You’re no better than a whore.
Maria swallowed, forcing herself to remember her father’s last words. Because as much as they hurt, they also steeled her backbone. Made her determined. Determined never to be beholden to a man ever again.
Because for all her apparent independence, her managerial position at GG, her eye-watering—and wholly justifiable—salary and for all the power she’dthoughtshe’d had, her father had still turned up at her mother’s house and kicked her out of a home he hadn’t lived in for over fifteen years.
And he could. Because, as he pointed out,heowned it.
She’d looked at the mother who had betrayed her secret and saw the guilt in her eyes, but the fear in them too when she glanced at the husband who hadn’t been a husband for that same number of years. In that moment, Maria had realised that although they had lived in separate houses since Maria was eight years old, they only really saw each other at family events, where they played the image of a happy family, despite the fact thatthe entire familyknew they were anything but, her mother had never really escaped her husband’s rule or wallet. Her mother wouldalwaysdefer to her husband, even at the cost to her daughter.
So, in the space of six weeks, Maria lost her job, her family and her home. And no one had said a single thing.
The only thing that had kept her father quiet about her pregnancy was shame.
And what had keptherquiet? Fear. Maybe she was more like her mother than she cared to be. But could she really afford to be that way? Especially now?
Maria thought back to that day when Ivy found her red eyed and shocked and forced her to tell her what was going on. At first, Maria had thought the reason her period was two months late was down to stress. But one pregnancy test after another had told her differently.
She was going to be a mother. The realisation had filled Maria with so much emotion, and so many thoughts, she hadn’t known where or how to begin sorting through them all.
In the meantime, she had sworn Ivy to secrecy, and she had only agreed because she—like Maria—knew that the first thing Antonio would do was to track Micha down and beat the living daylights out of him. But Ivy’s agreement had come with a two-month time limit and that time was running out.
Butterflies fluttered in Maria’s stomach and she once again soothed the slight swell of her abdomen.
At twelve weeks, she’d been told, the baby was now fully formed, and about the size of a lime. Her baby. Her and Micha’s baby. And although it was probably hyperbole, she was convinced that they could feel everything, experience everything, vicariously. Andoh god, she didn’t want her child to grow up like she had, with a father who was mean and a mother who was a mouse. She wanted…more. She wanted love, security, confidence. She didn’t want them to grow up fighting for their place in the world, but sure of it. She wanted…
She felt the tear roll down her cheek and swept it away. It didn’t matter what she wanted, Maria thought determinedly, sweeping aside foolish hopes and dreams just as easily as her tears. She might have left Rome, she might have left Gallo Group, but she was still the practical, focused woman she had become. That didn’t change just because she was going to be a mother. A single, unwed mother.
ZiaAlessina had done it, after divorcing her husband to bring up Antonio on her own. And this was decades later. It was the twenty-first century. And although she firmly believed that she didn’t need a piece of paper to make herself socially acceptable, she was devastated that her child might bear the burden of that decision.
This was the problem with her thoughts. Back and forth they swung, like a pendulum, hovering a bare millimetre over the biggest emotional box there was; the one with Micha Rufina’s name scrawled on the side.
Oh, shewouldtell him—she’d never keep that secret either from her child or him. But she needed to make a plan first. She needed to make sure that she had security and her independence. Because if he found out that she was pregnant with his child… If he had even the slightest inkling… He’d come in and take over. Force them to do something inconceivably foolish like get married.
And then she’dneverbe free. And she just wanted so much to be free.
The thought rushed out of her on a sigh as she looked down at the large black bag of things she’d decided not to take with her into her future. Wasn’t this part of her freedom? Not being weighed down with things that no longer served her? She probably should have done it before she moved, but there hadn’t been time. She’d thrown everything she had into the back of cars as her father hurled abuse at her for bringing shame on the family.
She dragged the bag out of the spare room, down the corridor that opened into the large open-plan living, dining and kitchen area, and up to the front door. She’d throw this out and get rid of the bad energy of her thoughts at the same time. No more business suits that she didn’t need, she decided as she put the bag down to open the door, no more thoughts of her father, she told herself as she unlocked the bolt at the top, pulling open the door, and no more…
Micha Rufina.
His hand raised to knock on the door, he was as surprised as Maria looked when she opened the door to find him standing there. But the last thing he expected was for her to slam it shut again.
He blinked.
Really?She wasthatchildish.
He waited. And then waited some more, getting even more annoyed. And if things continued like this, he’d have a heart attack from sheer irritation.
‘Maria,per favore, open the door,’ he called. ‘It’s not like you can ignore me.’
Her silence objected to his statement.
‘Maria?’ He blew out a breath, ignoring the weight of the driver’s gaze from within the air-conditioned blacked-out-windowed town car.
‘Maria Aurora Guilia Gallo, open this door!’ he yelled.
‘I am not a child and you don’t get to talk to me like I am one, just because you are now officially the boss of everything,’ she fired back angrily through the door, in a—to his mind—very childish way.
