and see how her father was doing. When she came downstairs, Rio’s housekeeper appeared, introduced herself as Sofia and brought her lunch on the terrace. Marooned without transport, she went into the large garage off the rear courtyard and discovered a stable of vehicles. Rio liked sports cars, she thought with amusement. Boy, did Rio like sports cars. Sofia showed her where the keys were and she picked a car in fire-engine red that appealed to her mood.
Navigating the many turns in the sweeping road that led down to the main route was more of a challenge than she had expected because she had never driven such a powerful car before but she made it to the hospital in good time and went straight to the ICU. Beppe, however, had been moved out of intensive care to his own room, a sign that he was making good progress, and she greeted him with a smile when she found him sitting up in bed and much more able to talk than he had been in the early hours of the morning.
‘Rio’s gone for coffee in the canteen,’ he explained. ‘You’ve just missed him.’
After she had been with him about thirty minutes, Beppe began to flag and she suggested he have a nap, reminding him when he argued that he was recovering from surgery and that it would take a few days for him to regain his strength. Ellie went straight down to the canteen in the basement to find Rio but it was very busy and she bought herself a cup of hot chocolate as a treat, while she queued and scanned the crowded tables.
When she finally located him, she stopped midway on her path to joining him because he was not alone, he was sitting with Franca. Reluctant to interrupt out of the fear that Rio would deem it jealous and possessive behaviour on her part, Ellie slid into a corner table nicely shielded by a tall fake potted plant and waited for his companion to leave. She barely sipped her hot chocolate while she watched the pair of them, former lovers, looking much more friendly than anyone would have expected in the circumstances as they sat opposite each other, both leaning forward to get closer and talking intently.
In not treating Franca like an enemy, Rio was acting like an adult, she told herself soothingly. It was downright nasty of her to think that Franca was looking at him with much more appreciation than the occasion could surely require. Slowly it sank in that they appeared to be having a quite emotional conversation and that unnerved her, but all the signs were there. Franca reached across the table and gripped one of Rio’s hands at one point and then brushed away tears. Rio did not go into retreat. In fact, none of the barriers that most would expect to be present between lovers who had parted on very bad terms were to be seen.
Stop being so blasted jealous and suspicious, Ellie urged herself in exasperation. Obviously Rio and Franca were catching up on the past and had discovered that at heart they were still friends. But it really, really bothered Ellie that Rio was clearly having the sort of emotional chat with his ex-girlfriend that he refused to have with his wife. And for how long had he been chatting to Franca? All that time she had been upstairs sitting with Beppe? And he was still with her?
Ellie drank her hot chocolate, refusing to allow herself to watch Rio and Franca any more since she was obviously too susceptible to paranoia. She had fallen insanely in love with Rio, married him and turned into a maniac she didn’t recognise. Every hour of the day she wanted Rio so much. It was frightening, mortifying, but she had to get control of her craving, her suspicions, her insecurity. One last look at them and then she would go and check on Beppe again, she bargained with herself.
And Ellie glanced, only allowed herself that one glance, and she saw Rio reach over the table to grip Franca’s hand in a heartfelt gesture that felt like a knife plunging into her own heart. Franca put one of her hands on top of his and gave him a wobbly, tearful smile full of warmth and admiration. Ellie’s glance became a stare and then she literally tore her gaze away at the same time as she stood up, abandoning her drink, and walked out of the canteen to wait for the lift.
Right, so, Rio had some weird new connection with his ex, not necessarily a sexual or romantic connection. Who was she trying to kid? She had sat watching a woman crying and smiling and holding hands with her husband. What was she supposed to think? A woman he had once loved enough to want to marry. But he had never loved or wanted to marry Ellie, had he? And now he was stuck in a marriage with a woman he didn’t love, who was pregnant.
Ellie’s eyes prickled like mad. She hardly ever cried and right at that moment she had a crazy urge to howl and sob, and holding all that pent-up emotion in was a challenge. Rio was so intense in everything he did and yet, unless he lost his temper, he didn’t let that emotion escape, at least not around Ellie. But what had really seriously hurt was seeing Rio demonstrate unashamed emotion with Franca, Rio taking part in the kind of emotional exchange he had denied Ellie. So what had they been talking about?
Had they discovered that they both still had feelings for each other? Franca must have been Rio’s first love and first loves, with all the memories involved, were notoriously hard attachments to shake. Ellie breathed in slow and deep to calm herself and checked on Beppe, but he was sound asleep and, according to the nurse she spoke to, likely to be for some time. There was no reason for Ellie to remain at the hospital, particularly not when she wanted to avoid Rio, who she knew very well wouldn’t tell her anything about his encounter with Franca. If she taxed him he would think she was a jealous, suspicious cow and he would be right. She was…
As she drove off from the hospital she struggled to calm down. Only a couple of hours earlier, aside of her ongoing concern for her father, she had been blissfully happy and Beppe did seem to be improving. She was making a mountain out of a molehill, she told herself soothingly. She would say nothing, do nothing, wait and see how matters went.
