Her Shameful Secret

“I thought he had changed.” He sighed. “I wanted him to change.”

She saw the grief in his expression. She wanted to reach out and bring him comfort, but she knew Antonio would not appreciate the gesture. “How old were you when you first stopped talking to each other?”

His harsh features tightened. “I don’t want to discuss it.”

“Why not?”

“I answered your questions, now it’s my turn.”

Isabella jerked her head back. She saw the intensity in his eyes, the determined set of his jaw. Was he really trying to deflect her questions or had this all been a technique to draw her closer? Make her think he was opening up to her so she would feel obligated to do the same?

Isabella braced her shoulders. “I didn’t agree to that.”

“Why did Gio include you in his will?”

“I have no idea. I didn’t ask him to.” But she suspected she knew the answer. Giovanni had been playing games and now she was going to lose everything.

“The lawyers say that Gio changed his will a month ago.”

Isabella paled. That could not be a coincidence. “S-so?”

Antonio tilted his head to one side as he studied her face. “You know why. No one else does. No one knows why he gave you millions.”

“M-millions?” she whispered. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“And half the shares in Rossi Industries.”

“What?” The shock reverberated through her body.

“He gave you half my birthright,” Antonio said in a growl.

She clapped her hand over her mouth. Oh, Giovanni. What have you done? Why did you do this?

“I lost part of my birthright once before,” his said, his voice a harsh whisper. “I have no intention of losing it again.”

Isabella frowned. She felt like she was missing crucial information. “What are you talking about?”

Antonio didn’t hear her. “Why did Gio give all this to you? Why not the woman he was dating? Why not a woman who meant something to him? Why you?”

“Antonio …” She braced her legs and held her clenched hands at her sides. She didn’t have the nerve to tell him. She didn’t want to face the consequences.

“Was it so I would be required to work with the woman who had cheated on me?”

Had Giovanni done this out of spite? For his own perverse pleasure? It was possible …

“Or did you seduce it out of him? I admit you’re good in bed—but that good?”

Isabella felt the heat in her cheeks. If only she could run away. The moment she uttered the next words everything would change. Everything would be lost.

“It’s because I’m p-pregnant.”

He stared at her in shock. Isabella hunched her shoulders, preparing for the world to fall around her as struggled to get the words out.

She nervously licked her lips before she added, “And Giovanni is the father.”

Antonio staggered back as if he had been punched. His body went numb and his mind whirled. His world tilted and he swayed. He wanted to grab hold of something so he wasn’t brought to his knees, but that meant reaching out to Isabella. The one woman who still had the power to hurt him.

“You …”

Isabella was having his brother’s baby. Gio had known and hadn’t told him. The pain radiated through his body.

“But I didn’t have an affair with him. I swear.”

An affair. A fling. Sex. It was all the same.

Antonio held up his hand. Rage billowed through him, crimson, hot and bitter. “You’re pregnant,” he said, as if he was in a daze. “How many months?”

She held her hands in front of her stomach. “I’m just past the first trimester.”

“Three months?” he muttered as the fury seized his throat.

“Antonio, you have to believe me,” she pleaded. “I only slept with him one time.”

He fought back the red mist that threatened to overtake him. “Only? Is a one-night stand supposed to make me feel better?” he asked in a low, biting tone. Was he supposed to believe that when she had lived with Giovanni for weeks?

Isabella’s face tightened with anger. “How many women have you slept with since we broke up?”

“That’s not the issue. Those women were not the reason we broke up.” He would not allow Isabella to distract him. “I kicked you out because you were sleeping with my brother. Now you’re telling me you’re carrying his child.”

“It happened the night I heard on the news that you were going to marry someone else.” Isabella spoke haltingly, as if the memory still tormented her.

“And that’s your excuse?” He stared at her. He didn’t know if she was feeding him lies or if she was planning to thrust another knife in his back.

