and my love for it died long ago. I like my apartment in Roma. I cannot say it more clearly than that. I don’t want the house.’
‘Did you ever?’
He saw his mother’s shock at the question, and he instantly regretted raising the matter today, but his father’s death had thrown up so many questions. Though clearly his mother had no intention of answering any of them. ‘I shall see you in Roma, Dante.’
Roberto had already left and, with the mourners all gone, Dante stood by the fire and waited for relief to hit, for the day had gone as well as it could have. No drama, no scenes, his father had been laid to rest.
So where was his peace?
Yes, his father’s death had thrown up many questions.
His mother didn’t want the house?
Had she ever? Dante’s question had not been a spontaneous one—the thought had been brewing for some time.
He remembered the rows in their childhood that had stopped when the twins had arrived, but then again, there had been an awful lot of trips by his mother to Rome. She would come and visit Dante at school there, even though he boarded.
Suddenly, Dante could place his mother’s lover.
Signor Thomas, his English tutor at school.
Dante had always felt lied to.
Never more so than now.
CHAPTER FIVE
MIA HAD LONG SINCE left the family and mourners to it, and was packing up the last of her things.
She took off her wedding and engagement rings and placed them in her purse. She cast a final longing glance around Suite al Limone, feeling torn to leave it behind.
Mia didn’t feel completely ready to yet.
When she heard the last of the cars leaving and the drone of voices fade, she rang down for one of the staff to come and take her cases down to the car.
Except there was no response to her summons.
She made her way down the stairs and saw that Dante had stayed till the last.
‘Where are the staff?’ Mia asked.
‘I said they could be finished for the day—the tidy-up can happen tomorrow,’ Dante said. ‘It has been a long and emotional day for them too. Don’t worry,’ he added, ‘I am going to head to the hotel now. You will have the place to yourself soon.’
‘There is no need for you to go to the hotel, Dante.’
His mouth twisted into a smile. ‘You have your grace period, Mia, plenty of time to sharpen those claws...’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about. I shan’t be staking any claim to the house, Dante, and neither shall I be taking the three-month grace period. I am leaving tonight. It’s all yours.’
Dante looked at her and waited for more information, but there was none forthcoming. He had expected her to stay, clinging till the bitter, expensive, contested end.
He felt like a prize boxer, primed to fight, yet suddenly without an opponent. As she went to walk off he made what he hoped was the parting shot. ‘On to your next one?’
‘My next one?’ Mia frowned.
‘The next foolish old man...’
‘You have no idea,’ Mia retorted.
Oh, yes, he did! ‘The next foolish old man who would blow apart his family and reputation just to be with you.’
‘Your father was no fool,’ Mia said, because Rafael Romano had known exactly what he was doing when the deal had been made. ‘And neither was he old. He was barely in his fifties.’
‘But far too old for you,’ Dante retorted, though the fact was, his loathing of their union had nothing to do with age; it was that his father had chosen her.
Mia.
The woman who drew from him a desire so potent that she had made the last two years a living hell.
‘Oh, please...’ she sneered, and she could almost hear the prison doors between them clanging open, for duty was done.
Almost.
There was just this final bit to get through and she would be free of the Romanos and never have to lay eyes on them again. Or, more pertinently, never have to put up with the scathing barbs of Dante Romano again.
And though she should retrieve her cases this minute and leave it all behind, foolishly Mia decided that she would have her say, for she could hold it in for not a second more.
Her one final say!
And this was a new version of hell for Dante, watching her step towards him in anger, her curves in her black dress nearing him, her eyes glittering, as she moved closer, ever closer...and finally there was emotion on that unreadable face.
‘You have