Rumours: The Secret Billionaires

All she cared about was Leo and keeping him safe. Despite this, Leo’s recent questions about his daddy, where he was, niggled at her conscience, unbalancing her resolve.

‘Not even an hour for a coffee?’

‘I have a child, Toni. Have you any idea of the kind of responsibility that entails?’

Sadie had the satisfaction of seeing Toni stiffen at her words. She was putting him off and that was exactly what she wanted to do. There wasn’t room in her life for anyone except Leo.

* * *

Antonio had watched Sadie walk away, strangely muted because the charm he’d always relied on hadn’t achieved what he wanted—and what he wanted was Sadie Parker. But what Toni Adessi hadn’t been able to do, Antonio Di Marcello would. In just a few hours his two weeks of living a ‘normal’ life would be over. His challenge would be complete. It was time to resume his life. It was time to be Antonio Di Marcello once more.

Antonio needed to talk to someone, but Stavros was about to go undercover, face his challenge, and Antonio certainly wasn’t going to confide in Sebastien. There was no way he would let him know he’d won. That left only Alejandro to contact. For the last time he pulled out the antiquated phone and dialled Alejandro’s number.

‘Ei, Antonio.’ The welcome sound of his friend’s voice brought sense and perspective to the unsettling weirdness of the last two weeks.

‘You have no idea how good it is to hear my name,’ Antonio replied, trying to inject the kind of devil-may-care attitude he was known for into his voice.

‘So how was it?’

‘I’ve done it and even have ten euros left. I hope Sebastien invests it wisely.’ His joke cut through him. Sebastien had already invested wisely. He’d used his time and worked out exactly what it was he thought was needed in his life to bring balance. The kind of balance Sebastien himself had found with Monika. He’d known of Sadie’s presence at the garage, known of their weekend before Antonio’s marriage and that she was the one woman he’d really want if his life had been different. But had he known about Leo?

‘And?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I can hear uncertainty in your voice, minha amiga. What’s going on?’ Alejandro’s unusual and unnerving question found its mark.

‘There’s a woman.’

Alejandro laughed on the other end of the phone. ‘With you, Antonio, there is always a woman.’

‘This time it’s complicated.’ Antonio tried to fill him in.

‘In what way?’

‘We have a past.’ The silence at the end of the phone was long and intense and eventually Antonio continued, ‘There’s a child.’

‘Your child?’

‘That is what I intend to find out, and when I do, I will go back and claim what is mine. My son and my heir.’

CHAPTER FOUR

AT THE SOUND of the doorbell Sadie put down her paintbrush, trying not to feel irritated that somebody had taken the time to call on her on a Sunday afternoon, when the few hours Leo spent with her parents each weekend were always used for losing herself in creating paintings to sell locally. Art was a passion she wished she had more time for.

The doorbell sounded again, its insistence reverberating through the small apartment like an omen of bad tidings. What did someone want today of all days? She quickly checked her reflection in the small mirror in the hallway, brushing her hands over her hair to smooth down the wayward strands which always managed to escape the confines of her ponytail.

The doorbell sounded once more as she pressed the intercom button, but before she could ask who it was, a male voice knocked her completely off balance. ‘I need to speak to you, Sadie.’

‘Toni?’ A frown furrowed her brow as she tried to pinpoint why she wasn’t completely sure if it was the mechanic who was about to leave and head back to Rome. He sounded different. A shiver of apprehension rushed down her spine. ‘Is that you?’

‘Yes.’ Toni’s voice was definitely different. Was that because he wasn’t with her, because she couldn’t see his face?

‘What do you want?’

‘To see you—before I leave for Rome.’

‘Come up.’ Sadie somewhat reluctantly pressed the street door open and inwardly cursed Daniela, who she suspected had told him her address. She really didn’t want the complication of seeing Toni again, especially after she’d made her thoughts more than clear on that subject the last time they’d spoken.

With a sigh of resignation she opened the door to her small but neat apartment as the sound of footsteps on the stone steps drifted up to her. She turned and walked back into the hallway of her apartment, wondering what it was Toni had to say now, when they’d established she wasn’t interested in any kind of relationship at all. She’d thought reminding him she was a single mother had dealt with that.

