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‘That’s unfortunate but Rio has still done very well for himself, hasn’t he?’
‘If you measure success by prosperity, his wealth reached stratospheric proportions after he won the oil contracts in Dharia. He is very much a self-made man,’ Beppe declared with pride. ‘But he is also a man damaged by a traumatic childhood and a tough adolescence. I should’ve done more for him.’
‘By the sound of it, you did the best you could in the circumstances,’ Ellie remarked soothingly, troubled more than she liked by the reference to Rio’s traumatic childhood and troubled adolescence. Yes, she could imagine how such experiences would have hardened him and what a difference a loving, supportive home background could have made. After all, she knew that she too was marked by the lack of love in her childhood. Her grandmother hadn’t wanted to raise her daughter’s two illegitimate children and had only done so because Annabel had paid her handsomely to take on that responsibility. When that flow of money had stopped, presumably because Annabel had suffered bankruptcy and ill health, her grandmother had complained bitterly about how much of a burden her granddaughters were. Polly’s affection had provided the only love Ellie had experienced during those years.
‘I think I’ll go back to the hotel now,’ Ellie announced, hardening herself to Beppe’s look of disappointment. ‘Rio will be arriving soon and we both need some time to think. This is a lot to take on board and so much more than I ever expected to learn.’
‘I hope you will pack and come here to stay with me for what remains of your holiday,’ Beppe admitted. ‘And perhaps someday you will feel comfortable enough to call me Papà.’
Ellie’s eyes prickled with tears as she left. She felt ridiculously emotional and when Beppe gave her a small, almost daring hug on the doorstep it almost made the pent-up tears spill down her cheeks. He was willing to be her father and she was in a daze of shock and happiness. It bothered her to appreciate that Rio was unlikely to celebrate the same news. Rio didn’t like her and didn’t trust her and the revelation that she was his precious godfather’s daughter would hit him hard. Would it hurt him that she had the blood tie with Beppe that he had been denied? She flinched from the thought, marvelling at how oversensitive she was to any thought of Rio being hurt.
It was so ridiculous, she thought ruefully. Big, tough, angry, hostile Rio would not be so easily hurt. Why was she even considering how he would feel about her parentage? What business was it of his? After all, the scene had been set before she was even born by Beppe’s affair with her unhappy mother. By the sound of it that extramarital affair had caused tremendous unhappiness for all the parties involved, but surely after so many years Beppe could begin to forgive himself and both of them could now concentrate on forming a relationship? That conviction at the forefront of her mind, Ellie packed her case and then walked down to the village to kill some time and allow Beppe to speak to Rio in peace.
*
Rio departed from Beppe’s home reeling from what his godfather had dropped on him. An adulterous affair and a daughter? No, he had certainly not seen that possibility on the horizon and it changed everything, his own position most of all. Ellie had played a blinder of a game by concealing her true motivation for being in Italy right to the very end, Rio acknowledged bitterly. In fact, she had trussed him up like a chicken ready for the roasting pot. Beppe had openly voiced his concern that Rio nourished dishonourable intentions towards his newfound daughter. Beppe had no idea that Rio had already gone much further than that and if he found out it would destroy his relationship with Rio. Worse still, if she was pregnant, Beppe would be digging out a shotgun.
It was time to take the initiative, not a time to sit back and vacillate over what-ifs and maybes, Rio reflected sardonically. Left in ignorance, he had dug himself into a deep hole and he had to dig himself out of it again and to do that he needed Ellie’s help whether he liked it or not. Raging resentment surged up through the cracks inside him and there was no healing balm of acceptance to soothe it. Beppe was, after all, the only true family Rio had ever had, the only adult who had ever shown him love, consideration and understanding while he was still a child. And now Beppe had a daughter, whom Rio had wronged. That she could well be a money-grabbing young woman keen to feather her own nest scarcely counted now that she was about to become Beppe’s heir. Furthermore, Beppe would never believe the allegations made against Ellie for there was virtually no proof of misconduct on her part.
