Page 169 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 5-8

Eleanora rolled her eyes. This was beyond ridiculous. Tonia’s second cocktail had arrived, and she was getting stuck in again.

Resolutely, Eleanora stood her ground—that was what Sanzio had urged last night, and it applied now too.

‘You’re living in la-la land, Tonia. Just because you’re used to men being all over you, you think they all are! Well, that’s not what I’ve heard. You got the brush-off from Nic Falcone, and as for Carla’s husband, don’t make me laugh!’

She saw fury lash in Tonia’s eyes, knew she had hit home. Not that she wanted to hit, home or otherwise. She didn’t want any of this. But Tonia was in full toxic flow.

‘Laugh?’ Her voice was vicious. ‘I’ll be the one laughing, Ellie-Ellie! So don’t sit there looking like that, trying to be superior! You’re pathetic, do you know that?’ She reached for her refreshed cocktail, took a slug of it, slammed the glass back down. Her eyes were glittering. ‘Sanzio didn’t just doll you up and bed you to send a challenge to me for dumping him. He did it because the one thing every adulterous husband wants is a besotted wife! One who thinks the sun shines out of him and adores him! Best of all, one who’s so pathetically grateful that he’s bedded her! That kind of wife never believes anything nasty about the man she’s besotted with! So he can run circles round her, and she’s so gullible she’ll never suspect a thing! Oh, and it works the other way too, which is great for me—Edouard’s so besotted with me I can do anything I like. And what I like, dearest, pathetic little Ellie-Ellie, is getting what I want. Because I always do. Always. And if—’ she smiled, eyes glittering with venom ‘—I decide I want your precious Sanzio, who was panting for me, just panting, believe me, I’ll have him!’

She leant towards Eleanora across the table.

‘All I have to do—’ the glitter in her eyes like darkness visible ‘—is snap my fingers for him!’

She did just that, right in Eleanora’s face.

Then sat back again, snatching up her cocktail, downing more of it. Her mouth twisted. ‘And there won’t be a thing you can do about it!’

She gave her scornful laugh, the one Eleanora had heard so many, many times before. ‘He’ll be mine any time I like. Any time at all! So do enjoy him, baby sister, enjoy him and adore him and roll right over for him, because he doesn’t give a toss about you. Not in bed, or out. Because it’s not about you—it’s never been about you. It’s only ever…ever…been about me! Whatever line he’s spun you, he’s only ever had one intention.’ She smiled. ‘To get me back. Any way he can.’

Eleanora got to her feet. She felt sick. Under her ribs, her heart was thudding, lungs constricting. As she walked away, Tonia’s scornful laugh came again…

Chapter Twelve

Stepping on the accelerator, Sanzio effortlessly overtook the car ahead of him. He and Eleanora were heading back to the Palazzo, and he was looking forward to being there again. The break away in Milan and the Lakes had been good, but Eleanora had seemed…distracted.

He’d asked her straight out if something was bothering her, but she’d said not. Yet though she’d seemed cheerful, there was just something about her that troubled him. He had his own idea what might be causing it—the aftermath of her encounter with her sister.

As the days passed though, and Rome slipped into the background, her spirits had started to lift, and he was glad. He did not want her down. Subdued. Upset.

He wanted Eleanora the way he had persuaded her to be, the way he had worked hard for her to be. Happy and contented.

Trusting me—

* * *

The car radio was tuned to a news channel, and Eleanora was glad of it. With Sanzio listening to it she had time to think, to let into her head what their days away in Milan and Como had distracted her from—what she’d wanted to be distracted from.

That ugly, poisonous meeting with Tonia in Rome. She didn’t want to think about it, but it was in her head all the same.

She had already faced what Tonia had been doing.

She was just trying to find a new way of getting at me, now she can’t sneer at the way I look any longer. That’s all it was.

The trouble was, she could tell herself that all she liked, but what had always made Tonia so effective in her venom over the years was that she always based it on truth. Denigrating her appearance had been based on things that found a true target.

I’m slimmer than her, so she could call me skinny, and how could I deny it, compared with her lush figure? I did dress badly. I was dull and boring compared with her vivacity and allure. There was nothing about me to make any man want to look twice at me.

But how could Tonia possibly be doing the same thing now, distorting the truth to get at her? Because there was no truth in what she’d tried on.

What she spewed at me was garbage!

Of course it was.

Except that—

Tonia’s voice rang in her ears.

‘He did it because he knows the one thing I really adore is a challenge.’