Haute couturiste Serena had been right, Callie realized dizzily. Her “simple” wedding had ballooned out of all proportion to what she’d originally expected.
The days were a mad scramble; a wild, exhilarating ride on a carousel running amok, with Paolo often too busy to keep her company. But the stolen nights she shared with him made up for it. Long, lovely hours made all the sweeter for the whispered plans, the murmured endearments, the quiet intimacy.
Then there were the children, the shadowed grief in their eyes lessening, their excitement at the new life awaiting them with their aunt and uncle most of the time driving away the ghosts of what they’d lost.
“I love you, Zia Caroline,” Gina confided. “You remind me of Mommy.”
“I’m glad we’re coming to live with you and Zio Paolo,” Clemente said solemnly. “It won’t be exactly the same, but you’ll sort of be our parents, won’t you?”
It was all too good to be true, Callie thought, as the days wound down until there were only two left before she became Signora Paolo Rainero.
She was right.
It was. Much too good to be true.
Chapter Ten
EVERYTHING fell apart on the wedding eve.
Callie had agreed to spend her last night as a single woman with the Raineros, “because no bride should wake up alone in a hotel room on her wedding day,” her future mother-in-law had decreed.
Consequently, Lidia had arrived at the hotel earlier in the afternoon, to help Callie pack her belongings into a set of new leather suitcases embossed with her married initials—all except for the wedding ensemble, of course, which was sheathed in layers of tissue paper inside a protective vinyl garment bag.
After one last sweep through the rooms to make sure nothing had been left behind, they’d summoned a bellboy who loaded everything into the Rainero limousine waiting outside the hotel’s front entrance, and within minutes were being driven through the rush hour traffic to the apartment.
Paolo had been tied up all day at his office, making sure his responsibilities were covered by others during his honeymoon absence, but planned to join Callie and his parents for dinner that evening. He had not yet shown up when Callie and Lidia got there, shortly after five, but must have arrived some time between then and seven o’clock when, having laid out her lingerie for the next day and hung up her wedding gown, Callie showered and changed into a sleek black dinner dress, then made her way down the long hall to the library, for the customary predinner drinks.
The library door stood ajar, showing a fire leaping in the hearth, and Paolo and his father conversing quietly. Callie was about to announce herself when a fragment of the conversation between the men caught her attention.
“You believe this is the only way?” she heard Salvatore say.
“Without a doubt,” Paolo replied. “My policy has always been, know your enemies and keep them close if you want to retain control. A man can’t fight if he refuses to face facts, Father. He has to recognize what he’s up against.”
“What do you think she’ll do, when she finds out?”
“She’ll deal with the situation, because she doesn’t have any other choice.”
“What if she can’t handle it?”
“She can. She will.” He handed his father a glass: dry vermouth over ice, as usual, Callie noted peripherally, an uneasy chill prickling her skin. “You know better than to be deceived by appearances. Underneath that fragile exterior lies the heart of a lioness. I’d have thought you’d figured that out for yourself, by now.”
“How can any man know what really goes on inside a woman’s head?” Salvatore sank into his favorite chair and stared moodily into the flames. “Hell, half the time, I can’t even see inside yours, and you’re my own flesh and blood.”
Smiling, Paolo leaned against the carved mantelpiece, his glass cradled in his hand. “Don’t tell me you still think I made a mistake in asking Caroline to be my wife?”
“No. Your mistake lay in being in too much of a hurry. If you’d asked me before you proposed, I’d have recommended you think long and hard before taking such a step.”
“Momma thinks it’s the smartest move I’ve ever made.”
Salvatore shrugged and drank deeply from his glass. “As I just said, I don’t pretend to understand what makes a woman tick. But why waste my breath? You’ve made up your mind, and I’m not going to change it at this late date, so let’s get back to what we were talking about a moment ago. I still think I should take care of business, and send for my lawyers. They could be here in minutes and have everything sewn up before dinner’s announced—and read Ermanno and Vanessa’s wills while they’re at it.”
“No.” Paolo shook his head emphatically. “You do whatever you feel you must to give you peace of mind, but the wills wait until after the honeymoon. It’s not as if they hold any surprises, after all. We both know what to expect. But I’m this close to getting what I’ve been hoping for—” he held up his hand and extended his forefinger and thumb a millimeter apart “—and I’m not about to risk tossing a spoiler in the works now, with my wedding day only hours away.”
Suddenly weak at the knees, Callie stepped away from the door and sank onto a nearby chair.
What business was Salvatore referring to?
Why would reading Vanessa and Ermanno’s wills act as a spoiler?
Why had Paolo lied to her when he said delaying the reading was best for the children, when his reasons clearly had nothing to do with them, but plenty, apparently, to do with her?
And most urgently, what the devil had he meant when he spoke of knowing his enemies and keeping them close?
The questions battered at her without mercy. And hot on their heels came the brutal answer, smashing her fragile happiness and laying bare the flimsy foundation on which it was all based. It had been staring her in the face from outset, as she’d have realized if only she’d kept her wits about her, and refused to allow sex to enter the picture.
