He had given her the most beautiful son in the world and that was something she was forever grateful for. She had gotten a daughter as well, but Piero was hers, through and through, and she had treasured and spoiled him since the day he was born. He was her favorite, just as Alba belonged to her husband and she made no apologies for it. That was why she was furious that he had married beneath him! She had been especially selected for Adolfo – it had not been a love match, certainly not some hurried courtship, but something carefully planned and had taken months to implement. She had approved of the pairing of him and Sophia until the woman had foolishly gotten herself in trouble and had chosen another man over her Piero. She had seen the way Sophia looked at him whenever they were in the same room and knew how much she regretted her actions, but it was too late now. She knew her son well and knew him enough to realize that even if she had not married Mattia, Piero would not have gone back to her. But he had chosen a commoner, a woman from another country, and that was something Bettina could not accept!
*****
“I do not understand what you are saying.”
She resisted the impulse to wring her hands in distress. Lauren had spent most of the night struggling with the decision and the more she thought about it, the more she realized that it was the right thing to do. They both needed time and space and she was going to give them that.
“I am not going back with you.”
His intense dark eyes wandered over her face.
“That is of course ridiculous and unacceptable.”
“I am sorry you feel that way.” He had woken her up with his mouth on her body and had sent her into a dizzy spin as usual. Now, after the breakfast had been dispensed with and they had gotten dressed, she had told him her decision. “I need two weeks.”
“We are to leave tomorrow. I have meetings planned and you have to get settled. I am sorry I have to leave you so soon after we get there but it cannot be avoided. There are some hiccups with the new line of men’s clothing, and it is up to me to sort it out.”
“There you go.” She grabbed onto that desperately. “The brand is in the middle of the summer line and getting ready for the fall line and right after that the winter line. You are busy – so much so that you will not know that I am not there.”
He stared at her as if she had taken leave of her senses. “I will certainly notice that my wife is not by my side when I come home from those meetings or when I am at a function that requires that you are by my side. Does this have to do with the ridiculous argument we had last night? I thought it was behind us.”
“It is not, and this is not about that.” She shook her head. “Maybe it has something to do with it. I need two weeks of space between us to see if this is something that we really want.”
He moved towards her; his dark eyes flat. “What are you trying to say? Are you planning on leaving me?”
She held out her hands in entreaty. “I can’t,” she told him simply. “I wish I could, especially after finding out that I have competition for your affections.”
“You do not…”
“Please let me finish. You love her, or loved her, I don’t which it is, but all I know is that I want you to go back home, see if being married to me is something you really want. See her,” she choked and could not continue.
“You want me to see Sophia?” His brows descended in a frown.
“Don’t you want to?” she whispered.
“That is a non-issue right now. We are both married.”
She expelled a breath. “That was not the response I was hoping for, Piero. I expected you to say that you are in love with me and no longer have feelings for her.” She lifted her hands to the fat braid at the left side of her shoulder. “But you can’t can you? Whether it is love or residual passion, there is still something there and you cannot deny it.”
“This is ridiculous!” he exploded. “What is this two weeks separation supposed to prove?”
“That we are not making the biggest mistake of our lives.” She whispered. She blinked back the tears. “I am in love with you, but you already knew that. I am in love with you, but if it comes to it and you want to be with the woman you really love,” she choked at the words, “if you really want to be with her, I can do the right thing and step back, but I will not live in her shadow. I am too much of a woman to ever subject myself to that.”
Straightening her shoulders, she lifted her chin and stared at him defiantly. “I am standing my ground on this one. I need two weeks to sort things out inside my head as well as to give you the freedom to decide if you really want me as your wife.”
He stared at her for a ponderous moment, fraught with tension, before he turned away and reached for his jacket.
“I am running late for a meeting. We will finish this later.”
“I am going to my apartment.” Her voice was hoarse with unshed tears. If he had told her that he had no intention of leaving without her, taken her into his arms and told her that she was being silly, she would have given in, would have abandoned her decision, but he had done nothing of the sort, which proved to her without a doubt that she was right! Her husband was not in love with her! “And I am staying there tonight.”
He turned and looked at her coolly, his face expressionless.
“As you wish.”
Without another word, he turned and walked out of the room with the finality of walking out of her life. Lauren stood there in shock, hoping that the doors would open again and he would come rushing back in, demanding that she stop this nonsense and that she come home with him, but it did not happen. Sinking down onto the luxurious carpet, she folded her hands over her drawn up knees and gave into tears, her shoulders shaking with the flood of tears flowing from her eyes. The humiliating part of it was that if he came back into the room and told her that he wanted her to come back with him, she would have gladly gone with him. But it hurt something fierce to realize that she was in love with a man who loved another woman!
Chapter 5
Lauren stared at her reflection in the mirror, grimacing at the redness and the puffiness of her eyes, but not surprised by it. She had spent last night crying until she had fallen into a fitful sleep. Her husband had texted her briefly - texted, not called - to let her know that he would be leaving early this morning and if she had changed her mind, she should let him know before they take off. She had spent the night hoping earnestly that he would come to her, knock at her door and demand to be admitted, and she would let him in and fly into his arms. He would lift her up and take her into the bedroom and make love to her until everything was okay between them again. But he had not done so. She wondered what he had done when he got back to the hotel suite. Had he gone straight to bed and fallen asleep without even thinking about her? Or had he found someone to occupy her side of the bed? She had tortured herself with that and it had brought the tears flowing from her eyes. This morning she had awoken to a terse text from him telling her that he was airborne and would let her know when he arrived. That was it, nothing else which cemented her decision to stay away from him until the next two weeks. She was hoping that it would not be more than that. She had called and told her mother before she read it in the papers. By this afternoon today, if even before that, she was sure that it would be noticed that Lauren De Luca was not going home with her husband. She supposed that her husband’s PR team would make a statement and spin something that said she would be joining him at a later date.