CHAPTER 2

          Federico could swear those words hit Ava right in her stomach. She kinda gasped for air. Ava looked extremely nervous, agitated almost, her bottom lip being savaged by her small white teeth, and her body looked tense and ill at ease.

          A little stab of guilt pierced him. His threat, his last words to her have perhaps been a little heavy-handed and ruthless, but he had to be absolutely sure she would keep quiet about their previous relationship.

          He would make it worth her while, although any dealings he had with her now would have to be conducted under the strictest secrecy. The journalists were like sniffer dogs when it came to the Bartovia royal family and it would be risky even being seen talking to her.

          But it would be well and truly worth it if he could achieve what he wanted. Federico knew it just by looking at her. The old saying might have it that revenge was a dish best served cold, but the sort of revenge Federico had in mind was going to be hot, blazingly so, for he had a score to settle with that vixen and he knew where it would be settled best. Right in his royal bed.

          A palace official approached, and Federico exchanged a few words with him. He narrowed his gaze and scanned the crowd, looking for a flash of baby-pink chiffon or platinum-blonde hair, but there was none.

“Are you looking for someone, in particular, Your Serene Highness?” the junior official asked. “If you wish, I can organize security to find them for you...”

          Federico schooled his features into impassivity. There was only one aide in the palace he could trust with this sort of minefield situation, and this unfortunately was not him.

“No,” he said curtly. “That will not be necessary. You may go.”

          The young man gave an obsequious bow and moved away. It was only then that Federico saw the tiny bracelet lying on the floor where Ava had been standing just a couple of minutes ago.

          He bent down and picked it up, his fingers absently stroking over the string of smooth orbs as he scanned the dispersing crowd once more.

“Ava Marie… You are playing with fire and you’re going to get burned… I promise you that.”

          Cinderella might have escaped from the ball, but this particular Prince Charming was going to lure her back to him with something even more fitting than a glass slipper. As yet another official approached, Federico furtively slipped the bracelet into his trouser pocket, inwardly smiling as he let the pearls slide through his fingers, one by one.

“Your Serene Highness, the guests from Japan are waiting for you, as you requested.”

“Ah, sì… (Ita for ‘yes’) Lead the way, Francesco,” he said and followed the official.

          He passed through the ballroom, still looking for Ava. What he didn’t know was that she was long gone.  

                                             **********

“Ava, sweetie, what’s wrong?” Teresa, Ava’s apartment mate, asked as soon as she came in. “You look totally flustered. Is everything all right?”

          Ava closed the door and leaning back against it, pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers, her eyes squeezed tightly shut in a vain effort to ease the tension about to explode behind her temples.

“No… no, I’m fine, just a small headache.”

          She opened her eyes and, pushing herself away from the door, moved farther into the room.

“Is Christian okay?”

“Of course, he is,” Teresa assured her. “He was a bit unsettled at first, but I promised him you would be back as soon as you could, and he eventually went to sleep and hasn’t stirred since. I just checked him a few moments ago. He’s deep into the land of dreams.”

“That’s good… Thank you so much for taking care of him,” Ava said, expelling a tiny breath of relief, although her stomach was still full of fist-like knots.

“Oh… You know I got your back. But you worry too much, Ava,” Teresa admonished her gently. “Christian’s five years old now. He needs to learn to be away from you occasionally. You can’t keep him tied to you forever, you know…”

“I know, Terri. It’s just he’s never really got over being separated from me when I was in prison,” Ava said, trying not to think of that harrowing time when Christian’s desperate cries had echoed in her head for months after he was wrenched from her arms.

          She had been allowed to give birth to him inside the high walls of the Bartovia prison and keep him with her until he turned three. Of all the suffering Ava had endured over the last years of her troubled existence, that had been by far the very worst.

          Relinquishing Christian had felt like having one of her limbs torn off. Like having her heart torn right out of her chest. She still had nightmares about it, waking up in a lather of sweat, in case someone had crept into the apartment during the night and stolen her baby son away from her all over again.

