lounged against the doorjamb, his hands in his pockets. “What’s this about? As you can see, I have other matters pressing.”
His cheeks went a ruddy color. “Mila just found out you’re taking Dino out of the country for another two weeks on Thursday.”
“That’s right.”
“The stipulation doesn’t provide for changes.”
“You know full well my marriage will have effectively done away with the rules of the divorce decree. The only reason you came here tonight was to see the evidence for yourself. Now that you’ve taken your full measure of my fiancée, I’d like you to leave.”
His anger was near the surface. “You’re not getting away with this without a fight.”
“Surely that’s for Papa to decide.”
“He’s ill.”
“Only when it’s convenient for him.”
“Accidenti a te!”
“Curse me all you want, it will do you no good.”
Now he was breathing hard. “The entire family stands against you.”
“It was ever thus.”
“You won’t succeed.”
“Careful, Fabbio. Your fear is showing.”
“So is yours, or you wouldn’t be doing everything in secret.”
“Can you blame me for wanting to keep her away from the wolves for as long as possible? You’re all waiting to tear her apart, but I won’t have it. Irena is the most important thing in my life right now.” He straightened and pulled his hands out of his pockets. “Buonanotte, Fabbio.”
Irena appeared the moment he shut the door on him. “Don’t you think it’s time you told me about your family?”
He lifted one eyebrow. “Except for my mother who died seven years ago, I’ve been at war with them from birth.”
She came closer, searching his eyes for the truth. “You’re not joking.” The pain in hers revealed she was devastated for him.
“Once upon a time I told you we were opposites. You come from a loving family and almost married into what I’ve gathered is a loving, forgiving family. I, too, love my father because he is my father, but I don’t like him or my autocratic grandfather who’s now deceased, or my stepbrother, or my uncles, not even my cousins once they started to resemble their fathers.”
“Oh, dear.”
“I sound like a monster,” he ground out.
“No.” After a moment of reflection she asked, “Besides your mother, are there no girls in this fearsome group?”
With a sharp laugh, he let out the breath he’d been holding and grasped her shoulders. “Dozens.”
“But they hold no sway in the male-dominated hierarchy,” she divined with her rare capacity to discern the true nature of things. “How often is Dino around them?”
“Mila spends most of her time with them, so that means my son does, too. My father dotes on him.”
“Who wouldn’t? I’m crazy about him even after being around him such a short time. Does Dino share your feelings?”
“I’m not sure.”
“How could that be? He tells you everything.”
He shook his head. “Certain things he keeps to himself. In my case, I’m afraid my noninvolvement with family speaks for me.”
“If he sometimes keeps quiet it’s probably because he feels guilty.”
Vincenzo kissed the end of her nose. “Why do you say that?”
“Because he knows how you feel and doesn’t want to do anything that could upset or hurt you. Or get you in trouble,” she added quietly before easing away from him. “From the sound of it, your intention to marry me has put flame to a fuse.”
“You let me worry about that. The family has nothing to do with you and me. Our lives with our children will be our own.”
She darted him a second glance. “I love Dino like my own child. Our own children…I want that more than anything in world.”
Was Irena admitting she loved him because she’d accepted Dino? She still hadn’t our baby yet. Vincenzo knew the doubt surrounding the paternity of the child weighed heavily on her shoulders. “I have a solution for us down the road, but only if you’re willing.”
“What’s that?”
“One day we’ll have another baby.”
Her eyes suddenly filled. “Why do I get the feeling you think that one woman in two hundred will be me?”
Vincenzo reached for her and held her close to his chest. “You’re wrong, Irena. If you do go ahead with the test I’m sure everything will be fine and we will have a healthy baby. I just want you to know how eager I am to have a child with you. Our child. With no shadow of doubt hanging over us, and a child that will never have to leave this home. Our home. The truth is, I was never in love with Mila and she knew it. But both our fathers wanted the marriage and my ailing mother urged me to go ahead with it because she was convinced Mila would make me a good wife. She worried about my wild side.”
A faint smile broke the corner of Irena’s mouth. “So I didn’t imagine you had one.”
He bit her earlobe gently. “Mama feared I was enjoying my bachelorhood too much. Like all mothers and fathers, my parents felt marriage would have a stabilizing effect on me, so Mila and I married. It was the worst mistake of my life. To pay me back for not loving her, she didn’t tell me she was pregnant until her sixth month when she couldn’t hide it any longer.”
Irena’s expression revealed her horror.
“Dino came four weeks early. The two months before she delivered were the happiest I’d ever known because the idea of being a father had taken hold. But it turned into a nightmare after he was born. She refused to let me be around Dino and help with him. Her doctor called it postpartum depression.
“I recognized it for what it was. She couldn’t hold on to me, but she wanted our baby to herself, nothing more. By the time Dino was three months old, I was completely shut out of his life. I told her we couldn’t go on in our marriage that way. She told me there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I told her I’d divorce her. She claimed I wouldn’t dare.”
Irena let out a groan.
“Hideous isn’t it? When my father found out I was leaving her and realized he couldn’t stop me, he disowned me, shouting that he never wanted to see me again. The only reason I was granted any visitation at all was due to my mother who prevailed on Papa before she died. To this day we haven’t seen or talked to each other.”
“So
