Chapter Six
CHAPTER SIX
Antonio didn’t know whether to believe that Ms Quell had been ‘forced’ to bring forward the second assessment or not.
They shouldn’t have met with her for at least another six days.
But her frostily delivered explanation of being needed in court for another client ‘whose time is just as important as yours’ had been delivered with the sole purpose of putting him in his place.
The interview had gone from bad to worse from there, and no matter how much both he and Ivy had tried to suggest that two days was simply not enough time to achieve what Ms Quell was asking for, it did not help their cause.
‘It’s not the big things that make a marriage work, Mr Gallo, it’s the little things. Like knowing what skincare brand she uses, what perfume. How she likes her coffee.’
Ivy didn’t even like coffee.
Frustration had held him by the throat, and Ivy’s hand on his had been both restraint and warning in one. He’d focused on simply hoping to survive this second assessment, until Ms Quell asked if Ivy would be going with him to the Gallo family party at the end of the week.
Dio mio , he cursed the press and their fascination with his family.
Ivy had done well to hide her surprise when he’d replied that of course Ivy would be going to the family party with him.
So, instead of taking Ivy to a gallery opening, he now found himself obliged to attend a party he’d intended to avoid.
Three days later, he still wanted to add Ms Quell to the list of people he would wilfully murder, as he changed gear with a little more force than strictly necessary and punched the gas with his foot.
The engine roared satisfyingly beneath him as he palmed the wheel and hugged a familiar corner of the road.
But instead of the thrill he usually felt, he was overwhelmingly aware of the tension emanating from Ivy in the passenger seat beside him. He eased off the accelerator.
‘Is my driving making you uncomfortable?’ he asked.
Ivy smiled apologetically. ‘It’s the twists and turns. When we straighten out it’s fine.’
The way she said ‘fine’ made him think of the way he felt about paperwork, and he barked a laugh.
‘Ivy, you can tell me if you don’t like something. You don’t have to be polite.’
‘Okay,’ she hedged. ‘I really don’t like your driving,’ she informed him primly, her hands in her lap, over the skirt of the dress she wore.
Antonio couldn’t help the smile that curved his lips and he shook his head, marvelling how quickly he could flit between murderous anger, amusement and then…how was it he felt about the upcoming visit with his mother’s family?
It would be good to see Maria and his mother, but for the rest…
? He could happily never see or hear from them ever again.
Gio’s siblings, and there were many, had been as profligate as their brother, and more proliferate.
Every single one of them wanted a piece of Gallo Group, and when they discovered that they weren’t going to get it they would be out for blood.
Mainly his and Maria’s. But if Micha chose to show his face, things could get very interesting.
‘What are you brooding about?’ Ivy asked.
‘Brooding?’ he repeated, changing down gear to take another corner. Slowly.
‘Yes, you get this—’ she stopped to gesture with her hands, as if she were rolling a ball between her palms ‘—look about you.’
He glanced at her hands and back to the road.
‘Cogs turning,’ she explained of her gesture. ‘Thinking too hard.’
He sighed. ‘We shouldn’t be doing this,’ he admitted.
Ivy crinkled her nose. ‘Ms Quell seemed to imply that it was a vital part of the assessment.’
‘I think she’s got it in for us.’
‘Do your family know? That we’re married? Why we’re married?’ Ivy asked hesitantly.
‘My mother and Maria know, as did my grandfather. But it was not the business of anyone else,’ he concluded in clipped tones.
‘It would be best for the rest of the family to believe, like Ms Quell, that we married for love and are considering reconciliation. That way, when we divorce, it won’t be so surprising and it won’t give them a reason to challenge the will when it’s made public. ’
Since Gio’s death, the members of the Gallo family had been like wild dogs: rabid and desperate.
‘But they know the terms of the will?’
‘No. Only the four of us—myself, Maria, my mother and Micha—know the terms of the will.’
‘Micha?’ Ivy asked, turning to look at him with a frown.
‘Micha Rufina. He was once a childhood friend. He’s worked for my grandfather most of his life and stands to inherit Gallo Group if Maria and I don’t marry.’
Ivy bit her lip and nodded, before looking out of the window, squinting into the distance.
‘So your family don’t know about your forthcoming marriage to Maria?’
