“We are not the best judges of this,” he said through gritted teeth. “Our own mother was hardly a paragon of maternal virtue. Elodie is. She loves Jack. She’d do anything for him.”
“How can you say that when she chose to keep him away from you? She denied him his father – that’s not selfless. It’s not loving. It’s stupid and irresponsible.”
“Basta!” He lifted a hand to silence them, his mind ringing with the accusations, the tirades, the words he himself had thought and even flung at her.
His two brothers watched him without speaking. He was conscious of the effort that took – he knew both were biting back what they were thinking and he appreciated that they did that.
“She is Jack’s mother. It is for this reason and this reason alone I paid her hospital bills. You do not think my son deserves that? Do you think I could have looked him in the eye ever again if I hadn’t done everything in my power to save her? We were raised by our grandparents because of our parents’ failings. Because they didn’t know how to stop being selfish children and start looking after us.” He glared at both Luca and Max. “I will never let Jack say that about me. I owe it to him to try to find a way to make this work – with Elodie in my house, with the two of us raising him together.”
“Raise him together,assolutamente,that’s laudable. Noble. Anything more and you are a fool.”
8
SHE WATCHED HIM FROM hooded eyes as he made coffee, his expression forbidding, his features imposing. He’d come in late the night before and had gone straight to bed. She’d heard his footsteps on the stairs, and then outside her door, slowing to a pause, and she’d held her breath, waiting for him to knock, and her heart had slammed into her ribs with every second that passed, until his footsteps sounded once more. The next moment, there was the opening and closing of his door.
She hadn’t been able to sleep.
It was hot – unpleasantly sticky and sultry, the evening bringing little relief from the day’s warmth, but that wasn’t why she’d struggled to sleep.
No, it was the questions that had chased each other through her mind all evening.
Where had he been? And who had he been with?
She had no reason to suspect he’d been with a woman and yet once the idea planted itself in her brain, she found it impossible to shake free from its grip. It was horrifying to realise how much she cared. But she did. The idea of Fiero Montebello with anyone else made her insides boil.
So much of this situation had simply got away from her. After the accident, she’d been over the proverbial barrel – Jack was already here in Italy and Fiero had made it abundantly clear he wasn’t going to give up his parental rights without a fight – a fight she instinctively shied away from, regardless of what she’d said. More than that, seeing how badly Fiero had been hurt by her decision to raise Jack on her own had made her want to fix things – as though she ever could.
Everything had happened so quickly, and she’d been led by instincts rather than allowing herself to stop and think. For someone who prided herself on her rational abilities, everything about her situation now was unexpected. She was living in Italy under the same roof as the father of her son. They’d slept together – she couldn’t be in the same room without desire making her body tremble – and Jack was growing closer to Fiero with every day that passed.
She turned the page of her newspaper without really absorbing any of the stories, reaching for her tea and taking a sip.
The problem was, being an insecure and jealous woman was anathema to Elodie. Shehatedthe idea of seeming like she cared where he was! And yet, her pride demanded that she stand up for herself, that she lay down some clear rules about what she wanted.
The initial surprise of the situation she found herself in had passed. She needed to get up off the mattress and find a way to make this work.
“Fiero?” She lifted her eyes to find him watching her, a thoughtful frown on his face.
He lifted a single brow in response. She cradled her tea in both hands, hoping she looked calmer than she felt.
He wasn’t going to say anything; he clearly wasn’t going to make this easier. She sighed. “I think we need to talk.”
He lifted his broad shoulders, then cast a laconic glance towards his wristwatch. “I have a meeting in twenty minutes. Can it wait?”
Fire filled her bloodstream. The idea that he may very well have been with another woman the night before, combined with the disdain with which he treated her request, zipped inside of her.
“It won’t take long.” Her voice held a note of steel.
With a swift exhalation of breath, he sipped his coffee, his nod curt. “Go on.”
She ignored her nerves. This was important. She wasn’t going to sleep with him when it suited him, be his completely by night and ignored during the day. She wasn’t going to share him. That certainty came to her out of nowhere, but she knew it was right, and true.
“We never talked about how this would work, but we should.”
He didn’t react, and her heart trembled. Despite the strength to her words, she was awash with doubts.
“I think I deserve to know if you’re sleeping with other women.”
“What?”