Page 79 of Royally Roma
His gaze shifted to his briefcase. “I’ve procured the money that is owed to you. It’s all here. In cash, as you requested.”
Piero opened the briefcase, removed a large manila folder, and set it on the table.
Her money.
She’d nearly forgotten about it. Her dire financial situation had seemed like the end of the world just yesterday, and now...
Now she couldn’t fathom anything less important.
“Would you like to count it?” Piero asked, tapping his index finger on the envelope. The noise it made—tap, tap, tap—grated on Julia’s nerves until she wanted to strangle him.
“No, thank you.”I just want you gone.“I’m sure everything is in order.”
“Very well.” He picked up his briefcase and walked to the door, sidestepping Valentina along the way.
He paused with his hand on the doorknob and stared at her with an accusatory glare. Disdain dripped from his every pore.
Leave. Just go, damn you.She wished she could say it out loud. But she couldn’t seem to make herself speak. She was in shock. Her heart was breaking in ways she didn’t understand. Scars left behind by Elio and her father tore open, deeper and wider. She felt herself falling into an abyss again. And this time she didn’t know if she’d be able to make her way out.
“I hope you find everything you’re looking for in that envelope, Miss Costa, and thatNicocan count on your discretion.” Piero gave her a parting, patronizing smile. “Good day.”
The door clicked closed behind him, and she sank onto the bed. What had just happened, and why did she feel so dirty all of a sudden?
Valentina flitted to and fro, tangling herself in her leash. Julia reached to unfasten the clasp from the dog’s collar, and while she was bent over, she saw it. Chiara’s magazine. In a violent wad on the floor, as if had been hurled against the wall.
Oh no. Oh God, no.
She picked it up, and several pages fluttered to the ground. Someone had been angry to find the magazine in her possession. Not just angry. Furious. And that someone had been Niccolo.
This was the reason he’d left without saying good-bye. These cheap, flimsy pages had told him that she knew exactly who he was. She knew, and she hadn’t said anything.
But she’d tried. She really had. She just hadn’t been able to force the words out, not when he’d been touching her and kissing her and taking her far away to that place where no man had ever taken her. That impossible place that was theirs and theirs alone. She’d wanted to go there with him. She’d wanted to give herself to him until she’d had nothing left to give. She’d needed it. She’d neededhim.
Did he think she was happy to have slept with a prince? That it was some sort of badge of honor? If so, he couldn’t have been more wrong. She didn’t need that kind of complication in her life. Her life had been complicated enough, for far too long.
After Elio had left—after he’d vanished, along with every penny she had, plus some she didn’t—she’d thought she was finished with love. But during the past two days with Niccolo, she’d come to realize that love wasn’t finished with her. She didn’t ask to feel this way. She didn’t want to love him. She’d fought the fall. She’d fought it hard. She’d fought it with all she had. But she’d fallen all the same, right into the arms of a man named Nico. Not a prince. Not a king. Just a man.
She flung the magazine in the trash as hard as she could, where it landed with a thud of finality. Nothing mattered anymore—Niccolo’s title, what he thought of her, what they’d done. He was gone. He was gone and wasn’t coming back.
Fine. He might be the world’s most eligible bachelor, but he was also the world’s biggest hypocrite. She may not have been 100 percent truthful with him, but he’d lied, too. He’d been lying to her since the moment they’d met. She didn’t want him back.
Except she sort of did.
Stop. You’re better than this.
Besides, she didn’t have time to waste on a lying prince. She needed to find Giuseppe and beg for her job back. And if that didn’t work, she needed to find other employment. Immediately. A thousand euros would get her through a month. Two, tops.
Heartbreak was a luxury she couldn’t afford.
She reached for the envelope that Piero had left on the table. It felt unreasonably heavy.
I hope you find everything you’re looking for in that envelope, Miss Costa.
Everything she was looking for. What did that even mean? The things she wanted most wouldn’t fit into the biggest envelope in the world. The things she wanted most were elusive and intangible. Things like love and passion and sensual surrender. Things she’d never believed in before yesterday.
She blinked back a fresh wave of tears, swallowed her rage, and unfastened the envelope’s silver metal clasp. She would be fine. Wasn’t she always? She would pick up the pieces of her life and start over.Again.Surely it would be easier this time. Wasn’t the third time supposed to be the charm?
She tipped the envelope upside down, and an avalanche of cash tumbled out. Colorful banknotes of every conceivable denomination. Tens, twenties, fifties, and more of the large green one-hundred-euro notes than she could count.