‘No. It will probably come as a surprise and there will most definitely be rumours, but nothing we haven’t navigated before.’
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and Antonio was momentarily distracted.
She’d been leaving her hair down ever since the salon, and it was making it difficult for him to keep her in his mind as the waitress he’d married for convenience.
And then, after the pool, a few days ago?
Cazzo , he’d not been able to put her back in that box at all.
She’d looked at that pool like he’d seen financial advisors look at his company’s bottom line—with naked lust—and he’d wanted her to have what she wanted. And yes, he might have been just a little jealous. Of a swimming pool. But that wasn’t why he’d enticed her into it.
Now that he knew about her sight loss, he could just as easily see the bars on the cage she had tucked herself into.
And it was wrong. Wrong to see her like that.
She was different from the person she was six years ago, they both were.
But what was missing was a sense of…he struggled to find the right word…
ease . Her sense of self had been easy .
Yes, there had been cares and concerns hidden in her gaze, but her laughter had been easy .
She’d had an innate sense of grounding. But all of those things seemed to be different now.
And for a moment in the pool he’d seen a glimmer of that woman he’d married. Before her eyes had turned on him and he’d felt it.
Heat.
Want.
Desire.
Oh, it had disappeared pretty quickly once Ms Quell had arrived on the scene.
But he couldn’t get it out of his head. It ran on a loop in his mind, catching him by surprise whenever his guard was down.
Like at night. Or in the shower. He’d remember the feel of her skin slipping through his palms, or against his chest and thighs.
The way her eyes sparkled, shards of gold in a sea of blue, like glimpses of underwater treasure.
‘Is Maria going to be there?’ Ivy asked, her fingers playing with the hem of the white skirt that had ridden up along her thigh.
‘ Sì ,’ Antonio replied, ignoring the spread of heat through his body and locking his gaze on the road ahead.
‘She knows you’re coming. She knows we’re trying to get a divorce as quickly as possible, and she also knows that she won’t be able to get her hands on Gallo Group without all this, which includes your help. She’s not the enemy.’
‘If she’s not, then who is?’
The muscle in his jaw flickered. ‘The rest of them.’
If Ivy had thought that Antonio’s villa was impressive, it was nothing compared to Villa Alessia.
She’d gasped out loud as they’d rounded the gravel drive, lined with artfully manicured box trees in terracotta pots, her fingers itching for her camera.
The stone walls sprawled over several floors and stretched out across and around a magnificent courtyard she caught glimpses of as Antonio parked the car.
He’d explained that he’d bought his mother the villa shortly after his first international deal with Alessina.
And without needing to hear it, Ivy had understood that he’d wanted his mother to have something that was hers, and not given to her by Gio—something that couldn’t be taken away, like Antonio’s inheritance had been.
That it was important to him that his mother always had a home melted her heart a little.
Especially as someone who knew how much that meant.
He waited for her patiently as she tried to take it all in, squinting a little unintentionally. The unmistakable sounds of a party carried on a gentle breeze and even the late hour of the afternoon hadn’t dulled the heat of the summer’s day.
Antonio gestured with a flick of his dark head to follow him and she rounded the car, her wedge sandals crunching on the gravel.
The breeze continued to play with the calf-length skirt Ivy was sure she would stain before long, but it was pretty.
It made her feel pretty and she hoped that might be enough to give her the confidence she needed to face Antonio’s family.
Stepping carefully on the path that would have, six years ago, been thoughtlessly easy, but now required just a little more attention, she followed Antonio’s thankfully slow footsteps as they rounded the building and came to an open courtyard filled with nearly fifty people.
Ivy came to a halt. ‘ This is your family?’
Antonio turned, frowning at her. ‘Not all. There are more coming later for the meal.’
Ivy blinked. She couldn’t imagine being related to so many people. And the glamour! Diamonds and gold glinted in the setting sun, enough to remind her of the flashes she’d seen as the detachment claimed part of her eyesight.
And for the first time since the clothes had arrived from the salon, she was truly thankful that Antonio had bought her such fine things to wear.
Certainly, the things she’d brought with her from London would have drawn nothing but scorn.
As it was, she felt everyone’s attention on her and it wasn’t entirely comfortable.
Unconsciously, she scanned the faces, looking for one in particular.
Micha Rufina.