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“What?”
The Italian woman cleared her throat. “Cristiano told me not to say anything. He intends to tell you himself.”
“Tell me what?” Hallie said, holding up the beautiful red gown and looking at herself dreamily in the mirror. Maybe she’d tell him she loved him tonight, while they were dancing at the gala. If she could just be brave enough, maybe she’d be rewarded. Maybe against all odds, he’d pull her closer in his arms and—
“You are a good woman, signora. What he is doing is not right, keeping it from you.”
Hallie turned in bewilderment. “What are you talking about?”
“Then again, I understand why he hates this house and wants to be away as soon as he can.”
Hallie sucked in her breath. “Cristiano doesn’t hate this house!”
The older woman looked at her sadly. “He does, signora. Because of the man who used to own it.” She turned away. “And that is why, while you are at the ball tonight, he has ordered me to pack all your things. Tomorrow, you leave for Asia. Me, I have refused to go. I will return to Rome, close to my grandchildren.”
“Leaving?” Hallie drew back. “But we just got here! It’s our home! We’re not leaving our home. And I don’t want you to leave us!” Agata had started to feel like family.
“I’m sorry, signora. He said to pack everything,” she said quietly. “I doubt you’re ever coming back.”
Anguish went through Hallie. It couldn’t be true.
And, in a flash, she knew it was.
She’d thought Cristiano had changed, that he’d been willing to sacrifice his restless travel for her and actually settle down in one place.
But he hadn’t changed at all. This so-called home was temporary, like everything else in his life.
And Cristiano had told Agata first. Before his own wife.
Hallie’s hands clenched at her sides. While she’d been trying to compromise, to make this place her home, he’d been lying to her. He’d never intended to settle down at all.
Hallie looked around the villa. This antique furniture wasn’t to her taste. It was too big, too fancy, but since they’d arrived, she’d convinced herself to overlook that, so badly had she wanted a home.
Now he wanted to drag her and the baby back to his empty lifestyle of moving from hotel to hotel to hotel?
All she wanted, all she’d ever wanted since her parents and brother had died, was a home. A family. A place in the world.
Hallie choked out, “If
he hates this villa, why did he buy it?”
Agata looked at her sadly, her wrinkled eyes mournful. “He bought it for the same reason he hates it. Because the man who once owned it was his friend, then his enemy. Luigi Bennato was the first to give him a real job. He taught him how to run a hotel. Then Cristiano turned on him. Ruined him.”
Hallie shivered as she heard the echo of Cristiano’s voice. I met a man who owned a small hotel chain in southern Italy. I convinced him to hire me and teach me everything he knew. Then I betrayed him.
She wasn’t sure she wanted to know more. In a small voice, she said, “What happened?”
“I worked for Luigi,” Agata said. “Before I worked for Cristiano. I still don’t understand. For three years, they worked together, as close as father and son. Cristiano used his charm and Luigi’s money to convince a widowed countess to sell her palazzo in Rome. Then, instead of developing the hotel together as they’d planned, at the last minute Cristiano took the information to one of the international hotel chains. He cut Luigi out of the deal. Left him bankrupt.”
Hallie stared at the older woman, cold with shock. “But why?”
“I still do not know. Yet, even after Cristiano betrayed him, Luigi tried to protect him. He even convinced me to accept Cristiano’s job offer in Rome. ‘The boy’s still so young,’ Luigi told me. ‘He’ll need someone he can trust.’ So I left Luigi’s hotel for Cristiano’s. And now he’s a broken man. He has no family, no money. He lives in an old shack. I feel badly for him.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” Hallie whispered.
Agata looked at her. “He wants to talk to you.”
“Who?”