But inside herself, Ellie felt as though her heart were breaking. She kept on getting a flashback of Rio holding hands with Franca, Franca staring back at him with so much brimming emotion. Was that love she had seen between them? Why not? Why shouldn’t he love Franca? Seeing his former love in such a crisis as Beppe’s illness had created when Rio had been in a very emotional state of mind, even though he wouldn’t ever admit the fact? Had Franca and Rio recognised that they both still had feelings for each other?
And, yes, she had believed that Rio was happy with her in Venice, but what if all along from the very outset of their marriage Rio had only been making the best of things? The best of a bad job? He found her sexually attractive but was there any more to their connection on his side than that? Meeting Franca again could well have made Rio appreciate the difference between love and sex. Her stomach turned over sickly.
So why should she keep quiet about what she had seen? an angry voice inside her demanded.
After all, how would Rio have reacted to seeing her holding hands with another man? Rio would have gone up in flames, created a scene and demanded an immediate explanation. That was the truth of it. Rio was as hot-headed and impulsive as she was invariably sensible and cautious. So, if Rio wouldn’t swallow that kind of behaviour, why should she?
Ellie drove back to the house, steadily getting more and more upset and tearful. Whatever she did, she had to make a statement. She had to make it clear that she would not tolerate any kind of flirtation because if she didn’t Rio might go on doing it. He needed boundaries, no, he needed a giant wall built round him to keep him within acceptable behaviour limits, she decided furiously. So, it was better to overreact now in the hope that the fallout from her anger ensured that there would not be a next time, she reasoned in growing desperation.
A preventative gesture in mind, Ellie began to pack
her cases again. She would move into Beppe’s house for a few days and Rio would appreciate that she was seriously annoyed with him. But was that the right thing to do? What if Rio had realised he was still in love with Franca? A terrible frightening sensation of emptiness spread inside Ellie, because if she lost Rio, she felt as if she would lose everything.
And that was sad, really, really sad, she told herself bracingly. She loved him but that didn’t mean that she intended to be a doormat or throw wild, volatile scenes whenever he did something she disliked. Walking out on him for a couple of days was a better, quieter option and he would realise that she was serious. Screaming at Rio would be unproductive because he was as stubborn as a mule.
Rio drove back to his house, still surprised that he had somehow missed Ellie at the hospital. He was in an extraordinarily good mood. Beppe was on the mend, Ellie was pregnant and certain misconceptions he had once held had been cleared up and had left him feeling more in tune with the world than he had felt in a long time. He was in the wrong place mentally to reach home and have a troubled Sofia indicate the envelope left on a coffee table while learning that his wife had departed with cases.
He tore open the envelope. It was an Ellie letter, very succinct and to the point. There was only one sentence, telling him that he had failed to demonstrate the commitment she required from a husband. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Rio swore and then he swore again. It was as if electric shocks were going off in his brain. Ellie had walked out on him and moved into Beppe’s palazzo. Outrage roared through him. He had made a huge effort to meet Ellie’s high standards and yet now she was trying to ditch him like an old shoe.
Rio reacted by doing something that Ellie had not foreseen. He phoned Rashad and asked to speak to Polly. But within a minute of speaking to Ellie’s sister, he realised that she was as shocked as he was and had no idea what could have fired Ellie up to that extent.
‘Ellie’s really not the dramatic type,’ Polly told him unreassuringly, because that only suggested that he must have been guilty of some giant sin that had provoked sudden and uncharacteristic behaviour.
‘But I haven’t done anything!’ Rio raged, pacing round the hall in sizzling frustration. ‘Do you think it could be pregnancy hormones or something weird?’
Polly’s astonishment at that news only convinced Rio that phoning your wife’s sister for insight into an unfathomable development could be a seriously bad and undiplomatic move. But then it had never occurred to him that Ellie could have kept quiet about the baby even with her sibling. After all, she and Polly talked most days! It finally dawned on him that Ellie was a much more private person in nature than he had appreciated—someone who didn’t share personal stuff unless forced, as he had had to almost force her to tell him about the diamond brooch and the old lady at the hospice. She held all her distress in, hid it, trying to stay strong. Until that moment he hadn’t recognised just how similar they were in that category and he suppressed a groan because it only complicated his situation more. Maybe she was deeply unhappy living with him. How was he to know? She wasn’t a talker or an emoter… Per l’amor di Dio, he was so grateful for her restraint in that line. After all, Franca had almost talked him into a trance.
Initially, powered on anger, fear and a desperate need to take a stance, Ellie had expected Rio to rush straight to Beppe’s home to confront her, but as time wore on into the afternoon she started to worry that he wouldn’t even try to get her back. In fact, maybe she had played right into his hands by leaving, maybe he had reached the conclusion that he didn’t want to be married any longer. For a male as rich and gorgeous as Rio the grass always had to look greener on the single side of the fence.
What had she done in walking out like that? What way was that to save a marriage?
She loved him, for goodness’ sake, even if it turned out that he was the biggest flirt imaginable!
Suddenly feeling distinctly nauseous for the first time in her pregnancy, and shaky and damp with nerves, Ellie went upstairs to lie down. She knew the stress was bad for her and her baby and she beat herself up more for the decision she had made. Since when had she been a drama queen? And walking out on the assumption that the man you were leaving would follow to beg you to return was almost suicidal if he didn’t love you. Tears prickled and stung behind Ellie’s lowered eyelids. What had persuaded her that she had to make such a theatrical challenge to Rio of all people? A fit of temporary insanity?