Could her ever-increasing doubts about him be right?

She glanced in the mirror again as a man’s figure filled her doorway. She stared at the reflection, unable to believe the image of the man behind her. Antonio Di Marcello stood there, confident, powerful and on the threshold of the life she’d created for herself after he’d abandoned her. A life he had wanted no part in.

He was the man she’d given her heart and soul to, only to be treated with cold disregard for the last four years, and now he was here. Every unsettling suspicion she’d had over the last two weeks must have been right. Toni Adessi had been sent to work in the garage by this man to find out all about her. And she knew exactly why. Leo. The moment she’d dreaded, yet had wanted, had arrived.

‘We need to talk, Sadie.’ His deep voice sent a shiver of awareness rippling all over her and she bit down hard, drawing in a deep breath. She couldn’t be affected by him still. She just couldn’t.

She put back her shoulders and turned round to face him, her chin held high as she tried to fill herself with the kind of confidence needed to deal with this situation—this man. It took all her willpower not to drink in the image he created as he stood there in his expensive dark suit, exuding the kind of dominance best suited to a boardroom.

‘We didn’t have anything to say four years ago, Antonio, and we certainly don’t now.’ She didn’t move—couldn’t move. The hallway suddenly seemed dark and narrow as he moved towards her, into her home, into her new life. The one she’d built without him for herself and Leo—his son.

‘I don’t recall being given the opportunity to say anything four years ago or being told that I was to be a father.’ The unconcealed menace in his voice as he came to stand so very close to her should have intimidated her, but, to her complete horror, the spark of attraction ignited and her heartbeat raced as she inhaled the intoxicating freshness of his aftershave, stirring up the past.

‘If my memory serves me right, you were more concerned about the marriage you were due to make only a few weeks later. You used me, Antonio, in the cruellest way possible. You showed me things I could never have, made me want something that could never exist, not with you anyway. After that, you were lucky I even tried to contact you.’

The fire of indignation rushed through her and she glared angrily at him, all the words she’d rehearsed over the years completely forgotten in the passion of the moment. The cool, level-headed woman she’d so desperately wanted to portray when she finally came face to face with the father of her child was nowhere in sight. One look at the man she’d lost her heart to and that woman had evaporated.

‘I didn’t promise you anything, Sadie.’ His cool and insanely calm exterior began to chip away at her confidence, but she couldn’t let him know. She had a job to do and that was to protect Leo from the man who could upset his life, the man who could inflict the worst kind of pain on him when he walked away again, putting his own needs before those of his son.

He’d walked out on her, left her all but destitute in a country she’d lived in for only a short time. Then, if that wasn’t enough, he hadn’t done anything for Leo—he hadn’t even bothered to find out if his child was a boy or a girl. Despite asking—no, pleading—in a letter she’d written after that horrible visit to his family home, he hadn’t contacted her at all. He’d completely turned his back on her—and Leo. If he’d done it once, he could do it again.

‘Neither did you own up to your responsibility. All you were concerned about was your duty to your family, duty to the woman they’d always wanted you to marry.’

The hurt of hearing those words still speared through her, even four years later. As did the shame that she’d foolishly believed what they’d had was different, that somehow the love she’d instantly felt for him would change things. Change him.

‘We could never have been anything, Sadie. I made that clear.’ The harshness of his words and the severe set of his jaw intensified the hurt, serving only to inflame her anger. This wasn’t just about her and the way he’d let her down. This was about Leo and she’d fight to the bitter end for her son. But was it right to deny Leo his father? The question pushed forward in her mind. She ignored it.

‘Yes, you certainly did. After you’d taken me to your bed, taken from me the one thing you didn’t deserve.’ She fired the blame back at him, even though deep down she knew it was her own foolish dreams which had set all this in motion. If she hadn’t been so taken in by his charm, by the fact that a man so undeniably sexy and handsome had sought her out at the party she’d been coerced into going to by friends, then they wouldn’t be standing here having this discussion.