“No. I’m trying to explain.” She covered her face with her hands. “I was emotional and I drank far too much. I had been like that for weeks. I was self-destructive and I made a lot of poor choices during that time. I’m not proud of what I did.”

But she had done it. Would she have told him about Giovanni if she wasn’t pregnant, or would she have taken her secret to the grave?

“Do you wind up in the nearest bed whenever you drink?”

She slowly lowered her hands. “I’m not sure what happened that night.”

“How convenient.”

She glared at him. “All I know is that I was an emotional mess. You had kicked me out, you didn’t want to have anything to do with me, and then I heard you were planning a future with another woman.”

“And what better way to get back at me than by sleeping with my brother?” He’d used to think Isabella was sweet and innocent, but she had hidden a vengeful streak. The people closest to him had warned him about Isabella, but he hadn’t listened. He’d thought he knew everything about her. But it turned out he didn’t know her at all.

“I didn’t know about your history with Giovanni.” Isabella stood rigid in front of him, her clenched fists at her sides. “I didn’t know you had discarded me like a piece of trash because you thought I’d had an affair with your brother.”

“And look at what you did,” Antonio said. The red mist was creeping in and he was feeling dangerous. Out of control like never before. Antonio shoved his shaky hands in his pockets.

“Giovanni planned this!” she blurted out. “He took advantage of me.”

“I’m sure he got you into bed in record time.” Bile rose from his stomach and he wanted to be violently ill.

She thrust out her chin. “I’m not like that,” she said in a trembling voice.

“Yes, you are,” he said with a sneer. “You were with me.”

Isabella eyes widened as if she’d been hit. “You throw that back in my face?” she asked in a shocked whisper. “What we had was different. It was special. It was—”

“Part of your routine,” he finished coldly. “Only Gio got you pregnant. Was that planned or an unexpected bonus? Is that why he kicked you out?”

“He didn’t kick me out. I left the next morning,” she told him, her voice wobbling with emotion. “I didn’t feel safe there anymore. I ran as fast as I could.”

Antonio frowned and he crossed his arms. Her explanation niggled at him. Something didn’t add up. “Then how did he know about the baby?”

“I told him when I found out. That was a month ago.”

And his brother had changed his will a month ago. “What did Gio say?”

“Not much.” Isabella looked away abruptly.

“Isabella,” he warned in a firm tone, “tell me.”

Her shoulders sagged in defeat and her expression turned grim. “He laughed,” she answered. “He said, ‘Antonio will never touch you now!’ and he laughed like a madman.”

Antonio took a step back. He shouldn’t be surprised, but he was. He hadn’t fully appreciated the depth of his brother’s hatred.

“And he was right.” She gestured at him, the simple movement indicating her disappointment. “He knew exactly how you’d react if you found out the truth.”

“That’s why you ran away at the café?” Isabella had been afraid of how he would react. And she was smart, because right now he wanted to lash out. He wanted to smash and destroy everything around him. “You are not the woman I thought you were.”

“That’s not true,” she spat angrily. “You just want to hear bad things about me. It’s easier for you because you’re looking for my faults.”

Easier? He felt like he had been ripped apart. He was never going to be the same again.

She gulped in a ragged breath. “I want you to know that I didn’t cheat on you.”

“How can I know that? How can I believe you weren’t sleeping with my brother from the first day you met him?”

“I have no way of proving it. Why can’t you—?”

A polite knock on the double doors interrupted them. Isabella jumped back and pressed her lips together as a withered old man with snowy white hair in a black three-piece suit entered the room.

Antonio tried to rein in his emotions as he tersely introduced the lawyer to Isabella. The older man invited her into his office and she silently followed. As she passed Antonio he grabbed Isabella’s wrist, forcing her to stop.

“This discussion isn’t over,” he said.

“Yes, it is,” she said coldly as she pulled away from his grasp. “I don’t have to explain myself to you. You have no rights over me or my child.”

