Page 30 of Forbidden Until Midnight

As Karl, Amita and Aditi fell into easy conversation, Santo’s mind was elsewhere. One of the largest neighbouring competitors for olive oil in Puglia had approached him last week, needing to sell the company. The man’s brother-in-law had got into gambling debt with some very dangerous people and he needed capital fast. Others had come sniffing around, but the man wanted to sell to Santo because he respected the land and the local community.

Santo knew that everyone here thought he’d made his millions by being ruthless. Not a single one of them would have considered that one could make money and still keep one’s morals. The work he’d done in the past years to create a community response to the fires that had ravaged Puglia and, in all likelihood would continue to do so in the future, had garnered respect. And that had paid dividends.

His phone rang and, excusing himself from the table, he left to find a quiet place to take the call.

He followed the staircase behind him up to the second-floor balcony, the lighting dim and the noise much quieter up here. It was a quick call, barely a few words, and just like that, Santo had nearly doubled the size of his estate.

Pocketing his phone, he braced his elbows on the railing and surveyed the scene below. People were chatting, dancing, laughing and drinking and all he could think was that a man’s entire career, his life, had just been surrendered.

A movement further along the balcony caught his eye and he’d barely turned when recognition struck him hard.Of courseit would be her.Of coursethey would have somehow found each other amongst the two hundred guests that evening.

Eleanor wanted to hide but she knew he’d seen her. He hadn’t at first, not when he’d been on the phone, but in trying to leave she’d made herself known.

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.’

She felt the pause between her statement and his response like an eternity.

‘Nothing to interrupt.’ The clipped words dropped to the floor between them like a stone.

She nodded, deeply uncomfortable with the seething twist of self-pity and jealousy coursing through her veins. It shouldn’t matter. She could be happy for him. Because, truly, he deserved to be happy.

‘I...’ She let the sentence trail off as she saw he’d turned away, but the word stopped him.

Eventually he looked back at her.‘Sì?’

‘It’s okay,’ she said, gesturing for him to leave.

Santo bit out an irritable sigh. ‘What is it, Eleanor?’

She swallowed. ‘I just wanted you to know that I heard what you said last year,’ she explained, staring at the floor, cursing herself for being so weak. He’d told her to be strong. To be stronger. And she wanted to show him that shewas. ‘I...have made some changes this year and I...just wanted you to know that,’ she said, raising her eyes to his face before the overwhelming urge to turn back into the shadows and disappear crashed over her.

He stared back at her, the blankness painful, but nothing more than she deserved. She had used him last year. And instinctively she knew that few people did that and survived unscathed.

‘Did you want an award? A round of applause, perhaps?’

‘No, I just wanted you to know,’ she said, holding fast against the disdain she saw in his gaze. But disdain was better than what had been there before, which was nothing less than a brutal indifference. ‘I have a job now. And I’m finishing my degree. I have a plan,’ she said, determined for the first time that evening. To prove herself to him, to herself even.

He frowned for the first time, the tiny movement showing that he wasn’t just a statue.

‘What plan?’ he asked.

She shook her head. ‘It’s not important,’ she said, suddenly feeling the urge to run. She went to push past him on the shallow balcony, but he caught her upper arm in his hand.

‘What plan, Eleanor?’ he asked again, more forcefully.

‘It’s nothing,’ she dismissed. ‘Certainly nothing to do with you,’ she said, confused by the sudden whiplash of his interest.

‘Carson is not a man to mess with,’ Santo warned.

Eleanor let out a surprised laugh. ‘You think I don’t know that?’

‘Whatever you’re thinking—’

‘Is none of your business, as I’ve said,’ she stressed, getting annoyed. Yes, he’d helped her see what a mess she’d been making of things, but that didn’t mean he got to treat her like a child.

She pulled her arm back and, as if only because he didn’t want to make a scene, he released her.

‘Don’t do anything stupid, Eleanor,’ he commanded.

---