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CHAPTER 16
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2021-08-14 08:00:34By the time Alessandro got downstairs, he was back to being the man most people knew him to be. He entered the study to find it a veritable Batcave of hi-tech equipment. Giovanni, the two policemen, two men he didn’t recognize but knew came from some special services department, all of them stood or sat about messing with the complicated array of communications stuff.
Stone-faced, hard-eyed, he went directly toward Giovanni. Not by so much as a flicker of an eyelash did Giovanni's face reveal what he must be thinking, knowing how long Alessandro had been with Hailee.
“It’s almost time, Alex,” he said quietly. “Everything’s already prepared.”
Alessandro gave a curt nod and moved over to the desk. The others in the room watched him like wary cats following the hunting pace of a da
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She sucked in a breath of air, her heartbeat pounding in her head. But it was no use. The fact that Alessandro had actually convinced himself that Guido, his father, had nothing to do with Ariana's abduction, only made this moment of truth more impossible to deal with.“Oh, my God, you’re still protecting him, aren't you?” she derided bitterly. “No matter how many dirty tricks he pulls on you, you still refuse to see what a nasty, cunning, evil man he is… Even when the proof of it is shoved right under your very…” His hand snaking around her neck and yanking her forcefully towards him stopped the words.“Hold your tongue, you little shrew!” he rasped. “Before I bite it off!”“Right now, I hate and despise you so much… You have no idea…” Hailee threw into
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The car stopped and her heart too, for a few seconds. The driver got out, stepping up to open her door. Her senses were assailed by the sweet scent of flowers and the crisp tang of fruit, the quietness, the sheer peace that enveloped her just another deception she had to do battle with. The house from the back appeared quite humble when compared with its dramatic front. It had a big white wall with blue-painted shutters thrown back from small windows and a terracotta-tiled roof. Twin blue doors stood open to offer a welcome. Hailee gritted her teeth, tried to make her suddenly shaky legs move. A cicada sawed lazily, hidden somewhere in a tree. No other sound. Nothing. She remembered that silence and felt her back frozen even if outside the sun was high and hot. &n
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It was like witnessing the most spiritual communion life could offer. And no one privy to it couldn’t be moved by the vision. Not Guido, who lowered his silvered head and shook it with a sharp, jerky motion that was almost pained. Not the thin, dark-haired woman standing quietly in a corner of the room. Not even Alessandro, still standing tensely in the open doorway, who had to close his eyes to block out the heart-wrenching vision. The seconds ticked by. No one moved. Not Hailee. Not the baby. Not father or son or the strange woman present in the room. Not even the air in the room... Then the small head lifted, still frowning, still cross as she fixed her mother with a condemning look.“I love you, mummy,” Ariana said. Hailee's legs gave away beneath her. Hearing her was such a sweet but also a gut-wr
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Frustration and fear that came from experience in dealing with Guido Baroni, made Hailee tremble inside. Black and white… Alessandro dealt in black and white. The grey area in Guido's favor was that Hailee would never be able to prove she didn’t go to bed with another man! “Signora? (Ita for ‘Ma’am’)” The demand brought her eyes flickering into focus. Assunta was standing by her chair, her smile warm. “Signora Baroni… La bambina, (Italian for ‘little girl’)” she prompted softly. “No need to give you my baby… At last, Ari sleeps peacefully with her mummy's arms around her.” Asleep… Hailee glanced down in surprise to find that Ariana was indeed fast asleep, her body heavy and her limbs slack, her steady breathing a sign that, just as, Assu
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Hailee went hot, then cold, then began tingling all over as his softly provoking tone sent disturbing little messages to all her senses.“Alessandro, if you don’t mind, I will eat my dinner here in the suite,” she said coolly as a way to counteract the disturbance.“Out of the question! You will eat in the dining room as is the custom in this house,” he ordained. She didn’t feel bothered by it. At least that other tone, the more intimate one, had gone from his voice. Hailee shook her head.“No. I won't leave Ari here alone. She may wake up and be frightened.”“Assunta is here, with her, is she not?”“Yes, she is,” Hailee conceded that point. “But Assunta is not Ari's mother, is she? She's had enough upsets in her little life recently without waking to a str
