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Something awful had clearly happened, but I had no idea what.
Vittoria saw me standing in the doorway.
“You get that woman out of my house right now!” she screamed, stabbing an accusing finger at me. “All this stress is why this has happened. It’s allherfault! You take me to the hospital right now, and I want her gone when I get back!”
She brushed past me, out of the room, hurrying to the hallway to put on her coat and shoes.
I turned wide eyes on Marco. “What’s happened?”
He put his hands firmly on my shoulders. “Go up to your room. This does not concern you.”
And then he followed his mother out, leaving me alone.
Chapter 26
BETH
Marco and Vittoria rushed from the house with the Head of Security, Jacob, and it was some other security guy who escorted me to my room. One whose name I did not even know.
When he locked my bedroom door behind me, I rapped on it sharply with my knuckles. “Hey? What are you doing?”
He did not reply.
I slapped my palm against the door. “What about Amara? Are you going to check if she’s okay? What if she heard all that yelling and she’s scared?”
All stayed silent on the other side, as if I wasn’t even worth bothering to give a reply to. This shocked me. Whenever I was with Marco, the staff had always treated me respectfully. But now it seemed clearer than ever that even they considered me an intruder in this house.
No one had told me what had happened. Had Vittoria taken ill? Or someone else? Why was she going to the hospital?
Not even Marco had said a word. “Go to your room,” he’d barked. Like I was nothing to him.
I was trembling with anger now, and kept telling myself to calm down. Surely whatever had happened had to be dangerous? Otherwise Marco would have told me, wouldn’t he?
I hurried to the adjoining door that connected our rooms, but it was locked from the other side. Marco must have locked it at night as we went to sleep—I hadn’t used my room much these past couple of weeks and had not even noticed.
I punched the door in frustration and winced. I was being stupid. They would look after Amara. She was the precious baby of the family, and Vittoria would never have left her here alone if she thought she wasn’t safe.
I paced my room, wishing I had my phone, but it was still next door in Marco’s room. I wanted to text him, ask what the hell was going on.
Vittoria had been so angry.
For a moment, the mad thought crossed my mind that maybe she had found the appointment letter for my first trimester prenatal scan, which was due in a couple of days.
I ran to my handbag and checked beneath the lining. The letter was still safely tucked in there, hidden away. I returned to pacing.
Every once in a while, I went to my door to listen. Chiara had started going out in the evenings a couple of times this past week. She was out today as well, but should be returning soon. It was nearly midnight.
Chiara would let me out. I could ask her what was going on. I didn’t want to miss her as she walked past my room on the way to hers.
But I did not hear the front door of the house opening, no matter how hard I strained my ears.
I was tired. I had woken up early this morning to have a Skype meeting with a design influencer in Hong Kong. But I was in no mood to sleep. Not until Marco got back.
I went to an armchair next to the window, and gazed out of it into the dark night outside.
This did not help much. This window did not look out on the street, but to the garden, so I would not see Chiara or Marco come back. I felt my eyes drifting shut, but then they would snap open in panic, as if I was in danger.
My nausea had settled a little these past couple of weeks, which was lucky because I had been hiding it from Marco. But it came back in full force all of a sudden, and I had to rush to the bathroom to throw up.
