Chapter 0016
“How … lovely!” Surprise bloomed inside my chest as I accepted the gift, but I played it off with a laugh. “Really selling it here, eh?”
He lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “They suited you.”
“Pink carnations?” I shook my head. He was really going all out for this role, I’d give him that. Anybody looking in would surely think he was the perfect husband.
“They’re pretty. Just like you.” Marco winked.
“Nothing about me is pretty or pink.” I plucked a pink flower from the bunch, then leaned in to tuck it behind his ear. “I think it suits you better.”
Marco’s fingers brushed lightly across my lifted wrist, the touch so soft, so intimate, I froze with my hand still in his hair.
“Mommy!” Eli’s voice shattered our shared moment of … whatever that was. I broke away from Marco, turned to greet my son. The little boy rushed towards me, a grin nearly splitting his face in two.
I crouched, opened my arms for him to rush into my embrace.
But as I nestled my cheek against his hair, my gaze turned towards the open door. There, framed in the dark wood of the doorway, stood Aldo.
I almost didn’t recognize him, behind that cold, expressionless mask. The one I should be used to by now.
Aldo’s face–so like my Vasco’s. So different.
He didn’t meet my gaze. Simply watched Eli rush into the room, then turned and left without a word.
Eli wriggled in my arms, so I released him from my arms. Marco crouched beside us. “Hey, Eli.”
“Marco’s come to visit.” I squeezed Eli’s arm. “Isn’t that exciting?”
Eli nodded. “As long as he wants to play Go Fish!”
Marco stayed for five rounds before I finally, laughingly, sent him on his way.
“You’ve done more than enough,” I assured him at the door. “I’m sure you have better things to do with your night than throw cards at an eight year old.”
He smiled anyway. Marco was always smiling. “I had fun.”
Eli and I watched him climb back into his Porsche and leave the estate behind. Only after the car had vanished did I take Eli’s hand in my own. Lead him back towards the main house.
“I know who that man really is,” Eli said without warning or preamble. “My father.”
His little voice echoed across the grand foyer, halting me in my tracks. He stopped beside me, tilted his little face up. “Right?”
“You mean Marco?” I crouched down beside Eli, confusion and surprise and concern all warring for attention inside my ribcage.
“No.” Eli shook his head, then leaned into my ear. Dropped his voice to a low whisper. “I’ll keep it a secret.”
Aldo? But I couldn’t speak the name out loud. Not in this context. Not in this house. Not when anyone could be listening. But I wanted to ask how did you know?
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Chapter 0016
+25 BONUS
If it was so obvious to my eight–year–old son that Marco wasn’t his father, surely no one else would believe the farce. Still, I swallowed down my panic. Took Eli’s hand in mine again and led him through the foyer. Down the hall. To his room.
I paused to couch beside him at the door, “Eli, can you do something for me?”
His blue eyes rounded into desperate earnesty as he nodded
“Stay away from Mr. Marcello, all right?” My words were barely a whisper, but firm. A command, not a suggestion. “If he thinks you could be his son, he will take you away from me.”
Eli’s eyes got impossibly wider, but he nodded. “All right, Mommy.”
“Good boy.” I kissed the top of his head. “Bedtime now, okay?”
He nodded again, and I closed the door behind him. Paced down the hall toward my own room. Reminding myself, over and over, that he was safe, we were safe, and all this would blow over soon.
Please let this all be over soon.
A tall, dark, and handsome figure stood at the door to my room. His room, I supposed. My breath caught at the sight of him.
Because he was beautiful or because he was terrifying? I couldn’t be sure. “Aldo.”
But his only response was, “He doesn’t love you.”
+25 BONUS
Chapter 0017
