Page 11 of Modern Romance March 2025 (5-8)

“Worse than what I’ve created?” he scoffed, rubbing a hand over his face.

Bruno dropped the name of a notorious financial embezzler’s name into the silence—a man who had ruined thousands of livelihoods through Europe, apparently his wife’s father—and the last piece of the puzzle fell into place. A pithy curse flew out of Adriano’s mouth.

So that’s why Nyra had lied that she was an orphan, why she’d been happy to hide herself away in the margins of his life. But why not tell him that she had an identical twin when faced with those cheap photos? Why not trust him with a little bit of the truth?

Like you trusted her, a voice whispered sarcastically.

“Find her,” he said, shooting to his feet.

He had been called a lot of things by the media and his own family, ruthless and tyrannical being the most common, but Adriano never punched down on the innocent.

Neither was he so full of his own ego that he couldn’t admit when he made a mistake. This wasn’t just a mistake though, but a blunder of epic proportions.

Urgency beat through him as he rifled through his discarded jacket for his phone. “Put as many people as you need on it, Bruno. Make sure you—”

“I know where she is,” came Bruno’s reply.

Adriano turned to find his friend’s steady gaze. A torrent of questions, all fueled by jealousy and possessiveness, filled him, but he held them back. Then came another new helping of shame, because despite the photo, he had a feeling that Bruno hadn’t believed that Nyra had cheated on him.

It galled and scraped and burned.

Adriano let his friend see the shame lick at him in a thousand little flames. Maybe that’s why they had stuck to each other through everything. To hold each other to a standard above any they’d ever been shown.

“Where is she?” he said, putting on his jacket. “Ask Pascale to get the chopper ready and—”

“She’s at my farmhouse, an hour north of Milan.”

Apparently, this day held no end of small shocks. “Since when?”

“Since she left,” Bruno said, instead ofsince you asked her to leave.A consideration he didn’t deserve. “She asked me if I could find her somewhere to stay for a couple of days. Until she could figure out what to do.”

“And she’s been there all this time?”

Something flashed in Bruno’s eyes, but he only nodded.

“Why?”

“Why did I help a helpless woman who had nowhere else to go?” Bruno said, with a soft scoff. “Because you taught me to always do the right thing.”

Adriano swallowed and nodded, disbelief and gratitude twining through him.

Why had Bruno believed her to be innocent even when he’d had the proof, while Adriano hadn’t? What was he lacking?

He had a feeling that question was going to torment him for a long time.

* * *

Nyra knew it was time to stop hiding at Bruno’s farmhouse.

She couldn’t return to Vegas or London though. Not in her current condition. Not when she had a hundred and six dollars to her name. Not when she hadn’t sold any of her art in a while. She’d been too distracted to paint while stealing and selling things to raise enough cash to help Nadia.

And in the six weeks since Adriano had thrown her out, her head,and her heart, were full of regrets and recriminations, with nothing left behind for inspiration.

Should she have explained that it wasn’t her in those horrible photos? Wasn’t Adriano valid in his anger when he didn’t know that she had an identical twin?

But why did he have to be so cold and cruel toward her?

Did she even have the right to indulge in this righteous fury and this reckless tantrum when she was going to be a mother?

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