The Billionaire’s Prodigal Wife (Mackenna and Alessandro) novel Chapter 26

TRIGGER WARNING: 18+ CONTENT FOR SENSITIVE MATTERS IN UPCOMING CHAPTERS

As Mackenna and her grandparents walked through the little shops in the neighborhood where they had been hiding out for the last week, she finally felt a moment of peace. There were no false sighting of Alessandro and if he had any clue where she was, he made no attempt to discover her.

It could be he was complying with a court order, but Mackenna doubted it. His lawyer had Camille in court every single day since she'd been back in Italy with one example or another of why the court order should be dismissed or why the divorce should be tossed out of the court. He was demonstrating for the court he was an overbearing bullying man, and the judge was tiring of his antics.

Earlier today, Camille had called her laughing saying the judge ordered unless Mr. Giordano was physically in his court room to address the issues, he was no longer entertaining the nonsense of the man. The court order remained in effect and the judge warned further arguments would encourage him to extend it for the duration of the pregnancy.

Mackenna however glad she was for Camille being an amazing lawyer and representing her so well, was exhausted with the proceedings. Her heart ached for the love she had for her husband aware he had spent their marriage lying to her. He would rather the entire world think he was Dulce's lover than to ever admit he had a wife at home.

Therein lay the crux of her problem, she admitted to herself. He was so embarrassed by her she was a dirty secret swept under the rug. Yet the tabloids flaunted Dulce and Alessandro on every damn cover page as a gorgeous couple and she was supposed to simply accept it. It didn't matter she now knew the truth; Dulce was gay. Alessandro was her handbag, per Savannah's description. Mackenna was alone, pregnant, and bitter about the whole thing.

Her grandmother haggled with a man over the price of fruit and her grandfather was eyeing a small gelato shop. They were relaxed and comfortable, even though

couldn't hide here forever, as lovely as the break was.

Mackenna felt a sudden frisson of awareness, as if she were being watched and she turned her head just in time to see a man take her photo and duck into an alley. She immediately pulled her phone out and called Camille.

"Someone just took my photo," she spoke quickly. "l don't want to alarm my grandparents. What should I do?"

"Go back to the house immediately, stay there until I send someone to check it out. Are you okay?"

"Yes, just unnerved." Mackenna scoured the busy area to see if she could see the man again but her first glimpse had been so fleeting, she would never have been able to identify him. She moved to her grandfather. "I'm starting to feel a bit tired.

Can we head back?"

"Of course," he patted her hand and tucked it into the crook of his elbow. He encouraged his wife to move along, and they slowly made their way back to the house. Mackenna frequently looked over her shoulder to see if she could see the man again but saw nothing of him.

Two hours later she was resting in the back garden, reading a book she had picked up in the city, but her mind kept going back to the photographer. She decided to ring Savannah.

"It's me. Safe to talk?"

"Yes," she grunted. "I'm actually home. Dulce was being discharged today and I didn't want to be anywhere near the craziness. One of the nurses texted me and said she gave a statement at the entrance of the hospital thanking all the doctors for their help and made big production about her next steps in healing."

"Have you talked to her since you two made-outp Mackenna asked curiously.

"Nope, I'm far too selfish an individual to put myself through something like Dulce. She's so far in the closet there's cobwebs blocking her exit. Besides; she hurt you, purposefully. There was never any need for her to tell you she and Alexandro were lovers other than to bait you. There's not an excuse in the world to make her She chuckled, "no he doesn't. The cat hates me even at a distance."

"Alessandro stopped here yesterday afternoon to question me and ask if I'd heard from you and Romeo tried to climb him to get him to hold him. The whole time he was here, he stroked the damn cat and the cat purred. I almost told him to take him with him. I've never seen anything like it."

"Sadistic bastards unite?" Mackenna quipped dryly causing Savannah to roar with laughter.

"You know they're heading back to Italy today, right? Also, I should have mentioned when Alessandro was here, he said it didn't matter I wouldn't tell him anything. He hired a private detective who would find you."

"Well, that explains it." Mackenna punched the cushion of her chair angrily. Seems he found me because someone snapped my photo today in the market." "Isn't there a court order telling him to stay away from you?"

"Does Alessandro Giordano strike you as the kind of guy who obeys court orders?" Mackenna scoffed. "1 may as well just move back to my grandparents' house now."

"l miss you Mac," Savannah whispered suddenly. "l wish you could come home.

"Me too," she admitted, "l love my grandparents, but I made my life in Phoenix. I feel like I'm a burden to them. They're whole life is uprooted yet again by me. I just wish I were home. I love my baby, don't get me wrong, but if I could go back in time, I

would never have started the divorce proceedings. I would have just kept my head down and kept things the way they were."

They chatted for several more minutes and then Mackenna ended the call when she saw her grandmother approaching to tell her she had a call on the house phone. Camille.

She went inside and answered the call.

"Mackenna, I wanted to tell you, Alessandro is expected to land here late this evening."