Neither would she have Leo. That was unthinkable.

He moved closer, as if he sensed her change of mood, and reached out to push her hair back from her face and she fought hard not to tremble. She wanted to be angry, to retaliate with every disappointment-filled moment she and Leo had endured, but he was too close.

‘I took nothing you didn’t want to give, Sadie.’ His deep voice had become seductive and hoarse, doing untold things to her pulse rate. After all he’d done, how could he still affect her like this?

His dark gaze locked with hers and she hurtled back four years to the luxury of the hotel room where they’d spent one passionate weekend locked away. His eyes had been so full of passion and desire it had filled her with power, intensifying the need to experience the thrill of being possessed by a man. As he’d kissed her lips she’d sighed against his, knowing then and there that there was only one way it would all end. She’d wanted him, wanted his kiss, his touch and, more than anything, his possession. She’d wanted to be his—completely.

What was she thinking? Shock snapped the door to the memories of that night closed again and she inhaled deeply, trying to calm her nerves and regain the will to fight. Thoughts of Leo brought it back rapidly, restoring her resolve.

‘You need to leave.’ She pushed hard against Antonio’s arm, forcing him to step back, and as she stood there looking up at him, her breathing hard and fast, she tried to bring her wayward body under control. How could the pulse of desire be alive deep within her when she hated him so much for what he’d done, not just to her but to Leo? How could she want and hate him at the same time?

‘Not without seeing Leo. He is my child. My son.’ It wasn’t a question and without a shadow of doubt she knew that he had come for Leo. It must have been Toni Adessi. She must have been right all along. He’d been working at the garage just to get the information Antonio wanted out of her. Why else would he be leaving? He’d done his dirty work. There was no reason to stay. It all made perfect sense.

‘I despise you!’ She hurled all that hurt at him, desperate to quash the heady need which was heating every part of her body, needing to feel the fear to set her anger free. ‘Do you honestly believe that I would want to walk back into your life again, now that it suits you to play at being a father? Have you thought about Leo even once?’

‘I have thought of nothing else, Sadie.’

‘So why didn’t you come yourself instead of sending someone to spy on me? Why did you get Toni Adessi to do your dirty work?’ He frowned and she ploughed on, intent only on making her annoyance known. ‘Did you really think sending Toni here to spy on me would achieve your aims?’

* * *

Antonio laughed. She actually believed Toni was real, that he was working for him? What would she say when she knew the man she’d sat with so contentedly over lunch just a few days ago, spilling secrets, was him?

He looked at the fire of angry sparks in her green eyes and the tightness of her lips and had to smother the overwhelming need to crush those lips beneath his until she gasped his name the way she had the first time he’d made her his. An intoxicating desire to hold her, to caress and make her his once more, rushed through him.

‘Do you really think I would allow another man to take you out for lunch?’ He was taunting her, but already he knew she was making connections. ‘Or talk with you and my son in the park? If anyone was going to stop the roundabout when he wanted to get off, it was me. His father.’

‘That was you?’ The incredulously gasped question raised the beat of desire inside him, taking it from a subtle and controllable yearning to a wild torrent of need. How could one woman unravel his senses, his control so instantly, so utterly?

‘Sì, mia bella. That was me. Toni served his purpose well, but now he is gone.’

She stepped towards him, her chin lifted in a supreme show of defiance, which only served to increase his admiration for her. She was all fire and passion and he knew in that instant that what had started between them four years ago was far from over.

‘I want you out of my home, Antonio.’ Her voice was low and hardness filled every word, determination only adding to her pale beauty.

‘That is not possible, mia bella.’ He moved past her and into the small living space, his attention instantly taken by the doors open onto the terrace and an easel standing abandoned. She painted? It seemed there was still much to learn about this woman.

‘I am not your mia bella.’ Her anger was so palpable it wrapped around him as he made his way out onto the terrace and looked down at the painting, a copy of a photograph of the Duomo di Milano.

He turned and raised his brows at her as she glared from the doorway. ‘You did not object to that term of endearment once.’

‘That was before. Now I do and I’d like you to leave. Right now.’

