She looked at him, wondering if the deep vulnerability she felt was reflected in her eyes.
Salvatore saw so much when it came to what she did not want him to see. ‘What could I have said that would make him believe I hold lovemaking cheaply?”
‘I do not know, cara, but we will get to the bottom of this.”
She didn’t bother arguing the we in his statement. The truth was, as disparaging as she had sounded a minute ago, she was glad that in this he was on her side.
‘This is heinous, Elisa. What were you thinking to take such a risk?” Her father’s expression looked like a storm on the verge of hurricane status. He’d jumped up from the chair he’d taken in the salon after greeting her and Salvatore and was pacing the floor as Salvatore told him all that had transpired over the last two days.
‘I did not consider it that great a risk for goodness’ sake. The jewels were transported in secrecy. No one should have even known they were in di Adamo’s vault.”
‘you cannot keep these things quiet.” A typical Sicilian male, at least six inches shorter than Salvatore with a stocky build, he glowered with all the intimidation factor of the younger man. you should never have negotiated for Adamo Jewelers to host the auction. What would have happened I ask you, if I had not sent Salvatore up there to watch over you?”
She made the mistake of saying, ‘I don’t know.”
His normally dark olive complexion paled. ‘you would be dead, or worse, child.”
Fearing for his health, she got up from her seat beside Salvatore and laid her hand on her father’s arm to stop his restless movements. ‘calm down Papa. I am fine and you did send Salvatore.”
‘Not that she wanted my interference at first.”
She turned from her father to fry Salvatore with her eyes.
He lounged back on the sofa with the relaxed air of a man who had no idea how close to murder and mayhem she felt.
‘You didn’t listen, did you?” she asked through gritted teeth.
‘I hardly think it is necessary to bring it up now.”
Surprisingly, Francesco laughed. ‘lt is a good thing I sent someone so stubborn for you are so like your mother in thisl” He winked at Salvatore.
‘Did I not tell you? Independent like Shawna. We can only thank the good God my daughter does not share other at
titudes with her mother.”
Salvatore’s smile froze on his face. AII condescending male disappearing as comprehension dawned.
Francesco frowned. ‘I am sorry, Elisa. It is wrong for me to speak unkindly of your mother.”
Feeling disoriented, but with dawning relief, she shook her head. ‘Do not worry about it. I am not blind to Shawna’s belief system. She did raise me, after aII.”
Her father grimaced and plopped back into his chair as if he’d lost all his energy.
‘Si. And for that I must always live with regret. Had I forced the issue you could have grown up with the same secure home that I was able to give Annemarie, but I did not. I believed a child needed her mother.”
He sighed and shook his head, his forearms resting on his thighs. ‘shawna filled your life with uncertainty.”
Her heart felt buffeted by such revelations of regret on her father’s behalf for choices made in her childhood. She stood in the middle of the room feeling as if she was in some kind of weird suspended animation.
‘I don’t think I would have fitted in your family with Therese on a full-time basis. I doubt she would have appreciated being expected to raise your former mistress’s illegitimate daughter.”
She bit her lip, realizing how bitter the words might sound, but that was not how she had meant them. It was simply the truth.
‘No. You are wrong. I should have enjoyed having you as part of my family, Elisa. I wanted more children, but it was not to be.” Therese, who had entered the room quietly, went to stand by Salvatore’s chair her expression serene as usual.
‘Annemarie would have enjoyed living with her older sister full-time. She will be sorry she missed this visit, but she will not return from her trip with friends in the country for several days.”
This was simply too much. Elisa loved her younger sister but they were so different and she was not at all convinced Annemarie could care one way or the other if she missed a visit from her infrequently seen older sister.