As I walked back to the screen, though, I noticed a phone on the doctor’s desk.
I could use it—to ring the police, to ring Evie and explain where I was…
But as soon as the thought occurred to me, I knew I couldn’t do it.
Ringing Evie in the middle of the night, when I couldn’t explain coherently what was happening would only make her freak out more.
And ringing the police felt wrong.
Maybe it was the memory of Vito’s patient touch. Maybe it was the roller coaster of exhausting emotions I’d been on since spotting him in my flat what felt like several lifetimes ago. Maybe it was that I knew however scared I was of Vito’s world, hewasthe only person who could keep me and the baby safe now…or maybe it was the small confidences we’d shared, however reluctantly, that gave me hope.
But as I got dressed and walked out of the examination room without making the call which could set me free from him, I knew I had turned a corner. I wasn’t going to try and escape again. I had to try and make this work for me and my baby. I would have to guard my heart, but I’d learned how to do that a long time ago. And I’d never been a hopeless romantic like Evie. Practicality and pragmatism had always been my superpowers.
But at the same time, I could not submit to Vito’s determination to dominate everyone and everything, especially me. Or he would never respect me, and more importantly, I would never respect myself. Even if I now suspected his determination to dominate me went a lot deeper than just a desire to keep our baby safe.
Somehow, I had to get behind his cast-iron control and discover more of the man I had glimpsed that night and this evening. A man who wasn’t a brick wall, incapable of compromise or empathy.
As I entered the outer office, the rush of emotion felt real and valid when he swung round from his hushed conversation with the obstetrician, as if sensing my presence.
He reached out his hand, but then he ruined it by snapping his fingers. ‘Vieni, Mia, we must leave.’
I tensed but resisted the urge to snap back. I’d exhausted all my sass for one night.
So I took his hand without an argument. Surprise crossed his features, and I gave myself a mental high-five. In our battle of wills, surprise was probably my best weapon. Because it might make him start to see me as an autonomous person instead of a woman he now owned.
He escorted me down the stairs and into the waiting limousine—his wide palm resting securely on my back.
I snuggled into my side of the car and yawned. Pulling out his phone, he started to talk to someone in rapid Italian, obviously giving orders again.
I had been dismissed, I realised when we got to his heavily guarded estate—and he hadn’t spoken to me once. But I was oddly grateful for the reprieve.
The car drove towards the villa—which looked untouched now after the incident five months ago—and stopped at the heliport on the lawn where we had landed. The huge black chopper was waiting for us, its giant blades already turning. Lorenzo escorted me on board while Vito spoke to a couple of the men with assault rifles standing guard before boarding too.
The echoes of our first night together only made the whole thing seem more surreal as the enormous black bird lifted into the night sky, then hovered over the city and headed out over the bay. My stomach bounced into my throat as we powered across the dark water towards Capri and beyond, and I glanced at the man beside me, his harsh, handsome features set in stark lines by the blinking red light on the helicopter.
Vito Rocco was a force of nature. Taking him on was liable to require all my strength and resilience and a lot of stamina—which meant conserving my energy and choosing my battles more carefully.
Eventually the shape of an island appeared on the horizon, a cluster of lights sprinkled over one end.
‘This is Isla Donna,’ he said over the headphones, the pride in his voice unmistakable.
As the helicopter travelled along the coastline, a series of secluded coves and rocky headlands were visible in the moonlight, until the big bird touched down next to a palatial villa. Starkly modern in comparison to the neoclassical elegance of Vito’s home in Naples, the stunning white stone-and-glass structure was larger and even more opulent, perched on the edge of a promontory with steps leading down the cliff face. An array of marble terraces looked out onto a sea view which would be spectacular in the daylight. On the lowest terrace was a large floodlit infinity pool, its water a glowing turquoise in the darkness.
He pressed his palm to the small of my back again to lead me down the helicopter steps, and we were greeted by a group of household staff. But when he propelled me through a high stone archway into a marble foyer, I pulled away from that proprietary touch.
‘I’d like to sleep alone tonight,’ I said.
He frowned, obviously having intended to lead me straight to his bed. I bristled at his arrogance.
That he had assumed he had me exactly where he wanted me—and I was going to do everything he demanded from now on—didn’t surprise me. But that he hadn’t intended to ask what I wanted only made me more aware of the mountain I still had to climb.
‘There is no way off this island, Mia, if you think to run from me again,’ he said, but his tense expression gave me a glimmer of hope. That he didn’t trust me was obvious, but all I wanted right now was some space—and a chance to get a good night’s sleep. If he could respect that much, it was a start.
Baby steps, Mia.
‘I’m not planning on going anywhere tonight,’ I offered. ‘I’m shattered,’ I added just as my mouth broke into a huge yawn.
He didn’t look happy, but a wave of relief gushed through me when he beckoned a girl from the row of staff waiting to serve him in the foyer—and spoke to her in Italian.
