"My friends didn't think so. They said he made them feel uncomfortable. Steven said it was because they were jealous."
"Perhaps they were."
"My mother, too?" she asked. "She didn't like him at all. Called him a slicker version of my father and said she didn't trust him."
That was why they were estranged. Nico could guess what happened. Her mother didn't approve, and Steven took advantage of the disagreement to push them further apart.
"We had this awful fight," she told him. "I accused her of not wanting me to be happy, that because she was alone and miserable, she wanted me to be alone and miserable, too. When I told Steven, he said, 'that's all right. I'm all the family you need now.'" The fresh tears in her eyes had Nico moving to take her in his arms again. She shook him off, getting to her feet instead. "I didn't talk to her for almost five years. She could have died and I wouldn't have known."
"That's not true." She was letting her guilty conscience color her thinking.
"Isn't it?" she replied, turning around. "Who would tell me? I cut myself off from everyone I used to know. Because they didn't fit with my new life."
And Nico could guess who had put that thought in her head. A chill ran through him as he slowly began to understand what she meant by Steven taking everything from her.
She'd turned away from him again, her face turned to the foliage. Nico could see her fingering the edge of one of the leaves. Her hands were shaking.
"You tell yourself you're too smart to fall for someone's lies," she said. "You read stories of women trapped in bad relationships and you can't understand how they can be so foolish. That is, until it happens to you."
"Louisa, don't..."
"Don't what? Blame myself? Tell the embarrassing truth?"
Don't tell me at all. Rising to his feet, Nico walked behind her and curled his hands atop her shoulders to steady her. There was no need for her to go on; he'd heard enough.
Unfortunately for both of them, Louisa had unsealed a bottle that insisted on being emptied because she immediately shook her head. "I think maybe I need to tell someone," she whispered. "Maybe if I say the words aloud..."
Nico could hear her breath rattle with nerves as she took a deep lungful of air before she began to speak. "When it first started, I barely noticed. When you're in love you're supposed to want to spend every minute with each other, right?"
"Yes," Nico replied. His hands were still on her shoulders, and it was all he could do not to pull her tight against him.
"And then, after we were married, when Steven suggested I stop working to avoid gossip, well that made sense, too. It was expected I would be with him at corporate dinner parties and charitable functions. Could hardly do that if I was working full-time."
Lots of women managed both, thought Nico. Louisa could have, as well. But that would have meant having a life of her own, and it sounded as though having an independent wife was the last thing Steven Clark wanted.
He honestly could strangle the man. Here was one of the things that made Louisa such a treasure. Challenging her was exciting. If Nico had a woman like her in his life, he'd do everything in his power to aid in her success, not pin her down like some butterfly under glass. Steven Clark was an idiot as well as a thief.
"When did you realize...?"
"That I was trapped?"
"Yes." Actually, he hadn't known what he'd meant to ask, but her question was close enough.
"I skipped a charity planning committee to do some last-minute Christmas shopping. One of the other members told Steven, and he lost it. Demanded to know where I'd been all day and with whom." She pulled the leaf she'd been playing with from its branch, sending a rustling noise rippling down the row. "To this day I'm not sure what frightened me more. His demand or the fact there were people reporting my actions to him."
Neither aspect sounded very comfortable. "You stayed, however." Because she loved him.
"Where was I supposed to go? None of the assets were in my name. I'd alienated everyone I used to know, and Steven didn't have friends so much as business associates. I couldn't trust those people to help me, not when Steven was handling their money. I couldn't go anywhere. I couldn't talk to anyone. I was stuck."
The proverbial bird in a gilded cage, Nico thought sadly.
"Surely your mother or your friends..."
"And have to listen to them tell me how right they'd all been? I couldn't." Nico wanted to smile despite the sad situation. That was his American. Stubborn to the end, even when it hurt her.
* * *
"Discovering I'd inherited the palazzo was torture. Here I had this safe haven waiting for me, and I couldn't get to it. Even if by some miracle I did find a way to evade Steven's radar, with his money and connections, he would have eventually tracked me down."
The leaf she'd been holding fluttered to the ground as she sighed. "In the end it was easier to go along to get along."
"You mean accept the abuse," Nico said.
"I told you, it wasn't abuse."
They both knew she was lying. Steven might not have hit her or yelled insults, but he'd abused her in his own despicable way. He'd stolen her innocence and her freedom and so much more. Nico could feel the anger spreading through him. If it was possible to kill a man by thoughts alone, Steven Clark would be dead a thousand times over.
Arms hugging her body, Louisa turned to look at him with cavernous eyes, the white-blond curtain of her hair casting her cheeks with shadows.
"The day I stumbled across those financial reports was the best day of my life, because I knew I could finally walk away," she said.
Only walking away hadn't been as easy as she made it sound.
The truth wasn't as simple as she described. Walking away was never easy. The details didn't matter. Her story explained a lot, however. Why she balked every time he offered to help, for example. It definitely explained why she feared her friends would cut her off.
"Do you still love him?" It was none of his business, and yet he could not stop thinking about her words before. Love makes you blind.
"No. Not even in the slightest."
If he shouldn't have asked the question, then he should definitely not have felt relief at her answer. He did, though. To save her heart from further pain, that was all.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"I told you before, I don't want your pity."
Her voice was rough from crying, the raw sound making him hate Steven Clark all the more. "I don't pity you," he told her truthfully. He didn't. He admired her. Did he know what kind of strength it took to pull herself free from the hell she had become trapped in? Not only pull herself free, but to begin again?
"What I meant was that I am sorry I accused you of abandoning the palazzo," he said.
"Oh." The tiniest of blushes tinged her cheekbones as she looked down at her feet. "Thank you," she said. "And I'm sorry I lost my temper."
"Then we are even." Funny, but he'd forgotten why she'd lost her temper in the first place.
By silent agreement, they started walking toward the production facilities. They'd been in the field most of the morning, Nico realized, or so said the sun beating on the back of his neck. His employees would be looking for him. Wasn't like him to ignore the winery for so long. Add another uncharacteristic behavior to the growing list.
Even though Louisa's confession answered a lot of questions, Nico found his mind more jumbled than before. Mostly with vague unformed ideas he couldn't articulate. Finally, because he felt the need to say something while they walked, he said in a quiet voice. "I'm glad you made it to Italy."
The sentiment didn't come close to capturing any of the thoughts swirling in his head, what he wanted to say, but it was enough to make Louisa smile.
"Are you really?" she asked.
She sounded so disbelieving.
"Yes, really," he replied. More than he'd realized until this moment. The town wouldn't be the same without her. The palazzo and Monte Calanetti needed her. He...
The thought lingered just out of reach.
He knew he was taking a risk, but he closed the distance between them anyway, reaching up with his hands to cradle her face. "I can't imagine Monte Calanetti without you."
Her trembling lower lip begged for reassurance or was it that he begged to reassure her? To kiss her and let her know just how glad he was to have her in Monte Calanetti.