Her Shameful Secret. Susanna Carr

treat Maria Rossi with anything less than respect. Isabella had felt grubby next to her.

      “We never discussed you,” he said stiffly.

      She wouldn’t be surprised if that were true. Antonio rarely discussed his family. Everything she knew about his mother and his late father had come from Giovanni. And he’d probably been just as private about his love life with his family.

      Isabella turned and approached Antonio. “But she knows you and I were once together?”

      “Not from me.”

      “Giovanni?” No wonder his mother hated her.

      “My mother was prying into the reason why her sons weren’t on speaking terms again.” Antonio crossed his arms and looked away. “I’m sure Gio concocted some story that made him look like the innocent victim.”

      “Again?” Her tired brain caught onto that word. “You and Giovanni had been estranged before?”

      Antonio’s jaw clenched. “Yes.”

      She felt the weight of guilt lift a little. All this time she’d thought she had ruined the strong bond between brothers. “But how could that be?” she asked as she remembered Giovanni and Antonio together. They’d had a tendency to use the same expressions, finish each other’s sentences. “You two were close.”

      Antonio shrugged. “Gio had been trying to make amends and was on his best behavior. It was one of the few times we got along.”

      “Why did you accept him back into your life?” That didn’t seem like something Antonio would do. You screwed up once and you were banished from Antonio’s life. You didn’t get another chance.

      “I thought he had changed.” He sighed. “I wanted him to change.”

      She saw the grief in his expression. She wanted to reach out and bring him comfort, but she knew Antonio would not appreciate the gesture. “How old were you when you first stopped talking to each other?”

      His harsh features tightened. “I don’t want to discuss it.”

      “Why not?”

      “I answered your questions, now it’s my turn.”

      Isabella jerked her head back. She saw the intensity in his eyes, the determined set of his jaw. Was he really trying to deflect her questions or had this 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