Modern Romance February 2020 Books 5-8. Natalie Anderson

and feel as if you’d been struck by lightning.

      When she’d returned to the hotel much later that day, her first attempt to meet her father scuppered due to him being abroad, she’d found her room hadn’t just been cleaned but sanitised. New furniture and furnishings had been installed, including a brand-new carpet. Her melancholy mood had lifted when the gorgeous hotel manager had knocked on the door and asked if she would like to meet for coffee in the morning.

      What had followed had been the most wonderful week and a half of her life, right until two hours ago when she’d returned to her father’s home for her second attempt. All those glorious hours with Tonino had infused her with a sense of optimism. She had become certain that her first meeting with her father would be the stuff of Hollywood; all tight embraces and schmaltzy words.

      It had taken her father exactly eight minutes to break her heart, the length of time his housekeeper had made Orla wait alone on the doorstep before she’d returned with the ‘regretful’ news that he didn’t want to meet her.

      She must try not to think about her father. Keep her focus on Tonino.

      That was what she needed to keep the tears at bay. To think of the man who’d brought her to life and stolen her heart.

      She wished she’d told him about her father. She wished she’d had the courage to be upfront about her real reason for being in Sicily but it was such a shameful thing to admit, that she was the secret love child of one of Sicily’s most notorious playboys; a child created through infidelity.

      All her life she’d shied away from meaningful friendships and relationships. The only people she’d ever trusted were her sister, Aislin, and her grandparents. Her grandparents had both since died so that left Aislin.

      And then she’d met Tonino.

      She was ready to tell him now. He would understand. He would comfort her. He would be the rock she’d always dreamed of having but had never believed could exist.

      Tonino had left her in bed that morning with a lingering kiss. He’d stroked her cheek and promised that that night they would talk. The expression in his eyes and the tone of his voice had told her this would be of a serious nature. As hard as she tried to temper the wild emotions raging through her veins, not even her father’s rejection could completely stamp them out. A future was dangling before her. For the first time in her life, Orla felt that her future could mean more than a career. It could involve…love…

      The taxi driver pulled up outside her hotel behind a sparkling stretch limousine that stuck out like a sore thumb in this run-down area. Orla wearily slipped out, intent only on getting to her room and soaking in the bath while she waited for Tonino to return from his business trip in Tuscany. This was the first time they’d been apart for more than a few hours. How lucky was she to have found the man of her dreams just as he was due to take his annual leave, giving them all that time together!

       ‘Permesso.’

      A ravishing stick-thin blonde with eyes like a cat’s blocked Orla’s path to the hotel’s elevator.

      Orla held her hands up and tried to move around her, but the woman mimicked her moves, blocking her efforts.

      ‘Can I help you?’ The richness of the woman’s clothes and the expert precision of her hair and make-up made Orla think she must be the possessor of the limousine.

      The woman raised an immaculately plucked eyebrow. ‘English?’

      ‘Irish.’

      ‘You give me two minutes.’

      ‘Err…’ Annoyed, Orla was about to push her way around the woman when the four fatal words were uttered.

      ‘Is about Tonino Valente.’

      Prickles raced up Orla’s spine. Her abdomen clenched. ‘What about him?’

      The woman raised her left hand and pointed at her wedding finger. A huge diamond ring lay snugly on it. ‘I am Sophia. Tonino’s fiancée.’

      Twenty minutes later and the two women were in Orla’s hotel room. Sophia perched delicately on the small armchair while Orla sat on the floor feeling as if she’d been punched by a heavyweight with lead in his gloves. Spread on the carpet around her were photographs of Tonino and Sophia. Many photos. There were also press clippings and glossy magazines. Orla didn’t understand Sicilian but some of the words in the article needed no translation. Tonino and Sophia’s engagement party two months ago had been deemed newsworthy.

      ‘I sorry to tell you this,’ Sophia said in a tone that suggested she was loving every minute of it. ‘Tonino has made fool of you. He has lied to you. You are fun to him. Sì?’

      ‘I’ve been a bit of fun?’ Orla whispered. ‘Is that what you’re saying?’

      ‘Sì. That why I here. I warn you. Tonino loves me. We are to marry.’

      Orla was unaware that tears were leaking down her face, and too numb to care that there was a warning in the Sicilian woman’s tone as well as in her actual words.

      This must be what he’d wanted to talk to her about that night.

      Fool that she was, she’d believed he wanted to discuss a future for them.

      Her hand shook as she picked up the glossy magazine containing a twenty-page spread of their engagement party.

      How could an ordinary hotel manager attract such a wealthy, high-maintenance woman like this? And why would an ordinary hotel manager be the recipient of the kind of press attention usually reserved for the rich and famous?

      Fearing she could be sick, she groped for her phone and keyed Tonino Valente’s name into the search engine.

      Ten minutes later she was still reading and searching but it was as if someone had taken possession of her body and was reading the damning evidence for her.

      She felt light-headed. Boneless.

      Tonino had lied about more than his marital status.

      He wasn’t the manager of the hotel as he’d led her to believe. He was the owner. This hotel was just a small cog in a vast empire.

      Tonino Valente was the sole owner of Valente Holdings, a chain of mostly hugely expensive hotels across Europe that catered for the filthy rich. Tonino, who was also an enthusiastic investor in start-up businesses, was filthy rich in his own right.

      The man she’d opened her heart for, who she’d dared believe she could have a future with, was a cheat and a liar. The worst kind of liar. A rich, powerful liar. His grandfather was one of Sicily’s top judges. His mother was one of Sicily’s leading criminal lawyers. His father was a leading Sicilian politician.

      Her Internet search revealed that the immaculately beautiful woman in the obscenely expensive outfit sitting on Orla’s hotel-room armchair was Sophia Messina. The Messinas were a Sicilian family as wealthy and powerful as the Valentes.

      ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered, meeting Sophia’s cold, unflinching eyes. ‘I knew nothing about you.’

      ‘Now you know…you go?’ It was framed as a question, but the underlying threat hung between them.

      Orla didn’t need the threat.

      ‘Yes.’ Breathing heavily to quell the rising nausea, she stumbled over to the wardrobe. ‘Yes. I go.’

       CHAPTER ONE

      Four years later

      ‘WILL YOU KEEP still a minute?’ Orla rebuked with a shake of her head. How was she supposed to fasten her sister’s wedding dress if she didn’t stop jigging on the spot?