I start and finish work early every day. I spend the better part of the afternoons with Leo, as well as the evenings. He never wants for love or affection, Santo, and the socialization with the other children is good for him. He needs to learn to bond with other kids.”
Which she never had. He, however, knew the flipside. What it was like to come home to a nanny who had never lasted, and then later, when he’d been a teenager, to come home to nothing at all when his mother had walked out on them.
He’d been thirteen when she’d left after his father’s business had gone bankrupt and his family had lost everything—the house, the car, every piece of solid footing he’d ever known. His father busy drowning his sorrows at a local bar, Nico working to support the family, Lazzero off in his basketball-obsessed world, it had been unspeakably lonely to come home to the empty, dingy apartment they’d lived in. So he’d gone to his friend Pietro’s instead. Enveloped himself in the freely given warmth that had been bestowed upon him there.
Something Leo was never going to have to do.
“I have no problem with my son socializing with other children,” he bit out tersely. “In fact, I’m all for it, Gia. My issue here is that you have not only deprived Leo of his father, you have deprived him of his extended family as well, because you have walked away from yours and stripped him of mine.” He pointed his glass at her. “Nico and Chloe have a two-year-old boy named Jack. A cousin he doesn’t even know. How is that fair?”
Any color that had been in her cheeks fled. She hugged her arms tight around herself, her eyes glittering with emotion. “I am so sorry,” she said huskily. “I am, Santo. I do understand what I did was wrong, despite your opinion to the contrary. But I did what I thought was best for Leo at the time and I would do it a million times over, because I never want him to grow up like I did. As a Castiglione. That was the only thing in my head when I left.”
He absorbed the defiant tilt of her chin. The fire in her eyes. That was what had kept him up all night. The fact that she believed, in her own misguided way, that she’d done the right thing. Because Gia had only ever known one world—a world in which the blood ties that bound her—family, loyalty—meant everything. A world in which power and intimidation reigned supreme—except that she’d held no power in that world. In her mind, there had been no way out.
He regarded her with a hooded gaze. “What were you going to tell Leo when the time came? The truth? Or were you going to tell him that his father was a high-priced thug?”
She flinched. Lifted a fluttering hand to her throat. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” she admitted. “We’ve been too busy trying to survive. Making a life for ourselves. Leo’s welfare has been my top priority.”
Which he believed. It was the only reason he wasn’t going to take his child and walk. Do to her exactly what she’d done to him. Because as angry as he was, as unforgivable as what she had done had been, he had to take the situation she’d been in into account. It had taken guts for her to walk away from her life. Courage. She’d put Leo first, something his own mother hadn’t done. And she had been young and scared. All things he couldn’t ignore.
Gia set her gaze on his, apprehension flaring in her eyes. “I can’t change the past, Santo, the decisions I made. But I can make this right. Clearly,” she acknowledged, “you are going to want to be a part of Leo’s life. I was thinking about solutions last night. I thought you could visit us here... Get Leo used to the idea of having you around, and then, when he is older, more able to understand the situation, we can tell him the truth.”
A slow curl of heat unraveled inside of him, firing the blood in his veins to dangerously combustible levels. “And what do you propose we tell him when I visit? That I am that friend you referred to the other night? How many friends do you have, Gia?”
Her face froze. “I have been building a life here. Establishing a career. There has been no time for dating. All I do is work and spend time with Leo, who is a handful as you can imagine, as all three-year-olds tend to be.”
The defensively issued words lodged themselves in his throat. “I can’t actually imagine,” he said softly, “because you’ve deprived me of the right to know that, Gia. You have deprived me of everything.”
She blanched. He set down his glass on the bar. “I am his father. I have missed three years of his life. You think a weekend pass is going to suffice? A few dips in the sea as he learns to swim?” He shook his head. “I want every day with him. I want to wake up with him bouncing on the bed. I want to take him to the park and throw a ball around. I want to hear about his day when I tuck him into bed. I want it all.”
“What else can we do?” she queried helplessly. “You live in New York and I live here. Leo is settled and happy. A limited custody arrangement is the only realistic solution for us.”
“It is not a viable proposition.” His low growl made her jump. “That’s not how this is going to work, Gia.”
She eyed him warily. “Which part?”
“All of it. I have a proposal for you. It’s the only one on the table. Nonnegotiable on all points. Take it or leave it.”
The wariness written across her face intensified. “Which is?”
“We do what’s in the best interests of our child. You marry me, we create a life together in New York and give Leo the family he deserves.”
* * *
Gia’s stomach dropped, like a book falling off a high shelf. She stared at Santo, horrified, not sure which of his proposals she was most taken aback by. The idea of being forced into another marriage she had no interest in, that it would be with a man who now clearly hated her for what she’d done. Or the thought that he expected her to give up the life she’d made here to return to New York.
She shook her head. “I can’t do that. My life is here now, Santo. Everything I have is here. Leo loves it. You can’t just ask me to give all of that up.”
His face was unyielding. “I run a Fortune 500 company. My business is headquartered in Manhattan. I can’t base myself in the Bahamas, however enticing that prospect may be. It is not logical.”
She rubbed a palm against the back of her neck. Thought about how completely she’d severed herself from her life. How impossible, how undoable, it would be to simply pick it back up again. Her father had moved the family to Las Vegas a decade ago, when he had concentrated the business on the gambling end of things, but he still had business interests in New York. A collision would be guaranteed.
Her skin went cold. “I can’t go back to New York,” she said adamantly. “You know what that would mean, Santo. Leo would be exposed to my family. He would become a Castiglione.”
A cold fire lit his ebony eyes. “Leo will become a Di Fiore. He will be protected as such—as will you. Which leads me to the final part of my offer. Leo will have no contact with your family. Ever. Those ties will remain severed. Unless it’s your mother on a supervised visit approved by me. If you break that condition, our agreement will become null and void.”
And she would lose Leo. There was no need to even ask the question. She could tell from the look on his face. Ice formed on Gia’s insides. “My father will never tolerate such an arrangement, you know that. My brother, Tommaso, has never had a boy. Leo is his grandson—his future heir.”
