Page 161 of A Diamond Deal
‘Massimiliano,’ he said.
‘Massi, it’s me.’
His grandfather’s voice had him closing his eyes, his gut rolling with regret. He’d barely seen the old man since Amelia had left. He hadn’t wanted to go through the motions of faking their marriage, even when it was for the old man’s sake. He’d hated it. Hated pretending he was fine, talking about Amelia as though…as though what? It hadn’t all turned to shit? As though he hadn’t broken her heart? As though her leaving hadn’t broken him? Broken him into a thousand goddamned pieces, flooding him with a constant sense of…loss.
The worst loss he’d ever known.
She was right about him. He was a coward. He’d lived his life in fear of having someone he cared about turn their back on him. He’d unintentionally—at first—protected himself from ever letting that happen, and then very, very consciously. He’d pushed everyone away, kept people at arm’s length as though his life depended on it.
He’d thought the shock of loss, the sense of betrayal, were the worst things, but it turned out it was just…absence. Because he’d controlled this situation with Amelia. He’d ended things with her before she could do that to him. He’d seen the writing on the wall, known that at some point she’d likely leave him, and it would be easier if he could manage the timeline, the circumstances, removing the element of surprise from it all.
It hadn’t stung any less.
It had hurt a hell of a lot more, because he woke up with the guilt of knowing, every single day, that it was his fault. Their misery was on him.
‘What’s going on with your wife?’
He flinched, his gut rolling.
‘Excuse me?’
‘She was meant to be at this event tonight. I thought you might come, too. But she told her grandparents she wasn’t well, at the last minute. They say they hardly hear from her these days.’ He lowered his voice. ‘They think she might be pregnant.’
Massimiliano scrunched up his eyes, instantly rejecting that. Or trying to. But the simple, innocent speculation wasn’t anathema to him as it should have been. It wasn’t offensive or unwelcome.
In a split second, he saw Amelia’s stomach growing round with their baby and his whole body surged with a raw, powerful emotion. Possession. Need.Happiness.
Intense, all-consuming happiness, so forceful it took his breath away, so he could hardly speak.
‘Massi?’
‘She’s not,’ he said, the words choked out as he stood, looking around his office like a man being dragged out of a long coma. ‘She’s fine,Nonno. She’s fine.’
‘They worry, because of Aria. They don’t want to lose Amelia, too.’
He closed his eyes as those words exploded inside him. ‘They won’t lose her,’ he said, with fierce determination.
He disconnected the call without asking his grandfather a single question. He didn’t have a second to spare. In the pit of his stomach, he suspected he was already living on borrowed time. Worse? That he’d lost everything, because of his own stupidity, his own cowardice, just as she’d said.
Amelia tried to ignore the banging at the door. She tried to blot it out. She hadn’t ordered room service. She didn’t need a cleaning service. She didn’t even know what time it was.
But the banging wouldn’t stop.
Eventually, smothering a curse, she pushed out of bed and dragged herself down the corridor, feeling as if she had a cement truck weighing her down. Uncaring that her hair was messed up and her make-up undoubtedly smudged, she wrenched in the door, prepared to give vent to all her feelings and drop a furious tirade.
But it wasn’t some naughty child playing a hotel version of Ding, Dong, Ditch.
On the other side of her door, just a few feet away, was the man she’d married. Her husband. The word breathed through her before she could block it out.
‘Thank God,’ he said, not waiting to be invited in. Instead, he pushed past her, his suited sleeve brushing her arm so she shivered at his touch. ‘You’re still here.’
She blinked at him, frowning, because she didn’t understand anything. Why he was here, what he was talking about.
‘I’m—what?’
‘At the hotel,’ he said, jamming his hands in his pockets. ‘I knew the room was still being charged, but you could have left. I wasn’t sure. I just—’
She blinked. ‘What do you mean?’
