She wouldn’t.
‘Ask her, Micha. Ask her and see what she says.’
He couldn’t say it was sadness that he’d seen in the old man’s eyes. Pity and such things were far beyond Gio’s emotional capabilities. But it didn’t matter, Micha thought to himself. She would choose him.
Micha found her lounging on the large verdant lawn of Gio’s Tuscan villa laughing with Antonio and for a moment a vicious splinter of jealousy cut through his heart. Theydidlook good together. Together they could run Gallo Group and life would be easy and rich and…
‘Micha!’ Maria called when she caught sight of him, her gaze happy and her face bright.
His heart shuddered and he forced a smile to his lips.
‘Ciao bella,’ Micha called as he drew closer.
Antonio raised a hand to clap him on the back when he arrived.
‘Good, take this one off my hands, please. She’s driving me round the bend. I have to go, Mama is waiting,’ he said easily, dropping a kiss to Maria’s cheek and another slap to Micha’s back. ‘Look after her,’ Antonio called as he loped back up to the estate.
Maria smiled up at him and patted the ground beside her, Micha dropping to his knees strangely out of breath.
‘I have to ask you something,’ he said, focusing on the tumble of dark curls that surrounded her like a halo.
‘Hello, how are you? Well, thank you, and you?’ Maria said on a laugh which petered out when she saw the look on his face. ‘Of course, you can ask me whatever you like,’ she said, placing a hand on his forearm.
‘What would…?’ Micha swallowed.
Tell her.
No.
Tell her why you’re asking.
‘What would you do to become head of this company? If Gio offered it to you? What would you do?’ The words rushed out of Micha’s mouth, his heart thudding painfully, as if already he was running from her answer, as if already he was rushing to pack his bags for Paris.
Would you do it? Would you marry Antonio if Gio asked?
Maria blinked at him, pulling a strand of her curls that the wind had blown across her face. Her smile bright and her eyes gleaming.
‘Anything,’ she said, enthusiastically. ‘Anything. You know that.’
And then she leaned forward and pressed a kiss against his lips, not knowing that her declaration had broken him forever.
CHAPTER ONE
Eleven years later…
The sound ofher heels against the marble flooring of the foyer of Gallo Group headquarters in France made Maria Aurora Guilia Gallo feel like aboss. The boss that she would be withinmonths.
Some may have found it petty that she had taken the Gallo Group jet from Italy to France for the sole purpose of rubbing that very fact into Micha Rufina’s face, but she didn’t care.
The receptionist looked at her warily and Maria realised that it was a very real possibility that she had just growled. Out loud.
She shook it off, sending a ripple across the billowing cream silk button-up shirt, tucked into the camel-coloured cashmere trousers pressed to perfection with a flawless crease down the centre of each leg. The patent leather cream one-of-a-kind Louboutins—the ones clickingsosatisfyingly towards the private elevator that only family and board members had access to—were her favourite pair.
Every single item of clothing, down to the lace basque, had been intentionally chosen. They were pieces of her armour. The armour she would wear to the final battle she ever had with Micha Rufina—her nemesis. Her enemy. And if he had been anything before that, anything more, she had forced herself to burn it from her memory until all that remained was a jagged scar, hidden so deep, her heart could barely remember it.
She arrived at the lift, swiped her key card and waited.
A woman came hurrying up to her.
