One Last Night by Melanie Milburne Page A

probably was.'
    'I wish I had known that's how you felt…'
    'Would it have made a difference?' he asked.
    Maya let her shoulders drop. 'I don't know…'
    He touched her cheek with two fingers. 'I didn't want to burden you with my own sense of failure. I felt you had enough to deal with. But now I see I should have shared more with you about how it felt for me so you understood that I knew at least some of what you were feeling.'
    It explained a lot, Maya thought, and yet she was still worried about his motives for keeping their marriage on track. If she failed to deliver a live child, would he still insist on their marriage continuing? And, even if she did give birth to the heir he so dearly wanted, wouldn't she then have to live with the knowledge she was the mother of a Sabbatini heir and not the love of his life, as she so dearly longed to be?
    'Have you told your grandfather about this pregnancy?' she asked.
    He dropped his hand from her face. 'No, but I think we should tell him as soon as possible. It would boost his spirits no end to know he might be a great-grandfather again in a few months. I only wish he could live that long to see it eventuate.'
    Maya felt the pain of his statement. It was as raw for her as it was for him. She still could not quite believe the vibrant, cheeky patriarch of the family was facing imminent death. She could not imagine life without him. It would be doubly hard for Giorgio. He would be expected to carry the family through the crisis while holding the Sabbatini empire in place.
    'I wish he could live that long too,' she said softly.
    'We'll tell him as soon as we get back from the doctor,' he said. 'Now, do you need a hand getting ready? I have my car outside. We can go straight to the surgery.'
    Maya pushed a hand through her limp hair. 'I need to have a shower…'
    'Have a quick one while I call the doctor,' he said, pulling out his mobile. 'I'll get one of my staff to come and collect Gonzo and your things and take them to the villa.'
    It was all happening so fast that Maya could barely keep up. Giorgio was in organising mode and he was letting nothing stand in his way. After fighting to be independent for so long, she perversely began to feel the relief of having someone take control. It made her feel protected and sheltered from having to worry about things all on her own.

    The shower did much to restore her equilibrium. The worst of the nausea had abated and when she came downstairs dressed in jeans and a rollneck cashmere sweater with a trench coat draped around her shoulders in case it was still cold outside, Giorgio was already waiting for her.
    He gave her a rare smile, such a small movement of his lips but it still managed to contract her heart. 'You look a lot better. Not feeling so sick now?' he asked.
    She shook her head. 'No, I'm fine now.'
    He held the door open for her, commanding Gonzo to sit on his cushion in the laundry instead of bolting out of the door, as clearly had been the dog's plan.
    'He is getting out of control,' Giorgio said as he led Maya to his car, parked illegally in front of her flat. 'You've clearly been too soft with him.'
    She sent him a resentful little glare as he activated the remote control device to unlock the car.
    'He's been upset by the change in living arrangements,' she said. 'Now I can understand how children misbehave for one or both of their parents when there is a divorce. It's very unsettling having to shift between two residences all the time.'
    He held open the passenger door for her. 'I wasn't the one who instigated the divorce,' he reminded her with a speaking look.
    'No, but you would have got around to it sooner or later,' she said.
    He didn't answer other than to close the door and stride around to the driver's side, his expression dark and brooding.
    Maya pulled down the seat belt with an angry movement of her hand. She waited until he was sitting in the driver's seat beside her before she said, 'I'm doing my best, Giorgio. I