Page 180 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 5-8

Then she smiled. A smile of scorn, of mockery. Of triumph.

Of victory.

Another cry broke from Eleanora, and she turned and ran, and ran, and ran.

* * *

‘Eleanora!’ Sanzio’s call was urgent. He started forward. Tonia’s hand fastened over his forearm like a vice.

‘Let her go! Let them both go! Who cares? Oh, God, Sanzio, I’ve missed you so much—you’re the only man I want—right here, right now.’ She was trying to pull him down on to the bed, trying to reach his mouth with hers, trying to press her body against his.

He peeled her hand from him roughly, stepped free of her. His eyes hard as nails. A word broke from him that made her gasp.

‘Don’t you dare speak to me like that!’ Outrage and disbelief were in her face.

He said it again for good measure.

‘You’ve served your purpose, Tonia. Now you can go to hell! Where you so richly belong!’

He pushed past her. He needed to catch up with Eleanora—he must.

But even as he strode from the room and plunged downstairs to yank open the front door, he heard the gunning of Edouard’s car. And in the passenger seat sat Eleanora…

Chapter Fourteen

The old mare whinnied softly and nuzzled her head against Eleanora’s shoulder.

‘The sugar is all gone,’ she said, speaking Spanish as best she could. She leant against the mare’s flank on the straw-covered floor of the loosebox. It was strong and warm and comforting. Eleanora stroked the velvet muzzle.

Her mother had been right. Horses could comfort when humans let you down. When sisters stabbed you to the quick, and laughed and mocked you as they did.

When husbands betrayed you…

No, she could not claim that. Sanzio had never betrayed her, because their marriage had never been intended to last, and he was about to be free of her.

She had made herself face that, and so all that Sanzio had done that nightmare day when Tonia had descended to claim him from her as she’d taunted that she could, any time she wanted, had only served to pre-empt the formal ending of their marriage. That he had hurt and humiliated her she just had to let go of.

Just as she was now letting go of Sanzio. By now he would have heard from her lawyer, setting in motion their divorce.

He’ll be glad—relieved. He can carry on openly with Tonia now.

Tears welled up in her. She could set Sanzio free of her, as he had shown he wanted to be, but she—pain twisted inside her—she could never be free…

* * *

The estancia was as Sanzio remembered it. The colonial-era house gracious, the stables and outbuildings extensive, horses in the well-fenced paddocks. His arrival was noted by one of the ranch-hands and as he got out of the SUV hire car, Eleanora’s jodhpur-clad mother emerged from a stable block. She came right up to him.

‘Why are you here?’ she demanded. Her tone was not friendly.

‘I would like to speak to Eleanora,’ he said carefully, speaking English as she had.

Eleanora’s mother eyed him in the same unfriendly fashion. ‘I will ask her if she wants to,’ she answered. ‘But before I do, I will tell you to your face that I consider your behaviour despicable. I had thought better of you, but clearly you are both a fool and a knave when it comes to my daughter’s unspeakable half-sister.’

Not waiting for a reply, she headed for the ranch house. Time stretched. Then she was on the veranda, beckoning him. Moments later, he was indoors and she was opening the door to the drawing room.

‘If you upset her,’ Eleanora’s mother told him grimly, ‘I will have you thrown to the stallions and they can trample you to death with my blessing!’

He walked in. Eleanora was there.