Probably Paolo had known all along about her being the children’s sole appointed guardian. Not so surprising really; Ermanno had likely mentioned it at some point over the years, never expecting it was something that would ever actually come to pass. Tragically it had, but by delaying the reading of the wills until after she became his wife, Paolo could pretend ignorance of the fact. What had he thought? That by marrying her first, setting up house with her, and drawing Clemente and Gina firmly into the picture, he’d render her powerless?
Oh, Paolo! she mourned silently. Don’t you know that you didn’t have to go to such lengths to get your own way? I love those children far too much to throw their lives into chaos, just to gain the upper hand. There was no need to seduce me, to ensure my cooperation; no need to make me fall in love with you all over again. You could have had it all, without resorting to trickery and deceit.
Crushed, she buried her face in her hands. This was what happened, when a woman forgot that history had a way of repeating itself. How did the old saying go? Kick me once, shame on you. Kick me twice, shame on me!
“Caroline?” His voice, filled with duplicitous concern, broke into her misery, close enough for his breath to drift warmly over the back of her neck. “What are you doing, sitting out here in the hall, tesoro? Are you not feeling well?”
“No,” she mumbled, and bit the inside of her cheek to hold her tears in check. She would not cry in front of him. She would not let him see how much he had hurt her. “I’m feeling lousy. Sick to my stomach, thanks to you and your father.”
“What in the world are you talking about?” he exclaimed, urging her to her feet and steering her into the library.
She had to hand it to him. He covered his tracks well, putting on an act of innocent confusion that would have fooled the most hardened cynic. “As if you don’t know!” she said bitterly. “The next time you’re plotting some underhand scheme, remember to close the door first, to prevent your victim from overhearing.”
“Victim…overhearing…
? I don’t understand—”
“Obviously she was eavesdropping,” Salvatore cut in. “Hardly an admirable character trait in a wife, if you ask me.”
“I’m not asking you.” Paolo aimed a repressive stare his father’s way, before turning his full attention on Callie again. “I don’t know what you think you overheard, cara—”
“Enough to know you’ve played me for a fool for the last time.” Numb with pain and disappointment, she tugged the engagement ring from her finger and placed it carefully on the library table. “Since there isn’t going to be a wedding, I won’t be needing this any longer.”
Incredulous, he said, “Don’t be ridiculous! Of course there’s going to be a wedding!”
“Oh, let her go, if that’s what she wants!” his father snarled impatiently. “You don’t need her, Paolo. You never did.”
“In fact, he did and does,” Callie snapped, fixing the imperious old coot in a withering stare. “But what neither of you appear to appreciate is that I don’t need him.”
“I was under the impression that we needed each other,” Paolo said stiffly. “When did all that change, Caroline?”
“About five minutes ago, when I discovered I’m merely the means to an end for you. Controlling the children’s future is all that matters to you, and to do that, you have to go through me. It’s just too bad I’m not willing to let you use me like that.”
He closed his eyes in a slow, frustrated blink. “Dio, will you stop talking in riddles and speak plainly, woman? You’re making absolutely no sense.”
Woman? Affronted, she drawled, “My goodness, Paolo, whatever happened to tesoro?”
“Whatever happened to the Caroline I thought I knew?” he returned, a noticeable touch of frost coating his words.
“She put two and two together and came up with four. You somehow found out that I’m named sole guardian of Vanessa and Ermanno’s children. That means I get to decide where and with whom they now live. If I so choose, I can take them back to the States with me, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. So how do you prevent that happening? By proposing a marriage you’d never have entertained if it weren’t that you thought it was your only option.”
She stopped just long enough to swallow the lump in her throat. “What really sickens me, though, Paolo, is that you didn’t have to go to such extremes to get your own way. I admit, when I first came here, it was with the intention of exercising my legal rights, but I soon realized the only rights that counted were the children’s. I was prepared to leave the twins here, with the people they love the most, and settle for being an aunt who loved them enough to put her own feelings aside and focus on theirs.”
“Paolo…Caroline, what’s going on?”
At the intervention of a fourth person, the three them swung round to find Lidia hovering in the doorway, her face mirroring the anxiety in her question. “Your raised voices carried so clearly upstairs, I was afraid the children might hear. Did I really understand you to say the wedding is being canceled?”
“That’s right,” Callie said. “It seems I’ve been living in a fool’s paradise, Lidia. I’ve known from the beginning that ours was a marriage of convenience, but I had no idea until a few minutes ago that the man I was prepared to call my husband actually perceives me as his enemy.”
Although Paolo didn’t move a muscle, his bogus display of artless confusion froze into a stony displeasure that radiated from his entire body. “What the devil are you talking about, Caroline?”
“I’m quoting you, that’s all.”
“Then you’ve lost your mind,” he declared flatly. “I have never once referred to you as my enemy.
“Oh, please!” She rolled her eyes in eloquent disgust. “My Italian might not be flawless, but it’s more than adequate enough for me to have understood every word you exchanged with your father. Know your enemies, you said. A man has to know what he’s up against.”
“What makes you think I was referring to you?”