‘Why? Are you expecting someone? Were you hoping Toni would call on you to say a farewell before he left?’ It struck him that it had been Toni’s name on her lips when she’d first spoken. Did that mean she’d fallen for him? An unsettling thought took over. How many other men had drifted in and out of her life—and Leo’s?

‘Don’t be absurd. Leo will be home soon and I don’t want him to find you here.’ A hint of uncertainty filled her words and he noticed she couldn’t look at him, that she was nervously glancing at the clock on the wall.

‘He will have to get used to seeing more of me when we are in Rome.’ Again he couldn’t help but taunt her, wanting to bring back the fiery passion.

‘We?’

‘Sì mia bella. We will be leaving for Rome—today.’ He stepped back into the room and towards the mother of his child. As he got closer the need to touch her sparked through him, but the only way to get exactly what he wanted was to drive this situation in the direction he wanted.

‘I’m not going to Rome with you and neither is Leo. Why the hell should I go anywhere with a man who all but denied his son’s existence?’ That spark of passionate defiance leapt from her eyes again and he curled his fingers into a tight fist to stop himself from reaching out to touch her, from soothing that anger away with a caress.

After visiting his family home for the first time in over three years, he knew Sadie spoke the truth, knew that what she’d told Toni was true. His mother had turned her away, but he’d be damned if he was going to beg and plead. His mother had proudly told him how she’d protected his forthcoming marriage and he could still hear the cold words now.

I was not about to let a foreign gold digger prevent me from finally getting the daughter I wanted and you ruined that with your womanising ways.

If he’d ever been in doubt of being wanted and loved by his mother, he now knew the truth. She’d wanted a daughter and then had a son—her only child.

‘You have kept my son from me long enough, Sadie. There will be no negotiation on this. You will both return to Rome with me.’

‘I can’t just leave my life here. I have a child. Have you any idea what that means?’ She looked up at him, her lips pressed together in an angry line, and all he wanted to do was make them soften, make them sigh in pleasure, but now was not the time. Now was about getting the single most important thing. His son.

‘I meant what I said, Sadie. There will be no negotiations. You will return to Rome with me.’

‘I’m not about to uproot Leo, especially for a man who has already let him down.’ The barb hit its mark and a pang of guilt raced through him. To Leo his absence would be no different to what he’d felt when he was that age—a total lack of love from either his mother or father, even though his had been physically present in his life.

‘Yet you plan to move back to England. Isn’t that uprooting?’ It had been that bit of information she’d willingly given Toni that had made prompt action paramount. There was no way his son was leaving the country. It was far more than keeping the next Di Marcello heir in Italy for the sake of the family name. It was keeping his son in Italy—with him. He might not know how, but he was going to be a father—the kind of father he’d never had.

‘He will have a better life there with me and my parents.’ Her opinion, that his son would be better off living away from him when he’d missed so much time with him already, only convinced him further that what he planned to do was the right thing.

‘He will have much more in Rome—with me, his father.’ He couldn’t quite keep the anger from his voice and she looked up at him, wary and uncertain, as silence stretched between them and the tension moved up a notch.

Finally she spoke, her words holding a ring of regret to them. ‘No. Never. You had your chance, Antonio.’

‘Did I? Did you tell me, to my face? Did you say those words to me, Sadie? That you were pregnant with my child?’ Anger at her response, at her need to continue to block him from his son’s life, crashed over him. He folded his arms and waited for her reply, her excuse for not trying harder, but deep down he knew the blame lay with his mother. She hadn’t passed on any messages to him.

‘No, but...’ Sadie stumbled beneath his scrutiny, but he couldn’t allow himself any sympathy for her. He had to remember the secret she’d kept from him for the last four years.

‘But nothing, Sadie. We will go to Rome, where we will be married at the earliest opportunity.’ Her gaze flew to his, panic and question in her eyes.

‘Married? Are you mad?’ She gasped the words out as if she couldn’t comprehend what he was saying.

‘Am I mad to get tangled up in marriage once more? Quite possibly. You do recall what you said to me just last week?

‘The only man who has a right to make any contribution to the decisions I make regarding my son is the man who puts a ring on my finger.’

