Page 46 of His Housekeeper's Twin Baby Confession
Carrie looked at him. Her eyes looked bruised.
She said, ‘I was three months pregnant. My husband and I were involved in a car crash. That’s how he died. And I miscarried. We were arguing. I had just told him I wanted to leave him, even though I was pregnant.’
She’d blamed herself for what had happened for a long time, but now she knew it hadn’t been her fault. It had just been a tragic accident.
Massimo’s anger drained away, leaving just shock. He could remember what she’d been like four years ago. Painfully thin. Pale. Delicate.
‘I’m sorry he died like that...and that you lost your baby.’
She said, ‘If my ambition all along had been to seduce you and trap you, I’d like to think I would have done it before now and not waited four years.’
Massimo didn’t like the logic of that. He had to concede that he’d overreacted. He said, ‘I’m sorry for accusing you of premeditating this. I know you better than that.’
She swallowed. ‘I know it’s a shock. It’s a shock for me too, no matter what it might look like. I hadn’t ever thought I’d be pregnant again.’
Pregnant.
The concept of such a thing was too huge for Massimo to contemplate right now.
‘Why? You’d make a great mother.’
Carrie shrugged minutely. ‘After...what happened, I vowed never to marry again. I won’t trust anyone that much again. I almost lost myself in the process before, and as it was I lost too much.’
‘Do you want to keep it?’
He heard the words come out of his mouth but couldn’t recall having the thought.
She flinched and looked at him accusingly. ‘Of course. I lost one baby. I won’t lose another if I can help it. And it’s not anit. She or he is a baby. Your son or daughter.’
His baby.
Massimo’s head throbbed. He needed to push her away. Push this whole thing away.
He said abruptly, ‘I have to go to a meeting this morning. We’ll continue our conversation later.’
He walked out of the room and left the apartment.
It was only when he reached his office and he noticed people looking at him that he realised he was still wearing jeans and a light jumper. He never appeared at the office in anything less formal than a suit. He’d vowed never to give anyone the opportunity to question his dedication or his professionalism after his father had decimated the family’s reputation.
He felt exposed.
When Massimo got to his floor he bit out instructions to his assistant. ‘Hold all my meetings and do not disturb me.’
He went into his office and straight to the drinks cabinet. He poured himself a generous mouthful of whisky and downed it in one. Then another. As the fiery liquid burned its way down his throat and into his chest he poured another and went over and looked out of the window, not seeing anything.
His brain felt like a solid rock in his head. His chest was tight. Every muscle tense.
The very thing he’d told himself he would never,everpursue—a family—was now a very unwelcome possibility. And Massimo knew he had no choice but to accept this new reality and protect his legacy.
Carrie heard Massimo’s arrival back to the apartment. She was sitting in the formal reception room, waiting. She felt calm. She knew that it was most likely still shock. But she would take it. Just so she could deal with this next bit.
She stood up.
One thing was certain: whatever had been between them, still electric and alive only yesterday, was well and truly dead now.
Massimo came into the room and saw her. He stopped. He looked more dishevelled than he had earlier. A little wild. Carrie couldn’t stop a sizzle of awareness. It was back, in spite of the acute morning sickness and everything else that had happened.
Massimo looked her over and she stood tall. She was dressed in the same clothes she’d worn to come to New York. Work clothes. Smart. Hair tied back.
