VITTORIO'S MISTRESS

by Kimberley Reeves

  Dante cocked a brow at the doctor. “Has she been this protective of my daughter the entire time?”

  The older man laughed. “This is mild. You’d have thought she was Daniella’s mother the way Chantel has been ordering me and my nurses about.”

  “Then I am grateful to you,” Dante told Chantel.

  She dismissed it with a wave of her hand, though a soft blush had worked its way into her cheeks. “Enough chit chat. Let me go get Paige so you can get this show on the road. Daniella probably won’t sleep for long and she’ll be clamoring for her mother when she wakes up.”

  Dante’s whole body tensed as he waited for Paige, and he was grateful to Chantel once more for paving the way. She’d obviously forewarned Paige he was out here and that he knew he was Daniella’s father, but she must have also conveyed that the doctor was unaware they weren’t married because Paige’s eyes didn’t so much as flicker when he looped his arm around her waist the moment she stepped out of the room.

  ****

  The muscles in Paige’s stomach knotted when Dante dipped his head and brushed a light kiss against her lips. When Chantel told her Dante was here and was outside speaking with the doctor, she was glad she’d been sitting because she’d nearly passed out. How had he discovered Daniella was his daughter, and how had he known she was in the hospital when Paige had only just found out herself? A million questions swirled around in her head but the answers would have to wait until later.

  “Mrs. Vittorio,” the doctor shook her hand, “I’m Dr. Brooks. If you’ll both follow me, we’ll go over everything in my office.”

  “I’m not…” Paige started to correct him about her name, but Dante interceded.

  “I am sure the doctor will answer all our questions in a few minutes, cara.” Dante swept her along beside him as the doctor led the way to his private office. “Have you arranged for a surgeon?” Dante asked once Dr. Brooks explained everything to them.

  “I can offer a few recommendations, but you may want to consider getting a pediatric surgeon. Not that we don’t have some of the finest surgeons in residence but Daniella is so young, I think it would be best to have a pediatric specialist performing the procedure.”

  Dante nodded solemnly. “I will take care of it.” He tightened his arm around Paige whose slender body trembled violently against his. “Do not worry, carissima, our daughter will have only the finest surgeon and the best of care.” He turned his eyes back to the doctor. “I would like to arrange for a private room after she is out of recovery. I will also require an extra bed so either my…wife or I can remain with Daniella at all times.”

  “I’ll get one of my nurses to come and talk to you about it,” Dr. Brooks said. “I’d like to get Daniella into surgery as soon as possible. How long do you think it will take to get your own surgeon lined up?”

  Dante’s smile was confident. “You name the time and I will make certain he is here.”

  ***

  Chantel and Marc tactfully left the room when Dante and Paige returned with the excuse they were going to grab something to eat. As soon as they’d gone, Dante moved in a dreamlike state to the side of the bed where Daniella was sleeping peacefully. He reached out tentatively and brushed a stray curl from her tiny forehead. She looked so small, so helpless, so agonizingly much like him that Dante had a hard time controlling his emotions. Something deep inside him shifted as he gazed at his daughter.

  “She is beautiful, perfect,” he said thickly.

  Paige touched his arm. “Dante…I wanted to thank you for taking over back there, for calling in a specialist, and arranging for the private room. I just feel so lost right now…I don’t what I would have done if you hadn’t been there.”

  Dante didn’t look her; he was too enamored by his baby girl at the moment and couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from her angelic face. “Do not thank me for taking care of my own daughter. We have much to talk about, cara mia, but it will wait until Daniella is better.”

  “How…how long have you know about her?”

  “Not long enough,” he replied, curling his fingers around Daniella’s little hand. “I should have known her from the moment she drew her first breath.”

  “Dante…”

  “I am not blameless in this,” he openly admitted, “but you should have told me. I had a right to know.”

  Shame washed over Paige in waves. There was no anger in his voice, only regret and self-recrimination, which made her feel even worse. Tears pooled in her eyes because it was so evident that Dante wanted to be a part of Daniella’s life and if given the choice, he’d have been a part of her life right from the beginning.

  How could she have ever doubted his capacity to love his own daughter? More shame, more guilt was steeped upon her shoulders when the answer came to her with sudden clarity. It was Dante's capacity to love his child’s mother that she’d been uncertain about and rather than find out, she’d deprived him of Daniella.

  “I’m sorry,” she managed to force out.

  Dante leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to Daniella’s forehead before turning to Paige. “Sorry will not atone for the years I have lost with her.” He gripped Paige's arm and ushered her across the room so their voices wouldn’t disturb Daniella. “I do not wish to engage in a discussion about the sins we have committed against one another right now, but do not think for one minute that you will ever, ever keep my daughter from me again.”

