“I’ve tried so much to hate you, to forget you… I couldn’t. I know it’s hard to tell, but I’m not doing well. And not because Ari isn’t here, with me. I’m not alright without you, Alex. Even if I know there’s no way back from this for us, I still feel the need to tell you what you denied me three years ago… There was no other man… I’m yours… only yours… Always have, always will be.” He was suddenly looming over her, his face dark with passion, mouth full and moist from the mayhem he had just been creating with his tongue. “You’re mine… All mine…” They’ve never stopped being married… Hailee Baroni loves her husband more than anything. But when Alessandro started accusing her of being a cheater, when he started thinking of Ariana, their daughter, as the result of an extramarital affair, Hailee decided it was time to leave him. They lived separate lives for three long years, cutting every direct communication. But when Ariana gets abducted, the silence between them is forcibly broken. One quick glance into her deep, sad, desperate eyes and Alex knows he is the only one who can secure the little girl’s safe return, even if it means he must go back to Hailee. After all, his 'piccola' still wears his ring.
View More“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,
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
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
‘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
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
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
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
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
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
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