The Secret One
Page 27
He pulled me to his chest and said, “That’ll never matter as long as I’m with you.”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
JUDY CORISI, DOMINIC’S DAUGHTER
“Close your eyes, Dad,” Judy said from the doorway of her father’s home office. “Are they closed?”
“Yes,” he promised.
“Mom and I have something to show you.” At first, when her mother had offered to help transfer her sketch to a large canvas, Judy hadn’t wanted the assistance, but seeing how much family meant to her father had reminded Judy to be grateful for hers.
Yes, her mother almost always had a suggestion for how Judy could do something better, but doing this project together had been good for them. And some of her ideas were actually pretty cool.
Abby Corisi followed her daughter into the office. “There’s still time to wrap it if you’d like, Judy.”
“No, I want him to see the whole thing all at once,” Judy said without hesitation. “Ready, Dad?” She rested the canvas on the front edge of her father’s desk, facing it toward him.
“Can I open them yet?”
She adjusted the placement of the canvas on the desk, making sure it was just right, then said, “Yes.”
Her father didn’t say anything at first; he took a moment to look it over. Then his eyes did something she’d never seen them do before: they got watery. Judy fought back a mild panic as she worried her gift might have upset him.
“It’s beautiful,” he said in a strained voice.
“She’s been working on it for years.” Abby put a hand on her daughter’s shoulder and gave the side of her head a quick kiss.
“Mom helped,” Judy said with pride. “Originally it was a tree with Nicole, Stephan, their children, and Nona Rosella. Well, before that, it had everyone we love on it, but I had to trim it . . . whatever. The important part is everyone we love doesn’t fit on one tree anymore, so I made a hedge. See how we’re all kind of intertwined even if our roots are different? That’s our family. It doesn’t matter where we all started; we’re together now in one big leafy bush.”
“It’s perfect.” Her father stood, rounded the table, and pulled Judy and her mother to him for a hug. Judy carefully let the canvas drop to his desk.
When he stepped back, Judy said, “I hope it’s okay that I put your father’s name on there. Without him, I wouldn’t have you.”
“It’s okay. I’ve made my peace with him.” Dominic kept one arm around his wife’s waist. “Why is there a blank leaf next to yours on our branch, Judy?”
Abby’s eyes rounded, and she smiled. “I was going to tell you, but we decided this is a better way for you to find out.”
Dominic swayed on his feet. “Are we—?”
“We are,” Judy said with enthusiasm and hugged an arm around both of them. “I’m finally going to have a little sister, a protégée, so to speak. Together we will be unstoppable.”
Dominic laughed. “What if it’s a boy?”
Judy thought that over. “I guess I could work with that.”
Abby smiled up at Dominic. “We’re in serious trouble, you know that?”
He didn’t look at all worried. “Trouble is my middle name.”
After a moment, Abby said she was going downstairs to check on dinner. They were all welcome to join her. Judy said she needed just a moment more.
Alone with her father, Judy asked, “Dad, did you really not know about the Romanos?”
He picked up the canvas and looked at it while he answered. “It’s amazing what you can miss when you don’t want to see it.”
She went to stand beside him. “Are you happy that we found them?”
He ran a hand over the raised names and nodded. “It’s more than I ever imagined. Better than I probably deserve.”
Judy didn’t know what to say to that because to her, her father was everything that was good in the world. One day, she hoped he’d see himself the way she did. “Dad, there is something I need help with.”
He replaced the canvas on his desk and turned toward her. “Anything.”
“I want to make a family hedge for our cousins in Montalcino. Could we go there so I could have Nona help me with everyone’s names?”
Her father let out an audible breath. “I’m sure she’d love that.”
“We could ask Gian to come with us.”
“He’d like that.”
Judy’s stomach rumbled, and she said, “What do you think Mom made for dinner?”
Her father smiled again. “Let’s go find out.”
At the door, Judy paused. “Hey, Dad.”
“Yes?”
“Do you think your father had children with any other women?”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHRISTOF
One year later
The day we opened a new racetrack at Decker Park, the stands were filled with family and friends. The new high-tech track was set on a plot of land McKenna and I had purchased for the expansion. Construction had taken longer than expected because Dominic’s team had installed an underground bunker system the size of a small town.