  “I won’t, I swear it…only…” Paige’s throat constricted. “Please, please,” she pleaded hoarsely, “don’t try to take her away from me.”

  “Do you honestly believe I could be so cold? Of course you can,” he answered his own question. “How could you believe otherwise after the way I treated you?”

  “I don’t blame you for wanting revenge. You were right, Dante, I should have trusted you. I should have told you I was pregnant and given you the chance to know Daniella.”

  “That is a situation that will be remedied as soon as she is released from the hospital.”

  Paige’s eyes grew round with fear. “But you said…I mean, you implied that you wouldn’t try to take her from me.”

  Dante placed his hands on her shoulders. “Listen to me, cara. I will not put my daughter in the middle of a custody battle, but neither will I allow you to dictate the terms of visitation.”

  “There has to be some guidelines,” she tried to reason with him. “Daniella doesn’t know you. It will upset her if I leave her alone with you, and there are other things too. You don’t know her routine, what kind of foods she likes and dislikes, and you have to watch her constantly. She’s at that curious stage and…”

  “Essere tranquillo,” he admonished, “be quiet for a moment and listen. I have thought this out and decided it would be best for all of us if you and Daniella moved in with me.”

  “No, it wouldn’t work.”

  “This is not an attempt to get you back into my bed. Although…” Dante grinned, “I would not object if you were to find your way there.”

  “Really? Because as I recall, you were the one insisting we say good-bye not too long ago.”

  “Obviously things have changed, but we will discuss our relationship later. I want you to move in so I can spend as much time with Daniella as possible. With you there, she will not be uncomfortable around me.”

  “It’s not that easy, Dante. Do you have any idea what it takes to raise a child? I’m sorry,” she said when his expression hardened. “What I mean is that she needs a bed with safety rails, and tons of little things like night lights and clothes and toys and diapers and her favorite cartoon videos and then there’s…” Paige’s mind went completely blank when Dante silenced her rambling with a long, hard kiss.

  “I will take care of it,” he said huskily. “My daughter will have everything a little girl could possibly dream of and more. All you have to do is pack those favorite videos of hers and move in. You do not even have to worry about bringing clothes for yourself, not with the cl
osest full you left behind.”

  “I’m not sure…”

  “You owe it to me, Paige. Give me this chance to know my daughter. I am not asking for a long term commitment, only a few weeks or a month.”

  How could she say no? She did owe him, and she owed Daniella too. “You really want to do this?”

  Dante glanced back at his little girl. He’d loved Daniella the moment he’d laid eyes on her. “More than anything. I will be a good father to her, Paige.”

  “I know you will,” she said softly.

  ****

  The surgery took less than an hour, but it was the most agonizing hour of his life. They’d already moved Daniella’s things to the new room, including a huge Teddy bear and a bouquet of balloons Dante had purchased from the gift shop, so that’s where they’d all converged to anxiously await news from the surgeon.

  Paige had spent most of the time huddled in the chair by the window while Dante wore a path in the floor from pacing restlessly back and forth. Chantel tried to lighten the mood with her constant chatter but had clammed up after her brother barked at her for annoying them all.

  None of them breathed easy until the surgeon Dante had hired, Dr. Cristiano, came to the room after the surgery to inform them everything had gone well. He’d allowed Dante and Paige to sit with Daniella in the recovery room while he explained what was needed for her aftercare. Dante paid close attention because it was pretty evident Paige was in no condition to do anything but hold their daughter’s hand while they waited for her to wake up.

  “The incision was only two inches long,” Dr. Cristiano told him. “There are sutures internally of course but they will dissolve on their own, and the incision on the outside did not require any stitches. It is being held together by a few small strips of adhesive which will slowly fall off. You will need to administer antibiotics for a week and keep an eye out for infection around the incision, but other than keeping her from being too active there is no special care Daniella will need.”

  After spending a few minutes hovering over Daniella to assure himself she was going to be okay, Dante left her there with Paige so he could make a few phone calls. Daniella would only have stay in the hospital for twenty-four hours which didn’t give him much time to prepare a room in his house for her. With such tight time constraints, he enlisted help from the one woman he knew he could trust to get the job done properly.

  “I will make sure everything is perfect for her,” Ravenna Vittorio assured her son. “I am not going to pretend that I am happy about this young woman of yours keeping my granddaughter a secret all these years, but we will address that later. I will get Shelby and Lilly to help me and inform your staff of Daniella’s arrival.”

  “I knew I could count on you, Madre.”

  “You can count on me to see my granddaughter the moment she is well enough to have visitors too. I have much work to do now,” Ravenna said dismissively.