Rio walked through the bedroom door and surveyed his wife. She was fast asleep and his keen gaze could detect the faint redness round her eyes that suggested tears had been shed. His confidence rose. If his unemotional Ellie had been crying, that was a healthy sign. He sat down on the side of the bed and gently shook her shoulder.
Luminous green eyes flew open and settled on him in strained silence. Her lush lips parted and closed again as she regrouped and sat up to hug her knees. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked coolly.
‘You’re here,’ Rio said simply.
‘You can’t stay here,’ Ellie argued, thoroughly disconcerted by that declaration. ‘It’s Beppe’s house.’
‘It’s not. I bought it from him years ago when the upkeep was becoming too much for him. I begged him to stay on and look after it,’ he explained with a casual shrug. ‘It was a property investment for me—’
‘You’re such a liar!’ Ellie told him helplessly. ‘You did it because you love him!’
‘That too.’ Rio looked uncomfortable. ‘Can we get to the point of what that stupid note you left behind meant? One sentence? I get one sentence of explanation?’
Ellie stiffened, more challenged than she had expected because Rio wasn’t shouting or raging, giving her the fight she had subconsciously craved and yet feared with every atom of her being, lest it lead to the end of their relationship. She lowered her legs and slid off the other side of the bed. ‘After the way you spent your morning, I should think the note was self-explanatory…’
‘After the way I spent… Franca? You saw me with Franca?’ Rio thundered without warning as he finally made the connection. ‘Why the hell didn’t you rescue me?’
Taken aback, Ellie froze. ‘Rescue you?’
‘Sì… I’m sitting in a public place while a woman weeps and sobs and talks about the kind of stuff I really don’t want to know and I can’t decently escape!’ Rio recounted wrathfully. ‘You think I was enjoying that? Are you out of your mind?’
It began to sink in on Ellie that she could have made a huge error of judgement.
‘I can’t believe this is all about Franca!’ Rio exclaimed with rampant incredulity.
‘You were holding hands. I thought you were flirting with her—’
‘You need to learn what flirting entails, principessa. I assure you that there was no flirting whatsoever. Franca lost her eldest daughter to leukaemia only weeks ago and has only recently returned to work after compassionate leave.’
‘Oh, my goodness…’ Ellie whispered in shock. ‘That poor, poor woman.’
‘Yes, even Rio with the heart of a stone was not going to get up and walk away from that!’ Rio grated. ‘And that was only a part of the doom and gloom rehash of the previous nine years that took place. She said it did her good to get it off her conscience but it only made me realise that my sense of moral superiority over events back then was entirely unmerited.’
Ellie nodded. ‘Okay. You contributed to the breakup and her going off with your business partner. I assumed that some of it must’ve been your fault.’
Rio dealt her an exasperated look. ‘I didn’t. I blamed Franca and Jax, but then I didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes. Her fling with Jax only lasted about five minutes, and at her lowest ebb she ended up homeless.’
Feeling guiltier than ever for her wrong assumptions, Ellie backed down into a corner armchair and sighed. ‘That can’t have been easy for you to hear—’
Rio’s gaze was sombre. ‘No, even at the time I never wished harm
on her, but then she lived with me and I didn’t even realise I was living with an alcoholic—’
Ellie’s brows lifted in wonderment.
Rio grimaced. ‘That tells you how much attention I gave Franca. My sole interest back then was really the business of making money. But to some extent that wasn’t all my fault. I was driven by the need to show Franca’s family that I could provide well for her. They had done everything they could to try to separate us—’
Ellie was now genuinely interested in what he was telling her and some of her stress had ebbed because she had recognised that her worst fears had been groundless. ‘But why?’
‘Primarily my background,’ Rio divulged stiffly.
‘That you grew up as an orphan?’ Ellie exclaimed. ‘But that’s so unfair!’
Rio braced himself to tell the truth and he paled and gritted his teeth. ‘It was more sordid than that. I was an abandoned baby, born addicted to heroin. I was left in a cardboard box in a dumpster and found by street cleaners,’ he admitted very stiffly. ‘The manufacturer’s name on the box was Rio. The nuns christened me Jerome after St Jerome but I was always known as Rio.’
Ellie was so appalled that she couldn’t speak. She glanced away to get herself back under control but her eyes shone with shocked tears. To think of Rio as a defenceless baby thrown out like so much rubbish absolutely broke her heart. ‘Why…a dumpster? Why not somewhere safer?’
‘I asked my mother when I met her. She said she didn’t want to get in trouble or be asked questions. It was nothing to do with my safety—it was all to do with her. I meant nothing to her. She was an addict and a whore,’ he confessed grimly. ‘Franca’s family were convinced that I had to have evil genes. Some people do think like that, Ellie, which is why I’ve always kept the circumstances of my birth a secret. It is not that I am ashamed but that I do not wish to be pitied or thought of as being a lesser person because of those circumstances.’