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Hailee was squatting by the cultivated border of one of the many white-painted terrace walls, carefully coaxing bougainvillea strands around a wire support that she had just constructed, secure in the knowledge that she could hear Ariana's happy voice drifting up to her from where she played on the beach with Assunta. An electric whirring sound behind her warned Hailee of Guido's approach. She didn't turn, didn’t even reveal she was aware of his unpleasant presence. But her inner sigh was heavy. In the six days since she had arrived here, Hailee had carefully avoided any contact at all with her father-in-law. He came to see Ariana each lunchtime, guiding his chair into the suite and staying long enough to share lunch with her baby. But Hail
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While giving her a grin, Guido nodded.“It would be difficult to deny this when she is the perfect image of you.”“And remember also that Ari is at the age when she needs her mother the most.”“Of course!” Guido looked almost shocked that Hailee should feel the need to tell him that.“All children need their mother…” he added, his attention drifting back to the beach where the game had now finished and Ariana was busy with her bucket and spade while Assunta mounted a beach umbrella over her to keep off the sun.“Alex was entirely devoted to his mamma,” Guido went on softly. “On this same beach, they would play together… just like that.”“Ariadne,” Hailee prompted gently.“Eh, sì (Ita for &
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Did he mean by that, that she owed him the use of her body in return for his retrieving her stolen child? Hailee looked at him in horror. “But you hate and despise me! You even hated yourself for what happened the last time we shared a bed!” “This is quite true.” His hard face tightened. “But if I had wanted the whole world to know that Alessandro Baroni was foolish enough to marry a cheating woman,” he threw at Hailee, “I would’ve divorced her three years ago and left her by herself with her illegitimate child!” Hailee blanched at the intended insult. He took the reaction as his due. “As it is,” he continued, “to the world and this household, we are still very much man and wife. And man and wife share a bed and have a certain amount of marital privacy which doesn’t include
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“Oh, no…” Alessandro gritted. “He lied to me, wasn't he? The manipulative old devil was put on a pathetic act to make me jump to his bidding!” “Guido assures me he knows he's a wicked old man,” Hailee put in soothingly. “I should kill him,” he muttered. “Please, Alex… Don't do that!” Hailee cried, looking genuinely alarmed. “Your daughter will never forgive you! She adores that nasty old man!” She shouldn't have said that… Hailee realized it the moment the words left her mouth and his face suddenly darkened, his body rolling sideways out of her slackened grasp. “My daughter… My own flesh and blood…” he mumbled. “The child I rejected before she was even born, because of him.” “Oh, Alex, don't,” she murmured, coming to lean over him, arms holding now instead of clinging. “Blaming your father will only make you bitter. And I don't want you to be bitter! I want us to finally be happy,
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It began to rain, quite suddenly… An absolute deluge that completely halted her miserable thoughts and sent her running for cover as fast as she could. By the time Hailee reached the villa steps, she was drenched to the skin. She began running upwards, head down to shield her face from the worst of the rain. So, Hailee wasn’t aware of the person hurrying down the steps with a big umbrella open ready for her, until she crashed right into the solid wall of his chest. Hailee cried out, almost tumbling backward with the impact, and would’ve done if a strong hand hadn’t caught her arm to steady her. She looked up, a shaken ‘thank you’ ready on her lips, then was struck silent when she found herself staring into a pair of guarded golden eyes. Alessandro… Her b
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And this time, he went! He really went away as she asked him to do! Alessandro just walked out of the house without another word, without trying to make Hailee change her mind! He simply removed himself from her presence… In a second, from everything seeming so wonderfully fine a couple of weeks ago, it now felt as if Hailee's whole world had come crashing down at her feet again! “Guido…” she murmured heavily. Again, Alessandro leaving her was Guido’s doing. Not deliberately this time, but once again he had pulled the key player out from under her. Her key player was his own key player! At this point, it was time to go and see how much damage the old man had done to himself. As Hailee was making her way to Guido's rooms, she met Assunta on her way out wit
