To Marnie’s disappointment, she woke to an empty bed. And then she noticed the time and smiled. No wonder Domenico was already up—it was gone lunch!
Stretching, she climbed out of bed and padded over to the tray of food that had been placed on the coffee table for her. Though she really did seem to be over the sickness, Domenico’s staff still liked to ensure fresh food of all varieties was available to her at all times so she could eat little and often as she’d done when she’d been in full-blown recovery mode. She guessed this would be the second tray of food brought in to her that day.
Lifting the silver lid, she found paninis still warm in their foil wrapping, bowls of nuts and an abundance of fruit.
After eating a banana slowly, followed by a handful of almonds and a glass of water, she took a shower and then put on one of her favourite summer dresses and a thin cardigan. The skies outside were blue, but she’d noticed the chill of autumn starting to penetrate the heat these last few days.
Let the seasons change, she thought dreamily. Her season had changed, so why not the world around her?
It felt like her heart had changed from winter to spring overnight. The most beautiful night of her life.
She felt somehow purged. The fresh perspectives talking over her past with Domenico had given her had freed something inside her. She’d felt a brand-new lightness in the bath with him, and now she felt it from the tips of her toes to the roots of her hair, like she’d shed something dark and frightening she hadn’t even known lived inside her, and now she could embrace the world with brightness and hope and love.
She wanted to embrace this brand-new world with Domenico.
Downstairs, Marnie searched the plentiful ancient rooms for Domenico, eventually finding him in his office. It was a room she’d not entered since their marriage. Nothing had changed since then. It was still all dark wood panelling and dark furniture countered by the light pouring in through the abundance of sash windows. Stacks of Italian legal tomes lined the walls. It was the most homely of his home offices and the one she’d been happiest working alongside him in. She still missed those days.
‘Your week off from work is going well, I see,’ she teased lightly as she crossed the threshold. ‘If you can drag yourself away from your desktop, do you fancy exploring the secret garden with me?’
He looked up from his desktop and gave a wan smile that didn’t meet his eyes.
‘Is something wrong?’ He looked exhausted, and, remembering why he must be so tired, she smiled. Oh, but she felt all giddy and light inside, and she leaned down to kiss him and infuse some of her lightness into him. Their lips made only minimal contact before he gripped her hips to stop her getting any closer.
Light brown eyes locked onto hers. There was none of the sensuous gleam in them that she’d anticipated after a night like they’d just shared, and suddenly she felt a pang of alarm.
‘Marnie…’ His throat moved. ‘We need to talk.’
The alarm growing, she reached her hands into his hair and threaded her fingers through the soft strands. Oh, it felt incredible to be able to do this. To just be able to touch him and know her touch was wanted. ‘What’s happened?’
He closed his eyes briefly. ‘Please, sit down.’
Thinking it an invitation to sit on his lap, she did just that, only to find him stiffening, and not in a sexual way. She twisted a little so she could see his face more clearly and palmed his cheek. ‘Dom?’
The strong throat moved again before he captured the hand on his cheek and gazed into her eyes. ‘Marnie, it’s time for me to let you go.’
Confounded, she looked even deeper into his eyes. ‘Go where?’
‘Wherever you want.’ He shook his head and gently moved her hand from his face. ‘I’m doing what I should have done a long time ago and setting you free.’
A piercing sound began ringing in her ears. ‘What are you talking about?’
Lips tightening, his chest rose sharply. ‘I should have let you go when you served the divorce papers on me.’
At her blank stare…blank because she just could not comprehend what he was talking about, he said, ‘When you served the divorce papers on me, I should have taken your decision with good grace—the kind of grace you would have shown if the positions had been reversed. Instead, I fought you every inch of the way. I fought dirty, and when you got pregnant, I fought even dirtier. I used your illness to my advantage. I moved you back under my roof with the false promise that I would accept you were not coming back to me. I never intended to keep that promise.’
The piercing sound in her ears was becoming louder by the second. She swallowed moisture into a throat that had gone suddenly dry, and whispered, ‘I know that.’
She’d always known, and he’d always known that she knew that particular promise had been a lie. What she didn’t know was why it sounded like he was saying he wanted her to leave. The ringing in her ears must be preventing her from listening to him properly because he couldn’t be saying what her increasingly clammy hands and painfully beating heart were telling her he was saying. It wasn’t possible. You didn’t have the kind of loving intimacy they’d finally found together and then push it away.
‘You know it because you know the kind of man I am,’ he said steadily, not breaking the lock of their eyes. ‘You knowme, Marnie, better than anyone. And now I know you, too. You know I am selfish and arrogant and will stop at nothing to get what I want, and I know you deserve a hell of a lot better than me. You deserve better than a man who took advantage of the fragile heart he knew had been freely given to him and treated it with contempt. You deserve better than the man who stole your dreams and destroyed them for his own selfish needs. I treated you like you were put on this earth to fulfil my needs, and now I need to let you go so you can fulfilyourneeds. You have never lived your life for yourself,cuoricina. You deserve the freedom to make the choices that are right for you and live your life on your own terms, and this is the only way I can give it to you.’
Holding on to his stare for dear life because now the room was starting to spin, Marnie had to fight to open her closed throat and say, ‘What if I want my freedom to be with you?’
‘How could you want that after everything I’ve done to you?’ he asked with a pained groan before shaking his head. ‘This is the only way I can take my penance for all that I have done to you. I have to let you go, Marnie. You deserve happiness and freedom, and I deserve the hell of purgatory without you in my life. I’ve transferred a sum of money into your bank account that is the amount I should have given you when we divorced, and I’ve set about transferring the London house into your name.’
Throat now fully closed, she shook her head, pleading mutely with her eyes for him tojust stop talking.
His smile sad, he rubbed a finger the length of her cheek. ‘I know you’ve never wanted my money, but you will need it, and you will need a decent place to live and raise our child. I understand you will probably want to keep your flat for sentimentality’s sake, but you know our child deserves to be brought up in wealth and safety. I will arrange for my jet to take you home this afternoon and arrange for my personal possessions to be moved out before you arrive. Consider it yours as of now. I will get my team to draw up a contract for maintenance for you and the baby. We can deal with visitation rights in it. Primary custody will be yours if that’s what you want, or we can share custody. Whatever you want, however you want to do it, I will be guided by you and abide by your wishes.’
