‘WHAT DO YOU say to Nanny Ellie?’ Johnny’s mother prompted.
‘Thank you!’ exclaimed the little boy, gazing at the cover of the jigsaw box, which depicted an unfeasibly cute dinosaur.
Eloise had bought it in Manhattan, having taken a day’s leave to travel in.
As Johnny lifted off the lid and emptied the wooden pieces on to the table Laura turned to Eloise.
‘Well, how did it go?’ she asked.
There was both friendliness and concern in her voice.
‘Fine,’ said Eloise. ‘No problems. It’s all “steady as she goes”.’
‘That’s great!’ Laura said warmly. ‘When’s your next appointment?’
‘Next month—unless something crops up.’
‘Let’s hope not,’ said Laura. ‘Keep up the plain sailing!’ She smiled. ‘Now, why don’t you go and put your feet up? Take the evening off. Johnny and I can get stuck into this jigsaw, and John’s promised to be home by bathtime.’
‘Yay!’ contributed her son enthusiastically. ‘I like bathtime with Dad. He lets me splash!’
‘Does he, now?’ said his mother severely, and exchanged a woman-to-woman look with Eloise. Then she turned back to her son. ‘OK, so first we need to find the edge bits—especially the corners. Have you got any of those?’
Eloise left them to it, slipping away to her own generous quarters. There was an ache in her that had nothing to do with the day’s journey in and out of Manhattan. Johnny was a happy child, and his parents were warm and loving, united in their love for each other and both devoted to their son.
The kind of family Eloise longed to make for herself. The kind of family she’d once thought she might make with Vito—
No! Don’t go there! Don’t think about those naïve hopes that you once wove into the baseless fabric of your stupid dreams.
She had told myself that maybe their romance was like champagne—warned herself that one morning she might wake to find it flat and stale.
But it hadn’t turned flat and stale—it had turned to bitter, bitter gall.
A gall she must swallow. Drink down all her life.
At least she had her mother’s support. And there was an irony about that that Eloise found only added to that bitter taste.
‘It won’t be easy, Eloise, but who said being a woman was ever easy? Certainly not when some selfish male has messed up your life!’
No, it wouldn’t be easy. But it had to be done. Her love would have one focus now—one focus alone.
As she closed the nursery door behind her a peal of laughter broke out from Johnny, echoed by his mother. That ache smote her again.
A happy little boy, with a happy, loving family surrounding him, a doting mother and father in a happy marriage together...
That can never be for me. Not now.
Sadness pierced her, haunting the blue of her eyes. She had dreamt all her life of making a happy family...not like her own...and yet now that was beyond her for ever.
* * *
Vito threw himself into the chair behind his desk and deep desolation filled him. The board meeting he’d just emerged from had been bruising—slamming into him just what he had done.
What Marlene had done.
She had fulfilled her threat—sold Guido’s shares to Nic Falcone. Sold them the very day Vito had walked out of the church. And just now Nic Falcone had sat arrogantly across the boardroom table from him, demanding his pick of the Viscari portfolio—as befitted the new half-owner of Viscari Hotels.
The resulting discussion had been...difficult. Grim-faced, along with the rest of his board, Vito had played hardball as much as his position allowed, and finally a memorandum of agreement had been achieved. But the loss of every property that Falcone had taken from him drove a dagger into Vito’s heart.