Boss Meets Baby(88)

Lily exhaled heavily, put her hands on her hips and shook her head decisively. She wouldn’t stand for it. He couldn’t keep her here against her wishes. She’d leave him. Take her life back. Ruin his plans.

She grabbed her suitcase out of the wardrobe and started throwing clothes into it. Everything—all the designer clothes, the jewellery. Everything he’d ever bought her. He’d told her they were hers, and this time she’d take the lot.

Suddenly she stopped. She didn’t want things he’d paid for. She’d never cared about his money. She’d only ever cared about him. And now about her baby.

If she left, her baby would get nothing. But it wasn’t about money. It was about recognition.

Her own childhood had been blighted by her father’s complete refusal to have anything to do with her. It had hurt her so deeply that she’d even married a man who didn’t love her to spare her baby that same heartache. Staying with Vito was the best way for her to try to get through to him. He was her baby’s father—and there must be some way she could prove it to him.

‘Good bye, Mum.’ Lily leant forward to kiss her mother’s cheek as they reached the front of the queue to go through security at Marco Polo Airport.

‘Passport…boarding pass…’ Ellen double-checked she was holding the crucial documents, then turned to give Lily a final hug. ‘Congratulations again, darling. And thank you for having me.’

‘You’re welcome.’ Lily smiled as warmly as she could and returned her hug.

‘Oh, I’d better go!’ Ellen gasped, realising she was holding up the queue. She clutched the roll of Venetian marbled paper that she hadn’t wanted to crush in her suitcase and grabbed the handle of her wheelie carry-on bag.

‘Thanks for coming!’ Lily called.

As she stood watching her mother disappear into the departure lounge, an unpleasant feeling of emptiness crept over her. She loved her mum, but under the circumstances— Ellen’s visit to Venice had been tough on Lily.

Living with Vito after she had discovered the truth about his plans had been difficult. And her mother’s presence hadn’t made it any easier.

After their horrible row, when he’d admitted he considered— their marriage temporary, things had slipped back into their previous routine disconcertingly fast. Vito had kept his distance, and Lily had not wanted to rock the boat. She instinctively knew that it would be better for her to bide her time. Starting fresh arguments with Vito was not the way to prove her innocence to him, so that he would eventually accept that he was the father of her baby.

In the end Lily had invited her mother for a few days, knowing that it was a hurdle she still had to get over. It had turned out easier than expected to convince Ellen that everything was as it should be. But, although she should have been relieved, the fact that her mother had accepted her situation so readily bothered her.

They’d never been particularly close. Ellen was nervous— and highly strung—difficult to really get to know properly. When she was a child Lily had been upset by the time and effort her mother had always put into her craft projects with the patients at the hospice—while she’d forgotten to attend school events or even to buy groceries for dinner.

As she grew up Lily had told herself it was just the way her mother coped. She was disappointed with her life, and felt vulnerable being in a position of dependence— on a man who was ashamed of her and wanted to keep her existence a secret.

But now Lily was feeling vulnerable. Although she knew she could not confide in Ellen, the fact that her own mother had had no inkling that anything was wrong hurt her feelings.

At first she’d mentally made excuses for her. Having stayed firmly in the countryside for years, it was natural that Ellen had been overcome by Venice. She’d wanted to spend the whole time doing touristy things. In particular she’d been fascinated by the traditional Venetian masks that were on sale all over the place.

She’d talked non-stop about new ideas for her crafting projects, and it hadn’t been hard for Lily to remain virtually— unnoticed. There’d been no need for her to fend off questions about why she’d married so suddenly, or about why Vito was never around. Despite the fact that it was her life that had suddenly changed so dramatically—and— she was the one her mother had come to visit—she’d started to feel like the invisible woman.

She sighed as her mother disappeared into the airport departure-lounge. She couldn’t help being pleased she was gone. Quite honestly, having her mother around had made her feel more alone than ever.