The slew of profanities Camille uttered would have made a sailor blush, but Mackenna had lived for years with Savannah. She'd heard it all. "What do I do Camille? I don't want him descending on your family home. My grandparents are anxious to go home. Should we just bite the bullet and head back?"

"It is your decision of course, Mackenna. I thought I could keep you protected but it seems this man has no boundaries."

"Billionaires, eh?" Mackenna tried to joke.

"The man has more money than brains or compassion." Camille groaned. "If the investigator gets in your way or bothers you in any way, let me know. I'll be notifying the judge in the morning."

"Thanks Camille. I think I'll head back to Milan as soon as I arrange transport.

I'd rather fight the devil on territory I'm familiar with."

Camille's chuckle made her feel better about her decision. "Stay safe Mackenna.

We'll chat tomorrow."

She went to the kitchen and found her grandparents sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. "How would you both like to go home?"

"We don't want to leave you alone," her grandfather protested.

Mackenna held up her hand. "No, I'm coming too. Alessandro hired a private detective to find me. It's pointless for me to be hiding here when he knows exactly where I am."

For the first time in her entire life, Mackenna heard her grandfather curse and her eyes widened incredulously at the sound. "Nonno!"

"l am tired of this man and his antics. If you told me, you loved him, forgave him, and wanted to make it work with him, I would support you, but you have repeatedly said you do not want to be with someone who treats you like this. The Pope himself would have a hard time forgiving this man.

She reached down and hugged the man in his chair. "Come now, let's go home.

I'll arrange the transport. You can go pack up your belongings."

Her grandfather continued her angry murmuring as they made their way to the

An hour later, Mackenna had secured a rental car delivered the car to the house, and she was helping her grandfather loading it up. Her grandmother came out and announced she had locked up and left the key in the spot Camille had instructed. Her grandfather took the car keys from Mackenna mumbling he wasn't too old to drive back home, and he certainly wasn't going to be a passenger while

Mackenna drove. She was notoriously slow and adhered to all the traffic signals, never disobeying any law and it drove the man mad.

She buckled herself into the backseat and felt her anxiety start to rise as they began the journey back home. Tomorrow she would have to face Alessandro yet again and she wasn't sure how she would survive. He was ruthless in his pursuit of her. When she was younger, she would have been thrilled with the chase, but she was no longer a young girl with stars in her eyes. She knew the price and penalty from falling in love with a man like him.

Her grandparents chatted amicably in the front seat about the things they would need to do once they got back to Milan, airing out the apartment, getting in milk and eggs and the mundane things made Mackenna miss them. All she had wanted was someone she could be mundane with. To love, raise a family and grow old with. Instead, she had fallen in love with an egomaniacal domineering man who treated her like a wayward pet.

Mackenna started to doze off, relaxing a bit, the sound of the peaceful conversations soothing her heart. She wasn't sure how long she'd been asleep when she heard her grandfather swear again, the second time in the same day and she was startled out of her sleep.

"What's wrong, Nonno?" she asked curiously when she noted the deep crease of a frown furrowing his brow.

"We are being followed," he gesticulated out the window wildly and Mackenna gasped.

"It is fine," Mackenna tried to reassure him. "We know Alessandro hired an investigator. He's probably just following to make sure we get home. Do not fret." grandfather swerved violently taking a side street suddenly, causing the rental car to jerk around.

"Nonno, please slow down," Mackenna looked over her shoulder to see a dark black car following quite closely behind them, obviously the detective was more accustomed to driving erratically than her grandfather and showed no intention of backing off.

Her grandfather continued driving in a manner which had Mackenna clutching her seat belt tightly and begging him to slow down.

"l should never have given my blessing to the man," he yelled furiously. "This is all my fault. I should have nixed everything years ago. I will have words with him when I see him next."

Mackenna tried to reassure him it was not his fault, and nobody could have predicted how badly the marriage would go but even with her grandmother's pleading the man continued to try to evade the car following closely behind.

Mackenna looked behind her again and tried to signal to the man to pass them or go away but he either didn't understand her signs or simply cared not at the situation and remained behind them.

Then suddenly the car behind them tapped their bumper, causing their car to

swerve, and her grandfather gave a short gasp of surprise, he righted the vehicle quickly but then overcorrected. The car began to slide off the road and then

Mackenna gave a scream of terror as the car began to roll down the embankment, slamming her head against the side of the door. She counted the three times her head struck the door, three timeS the car rolled before she lost consciousness. Her eyes fluttered opened at the sound of the tires squealing above them and she heard a man's voice. "Signora, signora. Signora Giordano!"

She closed her eyes against the pain in her head and then remembered her grandparents. She forced herself to open her eyes again and look in the front seat. Nonna," she whispered trying to get the older woman's attention, but she was facing away from her. "Nonna," she started to cry. She reached up and touched her realized she was leaning backwards. The car must be perched backwards down the embankment. "Nonno, please. Talk to me."

As she undid her seatbelt to move forward and check on her grandparents a searing pain cut through her abdomen, and she screamed as the realization of what was happening. "No, no, no," she whispered. The pain assaulted her again and her eyes closed against the enormity of it before she succumbed to the blackness enveloping her.