Page 34 of Bride of Betrayal
The sun had set and Madrid glittered like a bauble spread out below. The air was mild. Still. An almost full moon hung in the sky. She hoped it wasn’t a bad sign.
‘Angelica.’
Angelica.Less than twenty-four hours ago it had beenAngel. She forced herself to turn away from the view to face Leo. He was standing with hands on his hips. His face was no longer expressionless, it was grim. He’d taken off his tie and jacket.
Without preamble she said simply, ‘I don’t have a lover. I have a mother and brother who I helped get out of Italy to protect them and give them new lives.’
Chapter Eight
Leo must havejust been looking at her stupidly for a long moment because as he watched she went and fished her phone out of her bag and then she was holding it out to him. He looked down and saw an elegant middle-aged woman with dark hair going a little grey, and a young man, tall and skinny.
They were unmistakably related to Angelica. They all shared the dark hair, amazing bone structure and unusual eyes. They were smiling and the young man had his arm around his mother.
‘I haven’t seen them in four years.’
Leo looked at Angelica, still reeling. He handed back her phone. ‘Why did you never tell me about them?’
‘I couldn’t. I was told to tell no one.’
‘By who?’
‘The charity who helped me get them out.’ She put down her phone and paced away from Leo. He wanted to grab her arm and pull her back. There was a tightness building inside him.
She turned around. ‘After my father was killed—’
‘I just assumed you had no other family.’
She nodded. ‘I know, and I didn’t correct you.’ She went on, ‘After he was killed, Paolo was young, vulnerable, angry with the Mafia. And there was always a chance they could come and kill him and my mother too even though my father had been very peripheral to the gangs. It hadn’t stopped them killing him. I was afraid Paolo would do something reckless to demonstrate his anger.’
‘Where were you?’
‘I was already gone, modelling. I was eighteen. I was terrified that Paolo would get caught up in the violence. Mama was, too. Then I read about the charity that does work getting people out…most people don’t have the money to leave Italy and so they’re still in danger, but I had enough to send them further. Mama changed their name to her grandmother’s maiden name. Paolo found it difficult to adapt at first, understandably…but now he’s graduating from university with a degree in law and they’ve both built new lives for themselves, away from the grief and violence.’
Leo could hear the pride and emotion in her voice. But this was…huge. Acting on instinct and needing a moment to get his wits together, he went over to the drinks cabinet and poured himself a slug of whiskey.
Remembering himself at the last moment, he looked back at Angelica. She was pale, eyes huge, and it caught at him deep inside. He tensed against it. ‘Would you like anything?’
She shook her head. ‘No, thank you… Leo… I—’
He held up the glass, stopping her. ‘Just give me a second…’
He put the glass down and ran a hand through his hair. He felt as if he were coming undone. He also felt…a kind of gut-punch sensation to acknowledge that she hadn’t told him before.
‘Why didn’t you tell me? Before?’
Her throat moved as she swallowed. ‘Because I was told to trust no one for at least the first year of their relocation. I wasn’t allowed to see them. You know the world we came from. You know how anyone affiliated with people they’ve killed are at risk. It was dangerous. Paolo was just starting to settle down… I couldn’t jeopardise their safety…’
‘You didn’t trust me.’
‘I was going to tell you. The day…the day that we broke up.’
The day she’d said:I love you, Leo.He recalled all too easily the terror that had entered his veins at the thought of what those words meant. Destruction. Devastation. He’d wondered how had he let it get that far?
But, if he was being entirely honest, those words hadn’t just evoked terror, they’d evoked something even worse.Hope.The very tiny fledgling seed of something he hadn’t ever dared to imagine because it could never happen. In case it was taken away from him again.
Butshe hadn’t meant it. Or, had she? Leo didn’t know any more. He couldn’t think of that now.
‘Did Aldo know?’
