‘You make it all sound so straightforward, Cassandra.’
‘Because it is straightforward!’ she exclaimed with frustration. ‘You might be the master of all you survey at Fivizzano Inc., but this is my territory, my home, and I’m still waiting for an answer to my question. What part do you intend to play in Luca’s life?’
‘A full part if you come back to Rome with me. What?’ He frowned. ‘I don’t understand why you’re looking at me like that. You’ll be living in the lap of luxury...’
Cass shook her head in desperation. ‘If you don’t know what’s wrong with that statement, I can’t help you. Why would I exchange my cosy home here for your sterile penthouse—where I never see you, and where I’m waited on by strangers who won’t let me lift a finger, whether I want to or not, and where I’m hounded every time I leave the building by the paparazzi? Is that what you want for your son? Why on earth would either of us want that for Luca? I may be the first woman in the world to say this to you, Marco, but you’ve got nothing to offer me that I don’t have right here ten times over. When I was a little girl I lived in a mansion not too dissimilar from your home in Tuscany, but it was the unhappiest place I can ever remember living in. I was always hungry, always afraid—’
‘That wouldn’t happen in Rome,’ Marco stated with absolute confidence.
‘No,’ Cass agreed. ‘But I would be exchanging one set of problems for another—isolation instead of hunger, and uncertainty instead of fear. The end result wouldn’t be happiness, or even progress—and I’m not just talking about me. I’m thinking about all three of us. I don’t want Luca to experience the constant uncertainty that you and I grew up with. Have we learned nothing from that experience? You must have longed for a different life. I know I did. And you have built a successful and very different life for yourself, so why take your son back to the past? Let’s move on. Let’s take this chance to move forward.’
‘That’s all I’ve ever wanted.’
‘But on your terms!’ Cass exclaimed with exasperation. ‘You want everything on your terms.’
‘As you do on yours,’ he argued.
‘I am defensive,’ she admitted. ‘That’s my legacy from the past, but now I have a son to consider, and my main job is to protect Luca. I have to do everything I can for him, and I believe I can do that best here, not in Rome.’
He laughed bitterly.
‘Do you expect me to throw up everything and come to live here?’
‘No. I’m a realist. I know you can’t do that.’
‘What, then?’ he demanded. ‘What’s your solution, Cassandra?’
‘I don’t know,’ she admitted, shaking her head.
Something in her dejection touched him. He’d never seen Cassandra in this mood. Had he reduced her to this? Had he stolen away all her certainty and confidence? If he had, he would never forgive himself. It was like taking one of Cassandra’s precious plants and crushing the life out of it beneath his heel. ‘I will do whatever you want,’ he said.
‘Anything?’ she murmured.
‘I won’t lose you. I can’t,’ he said softly and intently.
They were silent for a long time, until he remembered what he’d left in the car. ‘I’ve got something for you.’
‘For me?’
He had never bought her anything, he realised. ‘For Christmas,’ he explained. ‘It isn’t much.’
Cassandra shook her head with concern. ‘But I haven’t got anything for you.’
He shook his head and laughed with sheer happiness. ‘Are you sure about that? I think you just gave me the most precious gift in the world. The gift of a son?’ he prompted. ‘That’s a gift beyond price. Do you want to see the small thing I got for you?’
‘Why don’t we check on our son first?’
The expression on Marco’s face told Cass everything she needed to know. He was every bit as invested in their future as she was, and though the nuts and bolts for a couple who lived in different countries still had to be ironed out, he was one hundred per cent behind her, and they would find a way to make it work.
It was the first time that they had stood together as a couple, staring down at their infant son. ‘You’re right,’ Marco said. ‘He’s beautiful.’
Cass smiled with pure happiness as she ruffled their son’s soft, fluffy black hair. Luca’s face was still wrinkled and pink, with a frowning, puzzled expression, as he grew accustomed to life.