“Sweetie, you’re the one who hasn’t got over it,’ Teresa said astutely. “You think I don’t hear you crying at night after having one of those terrible nightmares? Could you, please, put it in the past where it belongs? You’re on a roll now, Ava. This is your second chance to happiness, to have a great life next to your son. Your work at the orphanage is your ticket to a new life off the island once your parole is up. And, speaking of the orphanage, how did the fundraising event go at the palace? Did you see Prince Federico? Is he as handsome as he looks in all the press photos?”

“Um…Yes, he is… Extremely handsome…”

          Ava felt her heart give a painful squeeze as she thought of that brooding, dark, all-seeing gaze. She had taken a huge risk leaving the gala so abruptly, but she couldn’t have coped with another torturous minute in being there, so close to Federico.

          Even if his words had been so harsh and mean, the air between them had been charged with sexual energy… Ava had felt it as soon as she looked at his face. She had felt the slow burn of his gaze through the fine layers of her dress, as if Federico was recalling every intimate inch of her and how he had pleasured her in the past.

          A shiver traveled the entire length of her spine at the thought of how she had come apart time and time again in his arms. Had Federico guessed she still felt the same way? Oh, please, God, don’t let him have guessed!

          Her fingers automatically went to her left wrist, her heart giving a sudden lurch of panic when she found it totally bare.

“Oh, no!”

“What’s wrong, Ava?” Teresa asked. “You’ve gone as white as a ghost.”

          Ava swung around and backtracked her way to the front door of the tiny apartment with agitated steps.

“Damn it! I’ve lost my bracelet, Terri,” she said, searching the floor in rising desperation. “My mother’s bracelet… The one with the pearls… It must have fallen off on the way home. I was sure it was still on my wrist when I was at the palace.”

“Maybe it fell off in the cab,” Teresa suggested. “Look, you could call up the company and ask them to look for it.”

          Ava turned to look at her friend.

“Oh… I can’t. I… I didn’t take a cab home.”

          Teresa’s eyes widened.

“What? You… walked home in the dark in those shoes?”

          ‘No, I ran home in the dark,’ Ava felt tempted to confess to her friend.

“I felt like I needed the fresh air,” she said instead. “The palace was crowded and… and stuffy. It kinda left me breathless…”

“Wait here! I’ll get a torch for you,” Teresa said. “I’ll keep an eye on Christian while you retrace your steps… Or do you think we should wait until morning when we can both search?”

          Ava shook her head determinedly.

“No, Terri. I have to do it now. Someone might pick it up before then. I’ll go a few blocks and see if I can find it. I’m sure it can’t be too far away.”

“Okay, sweetie. Make sure you take your cellphone with you,” Teresa said. “You don’t know who might be out on the streets at this time of night. And you had better get changed. You are going to stick out like a sore thumb in that dress.”

          She quickly checked on Christian on her way to her room to change into a tracksuit and sneakers. He was sleeping peacefully, his beautiful face so like his father’s it made her heart contract again in unbearable pain.

          Her sweet, innocent, amazing little boy would never be able to run to his daddy and place his arms around his neck, or play with him, or listen to his voice.

          He would never be able to look him in those deep brown eyes exactly the same shade as his for reassurance, or for the guidance and support she could already see he so desperately needed.

          Christian had been cheated of so much, just as she had, but Ava was going to do her utmost to make it up to him. As soon as her parole period was up, she and Christian would be off the island of Bartovia and begin a new life, a life where no one knew who Ava Marie Antonini was, what she had supposedly done, and, even more importantly, whose child she had secretly borne.

“Sweet boy,” she whispered caressing his little head, “I’ll try the impossible to make you proud of me. I’ll do my best in being better for you, so you’ll never feel ashamed of having me as your mother.”

          Ava placed a soft kiss on his plump cheek and slowly, left his little bedroom.