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CHAPTER 7
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2024-10-29 19:42:56The 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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Alessandro was tall and she wasn't, the top of her head barely reaching his chin, so she had to tilt her head to look into his face. The rain had caught him too, but only briefly, so the drops sat on the expensive silk of his jacket in small crystal drops that could easily be brushed away. His hair was so black that it reminded her of midnight, gleaming damply but not dripping wet like hers. She didn't know then that the great Alessandro Baroni stood there like that, in silence, because he was completely and utterly love-struck. He admitted that to her later, weeks later when his single-minded campaign to break through her shy reserve was successful, on a night when she was lying in his arms on a bed of fine linen, their bodies damp, limbs tangled, his hand gently caressing her long hair across the pillow.&n
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She began to quiver at the expression on his face.“I won’t… because I w-want to talk this t-through...” Alessandro began striding around the bed towards her. Hailee backed away, her hands outstretched toward him off, long, delicately boned fingers trembling.“Please, Alessandro, don't,” she whispered unsteadily. “You're frightening me right now. And I don't want to be frightened of you too…” But he wasn't listening, or maybe didn't care at that moment that he was about to murder the one firm bit of faith she had in him… That he, this hard-headed, ruthless hunter she had married, wouldn’t, couldn’t hurt her. He hurt her. Oh, not in the physical
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It has been a long, exhausting, unnatural night. Hailee dozed on and off and came down to breakfast the next morning hollow-eyed and wan-faced, to find Alessandro sitting alone at the breakfast table, swiping through his phone. The moment he saw her, Alessandro put the phone away, making a narrow-eyed study of the obvious evidence of strain in her face. Hailee gave an inward grimace, entirely aware of exactly how terrible she looked. She was wearing no make-up, and the peaches cream bloom that her skin usually wore was missing. She had brushed her hair, but only so she could tie it at the back to keep the long, heavy mass out of the way. And she was wearing a simple, blue skirt teamed with a long, loose silk knit jumper in a delicate shade of cream. Under normal cir
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His face darkened. His walk as he came down the hall towards her, became a statement in itself. He wasn't used to being spoken to like that, especially in front of his minions. And he didn’t like it that she was daring to do so now. Alessandro flashed the guard a slicing look that had him abruptly letting go of her arm then melting away like ice under the burning summer sun.“Now,” he said shortly, “would you like to tell me what that was all about?”“No, I won’t,” Hailee replied, her face still tense with anger and disgust. He wouldn't understand if she did try to explain how no man would ever touch her again without her permission. Not without her retaliating accordingly, anyway. She had learned that lesson the hard way, at Ryan Lewis's hands.&
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His reply to what she just said was a short, hard, mocking laugh.“You’re really something else, you know that?” Alessandro said in scathing disbelief. “Your own sins are not allowed to linger long enough to place a single line of guilt or shame upon your lovely face! It’s no wonder you remain so stunningly beautiful when you can shed blame as easily as you do! It must be the perfect recipe for eternal youth!”“And what's your recipe, Alessandro?” Hailee countered, then went very still, realizing what she had just said. He was still too, silent, unbreathing, pumping the wretched Freudian slip for all it was worth.“For my beauty?” he prompted silkily after a while. Her nerve-ends went into panic mode, forcing her hands to move again in short, jerky
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The afternoon dragged on interminably. Lunch, which Hailee didn't even bother to turn up for, came and went. Then more hours… hours where she roamed from room to room, drifting out if someone else came in, wanting to be alone, needing to be alone because there was no one she could share her torment with. Dinner that evening was another grim, silent affair, if only because none of them were prepared to pretend that there was anything even vaguely normal about it. Hailee had joined Alessandro and Giovanni for the meal, but only because Alessandro had sent up a message to her room ordering her to attend, and she just didn't have it in her even to try to argue. So, she sat at the table, tasted Mrs. Bradshaw's delicious chicken soup, cut up the light, fluffy omelette that must’ve been specially prepared to tempt her fa
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“But your father doesn't like me.” She'd tried to make him understand.“I'm not what he wanted for you, Alessandro, and he lets me know it at every chance he gets!”“He teases you for your shyness, that's all. It’s your own paranoia that makes you see everything he does as malicious!” Alessandro was always so blind when it came to his father. Guido hadn’t been just malicious in his dealings with his son's unwanted wife, he had been downright destructive.“Okay, I’m listening,” Alessandro said gruffly now. “Let’s talk about it.” The command made her blink, simply because she had been so lost inside her thoughts about him that she had forgotten he was actually there.
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“No!” She was in shock. They were both… naked. Her nightdress was gone… His clothes, too… The crisp hair on his chest was rasping against her breasts, and one wonderfully muscular thigh was heavy across her own.“You want me, Hailee,” Alessandro insisted. “I can feel it. Your body wants me. Your subconscious wants me! Don't tell me no when I can see you burning with desire for me!”“I don’t… I don’t want this. And you said comfort,” Hailee reminded him whimperingly.“This is comfort, Hailee,” he declared. “The most exquisite comfort there is.”“But…”“No,” he gritted. “I need this too, piccola! We both do.” Then he cut off her protests with the hungry crush of his m
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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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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
