Even before the announcement that Micha would be returning to Rome headquarters to assume the position of company president and CEO, Maria had submitted her resignation.
And now this hermit-like move? It was the exact opposite of the fight he’d expected to have with her and he’d been left strangely bereft by it. There must be something else going on. He had approximately forty-five minutes left to arm himself with as much information as he could. But when he checked Maria’s socials, there was resounding silence. No posts, no updates, nothing about her house move. Nothing since the day before Antonio informed her and the family of his decision to remain married to Ivy. Micha had checked Antonio’s pages too, in case there was a reference to Maria by proxy, but nothing.
Which was why by the time he arrived at the small villa hugging the shoreline of Lake Trasimeno, he was as curious as he was frustrated, and in an even worse mood than he’d been when he disembarked Gallo Group’s private jet.
Micha stepped out of the tinted-windowed car, slipping on his sunglasses and looking around at Maria Gallo’s new abode. He surveyed the old farm-style villa, narrow and, unusually, all one storey. The stone walls were rough, but familiar, the light mortar making the terracotta and grey stones appear bright in the morning sunlight. But despite the evident age of the building, the roof was new, tiles gleaming, and the hints of modernisation were subtle but expensive. He could just about see the corner of a small green garden from where he stood, brushing up against the side of Lake Trasimeno.
What on earth was she doing out here? It wasn’t exactly nowhere, but it wasn’t the bustling, busy, swanky city address that he knew she’d loved so much. Because Maria thrived on busy, on the frenetic energy that surrounded her. It fed her and made her happy. This?
This looked a hell of a lot like exile and he didn’t like it one bit.
But he didn’t have to like it, he reminded himself. This was hers and it had nothing to do with him. All he was here for was to convince her to sweet-talk a client back into the fold and then she could leave. Oh, he wasn’t an imbecile—he knew she’d make him work for it. Nor was he a complete bastard. He’d give her a nice hefty commission for doing it. But once that was done, they could go back to their respective corners of Italy and never cross paths again as far as he was concerned.
Liar, his inner voice taunted, reminding him of the sensual turmoil he’d been in ever since she’d left his office in Paris three months previous.
Shifting his sunglasses on to his head only for the brief moment he took to pinch the bridge of his nose, he attempted to wrestle his wayward body back under his control.
It was no use denying it. He’d been tormented every single night with fantasies that had built on what they’d shared that stolen night and spun them wildly into erotic fever dreams. Each night he woke, bed sheets sweat soaked, heart pounding, head aching and fiercely unsatisfied.
Maybe seeing her would purge her from his memory. Show him that he had blown that moment far out of proportion because of their history. That there was no reason for him to still be lusting after a woman who thought him little better than dirt beneath her high-heeled shoe.
And with that thought, determination imprinted on his mind, he lowered his sunglasses to his eyes, turned and went to knock on the door of Maria Gallo.
Maria eyed the red-soled heels and sighed before reluctantly putting them away. She wouldn’t be needing those now, or any time soon for that matter. And she knew it was silly to get so emotional about a shoe, but it wasn’t really about the shoe, was it?
She’d been unpacking box by box, day by day following Ivy’s suggestion when Maria told her about the move. She knew that Ivy and Antonio felt truly awful about what happened. And Marialovedthat Antonio had found true happiness with his wife. And having met Ivy, Maria couldn’t blame him. The English woman was exactly the kind of person Maria would have picked for him. She was beautiful and smart and funny, and she made her cousin laugh. And Ivy had been utterly devastated that their happiness had cost Maria Gallo Group.
Sheknewthat Antonio deserved that happiness. It was just that she hated that it had come at the cost of whatshedeserved but had never been deemed worthy of.
Gallo Group.
Her heart twisted and something that felt a lot like grief welled within her.
Maria’s resignation hadn’t been knee-jerk. It had been her only option. There was absolutely no way that she could have stayed at GG once it went to Micha. Not after what happened in Paris. And certainly not after the consequences of that night either.
Shaking off the thoughts that threatened to pull her in a thousand different directions, she pushed the storage box into the large cupboard containing the other clothes she’d not been able to part with. Clothes had meant so much to her over the years. They’d been her armour, her protectors while she’d worked at Gallo Group. They’d helped her to feel the confidence she’d faked until it felt a little less…fake.
But that part of her life was over now. She had lost Gallo Group. And the family that had never thought she was good enough for it in the first place, now held her solely responsible for the fact that it had slipped into the hands of…of…
Maria swallowed whatever feeling it was that thickened her throat. That was another unpacked box she’d brought with her from the move to this beautiful farm house on Lake Trasimeno, albeit an emotional one.
She looked out of the wall of glass that had been the true selling point of the recently renovated one-storey villa; the slash of placid blue reminding her of the calm that she was going to need. Especially now.
Micha.She should never have gone to see him. She should never have thought herself immune to him. But she had so desperately wanted him to see what he had abandoned all those years ago. She had so desperately wanted to see regret in his eyes. But all she’d seen was the ferocity of his want.
Her phone flashed with a message.
I’ll be done in about ten mins and call you then? Ivy xx
Ivy had been a lifesaver. As unlikely as it seemed, Maria and Antonio’s wife had formed a fast and firm friendship. And since Ivy and Antonio had returned from London and had spent the past few months in Antonio’s Tuscan villa, Maria had seen more of them than anyone else.
And, if Maria was honest, she would need that friendship more than ever, because in six months’ time it wouldn’t just be her, she thought, sweeping a hand over her stomach. Especially since her father’s reaction was less than understanding.
How could you be so stupid?
Who was it? Who did this to you.
And when she’d refused to tell him?
