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She stood her ground though, jaw set mutinously, eyes focused ahead, and he remained standing at her side for several long seconds, then expelled a sigh, placing something down beside her. Despite herself, Amelia’s eyes shifted, and she recognised the photograph from his desk, though she’d seen only the back.
Now that it was pointed towards her, she saw a smiling little girl looking back at her with dimples in her cheeks and eyes that seemed to sparkle with life and vivacity, so Amelia couldn’t help smiling back. This child was, she suspected, the kind of girl who had that effect on everyone, even when rendered as a two-dimensional image.
‘That’s Sasha. Sash.’ He cleared his throat. ‘My daughter.’
She startled, jerking her gaze to his face. ‘You have a daughter.’
‘She died. Six years ago. After eighteen months of illness, treatments, the longest, slowest goodbye, and in the end, she was in so much pain that it was almost a relief when she—for her sake—but I was destroyed by it, Amelia.’
Amelia’s eyes filled with tears and every shred of anger and rage and rightful indignation dropped away completely.
She stood up, wringing her hands in front of her.
‘I’m not telling you for sympathy,’ he responded gruffly, forestalling any effort she might make on that score, as if it would have been unwelcome anyway. ‘I’m telling you because you need to understand. When she got sick, helping her became my sole focus. I pushed everyone away. I neglected my business. Lost most of my money, assets; it didn’t matter. All I cared about was Sasha, and finding the right doctor, the best doctor, the treatment that would prove to be the miracle we needed.’
Silence surrounded them; the air pulsed with emotion.
Amelia stared at him, lost for words, full of feelings.
‘And everyone left me.’
Her heart shattered.
‘No one wanted to be near me; they didn’t know what to say, what to do.’ His voice was gruff, factual. Slow to form, the words dredged from the depths of his soul. ‘Except your brother. Anton visited. Brought Sash toys. Came to stay with me at the end. Comforted me when she left. And afterwards, when I would have drunk myself into an early grave, he was the one who kept me tethered—just enough—to this world to fight back when I was ready. He was the hand reaching out for me, pulling me some of the way out of the worst grief I can describe, guiding me back to myself, my business. I owe him...everything.’
Pride and love for her older brother filled Amelia’s heart, but there was also such hurt for Benedetto. She moved closer, picked up the photograph, looked at it. ‘She has the most beautiful smile.’
‘Yes.’
Benedetto’s jaw was clenched, as though he was grinding his teeth, trying to control his emotions.
‘So when he asked you for help, you agreed without hesitation.’
‘I said I’d bring you home, whatever it took. I couldn’t fail him. I can’t.’
Amelia nodded slowly, wistfully, replacing the photo on the tabletop before pressing a hand lightly to Benedetto’s chest.
‘I had no idea—’ his voice was gruff ‘—when I agreed to help, that it would cause you so much pain. You’re nothing like what I thought you’d be.’
‘Spoiled, selfish, thoughtless?’ she prompted, because he’d made his assumptions abundantly clear.
‘Maybe I wanted to think that, to make it easier to go through with this.’
‘You’re still going through with it though,’ she said, gesturing to the ocean that surrounded them. ‘Because of what you feel you owe Anton.’
He closed his eyes a moment. ‘I want to help you too.’
‘Oh?’
‘I don’t know what happened in Catarno to cause you to leave. You clearly don’t want to tell me, and that’s fine. I don’t know what you’re running from, but, if it helps, I can be there with you, when we arrive. I’ll stand with you as you face your family. Whatever will make this easier, I’ll do. I owe you that much, at least.’
A great big ball of feeling exploded in Amelia’s chest. Sadness, relief, happiness, something else she couldn’t identify—affection and gratitude and something shimmery that made her whole body feel as though it were tingling.
‘Excuse me, Millie?’ She was jolted from the wonder of those feelings by Cassidy’s voice, from just a small distance away. ‘Will you be eating in your room or do you want to sit out here? It’s a gorgeous night.’
Amelia blinked, slow to compute.
Benedetto reached out, laced their fingers together. ‘Have dinner with me.’ But even as he said it, she felt the doubts in his voice, the hesitation, the unwillingness to surrender. Their attraction was something they hadn’t foreshadowed, and it complicated everything, but that was worse for him.
