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I’d tried to tell myself my affair with Dante was not the same, because I was working for him. Because we were equals. Because I hadn’t become too invested in our relationship. But as the empty space in my belly grew, seeming to consume me, I knew that was a lie.
Something fundamental had changed for me last night. And it hadn’t changed for him. Or he wouldn’t have ignored me today.
I wanted to feel outraged, but all I felt was devastated.
I folded the note.
‘Do you want to leave now?’ the young man who had delivered the note said. ‘I believe the helicopter is ready whenever you want to go.’
‘Is Dant... I mean, is Mr Allegri still here?’ I asked.
I should leave—a part of me knew it would only hurt more to confront him about my dismissal. I wouldn’t make a scene, I promised myself, remembering all those times I’d heard my mother plead, or seen her cling to a lover as he’d left her. Remembering the times my sister and I had crept into her bed and tried to comfort her tears, tried to stave off the black mood we knew would come until she found a new ‘protector’. I wouldn’t do that. I couldn’t.
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My heart wasn’t broken. I couldn’t let it be. I couldn’t afford to lose the job he’d offered me.
He owed me nothing; I understood that. I’d entered into this affair with my eyes open. Or at least I had tried to. And, while things had changed for me, it wasn’t his fault that they hadn’t changed for him. It had only been five days after all. Five glorious, intense days. But I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least get to say goodbye.
Before I saw him again in a work situation I needed to have closure. To know that there was no chance for us, or I might become delusional again.
The young man smiled. ‘Yes, he’s still here; he’s in his office.’
‘Do you know if he’s with anyone?’ I asked. I wanted to be brave and bold, the way he’d made me feel this past week, but I wasn’t quite bold or brave enough to interrupt him while he was in a meeting.
‘No, everyone else has left except you and the skeleton staff who are locking up the villa.’
I nodded and stood up. ‘If you could have the luggage taken to the helicopter, that would be great. I’ll meet you down there.’ I would need to make a quick getaway once I’d said my goodbyes. I couldn’t afford to linger, or the boulder pressing against my larynx might start to choke me.
The young man nodded and left to get some of the staff to help him.
I tucked the curt, businesslike note into the back pocket of my jeans, brushed sweaty palms on the denim and headed in the opposite direction. As I approached Dante’s office, my throat started to ache with unshed tears. I’d been such a naïve fool.
I didn’t knock. I didn’t have to; his office door was ajar and I could see him sitting at his desk, tapping on his laptop. He was wearing the same shirt and tailored trousers combo he’d worn when I’d come in here for my interview.
His head jerked up as I stepped into the room, reminding me painfully of the first time we’d made love—the way he’d sensed my presence while he’d stood on the beach.
His eyes narrowed. ‘Edie, hello—is there a problem with the travel arrangements?’ he asked. ‘I thought you would have left by now.’
So polite. So distant. So businesslike. How could this be the same man who had plunged into me over and over again—as if he wanted to brand me as his?
‘I wanted to say goodbye before I left,’ I said. ‘I thought...’ The words jammed in my throat as he continued to look at me as if I were just another employee.
He closed his laptop and leaned back in his chair. ‘You thought what?’ he said, not unkindly, but the whisper of impatience in his tone destroyed me.
‘I thought... I didn’t think it would end like this.’
‘How did you think it would end?’ he said, confirming my worst fears—that this was it, that he had tired of me, that I had been discarded.
The man in front of me looked like Dante Allegri. He had the same striking bone structure, the same muscular physique. I could see the tattoo that looped around his shoulder peeking through the open collar of his shirt. I noticed the small scar on his top lip. But this wasn’t the man who had held me last night. Because that man had been arrogant, yes, and more than a little domineering, but he hadn’t been cruel.
‘I thought you would have told me...’ I said, trying to keep my voice firm, so as not to give away how devastated I was.
‘I was busy today, Edie,’ he said, and it occurred to me that he hadn’t once called me bella, not since last night. Not since the last time we had made love. ‘I simply didn’t have time.’
‘You didn’t have time to even speak to me?’ I said, incredulous now as well as devastated.
‘We did speak—I offered you a very lucrative contract and you accepted it, as I recall.’
