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CHAPTER 35
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2024-10-29 19:42:56It 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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SOMEBODY LIKE YOU CHAPTER 36
“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,
SOMEBODY LIKE YOU CHAPTER 1
‘I hate this carpet… these people… Sitting here and waiting. Wondering…’ the woman thought. ‘I just want to know where Ari is… And no one here knows… So why are they here?’ She was standing on one of the soft-cushioned sofas, staring at the carpet under her feet. Six hours since it happened… Six long, terrifying hours… She was here, in London, in this beautiful, big house, close to Hyde Park, trying to make sense of what was really going on around her. Everybody in the living room was doing something… except for her. She was just standing there, motionless, empty, still stunned. The tension in the room was so thick one could cut it with a knife.
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She slowly exhaled. Hailee couldn’t care less if she was alone with Alessandro in the same room or not. She wasn’t afraid of him. Never was… He might be able to make other people tremble in their shoes. He might be able to request blind obedience from anyone who came within his despotic reach. But not her. Never her! And she found it amazing if not pathetic that one man could walk into a room and command that kind of sheep-like obedience without even having to give his name. Then again, this one man wasn’t just any man. This was a man who had such power that he could walk into any room, anywhere in the world, and demand immediate attention. The same man who had had this house and its beautiful grounds locked up like a for
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Understand? Of course, she understood! Loud and clear!“You want to know if they were Sicilian…” Hailee said almost choking. “I lived with you for so long, I understand Italian and most of the accents, I visited your family in Italy, and I can spot a Sicilian accent a mile away. So, yes! They were Sicilian… like your family!” she added accusingly. “I recognized the accent, filled with arrogance and contempt… like you are the superior race and we all are the dirt under your shoes.” Alessandro ignored her last part of the reply and kept his composure. “Male or female?” he persisted.“M-male,” she breathed.“Old or young? Were you able to notice that? Or even to recognize it?” Hailee
SOMEBODY LIKE YOU CHAPTER 4
A big man in a grey suit and a tough-looking face stood guard just outside the door. A stranger to keeping her away… But away from what? From finding the truth? From finding out that the man that took her little girl away from her was Alessandro’s father? “I want to see Alessandro. Where is he?” Hailee asked shakily. “Where…Uh… Where is my… husband?” His gaze drifted towards the closed study door. “Signor Baroni wished not to be disturbed.” The man’s accent disturbed her profoundly. She had heard it so many times… It was Sicilian as the voice that had spoken to her on the phone. Hailee shuddered and stepped past him, ignoring the obvious hint in his reply. She hurried across the hallway and pushed open the study door. Alessandr
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That accusation hardened him, canceled every bit of solace she’d seen on his face as Alessandro struck her with a narrowed glare.“You leave my father out of this, Hailee,” Alessandro commanded grimly. “I’m warning you… Stop it right now.”“Oh, trust me, I wish I could do that,” she replied, “but I absolutely can't cut him off my list. You know very well why I can’t do that. It all started when you went against his wishes and married me, Alessandro. A complete stranger and not Italian,” Hailee reminded him. “Even if I went above and beyond, learning to speak a language that wasn’t mine, even if I kept our conversations at the minimum required, Guido never forgave me for going against the Almighty Baroni.” ‘Thank you for the pills, doctor!’
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The door flew open. As Alessandro came back into the room, Hailee leaped to her feet, forgetting all about Giovanni Masini. Alessandro gave both of them a sharp glance. The air had to be thick with tension after their discussion. And, even if it wasn’t, the way Giovanni was standing aside, very stiff and with an offended expression, was giving everything away.“Well?” Hailee asked anxiously. “Have they...?” Her words faded away… Seeing his expression it was enough to wipe what bit of life her heated discussion with Giovanni had put into her face right away again.“Be calm, Hailee,” Alessandro soothed as her arms whipped around her body and she began to shiver. “They are still negotiating. Try to keep in mind that they want what I have the power to give them more than they want to keep your child.”
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The house had returned to its usual smooth running like nothing had happened. Before going down the stairs, Hailee glanced out of her bedroom window and saw Mrs. Bradshaw, the housekeeper, rushing in search of her husband, who was busily working on the new play area for Ari he and Hailee had been planning at the bottom of the garden. Her heart almost broke seeing him rhythmically spreading bark chippings over the specially prepared patch where, next week, a garden swing and a slide were due to be fixed, yet, oddly, it comforted her. Mr. Bradshaw didn’t lose his hope on Ari’s return, so neither would she. When Hailee eventually forced herself to go downstairs to the dining room, she found Alessandro standing at the window watching the old man at his work.
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SOMEBODY LIKE YOU CHAPTER 36
“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,
SOMEBODY LIKE YOU CHAPTER 35
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
SOMEBODY LIKE YOU CHAPTER 34
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
SOMEBODY LIKE YOU CHAPTER 33
‘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
SOMEBODY LIKE YOU CHAPTER 28
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