It wasn’t the jet I’d thought he’d planned to give us for our wedding, but I had to admit it was the coolest gift we’d received.
Okay, almost the coolest. As I climbed into Mack and revved her engine, I waved to McKenna, who was buckling herself into Chris.
Chris.
Yep, McKenna’s favorite car was named after me.
Life was damn near perfect.
I still worked for Romano Superstores, but I was also involved with projects at Decker Park. As I’d always done, I went where I was most needed. My brothers jokingly asked me if I intended to be a stay-at-home dad once the kids came. I very seriously told them I didn’t know. When the time came, Mack and I would talk about it, and I was confident we would come up with a plan that would work for us.
Us.
We weren’t in competition with each other, not even as we readied ourselves at the starting line of the track. The two of us had sat down before our wedding and talked about what we wanted our life together to look like, and we were living it.
Family.
Friends.
Laughter.
Somewhere in the stands my parents were seated between royalty and men who still had grease under their fingernails—and neither felt out of place. McKenna and I were living our life on our terms, and it was beautiful.
Almost as beautiful as McKenna was as she leaned forward and flexed her hands on the steering wheel of the fully refurbished Alfa Romeo. The playful challenge in her eyes tempted me to send everyone home and forget all about this race.
When we had forever, though, there was no rush.
I gave my car’s dashboard a pat.
Don’t let me down, Mack. We’ve got this.
A horn sounded, announcing the beginning of the race. I didn’t immediately step on the gas. When McKenna’s car didn’t pull out in front of mine, I looked over with concern.
She flexed her hands again as if unaware that the race had begun.
My throat tightened when I realized she was waiting for me. However things worked out, we were in this together. I floored my pedal.
She easily kept up.
We took turns taking the lead. Just before the finish line, I slowed and let McKenna fly through first. She was out of her car, helmet off, waiting to greet me with a kiss when I pulled over next to her. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and I nearly forgot we had a rather large audience.
Behind us a loud engine roared to life. We turned in time to see Dominic slide into a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, another of his gifts to us and arguably the fastest car in the world. We joked that it had actually been a gift for himself, since he came to Decker Park at least once a month to drive it. Either way, all that mattered was that each month a Sunday dinner happened at Decker Park in the enormous dining room we’d added to McKenna’s house.
He smiled and waved in our direction. After he flew
past us, I said, “He’s getting one for Gian. I love to see them together. Dominic is good for Gian.”
McKenna watched him go. “You both are. I saw Rosella leave. I understand why she doesn’t feel comfortable here, but I’m glad she came.”
I sighed and hugged her against me. “You really are a miracle, do you know that? By being so open with Gian about your own mother, you’ve really helped him accept Rosella the way she is. She’ll never be the one who sat up with him when he had a nightmare or patched him back together after a fall, but he’s not angry with her anymore.”
“Sometimes letting go of the anger is all you can do.” She tipped her head back so she could see my face better, and a smile stretched her lips. “You didn’t have to let me win.”
I brushed my mouth over hers. “I’ve already won everything that matters.”
We kissed then, long enough that the horn sounded again even though there wasn’t another race scheduled. We broke off our kiss with a laugh.
“For a fake fiancée,” I joked, “you’re rocking this real-wife shit.”
She went onto her toes and whispered into my ear, “Real enough that you’d be happy if I said I’m pregnant?”
My jaw dropped, and I hugged her closer still. “You are? Seriously? Oh my God, how long have you known?”
“I just took the test this morning. I don’t want to say anything yet to anyone because it’s so early, but—”
I kissed her then, with all the love and passion in me.
And it didn’t matter how many times the horn blew.
My miracle was going to bring another into the world.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ruth Cardello is a New York Times bestselling author who loves writing about rich alpha men and the strong women who tame them. She was born the youngest of eleven children in a small city in northern Rhode Island. She lived in Boston, Paris, Orlando, New York, and Rhode Island again before moving to Massachusetts, where she now lives with her husband and three children. Before turning her attention to writing, Ruth was an educator for two decades, including eleven years as a kindergarten teacher. The Secret One is the third book in her Corisi Billionaires series. Learn about Ruth’s new releases by signing up for her newsletter at www.RuthCardello.com.