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CHAPTER ONE
MILLYDEVLINHIKEDup the borrowed designer gown—which had cost ten times her current monthly income—and raced down the steep stone steps in the moonlight...
She was running away again, this time from the stunning Capri palazzo—perched on the clifftop above, overlooking the azure sea—and the site of her latest disaster. Because having a public spat with her sister in front of an audience of stupidly rich, ludicrously beautiful people supping vintage booze and nibbling priceless caviar on the marble terrazzo had not been her finest hour. And certainly not her intention, when she’d agreed to accompany Lacey to the launch party for her husband Brandon Cade’s new Italian subsidiary.
Milly cursed as her heel snagged on one of the cobblestones but managed to grab the iron balustrade before she pitched headfirst into the Gulf of Naples. Which would have put the final bow on this evening’s entertainment.
She took a steadying breath, and kicked off the cursed shoes, which her sister had lent her too—because designer footwear was not in Milly’s wheelhouse any more than lavish social events.
Lacey hadn’t wanted her to feel out of place in the world where Lacey and her daughter, Ruby, now lived—courtesy of her billionaire husband, Brandon Cade, Ruby’s dad.
Mission so not accomplished.
Milly scooped up the shoes, and bit her bottom lip to stop it quivering.
She glanced back, at the exclusive party still in full swing above her, and recalled the whispers she’d overheard as shepushed through the crowd on the terrazzo looking for the nearest exit. If only she didn’t speak such good Italian.
‘Can’t imagine why Cade and his wife put up with her, the woman is an ungracious ungrateful brat.’
‘She’s a liability, and a complete nobody. I heard she’s been backpacking around Europe like a homeless person.’
She ignored the ripple of embarrassment. She didn’t care what any of those people thought of her. She had no desire to be part of their world. She’d only agreed to come to show Lacey she was perfectly okay. But as she rushed down the steps, her bare feet warmed by the stone, it was a lot harder to dismiss the anxious look on Lacey’s face when they’d argued twenty minutes ago...
‘Why can’t you come home to London, Milly? Ruby misses you. I miss you. Brandon’s worried about you and so am I.’
‘It’s not his job to be worried about me. Is that why you invited me here? To ambush me again? I’m happy in Genoa, Lacey.’
Except it wasn’t entirely true. Because Milly’s grand plan to make a living out of her art hadn’t exactly been a roaring success... Yet. The truth was, she never had time to draw, or develop any of her ideas, because she had been too busy working in a string of minimum wage jobs first in France, then in Italy, which barely kept her head above water.
But she could not bear to return to London a failure. She couldn’t let her sister and her new husband support her. It didn’t matter how wealthy Brandon Cade was, her life was her responsibility. Nor did she want to be a spectator in her sister’s blissfully happy, loved-up new marriage.
She swallowed, hating the trickle of envy. Her older sister had worked so hard for so long, becoming a single mum at only nineteen, and being a stand-in mum to Milly too. She deservedto find happiness with the billionaire media mogul who had got her pregnant.
If only Milly didn’t feel so hopelessly displaced. Milly and Lacey and Ruby had been a unit, once. A tight, close, strong, unbreakable family unit. Until Brandon Cade had discovered Ruby was his daughter... And had swooped into their ordinary, unassuming lives eighteen months ago and insisted on marrying Lacey and becoming Ruby’s daddy for real. And changed Milly’s family for ever.
She did not fit in their exclusive world. And the sooner Lacey and Brandon figured that out, the better off they would all be. As for her adorable niece Ruby...
Milly cursed as she reached the private dock below the palazzo.
Low blow, Lacey, low blow.
Milly spoke to her niece every weekend on a video link. But Rubes was busy these days spending quality time with her daddy, training her very naughty dog, Tinkerbell, and adjusting to her new baby brother, Arthur.
If you only knew how much I missed Ruby, Lacey. But she doesn’t need me any more, and neither do you.
She had to make a future for herself, which didn’t depend on the Cades. Why couldn’t her sister understand that? And butt out of her life?
And yeah, maybe Milly was making a great big hash of said life, but Lacey and Brandon’s overbearing concern was not helping.
The tremor of irritation fortified her as she paced along the dock where a parade of shiny oversized super-yachts and motor launches were crowded so closely together they obscured the shimmering, moonlit water.
It took her less than two minutes, though, to realise she’d screwed up again. The private dock was a dead end. She couldnot get to the ferry terminal to get a boat back to Sorrento from here without swimming past the rocky headland in her sister’s designer gown or scaling the cliff face.
Fabulous. Ms Screw-Ups-R-Us strikes again.
She swore. The sound bounced off the cliff walls and returned to her. Because it was going nowhere fast either.
Of course, the other option was to retrace her steps and exit through the palazzo in her sweat-stained dress, smudged make-up and what was left of the hairdo Lacey’s personal stylist had constructed at their hotel in Sorrento, which had started to list like the leaning tower of Pisa during her madcap escape.
