Page 106 of A Diamond Deal
‘Working this job, in this place,’ he said, gesturing to the diner.
She flinched. ‘How dare you sit there and judge me?’
His eyes narrowed. ‘I am not judging you,Contessina. Calm down. I am stating the facts.’
Contessina.Memories of Aria calling her that speared Amelia’s side. She blinked quickly to clear the visceral recollection. ‘Yeah, well, we all do what we must, don’t we?’
He continued to stare at her in that unnerving way. ‘Precisamente.I’m glad you understand that.’
She frowned. ‘I don’t follow.’
‘You are Amelia Rossi,’ he said, so she shook her head.
‘I told you; I’m Amelia Redgrave.’
‘To the world, you are Amelia Rossi.’
‘The world?’ she spluttered. ‘Who in the world knows or cares about me? No one, Massimiliano.’ She stumbled over his multi-syllabic name, making it sound clunky, so he grimaced slightly.
‘It’s true, no one knows you exist.’
‘You knew.’
‘Sì.’
‘Why?’
‘Because your grandfather was once a close friend of my grandfather’s. When your mother left, and then, when you were born, they discussed it.’
Amelia’s heart felt weak at the thought of that. She pressed her back into the full-length fridge, needing support.
‘My grandparents know about me?’
His eyes roamed her face. ‘Yes.’
Pain lashed her. They knew about her, and had never reached out. She closed her eyes, twisting the key in the lock that kept her Rossi heritage deep down in her chest. Fresh rejection stung.
‘So what?’ she asked, needing this man to go now. Needing to forget he’d ever been here, stirring up a hornets’ nest of her past. ‘What is this all about?’
‘I think you and I can both give one another something we need.’
She blinked. ‘I don’t need anything from you.’
He looked at her from head to toe, his gaze raking over her as though she were some object—and an object he found wanting. ‘Is that so?’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘You do not think you could be doing more with your life than this?’
She flinched at his statement, at the accusation contained within. At the dreams she’d long since given up on, because life—reality—the cost of living—had pushed them aside. ‘How dare you judge me?’ she repeated, shaking her head. ‘You have no idea who I am, what I’ve been through, what this job means to me.’
‘I know enough,’ he said, voice low and accented.
She stared back at him as realisation bloomed. This was not a stranger. At least, she wasn’t a stranger to him. He knew about her. He’d done his research.
‘How did you find me?’
His lips shifted in something like admiration. ‘It was not difficult.’
