Magic by Danielle Steel Page A

keep an interest in our business. You are leaving that too.” She said it with an iron resolve.
    “That’s ridiculous,” he said, staring at her in disbelief. “Our families have collaborated for generations—you can’t simply dissolve that. Why would you punish them for this unfortunate mistake?” He was still calling it that instead of the disaster it had become.
    “Why should I be punished? I’ve spoken to our lawyers, and the partnership can be dissolved as part of our divorce.” Her face was set in stone as she announced it to him, and he looked horrified.
    “What divorce? I said I was leaving you, not divorcing you. We don’t need to get divorced.”
    “You may not, Gregorio, but I do. I’m not going to have one of those marriages where you live with your mistress and her child, and I’m the wife you abandoned but stay married to, and run our business on top of it. What kind of life is that for me? And when you get rid of her, you come back to me for a while, and then find someone else? No.” She smiled at him icily. She was better prepared than he was for what came next, and had braced herself for it. “If you want out, then you need to be out completely, of our marriage and our business. It’s over, Gregorio. You’ve made your decision. Now go back to her. I wish you luck with her and your little girl.” She stood up then as a signal for him to leave. He was in shock.
    “You can’t mean this.” He was panicked.
    “Yes, I can. I do.” She opened the door to her office to show him out.
    “What am I going to tell my family?”
    “That’s up to you. It will take a while to extricate our families from the business and separate the parts they were involved in. Our lawyers can work it out. I’ll have papers drawn up to remove you from the partnership immediately.”
    “You can’t do that,” he said, incensed.
    “Yes, I can, and I will. I was a fool to wait this long. I only did it out of love for you, to give you a chance to come back if you wanted to. At least now everything is clear.”
    “We don’t need a divorce, Benedetta,” he insisted again. “Everything can be agreed privately between us, informally.”
    “No, it can’t. I need a divorce, even if you don’t. I want everything clear between us. And that way if you want to marry her, you can. You’re a free man.” He walked out of her office looking dazed, and the last thing she said to him was that she would have his things sent to Anya’s apartment in Rome. She assumed they’d be going back there, and there was too much to send to a hotel. He turned one last time to look at her before she closed her office door.
    “I thought you loved me,” he said with tears in his eyes. “That’s why I was willing to come back to you a few weeks ago.” But that had changed when their boy twin died and Anya fell apart, and he decided to stay with her. But he’d still been sure of Benedetta only weeks ago.
    “I do love you,” Benedetta said quietly. “I still love you very much. Enough to have been willing to stay with you. I hope one day I won’t love you. That’s all I wish for now.” And after she said it, she silently closed her office door. And Gregorio walked away in tears. He had never thought that Benedetta could be so cruel.

Chapter 6
    G regorio flew back to Paris that night, and called Anya from the airport to ask how the baby was. Anya said she was the same, there was no news.
    “Could you meet me at the hotel?” he asked, sounding jagged. Other than their son’s death, it had been one of the hardest days of his life. He felt as though he had lost everything in a matter of hours. Benedetta wanted him out of their business. He had lost his job, his history, and his wife of twenty years. He had wanted to leave her to be with Anya, but he was shocked that she wanted a divorce. He had thought they would stay married, while he lived with Anya and the baby. That was what most people he knew did. Mistresses were still