Chapter One

1985

His boots leave footprints in the snow as he lifts the gate to enter the cemetery. The fresh cut grass where they build the graves for the dead now look as if they covered them in clouds. January is the coldest month in Italty, and the weathered headstone only proves it. He kneels down at her tombstone, his gloved hand wiping the snow away from her name as he lays the red roses down. Holly does not know this part of his life…that she was not his first wife. He loved her in his way but a part of him would never be hers…the part he kept closed off from the rest of the world…the part that would always be Anna's.

Seven years…Seven years ago he failed to rescue her from the explosion…an explosion that would reveal her duplicity. He found her charred remains in the aftermath, though a part of him was always unable to accept that she was really gone. The severity of her burns made it impossible for him to identify her. Burned beyond recognition is the technical term. He did not know what was worse…that she had become a traitor or that he loved her in spite of it.

"Anna," he sighed. "My Beautiful Annie."

He removed his glove and slid his calloused fingers across her name. Anna Scorpio…Beloved Wife and Friend. He buried her in secret just as he married her in secret. Because it was against the rules. There was one word he made sure was left off her tombstone. Traitor. He would not let the city bury her in a forgotten grave where nobody knew the first thing about her. Least of all, her name. She was somebody to him. She mattered.

A black and white photo of the two of them falls out of his hand and he picks it up. Years have made the image fade but he still keeps it buried in his wallet. Memories of a love so great that even a new marriage cannot dissolve the painful memories of how he lost her. "I got another one of your letters Luv," he whispers.

It was just like Anna to send him pieces of the puzzle a little at a time. She must have known that her chances of making it out alive were slim. She wanted him to know the truth. She made sure that in the event of her death, her estate would mail letters to her husband six months apart until the whole puzzle revealed itself in time. Seven years' time.

She was still a puzzle he wished he could spend his life trying to figure out. He did not have enough time with her. Not nearly enough.

"You were a smokescreen all this time…a distraction meant to take you from me. Never a traitor."

He now knows who the traitor is…someone he used to trust with his life and hers…the same man who destroyed any chance he had of being happy…when he sent Anna into the lion's den.

"Why," he demands bitterly. "Why would Sean set you up to protect his own ass? He let you die with dirt on your hands…worse; he let me believe that the woman I loved was the worst kind of traitor…all you were doing was trying to protect me…every time…and you paid with your life…my life wasn't worth yours Anna… I am just a shell of who I used to be…going in circles…haunted by the look in your eyes the last time I saw you before all that remained of you was ashes… "

He hears the rustle of leaves and out of reflex he turns around…She is standing against the tree, her long knotted dark hair almost disguising her silhouette. She looks at him with those intense, penetrating eyes and he swears it was just as it was seven years ago before the explosion…When she was holding him so tight and asking him to promise that he would never stop loving her no matter what. I kept my promise luv. I never could stop loving you even when I thought you had betrayed me. Where have you been all this time?

"Anna," he gasps. "Oh please tell me I'm not seeing things."

"Robert," she cries, her delicate fingers caressing his cheek. "Oh God, I thought I would never see you again."

"I thought you were dead…For seven years, I thought all that was left of you was embers. How are you here Luv?"

"He wanted me to forget you Robert. For seven years, he tried to break me. Turn me into the perfect robot that he could mold to his will. He could not mold me because I loved you too much. For seven years when he was torturing me, I conjured up the image of your face…even when he tried to erase it from my mind. I am here Robert because I love you…and that love was too strong to kill me. "

Who Anna? What kind of monster would take you away from me...make me believe that I watched you die right in front of me? Do you have any idea how much I blamed myself? At the moment, none of that mattered. Nothing matters except her. Just her.

Seconds pass as his brain catches up to what he is seeing…finally convincing him that she is not just another black and white photograph he keeps tucked away from another life…that she is real and she is here.

"Oh how I missed you," he says, tears slipping from his eyes unrestrained. She runs forward now, jumping into his arms until one of his hands is stroking her hair and the other is holding her lower back. He kisses her hair; her head now nestled in the crook of his neck. She is real. She is alive. She is not a figment of his imagination or a long forgotten dream.

Her hands wrap around his neck, her fingers running through his hair as she presses her lips against his. They still feel the same against her own…soft and warm…hot and fiery…Seven years may have separated them and time could not get that back…but as his tongue slips into her mouth and the kiss deepens still further, she is reminded of the fact that his arms are still home to her. Home is not a place she belongs to…Home is Robert Scorpio.

"Anna," he pants. "Oh Annie...my Annie."

There was still something sexy in the way he said her name...it did something to her...tied her up in knots...made her want to do things she hasn't done since high school.

"What is it Robert?" She questions. His hands are shaking as he steps back from her just a little. He is trying to keep a rational head, but does not seem to be doing a very good job of it. A couple minutes ago, he was kissing her as if he had any right to. The moment her lips touched his, the world fell away and all that existed was the two of them. How could he have forgotten in such a short amount of time that he had another wife back home waiting for him? How was he ever going to tell Anna about Holly? How would he tell Holly about Anna?