Prognosis Baby Daddy - Amy Andrews Page 0,53

say that.’ He saw her puzzled look and stopped being cryptic. He was so used to everyone knowing, he’d forgotten that she didn’t.

‘Bianca and I were engaged to be married. I was totally besotted with her. I was twenty-four...young, foolish. I found her and my brother together, in the clinic gardens. They were kissing. He had his hands on her...she was half-naked. That’s when I left Italy. I ran away as far as I could go and Bianca and Mario got married.’

‘Oh, Ben, how awful.’

Katya heard the emotion in his voice. She could only imagine how devastating such a betrayal must have been. Now she understood the estrangement Ben had talked about. Now she could see why he was sworn off love. He was obviously in no hurry to risk his heart again after it had been battered so soundly.

She, better than anyone, understood how things like that could affect you forever. And she knew that any hope she was harbouring that Ben might grow to love her would never come to fruition.

‘The irony is Mario and I were so close until then. Oh, we were rivals. In everything. We were always trying to best each other with the biggest and the best, the latest and the greatest. But it was good-natured. He was my older brother, there was only twelve months between us, I hero-worshipped him and our rivalry pushed me to be the best I could be. But he took our one-upmanship too far when he took Bianca.’

‘Did you...never speak to each other again?’

Ben shook his head. ‘He tried to extend an olive branch. They both did.’

‘Bianca was in the car crash with your brother?’

‘Yes.’ Ben nodded, his voice bleak. ‘I may not have respected him, may have wanted nothing to do with him, but I didn’t wish him dead. Either of them.’

Katya could see the truth of his words written all over his face. He was looking at her earnestly, his eyes begging her to understand. And she did. As much as she disliked and didn’t respect her mother, Katya knew she would be devastated when the inevitable happened.

No matter what, Olgah was the woman who had given her life.

‘It’s funny how a decade of hostility and self-righteousness can suddenly seem so churlish,’ he said quietly, mesmerised by the flame.

Guilt. Another emotion Katya knew intimately. ‘It sounds to me like they didn’t do it to hurt you, Ben. Maybe they just fell in love? It happens sometimes. They say forgiveness is good for the soul.’

Deep down Ben knew he needed to be able to forgive them. But the image of Mario and Bianca in the garden was etched into his memory. And after years of carrying it around, absolution was a big thing to ask. ‘Like you’ve forgiven yourself?’ he said, fixing her with a hard stare. ‘Forgiven your mother?’

His accusation hit her in the solar plexus and Katya blinked at the sudden turn in the conversation. It struck even harder because she knew he was right.

Ben saw her eyes widen and immediately castigated himself. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘That was uncalled-for.’ He rubbed his hands through his hair. ‘This topic drives me crazy.’

‘Because it’s unresolved?’

‘Because Mario and Bianca are everywhere I go here. At the clinic, at Mamma’s, in the streets of Positano, in the piazza at Ravello. I bought this villa so I could get away from memories of them. This is my sanctuary from the past. Coming back to Italy to fulfil my family duty has been made so much harder because of all the memories. And everything I do here has Mario’s stamp on it. All of it makes me crazy.’

Katya nodded. It must be hard for such a proud man to have to continually face ghosts from an incident that had driven a wedge through his family for a decade. ‘Maybe it’s time to make some new memories?’ she suggested.

Ben glanced at her and realised that, thanks to her, he already had a whole host of new memories. Very, very pleasant ones at that. And with the advent of the baby - his son - even more to come.

He nodded. ‘Hence the clinic,’ he said. ‘Coming back from MedSurg and the poverty-stricken countries I’ve worked in, the opulence and the luxury here seemed so disproportionate. And I kept hearing your voice, nagging in my head, about hedonistic pampered rich people.’

Katya smiled. ‘Nice to know you thought about me.’

‘Oh, I thought about you.’ He chuckled as Katya blushed. ‘Getting the Lucia Trust up