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He felt a pain he hadn’t felt in a long ti else It stabbed at his heart like a rusty knife and he wished he’d told her to mind her own business, but noas on a roll and somehow he couldn’t stop—pain or no pain ‘My father was completely humiliated by her desertion and deter he found surprisingly easy to accoht eyes and then he said it He’d never admitted it before Never told anyone Not the therapist he’d half-heartedly consulted when he’d been living in New York, not any of his friends, nor the wo years and tried to dig away to get at the truth No one Not until now He sed as the bitterness rose up inside him like a dark tide ‘I never even saw a photo of her He destroyed theer to me I don’t even knohat she looks like’

She didn’t gasp or utter soless platitude She just sat there and nodded—as if she was absorbing everything he’d told her ‘Butdidn’t you ever think about tracking her down and hearing her side of the story?’

He stared at her ‘Why would I want to find a woman who left me behind?’

‘Oh, Alek Because she’s your ot up and walked across the sun-dappled balcony until she’d reached hihtly around his back and held hio

He felt her fingers wrapping themselves around hi vine which covered everything in seconds He tried to move away He didn’t need her softness or her sy from her He had learnt to live with pain and abandonment and to normalise them He had pushed his memories into a place of restricted access and had slaht did she have to make him open the door and stare at all those dark spectres? Did she get so him confront stuff that was dead and buried?

He wanted to push her away, but her soft body wasthe her like ahi sucked into a sensation which washim feel

He jerked away fro She’d stirred up stuff which was better left alone and she needed to learn that he was not prepared to tolerate such an intrusion She’d done it once, but it would not happen again With an effort, he steadied his breath

‘I don’t really want to provide so apartments,’ he said, his voice cold as he walked over to the table and poured hilass of juice ‘So why don’t you sit down and eat your breakfast, before we start sightseeing? You wanted to travel, didn’t you, Ellie? Better not waste this golden opportunity’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

IT WAS NOT a successful honeymoon

Yes, Lucca was coeous, and, with her brand-new sun hat crammed down over her hair, Ellie accompanied Alek to every iconic destination the beautiful city had to offer She saw the toith the trees growing from the top and drank cappuccino in the famous oval piazza They visited so many churches that she lost count, and ate their meals in leafy squares and hidden courtyards There were rew beside lemon trees And when the sun became too fierce there were shady streets to walk doith the rich s out from the tiny shops which lined them

But a new froideur had settled over Alek It didn’t see him had been correct—and that on some level they were kindred spirits They’d both known pretty awful childhoods but had just chosen to deal with theed at last to extract the truth about his past She no him betterbut at what price? It hadn’t ical kind of way

It was as if the confidences she’d forced him to share had ruptured the tentative truce which had existed between theht down and shut her out—only this tiht co froer had gone and in its place was a consideration and cool courtesy which made him seem even further away He spoke to her as if he were her doctor Was she too hot? Too tired? A little hungry, perhaps? And she would assure him that she felt absolutely fine, because as the alternative?