She looked at him aghast, unable to say anything, and he continued to drive home his point. ‘I will be that man, Sadie, make no mistake about that.’

‘I don’t want to marry you.’ She all but spat those words at him and the fiery passion he’d seen once before in her eyes returned—as did the challenge. And challenges were exactly what he thrived on.

‘It’s not about what you want, or even what I want. This is about what is best for Leo.’ She glared at him as he spoke and he knew he was winning. ‘If you want to return to England, then go. Leo stays here—with me.’

* * *

Sadie’s world was crashing down around her. How had she been so stupid to think that Toni had been sent by Antonio, when all along he was the very man she least wanted to see? Panic rushed through her faster than lightning. How could she fight against the power of a man like Antonio Di Marcello?

What if his threat was real? Would he really take Leo from her?

‘So you think that spending two weeks in disguise is conducive to good behaviour for a father, do you?’ She could hardly think straight with his threat hanging heavily between them, so she fired the only challenge she could think of at him, pleased to see the brief flicker of shock which crossed his handsome face. ‘It doesn’t make you the kind of man I want Leo to look up to.’

He unfolded his arms and stepped far too close to her, but she refused to be intimidated. He might be the all-powerful businessman, but she wasn’t about to let him sweep in and demand what she and Leo should do.

‘I am Leo’s father. I have rights too, Sadie. Rights you have denied me since the day he was born.’ His words were menacingly quiet and she knew she was playing with fire, but she couldn’t do what he wanted, even though she knew he was right.

‘I wrote to you, Antonio. I tried everything I could to let you know I was pregnant with your child. Of course you wanted to write off that weekend, to play at being happily married with your new wife. But that didn’t last very long, did it? What was it, six months?’

‘Sì. Full marks for research.’

The defensive note in his voice shocked her, highlighting the fact that the divorce so soon after his marriage actually mattered to him. Had his male ego been crushed by its failure?

She tried to recall all she’d read about it before she’d stopped herself obsessing over a man who didn’t want her or his child. He had been photographed with many women in the months after the wedding. Clearly all the fault lay with him. She couldn’t subject Leo to a father like that, a man who wanted something and would then move on once he’d got it.

‘It has everything to do with it, Antonio. Why would I want a man who, apart from abandoning me when I carried his child, can’t even honour his wedding vows to be part of my son’s life?’ She was certain her new line of attack would deter him from the senseless idea of marriage, but the dark look which crossed his face pushed away that certainty.

‘What happened between Eloisa and myself has nothing to do with this and most definitely nothing to do with my ability to be a father to Leo.’ She stepped back as anger reigned supreme in his voice, dripping from every word. She hated the fact that he’d named his ex-wife, given her an identity. It made her feel inferior. She was the woman he’d had a brief affair with before leaving behind his bachelor life—but not his playboy ways, if the papers were to be believed.

‘Can you give Leo security and provide him with a loving and happy home?’ Defiantly she tried another line of attack. ‘Can you be there when he needs you in the middle of the night if he has a bad dream? Can you be the kind of father who will spend time with him for no other reason than you want to?’

She took a breath from her passionate appeal and looked at him, his silence telling her all she needed to know. He hadn’t thought about those kind of things—all he’d wanted was to claim something he considered his.

‘I want my son, Sadie, and I will do all it takes.’ He lowered his voice, the deep tones full of control and determination.

‘He is not a possession. A thing to be coveted. He is a child. My child.’ She turned and walked away from him, exasperated by the circles they were talking in. All it came back to each time was that he wanted Leo. How she wished she could paint over that weekend as easily as she could cover the blank canvas on her easel. ‘And I will never allow you to take him from me.’

She turned and looked down onto the street from the small window, her back to Antonio as if that would make him disappear, make all this go away. She’d once foolishly dreamt of him turning up to claim his son and declare his love for her, tell her that he couldn’t live without her, but now she knew that was never going to happen. The man who stood arrogantly in her small apartment was as cold as ice. He was as unfeeling and uncaring as his parents. Did she really want Leo to grow up like that?