SEVEN years later.

–Does your arm still hurt, Mom?

Alex tucked Isabella in and kissed her forehead.

"A little, darling," he replied, choosing to tell her the truth.

She was only six, but Izzie could always tell when Alex was lying to her. Or maybe it was just that Alex had never known how to face her piercing gray gaze.

–But in a couple of weeks they'll be taking off the cast and Aunt Jessie said my arm is healing well.

Her daughter's small, plump fingers traced the line of the scar that ran across his left temple to his eye. The wound was much more superficial than the broken arm and rib, but it looked worse.

"I'm scared, Mom," Izzie whispered.

Alex felt like crying, but he held it back.

–You've always been a very brave girl.

"I know, but when you were in the hospital and I was here, alone, Grandma didn't tell me when you were coming home," the girl added with trembling lips.

Alex lay down on the small bed and hugged her.

–It's scary, but it doesn't hurt. I'm fine, honey.

Izzie nodded and she hugged her tighter until she felt her small body relax.

Although she had not lost her fear either and remembered how that truck had crashed into her car, completely destroying it.
The doctor had told her that it was a miracle that she was alive, and that she had not suffered any further after-effects.

But Alex couldn't stop thinking that he could have lost his life. And that Izzie would have stayed...

She buried her face in her daughter's hair and breathed deeply. It was a scent that always calmed her, even though Alex knew she'd feel scared again afterward.

He told himself he couldn't go on like this.

She needed to control her fear, she had to do it for Izzie. She had to do something to stop her from feeling like this, suddenly paralyzed. She needed to know that her little girl would be okay, no matter what the future held for her.

And then she thought of him.

In the dark-haired man with gray eyes and thick, straight hair, like Izzie's. Alex's hair was curly and strawberry-blond. In the man who had refused to see her again. Or speak to her. Or answer the phone seven years ago.

She'd thought about him even just before she'd lost consciousness. About how he'd made love to her that night.

One memory led to another...

And Alex remembered the contempt with which he'd looked at her afterward. How he'd immediately turned away from her, without looking her in the eye again, and taken her back to his hotel.

In the tone with which he had told her that he never wanted to see her again...

But in those moments, after having been on the verge of death, Alex decided that she had to face him and his contempt.

She had disappointed her parents and she had disappointed herself, but she couldn't let Izzie down.

The girl deserved safety and she needed her life back.

I needed to know someone would take care of Izzie if anything happened to her.

Her whole body itched just thinking about seeing Leandro Conti again, but she was willing to do anything for her daughter.

–One of the two will marry the Rossi daughter.