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