Rio had hired a second agency to check and update the evidence he had originally been given. The hospice enquiry had cleared Ellie of any wrongdoing and she had refused the inheritance left to her by one of her patients. The only dirt left in the first investigative report relied heavily on her embittered uncle’s tale about the diamond brooch and, as the police had refused to prosecute, the whole story could easily be written off as being more rumour and backstabbing than actual fact. And furthermore, if Ellie was a gold-digger, Rio was about to make her feel as if she’d won the lottery.
When he learned that she had checked out of the hotel he was taken aback until he noticed that her hire car was still parked outside. The receptionist told him that Ellie had walked down into the village. He found h
er in the cool of the ancient stone church, studying a much-admired triptych of the Madonna and Child.
When he spoke her name, she whirled round, a figure of light and movement in the dim, dark interior. Her dress was the ice blue of diamonds and the sunlight cascading through a stained-glass window high up the wall showered her in a dancing rainbow of colour that only emphasised the vibrant copper of her tumbling hair. She wasn’t quick enough to hide the dismay and anxiety that crossed her face when she saw him and the tense expression and attitude that took over to stiffen her into stillness was no more welcoming.
Welcome to your biggest challenge yet, Rio thought grimly, trying not to notice how beautiful she was in that naturally beautiful way that so many women tried and failed to achieve. He froze there, suppressing his body’s equally natural instincts, none of which felt appropriate in the House of God.
‘Rio…’ Ellie whispered uncertainly, mortified by the nerves that had stolen the volume from her voice.
He could have been carved from stone as he stood there, still and quiet as a predator, sheathed in a light grey designer suit. He resembled a stone angel with cutting cheekbones, a hard-hewn jawline and a mouth as wilful, stubborn and passionate as sin. His eyes were a pure dazzling gold in the light and she blinked rapidly, striving to shut the sheer intensity of him out and to be polite but distant, treating him the same way she usually treated men. But how could she achieve that when she knew in her heart that he had sought her out because he was shocked and agitated by what Beppe had shared with him?
‘Are you a believer?’ he prompted lightly.
‘Yes. Are you?’
‘I was raised by nuns in an orphanage and spent more time on my knees than in school. Of course I am,’ Rio told her wryly.
And it was as though he had squeezed her heart at the same time as he filled in some of the blanks in her repeated attempts to understand what made him what he was. An orphanage, she thought sadly.
‘I bet you were always in trouble,’ Ellie remarked without thinking.
‘Pretty much. Beppe and his wife raised funds for the home and did a lot to help the children, particularly the disabled ones amongst us,’ Rio admitted. ‘Although that home is closed now and conditions are greatly improved in its replacement. Beppe is still very much involved in finding employment and educational opportunities for the less fortunate. He is a good man.’
‘Yes,’ Ellie agreed tightly.
‘And you are his daughter,’ Rio declared without any perceptible emotion at all. ‘I must assume you take after your mother since you don’t look much like your father.’
‘She was tall, red-haired and pale-skinned like me. I think I get my lack of height from Beppe,’ Ellie breathed uncomfortably. ‘You’re angry that I didn’t tell you why I so particularly wanted to meet Beppe.’
‘It wasn’t your secret to share,’ Rio conceded, surprising her. ‘But I must confess that I was completely unprepared for what he admitted to me. I shouldn’t have been. There must have been times when he felt trapped in his marriage. He is only human.’
‘Let’s not talk about that,’ Ellie advised. ‘I don’t think we can ever understand that sort of situation unless we’ve actually lived the same experience—’
‘Porca miseria! That’s a very compassionate comment from judgemental Ellie!’ Rio commented, an ebony brow slanting up in apparent wonderment.
‘Let’s also try not to argue.’ Ellie sent him a rueful look of appeal. ‘You’re shocked right now, of course you’re shocked. You thought you knew everything there was to know about Beppe—’
