CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER TWELVE
C HARLOTTE ’ S HEART brOKE as she turned the door handle. She was leaving everything she loved behind. Just as she had done before. She had loved her friends in Perth, loved so much of the life she’d built there, and she’d walked away from them. But as much as it had hurt to do that, it wasn’t even a fraction of the pain she felt now.
The burn on the back of her neck told her that Enzo was still staring at her. It took every bit of willpower to pick up her handbag and keep walking. Away from the job she loved. The man she loved.
Love didn’t overshadow anger, though. And she was mad. Angry that Enzo, too, had seen her as a possession.
‘You will be mine and you will cater to my every whim. That is your place, Charlie.’
She tried to shake Grant’s voice from her head. Enzo had called her his before. In Milan, it had felt like a promise. On the boat, it had seemed like passion, even though it niggled. This time, it felt like control. Enzo had called her his to stop her from leaving. He had given her choice after choice, except now when she needed it. So she used that anger as armour and walked away, forcing herself not to glance back so she wouldn’t see the look on his face. She didn’t want that to be her last memory. Not of him. Not of the only man in her heart.
Her eyes burned, but she refused to let herself cry, and as she walked down the corridor for the last time, she heard the almighty thud of a slamming door.
It felt like the door had slammed on this life. It was done, and she needed to leave.
‘Breathe, Charlotte. Just breathe,’ she told herself softly.
Yes, Enzo was angry. She understood why he would be. She even understood why he so jealously protected everything. But she was not a thing .
Jabbing the Down button, Charlotte willed the elevator to come up to her faster. As soon as it dinged, she was stepping in, not even waiting the second for the doors to fully slide open.
Breathe... That became her mantra as she half walked, half ran home. When she’d moved to Sydney, she’d forgone the luxury of a car. It was one more thing tied to her fake identity, and she didn’t need the stress. Now she wished she had purchased one because to keep her composure in public was proving an almighty challenge. She couldn’t even put her head down and shut everything out: now that her father knew where she was, she had to be aware of her surroundings again.
Relief pulsed through her when she finally entered her apartment. The stinging in her eyes grew unbearable, and a sob broke free but she covered her lips with a hand, trying desperately not to fall apart. Not to think of Enzo.
The studio apartment was small.
‘...an empty life...’
It really was empty. Looking around her home, the only companions she had were plants that she couldn’t take. Her possessions were limited. She never bought more than she could pack in a suitcase in a hurry.
Are you going to run again?
What choice did she have? She no longer had Enzo’s protection. More than that, there would never be a time when Sydney didn’t make her think of him. When she wouldn’t be looking around every corner not just for danger but also for the man who had her heart but couldn’t give his in return.
‘Think, Charlotte,’ she told herself. ‘Now’s not the time for tears. You can do this.’
She couldn’t fall apart. Now was the time to think clearly. A new life waited on the other side of this ordeal. She just had to get there.
Throat burning from unshed tears, she swallowed hard and fetched a suitcase from her closet. She grabbed the clothes hanging up, not bothering to fold them before she dumped them in her bag. She hated the look of them now. Greys and beiges. She longed for the clothes she had worn in Italy, the closet full of holiday wear Enzo had given her. All of that lay forgotten in a bag at the office, and Charlotte wondered how long it would be before someone noticed them or Enzo threw them out. It was just as well. They were far too flashy. When she was trying to get by unnoticed, they would not help in the least.
Where would she go?
Melbourne? Adelaide? Some small town where no one would think of looking for her?
She was wasting time trying to think of it now. She would decide when she got to the airport. Anywhere would do, as long as it was away from here.
She called a cab and took one last look around the place she had called home for two years. A place that she had rented on a month-to-month basis just in case she had to run again.
‘Will you crawl back into the dark?’
The words had sliced through her when Enzo had said them, but he was right. That was exactly what she was going to do. The moment she left Sydney, Celeste Park would be behind her, and she would find a new identity.
The cab was waiting for her by the time she had made it to the ground floor. She didn’t even bother placing her suitcase in the boot. It was small enough to fit on the back seat with her.
Her heart was desiccating in her chest. She wanted to run back to Enzo and tell him to forget everything she’d said, that she would be happy to have a purely physical relationship with him, that she would love him even if he couldn’t love her back. But she couldn’t do it. She’d meant it when she’d said she deserved more. She wanted more from life than having powerful men try to control and possess her.
Charlotte put on her dark sunglasses, ensuring the driver knew she had no interest in conversation, and looked out of the window at the M1. All the people going about their lives. What would it be like to be one of them, to never have to look over her shoulder? To fall in love with someone she chose and be with them? What had she done to deserve this life?
‘Ma’am, we’ve arrived,’ the driver said.
‘Oh. Thank you.’ She climbed out of the car as quickly as she could, trying not to lose her balance as her suitcase caught in the tactile paving in her hurry to get inside. Unfortunately, she hadn’t made it two steps before her phone rang. Without thinking, she answered just as she always did. The only person to regularly call her was the same person who had her shattered heart.
‘E—’
‘Hello, daughter.’
Every muscle in Charlotte’s body seized. Every joint locked. Her stomach fell. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t move. Adrenaline flooded her system and her tongue turned to lead.
‘It’s been a while.’
Still she was silent. Tears welled in her eyes for a different reason now.
‘Come, now. The least you can do is greet your father.’
Charlotte swallowed hard. ‘You’ve got the wrong number.’ Her voice was barely a breath.
‘Nice try, Charlotte. I must say, you did a rather good job of hiding these last two years.’
Screwing up all her courage, Charlotte tried desperately to keep her fear from her voice. ‘What do you want?’
