Page 33 of Secret Baby for the Mafia Don

Jess gasps, and my mother’s eyebrows lift at this. I look at Gabriel, and he nods at me to continue.

“I was so angry that I left before I did something rash. Marco hid her away and she had her baby. I have been trying to find her ever since. I finally managed to get access to one of Marco’s guards who could be bribed and I found out that Kate was invited to Marco’s wedding to the Baldini girl. I went there and found Kate, but she didn’t want to leave with me.”

“Why didn’t Marco marry her if she was having his child?” Jess asks.

I look into the depths of my wine glass for a moment. “Because the child isn’t Marco’s. It’s my child.”

My mother sucks in a breath and leans forward again. “Seven years, Elio? The child is six now.”

I nod. “I still haven’t seen him. Kate won’t let me meet him until she feels sure that she can trust me.”

My mother looks at me steadily across the table. “There’s more that you aren’t telling me.”

I smile a little. My mother was always far too perceptive. “You’re right. There’s more to the story. She’s been here for a couple of weeks because the Baldinis realized that she is valuable to me and they have kidnapped her to try and force me to give up our trade in Russia.”

“What?” my mother scoffs. “That’s ridiculous. They must know that we won’t do that for them.”

I purse my lips. “They know the child is mine. They know that they have kidnapped the La Rosa heir. They are playing hardball and they are using Kate to trick me into giving in.”

“It’s a very bad situation,” my mother says matter-of-factly. “Very sloppy of you.”

I cringe inwardly at her criticism, but she is right. “All I can say is that I was young and I must have missed something that was making her unhappy. I have tried and tried to think about what would have made her run away to get help from Marco. I thought everything was fine.”

“Did you ask her if she was happy?” Jess says to me.

I shoot her a sharp look. “No. But it’s a little late for that, now, don’t you think?”

She shakes her head, then winces and presses a hand to her aching back again. “It’s never too late to ask a woman what she needs in order to be happy, Elio.” She looks at my brother. “Clearly I married the smarter son.”

Gabriel chuckles and I give them a grudging smile.

It’s easier being Gabriel. He wasn’t asked to shoot our brother in the head in order to prove his value to the family. He wasn’t asked to train like a soldier in foreign countries while our father criticized his every move.

But that is a wound that doesn’t need to be poked at tonight.

“Do you want my advice?” my mother asks me.

I turn to look at her, and I nod. “It has never led me astray in the past.”

She smiles a little at me and sips her wine. “Jess is right. Ask her what she wants from you. You might also ask her what went wrong that made her leave. She was besotted with you when you were children. You must have done something to hurt her so badly that she ran to Marco for help.”

I blow out a breath and take another bite of my pasta.

I have thought about what I must have done wrong over and over again since I found Kate at the wedding and she refused to come with me. I just can’t think of anything other than how rough I was with her in bed.

But I know that she loves rough sex, so it can’t be that. I had thought that we were doing very well together. She had told me that she loved me over and over again, and she had even said that she didn’t care if I ever said it back.

If I was being honest with myself, I had never given her the chance to express any real opinions, and I knew that I had been cold with her. Maybe she didn’t appreciate being treated that way, and I could understand that.

But then again, we had been involved in what was essentially an arranged marriage for so many years. I think I assumed that what she felt was partially obligation rather than true love.

My mouth twists a little as I realize that Kate isn’t the kind of person who would ever love someone blindly or dutifully unless she felt they deserved it.

She isn’t the kind of person who can dissemble or fake her feelings. How was I so blind when I was younger?

“What are you going to do about the trade deal that the Baldinis want?” my brother asks.

I shake my head. “I haven’t decided yet. I can’t even discuss the deal with them until I manage to see my son. I want to know for sure that the child is real before I play ball with them.”

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