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He was joking, of course, she thought loyally. Vin wasn’t a ruthless bastard. He was a good man, and in spite of his tyrannical instincts, she knew he saw her as an equal partner. After all, he’d let her make the decisions about driving instead of flying, about remodeling the villa rather than enjoying the comfort of a hotel. And most of all, he had married her without a pre-nup. As partners, they had a chance to be happy in this marriage, she thought, really happy, for the rest of their lives.
The days passed, turned to weeks. November became December. Scarlett had pictured the Eternal City as a place of eternal sunshine, but to her surprise, winter descended on Rome.
The villa had become livable. Tacky old furnishings were removed, and the walls and floors of ten bedrooms were redone. The kitchen was expanded and modernized. Bathrooms were scrapped and remodeled, and one of the extra rooms was turned into a master en suite bathroom with walk-in closet. Vin had wanted to fly in the interior designer who’d decorated his New York penthouse, but remembering the stark black-and-gray décor from the single night she’d spent there, Scarlett had refused. She wanted to make the villa warm and bright and, above all, comfortable. She’d do the decorating herself.
She loved every minute. Each morning when the baby woke her up to be fed, Scarlett woke up with a smile on her face, stretching happily in the enormous bed. She didn’t get much sleep, with the baby waking her through the night, but in spite of feeling tired, Scarlett had never been so happy. Joy washed over her like sunshine.
She had the home she’d always dreamed of. The family she’d always dreamed of. The husband she’d always dreamed of. She had everything she’d ever wanted, except one thing.
Vin hadn’t told her he loved her.
But soon. Soon, she told herself hopefully. In the meantime, the villa was larger than she’d imagined her home could be, so she brought it down to size. Made it homey and inviting for family and friends.
She carefully began to add household staff. Wilhelmina Stone was the first person she hired, luring her away from Switzerland as housekeeper by doubling her salary.
“You don’t need to pay me so much,” Wilhelmina had grumbled. “We’re practically family.”
“Which is why I insist,” Scarlett replied happily.
Then a few other employees were added, two maids and a gardener, but Scarlett flatly refused the idea of a butler and two full-time nannies. Instead, the kind, fiercely loyal housekeeper soon became a second grandmother to Nico.
When the guest rooms became habitable, the baby’s actual grandparents, Giuseppe and Joanne, came down from Tuscany for a visit in December, bringing Maria and Luca with them. They all enjoyed a weekend of sightseeing, which was ostensibly to “show the baby the sights of Rome”—as if a five-week-old in a stroller who couldn’t yet sit upright would appreciate the Colosseum, the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain.
“Of course he appreciates them,” Giuseppe said expressively, using his hands. “He is my grandson! It is in his blood!”
“He can’t even taste gelato yet,” Vin pointed out, rather peevishly, she thought.
It was the only discordant note to the joyful melody of Scarlett’s life. Vin seemed strangely uncomfortable around his family, and the more loving they were, the more he seemed to flee. Thirty minutes into their sightseeing tour, he abruptly announced an emergency at the Rome office that seemed like an excuse to leave. But Scarlett must be mistaken, because why would he want to flee his family, who loved him so?
In spite of that small flaw, Scarlett was happy and proud to share their newly beautiful home with the family that had been so kind to her. The best moment was when Maria and Luca announced they’d picked a wedding date: the second week of January, in Rome.
“A winter wedding, in Rome,” Maria had beamed, holding her fiancé’s hand. “It’ll be so romantic.”
“You are romantic,” Luca had said rapturously and kissed her.
Scarlett had looked at Vin, but he’d avoided her gaze.
Since his parents’ visit, he’d seemed even more strangely distant, spending all his time at the office, where his company was trying to devise a new offer to interest Mediterranean Airlines’ CEO, Salvatore Calabrese. But the man flatly refused to have anything to do with Vin now. It made Scarlett indignant, but she knew her husband would wear him down. No one could resist Vin for long. Scarlett knew this personally.
