Her Shameful Secret. Susanna Carr

it turned out he didn’t know her at all.

      “I didn’t know about your history with Giovanni.” Isabella stood rigid in front of him, her clenched fists at her sides. “I didn’t know you had discarded me like a piece of trash because you thought I’d had an affair with your brother.”

      “And look at what you did,” Antonio said. The red mist was creeping in and he was feeling dangerous. Out of control like never before. Antonio shoved his shaky hands in his pockets.

      “Giovanni planned this!” she blurted out. “He took advantage of me.”

      “I’m sure he got you into bed in record time.” Bile rose from his stomach and he wanted to be violently ill.

      She thrust out her chin. “I’m not like that,” she said in a trembling voice.

      “Yes, you are,” he said with a sneer. “You were with me.”

      Isabella eyes widened as if she’d been hit. “You throw that back in my face?” she asked in a shocked whisper. “What we had was different. It was special. It was—”

      “Part of your routine,” he finished coldly. “Only Gio got you pregnant. Was that planned or an unexpected bonus? Is that why he kicked you out?”

      “He didn’t kick me out. I left the next morning,” she told him, her voice wobbling with emotion. “I didn’t feel safe there anymore. I ran as fast as I could.”

      Antonio frowned and he crossed his arms. Her explanation niggled at him. Something didn’t add up. “Then how did he know about the baby?”

      “I told him when I found out. That was a month ago.”

      And his brother had changed his will a month ago. “What did Gio say?”

      “Not much.” Isabella looked away abruptly.

      “Isabella,” he warned in a firm tone, “tell me.”

      Her shoulders sagged in defeat and her expression turned grim. “He laughed,” she answered. “He said, ‘Antonio will never touch you now!’ and he laughed like a madman.”

      Antonio took a step back. He shouldn’t be surprised, but he was. He hadn’t fully appreciated the depth of his brother’s hatred.

      “And he was right.” She gestured at him, the simple movement indicating her disappointment. “He knew exactly how you’d react if you found out the truth.”

      “That’s why you ran away at the café?” Isabella had been afraid of how he would react. And she was smart, because right now he wanted to lash out. He wanted to smash and destroy everything around him. “You are not the woman I thought you were.”

      “That’s not true,” she spat angrily. “You just want to hear bad things about me. It’s easier for you because you’re looking for my faults.”

      Easier? He felt like he had been ripped apart. He was never going to be the same again.

      She gulped in a ragged breath. “I want you to know that I didn’t cheat on you.”

      “How can I know that? How can I believe you weren’t sleeping with my brother from the first day you met him?”

      “I have no way of proving it. Why can’t you—?”

      A polite knock on the double doors interrupted them. Isabella jumped back and pressed her lips together as a withered old man with snowy white hair in a black three-piece suit entered the room.

      Antonio tried to rein in his emotions as he tersely introduced the lawyer to Isabella. The older man invited her into his office and she silently followed. As she passed Antonio he grabbed Isabella’s wrist, forcing her to stop.

      “This discussion isn’t over,” he said.

      “Yes, it is,” she said coldly as she pulled away from his grasp. “I don’t have to explain myself to you. You have no rights over me or my child.”

      Isabella walked through the door and the lawyer followed. Antonio stared at the closed door, his body rigid as an idea formed.

      “Not yet,” Antonio murmured. “But I once I do there will be hell to pay.”

      CHAPTER FOUR

      “I’M GOING to be a grandmother.” Maria Rossi sighed and clasped her hands together. “Gio’s child. Oh, I hope it will look just like him.”

      “I’m glad to see you’re taking this well,” Antonio muttered as he’d paced the floor of the conference room. He should have left his mother in the waiting room but he had to tell her that their situation had changed. Their strategy had been blown apart by Isabella’s bombshell.

      “I admit Gio had no business putting her in the will.” His mother’s voice was thick with annoyance. “Giving money and power to that woman.”

      “He did it to cut me out.”

      “No, Gio wouldn’t do that to you. He wouldn’t,” she insisted as he made a face. “That woman bewitched him. He wasn’t thinking straight. I can understand making provision for the child—but all that money?” Maria shuddered delicately. “We don’t know if it’s even his.”

      “We’ll find out.” But Antonio’s instincts told him that the baby was Gio’s. His brother wouldn’t have pulled this stunt unless he had been absolutely sure. Gio wanted his child to inherit and gave Isabella the power over the money and shares until the child comes of age.

      “Gio told me himself that that Jezebel seduced him,” his mother continued. “You both should have known better. I don’t know what either of you saw in the woman.”

      He could easily make a list of things he had seen in Isabella, but it would scandalize his mother. Antonio raked his hand through his hair. “I don’t want to hear it.”

      “There’s only one way a girl like her can land a rich man. She has to get pregnant.”

      Antonio slammed his hand against the mahogany table so hard that Maria jumped. “That’s enough.” It also wasn’t true. Isabella had had him wrapped around her little finger without an unplanned pregnancy.

      “Temper, temper,” Maria said as she patted her chignon. “If you plan to get full control of the Rossi fortune you need to show some patience.”

      Antonio walked to the window and leaned against the pane. “I have one or two plans,” he admitted. He wasn’t happy about either of them. Both required him to get very close to the woman who betrayed him.

      “How many months along is she?”

      He had been reluctant to ask for details, but at the same time his mind was filled with questions. “She says she’s at least three months pregnant. I kicked her out the last week of May, so I know the baby isn’t mine. She left Gio on the first of July and that fits the timeframe.”

      “You need to do something.”

      “I know. It leaves me two options. I can seduce her into giving up her inheritance and leaving the country for good.”

      But history had proved that he didn’t have an infinite amount of sexual power over her. Isabella had left his bed to go into Gio’s. He wasn’t sure if he could seduce Isabella knowing she was carrying his brother’s child.

      “No,” his mother said firmly. “That child is the only thing I have left of Gio. I want it to be part of my life.”

      Antonio inhaled sharply as jagged pain burned through him. His mother had had no problem banning him from her life when he had needed her the most. But then she’d still had Gio around.

      “What is the second option?” she asked.

      “Marry her and adopt the child as my own. That way I would have full control over the Rossi fortune.”