Authors note: Hello everyone. Well this is the last chapter and I hope you have enjoyed this story! Thank you everyone for the positive feedback and comments they continue to mean the world to me and have brightened my days. Thank you once again to Paul who worked tirelessly on this series as my second set of eyes. ~ellie.
*****
Cat hung from intricate ropes, panting for breath, her eyes closed and perspiration making her skin glow. She had been woken early by the insistent kissing and nuzzling of the men she loved and taken into the playroom before the sun had barely cleared the horizon.
Now, as the restraints were finally being released and she was lowered to the floor, she felt the exhaustion of both last night and this morning fill her. The only saving grace was that she didn't have morning sickness for once. Maybe this was the cure, she gave a half laugh as she went to shower with Ricco and Matteo, who now treated her as if she was fragile and bathed her, towelled her dry and rubbed lotion into her marked limbs and torso. They hadn't held back, and just like the night before they had used her completely, with the addition of all the tools at their disposal in the red room.
Once dressed, they walked with her to the kitchen and sat at the small cosy table there. Lisa, Arturo and Bradbury waited for them, and Hugh came in a minute later. Matteo looked at Ricco and took a breath. He knew Cat wouldn't like what they were about to do, but Ricco had assured him it was necessary for Cat to move past her own guilt over what had occurred. She had been punishing herself, and now she needed some sort of acknowledgement, if not a real punishment from them.
"Great, we're all here then," Matteo started. "New rules for our Princess," Matteo grinned at Cat, who looked horrified at being called a Princess. "Mrs. Vitali, Cat, is pregnant. If she doesn't eat breakfast or only has toast, she doesn't go out until she has eaten something decent mid-morning or lunchtime. I won't have her fainting or collapsing again, regardless of the circumstances, and our baby needs more than a token mouthful of food if it is to survive and be healthy."
"Smoothies might be a good alternative, nutritious and filling without weighing her tummy down too much," Lisa suggested, not hiding her wide smile at the idea of a baby in the house.
"As long as it's sustaining. Cat let herself get run down to the point of exhaustion, and it took her from us for far too long. That won't be happening again, so, new rules where she is concerned. Any changes in her schedule must be passed through us for the next few weeks, and there will be time for resting in between events," Matteo continued. "While the immediate threat to her welfare is gone, there have always been threats to people who hold a certain celebrity, so Hugh and Bradbury will remain fulltime as personal security, regardless of Mrs. Vitali's feelings that she is able to look after herself."
"Why are you doing this?" Cat was shocked that they would do this to her. They had always been so careful of her feelings in front of the staff she felt awkward enough with. Now they were treating her like a naughty child in front of them.
"Because we trusted you to look after yourself while we were tending to business before the shooting and you didn't. You didn't sleep or eat properly, you weren't honest with me about how bad you were feeling, and you didn't confide in the people who would have helped you and made sure you got what you needed. You should have told me just how badly you were sleeping and sick you had become when we spoke," he said a little more gently. "It wasn't until Zee spoke to me that I realised you hadn't told me the whole truth."
Cat said nothing as she acknowledged that what he was saying was true, and lowered her head in shame and guilt. She hadn't been honest with him, and she knew how much that would have hurt him.
"If we can't trust you to put your own welfare or the welfare of our child first, we will do it for you!" Ricco said in hard tones that made her eyes widen. "No more secrets, Cat. You are carrying the next generation of the Vitali Table, and you need to stop hiding that fact from everyone, even yourself. How would you feel if you had lost the baby after you pushed yourself to physical and mental exhaustion?"
The thought hadn't even occurred to her at the time, and his harsh words startled her. He was angry with her, they both were, she realised. Had she really come home last night like a princess expecting them to be grateful that she had deigned to come home and not have to face any consequences? They had been happy and grateful, they had told her as much, but she didn't blame them for being angry with her. She had been angry with herself for how everything had played out on the jet. She didn't blame them for being angry with her; in fact, it was a relief that they were honest about it instead of trying to make her feel better by sweeping it away as they always had in the past. So she sat quietly while they told her how she was going to have to live her life for the next few weeks, if not months until she earned their trust back.
"You are the mother, people run around after you, not the other way around. If you want to meet with Aria or Mia, or even all of the women's circle, they come to you, either here or downstairs in the restaurant. Maryanne doesn't get to summon everyone there just because she has a baby. She has nannies, for goodness sakes, not just one, but two!" Matteo said in a frustrated voice.
"You are a princess; your great-grandmother was a queen. You married into royalty within our family, its time to put the girl from Acacia Grove behind you and embrace being Mrs. Catriona Vitali," Ricco said. "The only people you have to obey and run around after are Matteo and me. Nobody else can tell you what to do, only suggest. This week, take the time to work out properly what you want to do. Yes, you have responsibilities, but you also want to paint. You can do both if you cut out all the things you don't want to do, and certainly don't have to do. Have we made that point clear now?" Ricco asked in the same hard voice. "Unless, of course, you want to leave Sonya running things, including your life within the women's circle," he smiled as he saw Cat stiffen at that news.
Cat had promised herself, over the last week or so, that if she came back and faced those women again they would know just how brave Theresa had been. How loving and forgiving toward Vanessa and how utterly amazing Cat thought she was. She knew her story would hurt Mia and Aria to hear about the betrayal of Vanessa, but they needed to know that Theresa was brave. Cat itched to ask about her and when she would be home from Darwin.
"Use the software Peri gave you, Zion says it will do most of the work for you," Matteo said in a conciliatory tone to offset the harshness of Ricco's words. "These people work for you, not just because they are contracted to, but because they want to, and they care about you and our family. You can tell them what to do, but for the next little while they'll be running that past us as well. Just until we are sure you are looking after yourself and our baby properly."
"I understand," Cat said softly. Cat knew she had done everything they accused her of, and more. She had gotten their mother and sister shot as well. She deserved a far greater punishment than this, and the people standing there looking at her didn't seem to be judging her, but rather looking at her with care and understanding. "I'll do it your way, my way obviously wasn't working," she said contritely.
Yesterday, after Sava and Vedran left, she knew this is where she wanted to be. She didn't want a new life where she could start over, she wanted this life with the men she loved, and she was ready to take whatever punishment they deemed fit for what she had done. She couldn't face the self-imposed exile she had been contemplating once it was made reality and offered to her by her cousins. The idea that she could have harmed her baby by being as neglectful as her mother had been upsetting to hear, but she determined not to show it. She would get some help, maybe talk to a counsellor or therapist. She made the decision to come back, and now she had to embrace everything that came with that instead of shying away from it, including motherhood.
"Why don't we try a smoothie this morning, Mrs. Vitali," Lisa suggested. "I have some lovely recipes from back in my training days."
"Thank you, Lisa, that would be lovely," Cat gave a small smile, then turned at a commotion coming from the living room.
