Page 27 of Forgotten Mistress, Secret Love-Child
That slur, above all, had been hard to swallow.
How furious Alessandro’s stepmother would have been if she’d known Carys hadn’t accepted her word. Instead she’d left numerous messages on Alessandro’s private phone and sent emails, even a hand-written letter. She’d been so desperate for personal contact.
Only after months of deliberate, deafening silence had she finally accepted he wanted nothing to do with either her or her unborn child. Then she’d determined to turn her back on the past and start afresh, not even considering a legal bid to win child support. Leo was better off without a father like that.
Yet now it seemed Alessandro hadn’t known about her pregnancy.
Her breath jammed in her throat. All this time he hadn’t known!
He hadn’t rejected Leo at all.
Nor was he married.
Her head spun, trying to take in the implications, her emotions a whirling jumble. Once she might have believed that would change everything.
Now she knew better.
One glance at Alessandro confirmed it. He was absorbed in his thoughts, totally oblivious to the little boy perched on her lap, twisting around time and again to try catching the attention of the big man who so effortlessly dominated their flat.
Alessandro had no interest in her either. She was nothing but a source of information.
Or an easy lay.
A shudder passed through her as memories of last night’s passion stirred. Carys stiffened her resolve.
She looked into her baby’s excited green gaze. He twinkled back at her mischievously as he nattered away in a language all his own. He was the important thing in her life. Not ancient dreams of happily ever after with the wrong man.
Whether Alessandro had known about the pregnancy or not didn’t matter. What mattered was that the grand passion they’d shared had been a cheap affair, not a love on which to build a future. And he couldn’t have made it clearer he had no interest in Leo.
Bridges burned. End of story.
Carys ignored the ache welling deep inside at the finality of it all and summoned a wobbly smile for Leo.
‘Time for a bath, young man.’ She gathered him close and stood on creaky legs. Suddenly she felt old beyond her years. Old with grief for what her son would never have, and with a stupid, obstinate hurt at being rejected again. After a lifetime of not measuring up, not being quite good enough, it was stupid to feel so wounded, but there it was.
‘Why did I tell you to leave my home?You still haven’t told me.’
She looked across to see Alessandro on his feet, hands jammed deep in his trouser pockets. He stood as far from her as he could while remaining in the same room.
Didn’t that say it all?
‘I’d decided to go anyway.’ She lifted her chin. After learning about Alessandro and Carlotta the scales had fallen from her eyes. Carys knew she had to get as far away from him as she could. ‘But you accused me of having an affair, of betraying your trust.’
The irony should have been laughable. But Carys had never felt less like laughing. She jiggled Leo higher in her weary arms and straightened her back.
‘An affair? With whom?’ His brows furrowed and his features took on a remote, hawk-like cast. Condemnation radiated from him.
‘With Stefano Manzoni. He’s—’
‘I know who he is.’ If anything, Alessandro’s scowl deepened. His jaw set like stone and a pulse worked in his temple.
‘Nice company you keep,’ he said after a moment, his voice coolly disapproving.
Talk about double standards!
Carys jerked her chin higher. ‘I thought he was nice. At first.’ Until he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He was another macho Italian male who couldn’t cope with rejection. Though, to be fair, she’d never felt unsafe withAlessandro. ‘I would have thought that as your Princess Carlotta’s cousin he’d be utterly respectable.’
‘She’s not my Carlotta.’ The words emerged through taut lips.
‘Whatever.’ Carys hunched stiff shoulders. ‘Now, it’s time for me to bathe Leo.’ Her composure was in tatters and her limbs trembled with exhaustion. She felt like a wrung-out dishrag. ‘I’d appreciate it if you’d go now.’ She couldn’t take any more.
Alessandro’s appearance had dredged up emotions she thought she’d vanquished. Emotions that threatened to undo her. She needed desperately to be alone.
All she had left was the torn remnants of her pride, and Carys refused to collapse in a heap while he was here.
Head high, she walked on unsteady legs towards the front door, intending to show him out.
Leo’s sudden sideways dive out of her arms took her completely unawares. One minute she was holding him. The next he was plunging headlong towards the floor when his bid to throw himself at Alessandro failed.
