‘Where is Nico? I was so worried when I woke up and found you had gone. When your lawyer said you had taken him...’ Her voice cracked as she relived the sheer terror she had felt when she’d feared she might never see Nico again.
Suddenly she was crying, great tearing sobs that wracked her slender frame. ‘You bastard!’ she choked. Tears streamed down her face, and the need to hurt him as much as he had hurt her made her lift her hand and connect it sharply with his cheek. The sound of the slap echoed around the vast hall and the moment she had done it she felt sick. Physical violence was completely alien to her, yet twice in two days she had lashed out at Sergio. How could she blame him for believing that she was responsible for the terrible bruises on Nico’s legs after the way she had behaved?
Sergio had not reacted to the slap, even though he could easily have grabbed her wrist and prevented her from striking him. His expression was unreadable, but for an instant some indefinable emotion flared in his eyes as he watched her fall apart.
Kristen could not stop crying. It was as if a dam had burst inside her, and as she dashed her tears away more came in an unstoppable river. ‘I didn’t hurt Nico, I swear. I would never lay a finger on him. He fell from the top of the climbing frame at the park. I had told him not to climb too high, but he’s such a daredevil and sometimes he can be quite naughty and disobedient. When he slipped I was scared he would hit the ground and break every bone in his body.’ She shuddered at the memory of Nico’s scream as he had plummeted from the climbing frame. ‘Thankfully, I managed to catch him, but during the fall he slammed against the metal bars and was bruised all over his body and legs.’
Recalling the terrifying incident, Kristen couldn’t regain control of her emotions. Her chest heaved and she searched desperately in her handbag for a tissue. ‘How could you think I would have inflicted those bruises on him? I’m not a bad mother. I love Nico with all my heart and I would never harm him.’
Sergio studied Kristen dispassionately. Her face was blotchy and tear-stained and her eyes were red-rimmed. She had obviously dressed in a hurry and not checked her appearance in a mirror, because if she had she would have seen that her orange T-shirt and pink cardigan clashed horribly. Continuing his inspection, he glanced down and saw that she was wearing mismatched shoes—on one foot a navy blue trainer and on the other a white plimsoll.
Following his gaze, she flushed. ‘I left the house in a rush. Which is understandable when you had snatched my son,’ she added defensively.
She must have been frantic about Nico not to have noticed that she had put on odd shoes!
As Sergio watched Kristen scrub her hand over her wet face the tight knot of tension in his gut slowly unravelled. The doctor who he had called to the villa to check over Nico had said that the bruises on his legs were probably the result of an accident, and in his opinion were not signs that he had been mistreated. Kristen’s explanation about Nico falling from the climbing frame was believable. Her distress was real and painful to witness, he acknowledged uncomfortably. Was it possible he had misjudged her? Doubt crept into Sergio’s mind. When he had seen the bruises on Nico his emotions had taken over from his usual cool logic and he had been tormented by memories of how his mother had treated him when he had been a child. His only thought had been to rescue Nico and bring him to Sicily. But perhaps he had overreacted?
‘Kristen, you have to stop crying,’ he said roughly. ‘Nico is ill and he needs you.’
Her eyes widened. ‘What’s wrong with him?’
‘He’s running a high temperature and he’s been sick. The doctor thinks he has picked up a gastric virus.’
‘There’s been a vomiting bug going around at nursery.’ Kristen drew a ragged breath and finally managed to stop crying. She knew she did not cry prettily and she probably looked a mess, she thought ruefully. But the news that Nico was unwell drove all other considerations from her mind. ‘Where is he? Why aren’t you with him?’