‘You know exactly what I want.’
‘No.’ Charlotte was choosing herself. No matter what it took. She had left Perth, and now would leave Sydney no matter how much it hurt to do so.
She was just about to end the call when her father said, ‘You will be coming home, Charlotte. Don’t be difficult.’
Charlotte hung up on him, on the man that scared her beyond all others purely because he knew exactly what Grant Campbell was like, knew exactly what kind of life awaited his daughter as Campbell’s wife, and still traded her for a business deal.
She was so close to leaving it all behind.
Shoving the phone in her handbag, Charlotte grabbed the suitcase and stepped towards the door, but a large hand grabbed her arm tightly, yanking her back. She turned to see who had seized her, and it took her a moment to compute.
A man held the back door to a dark sedan open. Another clutched her arm in a bruising grip. She paled. Gordon Kim was looking down on her with a sneering smile.
‘It’s rude to hang up on your father. I taught you better than that.’
No. This couldn’t be happening.
Charlotte tried with all her might to pull free, but she was no match for his brute strength. Especially not when she hadn’t been to a gym in two years. In hiding, she had let herself become weaker. A mistake she was now regretting.
‘Let me go,’ she demanded. The strength in her tone shocked her when she was so aware of her fear. Her racing heart. Her sweaty palms.
‘I already told you, Charlotte. You’re coming back with me.’
‘I don’t want to! I don’t want to marry Grant! You know what he’s like.’
And my heart belongs to another.
‘I really don’t care. He is making this family a great deal of money. I raised you to know your duty to the company. Play your part.’
‘My part?’ Charlotte had thought she was consumed by fear. Now she was learning of the depth of anger she possessed too. ‘My part was supposed to be making a mark within the company. My ambition, my education is just as valid as everyone else’s. My part wasn’t to be traded like a possession. I am not a trinket, Gordon.’ Charlotte had respected her father even when she didn’t agree with him, always addressing him formally. He was her flesh and blood. Now she realised she didn’t have to. There was nothing worth respecting about the man, and she saw just how angry calling him by his first name made him.
‘You are my daughter and will do whatever I tell you to. If you don’t, I will hurt Enzo De Luca. I will hurt De Luca and Co. What do you think will happen when the press finds out that his PA is a fraud? A little girl that outsmarted the CEO.’
‘You wouldn’t.’ Horror. She knew Gordon could see it on her face. It wouldn’t matter that Charlotte only lied about her name; people wouldn’t see it that way. Gordon could say whatever he wanted, and then it would be up to Enzo to prove them wrong. People lost faith in companies for lesser reasons, and the company was everything to Enzo. What if he was forced to step down?
It wasn’t just the company Charlotte had to worry about. It was Enzo too. How would Gordon hurt him?
‘Please, I’m begging you, leave Enzo out of this.’
‘You don’t understand, Charlotte. You have cost me so much money already. This is all the mercy I’m willing to show. Come quietly or De Luca becomes collateral damage.’
Charlotte couldn’t stand the thought of anything happening to Enzo. He had been through enough. She couldn’t be the reason he suffered any more. But Enzo was also powerful and vastly wealthy. Surely he could handle her father? Except she knew the only reason Gordon was even threatening Enzo was because of her. After Enzo had refused to hand her over and she’d essentially disappeared from Milan, Gordon would have understood that it was Enzo that was protecting her.
Maybe she could make a scene. There was security all around the airport. That way her father would have other problems to deal with, and she could slip away. But what would happen afterwards? He could make good on his promise. Charlotte couldn’t let that happen to Enzo. And she realised even though Enzo couldn’t love her, she loved him more than she valued her safety. This time, she would protect him .
So she stopped fighting.
‘I’ll go with you, but I need your word that you will leave Enzo out of this. He’s done nothing to us.’
‘I don’t care about De Luca, Charlotte. As soon as you are married to Grant, I will forget the name De Luca even exists.’
She had to believe him. No other options existed for her. She had to face this nightmare, face her sentence, even though she’d done nothing wrong except be born to the wrong family. But if she had been born to any other, she would never have met Enzo, and she couldn’t regret that.
So for the first time in a very long time, Charlotte didn’t run.
She let go of her suitcase. The man who had been holding the door open wheeled it into the airport.
‘Good choice, daughter.’
Pure, unfiltered hatred filled her at the word. She didn’t want to be Gordon’s daughter. She wanted to run back to Enzo. All the strength, all the adrenaline ebbed from her body and left nothing in its place. She was hollow.
Gordon placed his arm across her shoulders. To onlookers it may have seemed like a caring gesture. Charlotte knew the truth. He was simply making sure she didn’t run. Steering her to her demise.
Charlotte paid no attention when they were checked in, not even when they boarded and settled in first class. Nothing was worth paying attention to. Not when she was fracturing. She would never see Enzo again. Yes, that had already been her plan, but now she realised that a small part of her had hoped that maybe she would have seen him. Maybe he would have tried to find her. The possibility had been limited, but it had existed. Now that possibility was gone.
She clamped her teeth together and put on her sunglasses. She would show no emotion, none of the grief ripping her apart.
Closing her eyes, she replayed her last night with Enzo in her head. Being with him under the stars. She would never know a feeling like that again. And she knew, every memory they’d made in Italy would have to sustain her for the rest of her life.
The plane barrelled down the runway and took flight, Sydney falling away below her and taking her heart with it.
Maybe it wasn’t the smartest move for you to hide in Enzo De Luca’s company.
It certainly hadn’t been the best way to remain hidden, but when she thought of Enzo’s touch, his affection, she couldn’t bring herself to regret it.