Then an older woman appeared, and every muscle in his body tensed. He recognised her immediately, despite the greying hair. Elsa Parker—the housekeeper at Westwick the summer he’d been brought here after the accident.
He could still remember the pity shadowing her eyes that day which had made him feel so weak, so pathetic.
What the hell was she doing here? Hadn’t she left years ago? She was one of the reasons he hadn’t had any intention of returning before this year. She had been kind to him that summer, but he hated that she had known him as that broken boy. And she was also the mother of the girl whose company he’d come to rely on far too much that summer.
The chasm in his stomach widened. Apparently, this damn trip was going to be even more excruciating than he had anticipated.
Tallulah stirred against him, her cornflower-blue eyes blinking open. Then she stretched and yawned. ‘We’re here.’
He found himself smiling despite the weight in his gut.
Dio, but even her misguided love for this miserable place enchanted him…
At least he would not have to suffer it on his own, not this time. And while Elsa Parker might remember him from that summer, she would not recognise the man he had become. He had exorcised that boy a long time ago. And he doubted she knew of his friendship with her daughter, Tali, as she had been so busy with her new responsibilities. He would have to be sure to keep the housekeeper well away from Tallulah. He didn’t want his fake wife seeing that weakness or even knowing about it. The less she knew about that messed-up kid, the better.
‘Come, your staff are already waiting to greet you…’ he said, his voice gruff as he threaded his fingers with hers, reassured by her presence again.
How had he become so reliant on her company in such a short space of time?
She looked past him, then grinned, as the chauffeur opened the door. ‘Yourstaff, you mean.’
But when he climbed out of the car, and helped her out, the strangest thing happened. Elsa Parker rushed up to Tallulah and threw her arms around her.
‘Tali, you’re back! How are you, love?’
Tali?The name reverberated through his consciousness. That washername, the name of the child who had snuck into his room, and talked to him about everything and nothing, taking his mind off the pain, the loneliness… But who had also been there, hiding in the wardrobe, the one time his father had come to visit him. And berated him for being foolish enough to befriend a Sicilian guttersnipe—and detailed all Sante’s crimes, crimes which had turned out to be lies.
He watched, in horrified slow motion, as Tallulah hugged the woman back. ‘Mum, you didn’t have to come and meet me. I told you I’d come to the cottage to visit this evening.’
Mum?Elsa Parker was Tallulah Whittaker’s mother?
The woman he had married, the woman who had somehow broken through the barriers he had spent so long building since that summer…was alsoTali. He remembered the girl’s name. The little girl who had once seen him at his very worst, before he had been able to put those barriers in place.
The weight in his stomach plummeted, his mind reeling, the shock and anger making his heart pump so hard it felt as if it would smash through his ribs.
Suddenly, it all made a hideous kind of sense. The way he’d gravitated towards her. The way he’d come to rely on her. The way he’d trusted her so easily,tooeasily. Because it was the same thing he had done all those years ago, when he’d spent a summer in darkness and agony and had come to depend on that cheerful, cheeky child to drag him back into the light.
There had been something about her, that first day, in the library, something familiar which he had ruthlessly ignored, because it had made him feel weak. But now it was staring him in the face, impossible to ignore.
Nausea gathered in his gut, threatening to rise up his throat like bile.
He could still see her childish face, so bright, so earnest, so sweet, telling him not to be sad, that she would be his friend, while tears of humiliation stung his eyes. And the pain in his leg had been nothing compared to the agony in his heart.
Because his best friend had betrayed him and left him to die. Because his mother had been so reckless and impulsive she’d put her addictions above the needs of her own children. Because his father saw him as nothing more than a means of continuing his own sterile, pointless legacy.
They’dallbetrayed him, but somehow, in this agonising moment, the fact Tallulah, no,Tali, had remained silent about who she really was, for a month, felt like the biggest betrayal of all.
She glanced over her shoulder now. But those beautiful eyes, which still had the power to destroy him, immediately saw his anguish. ‘Dario, is everything okay…? I—I want to introduce you to my mum.’
He gave a stiff nod, letting his anger build to hide his panic. What a fool he’d been, to trust her. Tolether trick him.
‘We’ve met,’ he mumbled, unable to look at the older woman.
Tallulah’s eyes widened, her face flushing.
He saw the flicker of distress cross her face, but the fear was too huge, that she would see the hurt, the anguish churning in his stomach.
If only he could get back into the car, and leave, arrange to sell this place as soon as possible. He owed her nothing. She had deceived him, wormed her way into his affections, when he didn’t want her there. When he’dneverwantedanyonethere. Ever again.