  Dante had much to do too and wasn’t a bit perturbed by the abrupt ending to their conversation. He contacted his attorney and made arrangements to have a new will drawn up that included Paige and Daniella, then called Mireia who took care of his house and managed his staff. Dante instructed her to child proof all the electrical outlets and any cabinets Daniella might get into and asked her to arrange for a wrought iron fence to be installed around the swimming pool.

  “Paige will require a room of her own,” he told Mireia. “Please make sure she has the room adjoining mine and that all her clothes are transferred. And have the two rooms across from ours completely cleared out so my mother can decorate as she pleases.”

  “Will you require a nanny?”

  Dante laughed. “No, that will not be necessary but hire additional cleaning staff if you wish.”

  He was still chuckling when he hung up. Paige would go ballistic if he even suggested anyone else care for Daniella, not that he cared much for the idea either. After another quick call to his oldest brother, Simon, to let him know what was going on and arrange for a month’s leave, Dante returned to the recovery room. Daniella was awake but still a little groggy, though she was alert enough to comprehend that he wasn’t part of the hospital staff.

  “Who are you?” Daniella asked when he crossed the room to stand behind Paige’s chair.

  Paige jumped in before he had a chance to answer. “Remember our talk in daycare about mommies and daddies?”

  Daniella nodded, her big brown eyes lingering on Dante’s strained face. “Some kids have mommies, some kids have daddies, and some kids have a mommy and a daddy.”

  Paige smiled proudly. “That’s right, angel. What a smart girl you are to remember.”

  “I know who you are,” Daniella said to Dante.

  Dante’s heart leapt. “You do?”

  “Yes,” she nodded. “Mama has your picure.”

  “My picture, you mean?”

  “Yes, and she looks at it all the time.”

  “Does she?” Dante didn’t miss the pretty blush on Paige’s face, though she tried to keep her head turned away from him.

  “Yes, and she…”

  “That’s enough, darling,” Paige hastily interrupted her daughter. “What Mama wants to tell you is that…he’s your daddy.”

  Daniella pursed her lips as she worked it out in her mind. Dante and Paige were both a little anxious while they waited to see if she’d comprehend it and how she’d react if she did. Daniella studied Dante’s face intently for several minutes before she finally cracked a brilliant smile.

  “Now I can have a kitty,” she beamed at him.

  Dante rubbed his chin, not quite making the connection. “Do you understand what your Mama said about me being your daddy?”

  “Course I do,” Daniella replied. “Jenny Reed’s daddy gived her a kitty and now I have a daddy too so I get a kitty.”

  Paige looked up at Dante who was clearly going to fold like a house of cards to Daniella’s seemingly sound logic. “Don’t do it,” she murmured from the corner of her mouth, but it was already too late.

  Dante’s heart melted. He’d have given her the moon if she’d asked for it. “As soon as you get better, quello piccolo, we will go together and pick one out.”

  Chapter 10

  The ache in Dante’s chest grew heavier and heavier with each page he turned. Chantel had brought two scrapbooks from Paige’s house that were filled with pictures of Daniella with Chantel, Marc, Paige, and Paige’s parents. He should have been in the pictures too. It should have been him proudly holding Daniella as she left the hospital instead of Marc, and it should have been him standing over her as she blew out the candles on her birthday cakes each year instead of Paige’s mother. She’d been a beauty right from the start and it killed him to know he’d missed her first tooth, her first step, her first everything.

  It was dark in the room except for the one light directly over the small table he and Paige were sitting at. Remnants of the sandwiches they’d eaten for dinner had been pushed to one side as well as a cup of coffee that had long since grown cold, though Paige was still sipping at hers.

  Daniella had fallen asleep almost as soon as they’d settled her into the new room and hadn’t stirred since. Shortly after she’d been brought back, Paige’s parents had arrived looking frazzled and near panic until she’d assured them the surgery had gone without a hitch and Daniella was going to make a full recovery.

  Carolyn Spencer had rushed to Daniella’s bedside but her husband, Leon, had paused long enough to shake Dante’s hand and introduce himself. After several minutes of talking to a sleeping Daniella about how Nana was going to bake her cookies and take her to the park when she got better, a misty eyed Carolyn had turned around and finally realized Dante was there.

  He was stunned to discover she knew who he was though they’d never met before, and was a little baffled that neither she nor Leon seemed to harbor any resentment towards him. They’d stayed for about an hour and spent most of the time just watching Daniella sleep before heading
out with the promise to be back first thing in the morning.

  “They have known who I was right from the beginning,” Dante said as he continued to flip through the photo album.

  Paige didn’t need to ask who he was talking about. “Yes. They wanted me to tell you and weren’t very happy with me when I refused.”

  “Have you told them you and Daniella are moving in with me?”

  “Yes,” she answered, but didn’t elaborate. She should have known Dante wouldn’t let it go at that.