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‘What is going on here?’ Hailee asked herself looking at Alessandro walking slowly along the hospital’s hallway. ‘My family is slowly vanishing in front of me… again. I've got casualties all around me! Ari is here in this bed, Guido is sick with guilt back at the villa, and now Alessandro is walking out of here sick with shock and horror and God knows what else.’ She couldn’t let him walk out in the state he was in.“No! Alex, no!” she protested, jumping up to rush over to him. “Don't go!” In an effort to get through to him, she threw herself against his chest.“I need you here. We… need you here!”“Of course, you do…” he breathed. “And once again I am acting
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They were all waiting in the Intensive Care room. Ariana's little body was tortured by shivers and high fever, and an ugly red rash was soiling her perfect skin. Hailee sat beside the cot and just looked on as so many beeps and buzzes played inside her head. A nurse kept a constant watch on everything, the child, the machinery, the white-faced mother. Hours had passed… Hailee didn't know how many hours. Alessandro appeared like a dark shadow on the fringes of her consciousness. Drawn, white-faced, he stared at the sick little girl then swayed, bringing the nurse rushing over to grab his arm. It steadied him. He swallowed, pulled himself up, gave a small nod to the nurse to say he was alright. She moved away… again. His shocked eyes flicked over to where Hailee sat. Then his face was working with a million differe
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Alessandro took her to an amazing party. A very important one. It was Taormina's annual Diamond Ball. Even Guido had come with them, the three arriving together in the Baroni limousine. Hailee was dressed in an ankle-length matte black dress that slid over her slender figure as only silk could. Her hair was down, at Alessandro's special request, but she had woven two slender braids at her temples then knotted them together at her nape. Her make-up was minimal, cool, like the new manner she had adopted for her social face. And for the first time, since coming back to him, she was wearing the lovely diamond and sapphires engagement ring that Alessandro had given her before they'd married, along with the single string of matching diamonds at her throat and little diamond buds at her ears, again at his special
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What followed was what she supposed could be called a period of adjustment, where they both tried hard to make this new beginning work for them. They were quite successful at it too, aided by the fact that Guido left the house only a few days after Alessandro had returned. He had been booked into an exclusive clinic in Switzerland, where he was to undergo some valve replacement surgery.“Is it dangerous?” she'd asked Alessandro when he'd told her about the operation. He'd grimaced.“It may help to ease his next few months,” was all he'd said, forcing Hailee to acknowledge just how very ill Guido was.“Are you going to stay with him?”“No.” Alessandro had smiled at the very idea.“His pride won’t allow me such libe
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Something flickered in those golden depths at last.“Am I to understand that you didn’t have this support the last time?”“No, Alessandro, I didn’t.” The flicker became a glimmer of wry comprehension.“Exactly, how bad a husband was I?” Alessandro then enquired, very drily.“You weren’t a bad husband exactly,” Hailee said. “Just a very busy, absent one.” That seemed to explain it best.“I've changed since then, Alessandro,” she felt obliged to add. “I might say that I finally grew up. I can fight my own battles to a certain extent. But not without your added support.” Hailee sent him a wry smile.“A
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What did he just say to her? What kind of a game was he playing now? The impact that shocking announcement had on Hailee resulted in a complete collapse of everything inside her just for a moment, but it showed in the way her body gave an awkward jerk, in the way her breath was sucked sharply into her lungs.“Hear me out before you say anything,” Alessandro added quickly, obviously reading her reaction as a negative one. “I’ve spent this last week trying to find some solution to this situation we’ve created between us. There isn't one,” he announced heavily. “At least, not one where we both keep what bit of our pride that is left, anyway.” He turned his head to look at her, while Hailee kept her glazed eyes fixed on a point somewhere between Ariana and the table.&l
