deserved for his whole life.
‘Stephen mentioned that you looked familiar,’ Tyson remarked as he shrugged on his coat. ‘But we hadn’t met before Santa Nicola, had we?’
Words bubbled in Luca’s throat, thick with rage and remembrance. He remembered staring into Tyson’s face, those faded brown eyes flat and hard. You will leave here. Now.
A push at the small of the back, the overpowering stench of lilies from the vase in the foyer. Then a door closed in his face.
‘No,’ he said coolly. ‘We haven’t.’
After Tyson had left, Luca looked down at the contract with the signatures boldly scrawled. For a moment he imagined what Hannah had suggested last week: the Tyson resorts as he’d proposed them to be, a holiday with her and Jamie. The family life he’d never had, the happiness he’d never had. He had a diamond ring in his jacket pocket he was intending to give to Hannah that evening. A whole life about to unfold, a life he now realised he wanted desperately.
Then Luca’s jaw hardened and his fist clenched. It couldn’t be that simple, that easy for Tyson. He wouldn’t let it be. He’d been waiting for this, working for this, his whole life. Justice would be had. How could he hold up his head otherwise? How could he let go of the one thing that had driven his ambition, his whole life?
Grimly focused, Luca reached for his phone. It was time to make a few calls.
* * *
Hannah was humming as she stepped onto the Tube. She’d been humming or smiling or practically prancing down the street for over two weeks now, ever since she and Luca had started a real relationship. Ever since it had felt as if her life had finally begun.
Already her mind was jumping ahead to scenarios she wouldn’t have dreamt of a month ago. Images of frothy wedding dresses and newborn babies, a house in the country, a whole life unfolding that she knew she wanted desperately—with Luca.
Her mother had cautioned her to slow down, and Hannah had tried, but it was hard when she was so happy, and Luca seemed so happy as well. He was a changed man just as he’d told her, and she needed to believe in that. Trust in his love for her and not let the small things worry her. If Luca still harboured secrets, he would tell her in his own time. She simply needed to be patient.
Her unfocused gaze skimmed across the train car of commuters on smartphones or reading newspapers. Some distant part of her brain clanged in alarm and she tensed, her gaze moving back to a headline she’d only dimly registered in the newspaper across from her. It was the business section, and in big black letters it blared Tyson Resorts to Close.
She leaned forward, sure it must be misinformation, and made out the first words of the news story.
In a shock move by real-estate tycoon and property developer Luca Moretti, the newly acquired Tyson Resorts, a chain of six family-orientated vacation spots, are set to close—effective immediately. When contacted, Moretti gave no comment.
Hannah sat back, her mind a welter of confusion. It couldn’t be right. The newspaper must have got it wrong, or was attempting to stir up trouble. Luca wasn’t going to close the resorts. He was going to turn them into something wonderful. She’d seen the plans herself.
Despite these reassurances a sense of foreboding dogged Hannah as she made her way into the Moretti Enterprises building and up to the penthouse. She’d known Luca was hiding something, something that tormented him. Had seen how affected he’d been on Santa Nicola, having to leave the table after Tyson’s toast. She’d tried to find out what was going on but she’d been afraid to press too hard. But maybe she should have. Maybe she should have seen this coming.
The reception area was empty as the lift doors opened onto the penthouse floor, but Hannah could see the lights in Luca’s office were on. She dropped her bag and coat on her desk and went straight to his door.
‘Come in,’ he called at her knock.
Hannah opened the door, her heart starting to thud. Luca sat at his desk, his gaze on his computer screen. He glanced up at Hannah as she came in, a smile transforming his features even as the expression in his eyes remained guarded.
‘Good morning.’ His voice was low and honeyed and it made both heat and hope unfurl inside her. Here was the man she knew, the man she loved. He would explain everything to her now. He had to.
‘I read the most ridiculous thing in the newspaper this morning,’ she said, and Luca stilled.
‘Oh?’
‘Yes, in the business section. It said that you were going to close the Tyson resorts, effective immediately.’ She waited for his disbelieving laugh. Willed him to rise from his desk and take her in his arms. She needed to believe this wasn’t true, that Luca was the man she’d thought he was. He didn’t move. ‘Luca?’ she asked, her voice starting to wobble. ‘It’s not true, is it? I mean...it can’t be true.’ Silence stretched and spun out, started to snap. ‘Luca.’
‘It is true,’ he said finally, his voice flat. ‘I’m closing the resorts.’
‘Why?’ she cried. ‘After all your plans...’ She snagged at a fragile thread of hope and pulled. ‘Is something wrong with them? Did you discover something—the buildings need to be condemned, or—?’
‘No.’ Luca snipped off that thread with a single word. ‘Nothing’s wrong with them besides being a bit shabby.’ He took a deep breath and laid his hands flat on his desk, his gaze direct and cold and yet somehow also vulnerable. ‘The truth is, Hannah, it was always my intention to close them.’
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