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We had been as close as sisters once. And the distance between us—which she had tried to bridge for years—was all my doing. I needed to repair our relationship.
She lifted the sleeping baby off her breast, and handed him to me, while repairing her clothing. She took him back almost instantly, but even so I felt the pang in my chest.
For goodness sake, Jess. Get over yourself.
I could see she had noticed, but she didn’t say anything. She took a moment, rubbing the baby’s back to burp him, before looking at me directly.
‘I don’t know if you remember him, but before Alexi came back into my life, I worked for a guy called Renzo Camaro.’
Even though I’d been thinking about him, the mention of Renzo’s name gave me such a shock I couldn’t disguise my reaction. I tensed, while blushing profusely.
Belle sent me a soft smile. ‘Apparently you do remember him?’
Does she know? Somehow?
For a moment I was terrified.
But then she added, ‘He was kind of unforgettable, especially where women were concerned.’
The tension in my gut eased, a bit. She thought I was just another woman who had noticed the infamous playboy’s many charms.
‘I remember he was always flirting with you,’ I said, trying to keep the bitterness out of my tone. My anger had nothing to do with Belle—and everything to do with my inability to fully process Renzo’s casual rejection all those years ago.
It was never meant to be more than a one-night hook-up. You have to get things into perspective.
‘Renzo flirted with everyone...’ Belle’s smile became pensive.‘Once.’
I was confused—why were we talking about him? Especially as I really didn’t want to talk about him.
‘I heard he had an accident and sold his team,’ I said, suddenly curious. Even though I didn’t want to be. I had stopped scouring the press and the celebrity media for information about him years ago, at the suggestion of the therapist I had seen for a while after my miscarriage. But it occurred to me, I hadn’t seen anything at all about him in over a year.
‘Yes, he did sell Destiny. In fact, he sold it to Alexi,’ she said.
I was kind of surprised. Alexi and Renzo had always been fierce rivals. But I tramped down on my curiosity. Renzo’s life was nothing to do with me, and never had been.
‘Alexi must have been pleased,’ I said dismissively, hating the foolish yearning to find out more about him.
‘Actually, Alexi wasn’t. Not really. And neither was I,’ Belle said.
‘But wasn’t Destiny his main rival?’ I asked, even though I didn’t know much about the Super League.
‘It was, and Alexi and Renzo were never friends, but we could both see the reasons for him selling to Galanti were all wrong.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘The crash... It changed him.’ Belle sighed, and I felt a strange ache in my chest.
‘I thought it wasn’t that bad,’ I said, my pulse accelerating. I had broken my embargo on reading about Renzo when the crash had happened, because it had been kind of unavoidable. But I realised now there had been very few details. All the papers had said—before they moved on to another juicy celebrity story—was that Renzo had survived and would recover.
‘Renzo’s management team were determined to give that impression. Basically to ensure the stock in the company didn’t take too much of a hit. But it was actually much more severe than they let on. He was trapped in the car for three hours. His left leg was badly crushed. And although they managed to save it, he’ll never be able to walk again without a limp.’ She took a moment to place the baby in his basinet on the terrace, then shouted a word of warning to her daughters. I could see the sheen of distress in her eyes, when her gaze met mine, though. And it echoed in my heart.
Camaro had been a good employer to Belle, and a good friend to her when she needed one—it was one of his few saving graces.
But I steeled myself against the squeeze in my ribs. I had no claim on this man, and no stake in his life. I had never even really known him, in anything other than a physical sense. We had had one night, the consequences of which had hurt me deeply, and which he had refused to acknowledge. But ultimately, those consequences were gone now. A part of my past that I needed to keep in my past.
But even so, I couldn’t stop myself from murmuring, ‘That’s tough for someone who used to be so active.’
‘It’s not just the physical trauma that’s the problem, though,’ she offered, her distress palpable now. ‘He’s become a shadow of his former self. The crash and its aftermath have fundamentally changed his personality.’