“Because of what else you said, particularly the part about your not losing everything you’ve worked so hard to achieve. Let’s see, exactly how did you put it? Ah, yes!” She imitated his earlier gesture, holding her forefinger and thumb just as he had. “Something along the lines of ‘reading the wills can wait. I’m not going to risk losing everything I’ve worked for, with my wedding day just hours away.’”
Lidia turned mystified eyes on her son. “You said that, Paolo?”
“That, and a lot more,” Callie told her, the pain she’d so far managed to subdue threatening to rise up and devour her. “Including the fact that you think he’s making the smartest move of his life. Silly me, Lidia, to have believed you were actually on my side.”
“Caroline, darling…!” Lidia started toward her, arms outstretched.
But Callie shied away, so close to bursting into tears that she couldn’t bear to be touched. “Don’t, please! It’s over.”
“It is not over,” Paolo snapped, his tone iron-hard, his face tight with anger. “But we will continue this discussion in private. You will not drag my mother into it—or my father, either. This is between you and me, Caroline, and no one else.”
“There’s nothing to discuss, Paolo. I’ve made up my mind.”
“As I have made up mine,” he informed her, taking a step closer. “We agreed to marry for the children’s sakes, and regardless of what you think you know or don’t know, I will not allow you to renege on that promise at this late date.”
I will not allow…! There it was again, that autocratic Rainero trait rearing its ugly head with damning effect. Standing her ground, even though part of her wanted to cower, she spat, “You don’t have any choice. We’re not living in the Middle Ages. You can’t force me to marry you.”
“No, I can’t,” he agreed stonily. “And if you really do suddenly find the idea to be so abhorrent, then of course I will bow out of your life graciously. You should know, however, that these ‘legal rights’ you speak of are not quite as straightforward as you seem to think.”
“Don’t try to intimidate me at this stage of the game, Paolo. I’ll stand by my word not to take the children back home with me, but that doesn’t mean I’m about to relinquish all say in their future. You’ll be answerable to me for the decisions you make that affect them. Even in Italy, a will’s a will.”
His smile and his sudden lapse into his native tongue made her blood run cold. “Precisamente, Caroline, mio amore! And the wills drawn up by my brother and your sister, less than a year ago, assign guardianship equally between you and me, something to which, as co-executor with my father, I can attest with the utmost certainty. And since you’ve already agreed that the children belong here…” He spread his hands expressively.
She staggered as if he’d landed a blow to her midriff and knocked the wind out of her. “I don’t believe you!”
“It’s true, Caroline,” Lidia said, and from her tone and the wounded sympathy she saw in the woman’s eyes, Callie knew that it was.
“Now that you’re fully in the picture,” Paolo continued remorselessly, “you might wish to reconsider your position because, Caroline, as you must now realize, I don’t have to marry you, at all. I proposed to you because I thought it would be the best thing for the children, for you, and yes, for me. I still believe that to be the case. But I must warn you that, if you elect to walk away, there is not a judge here in Italy, in the United States, or in Outer Mongolia for that matter, who will support your right to have any say in the children’s future. You’re hoist by your own petard, my dear. Either you decide to go through with this marriage, or you accept a very secondary role in your niece and nephew’s lives.”
His unflappable delivery of news that knocked out the very foundation on which she’d based her assumptions was devastating enough, but it was Salvatore’s smug complacency that drove her to a terrible recklessness.
Without stopping to think about the consequences, she blurted out, “I think a judge might
disagree with that, if he knew I’m really the twins’ birth mother!”
For perhaps ten seconds, she had the satisfaction of knowing she’d put them all at a loss. The silence following her bombshell positively thundered. Then all hell broke loose.
“Good God!” Salvatore exploded, practically foaming at the mouth. “Is there no limit to the lengths you’re prepared to go, to destroy this family?”
“It’s true!” she sobbed wildly, the tears she’d so far held back flooding down her face in torrents. “I am their real mother!”
“It’s a lie, something you’ve concocted out of desperation,” he roared. “How dare you come into my house and pull such a stunt? And what’s the matter with you, Paolo, that you stand there not saying a word? You have only to look at those children to see the family resemblance. They are Raineros to the core.”
“Of course they are,” Callie cried, beleaguered on all sides when even Lidia’s expression turned faintly disapproving. “They look like their father!”
Salvatore grabbed the mantelpiece to steady himself. “You’re saying you had an affair with your sister’s husband?” he sputtered.
“No. I had a one-night stand with his brother who, in those days, thought nothing of seducing a virgin, and even less of protecting her against pregnancy!”
The fallout from this second bombshell, delivered too soon after the first, left Lidia so agitated that Callie was afraid she might collapse, and rendered Salvatore temporarily dumbstruck. He soon recovered however. “Your story is preposterous! Do you hear me? Preposterous!”
But Paolo stood as if he were encased in ice, a terrible emptiness in his eyes, a terrible deadness in his voice when at last he spoke. “So this is the secret you’ve been nursing all this time. I’ve known all along there was something. Just for the record, cara mia, what did you hope to gain, by waiting until now to make your dramatic announcement?”
With a futile attempt to control her tears, she said, “I tried to tell you sooner. The first night you came to my room, I started to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen.”
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