Isabella walked through the door and the lawyer followed. Antonio stared at the closed door, his body rigid as an idea formed.

“Not yet,” Antonio murmured. “But I once I do there will be hell to pay.”

CHAPTER FOUR

“I’M GOING to be a grandmother.” Maria Rossi sighed and clasped her hands together. “Gio’s child. Oh, I hope it will look just like him.”

“I’m glad to see you’re taking this well,” Antonio muttered as he’d paced the floor of the conference room. He should have left his mother in the waiting room but he had to tell her that their situation had changed. Their strategy had been blown apart by Isabella’s bombshell.

“I admit Gio had no business putting her in the will.” His mother’s voice was thick with annoyance. “Giving money and power to that woman.”

“He did it to cut me out.”

“No, Gio wouldn’t do that to you. He wouldn’t,” she insisted as he made a face. “That woman bewitched him. He wasn’t thinking straight. I can understand making provision for the child—but all that money?” Maria shuddered delicately. “We don’t know if it’s even his.”

“We’ll find out.” But Antonio’s instincts told him that the baby was Gio’s. His brother wouldn’t have pulled this stunt unless he had been absolutely sure. Gio wanted his child to inherit and gave Isabella the power over the money and shares until the child comes of age.

“Gio told me himself that that Jezebel seduced him,” his mother continued. “You both should have known better. I don’t know what either of you saw in the woman.”

He could easily make a list of things he had seen in Isabella, but it would scandalize his mother. Antonio raked his hand through his hair. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“There’s only one way a girl like her can land a rich man. She has to get pregnant.”

Antonio slammed his hand against the mahogany table so hard that Maria jumped. “That’s enough.” It also wasn’t true. Isabella had had him wrapped around her little finger without an unplanned pregnancy.

“Temper, temper,” Maria said as she patted her chignon. “If you plan to get full control of the Rossi fortune you need to show some patience.”

Antonio walked to the window and leaned against the pane. “I have one or two plans,” he admitted. He wasn’t happy about either of them. Both required him to get very close to the woman who betrayed him.

“How many months along is she?”

He had been reluctant to ask for details, but at the same time his mind was filled with questions. “She says she’s at least three months pregnant. I kicked her out the last week of May, so I know the baby isn’t mine. She left Gio on the first of July and that fits the timeframe.”

“You need to do something.”

“I know. It leaves me two options. I can seduce her into giving up her inheritance and leaving the country for good.”

But history had proved that he didn’t have an infinite amount of sexual power over her. Isabella had left his bed to go into Gio’s. He wasn’t sure if he could seduce Isabella knowing she was carrying his brother’s child.

“No,” his mother said firmly. “That child is the only thing I have left of Gio. I want it to be part of my life.”

Antonio inhaled sharply as jagged pain burned through him. His mother had had no problem banning him from her life when he had needed her the most. But then she’d still had Gio around.

“What is the second option?” she asked.

“Marry her and adopt the child as my own. That way I would have full control over the Rossi fortune.”

He had never thought about becoming a father. As the second son, he’d felt no pressure to sire an heir. Now he might be required to accept Gio’s child as his own. That baby would be a constant reminder of betrayal.

“That would be perfect,” his mother said. “We wouldn’t have to give up anything.”

Just his freedom, Antonio thought he looked out of the window and gazed at the Pantheon. And his peace of mind. If there had been any other way he wouldn’t have gone looking for Isabella. Now he might have to bind himself to the cheating vixen for the rest of his life.

“I really don’t think this is a good idea,” Isabella said as she entered Antonio’s penthouse apartment. She heard the door close behind her and flinched when she heard it lock.

“I agree,” Antonio said, “but the paparazzi have already found out about your windfall and my home is the safest place. Anyway, it’s only for one night.”

Isabella scoffed. As if that meant anything. She had slept with Antonio within hours of meeting him. But she wasn’t going to tumble into his bed again, she reminded herself. He didn’t want her anymore. He had someone else in his life.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.