Page 50 of Scandalous Kingpin
I watched him take his first bite. Then another. He ate in silence and I grinned. “Hmm, there might be some Irish in you after all.”
I realized my mistake instantly, but it was too late to retract the words.
“I guess you could say that with Aisling being my biological mother.”
I worked up the nerve to look at him. His face was passive, and there wasn’t any bitterness in his voice. Maybe it was foolish, but I saw it as a sign to broach the topic with him.
“How do you feel about her?”
He was silent for a moment, his eyes stabbing into mine. “Fine.”
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry she wasn’t there when you needed her.”
He looked at me blankly.
“Nothing to be sorry about.”Nothing?My brow furrowed. “Aisling is nothing to me. We just share DNA. Unfortunately.”
“There’s no such thing as a perfect family,” I said softly. “Every single one goes through bumps and has issues, and if they tell you otherwise, they’re lying.”
“I don’t imagine many of those people would describe the bumps as being abandoned by their biological mother to be abused by their stepmother.” He gave his head a subtle shake. “I mean, what did Aisling expect? That Vittoria would welcome the child of her husband’s mistress with open arms?”
He had a point there. On the way home last night, Christian told me about his run-in with his father and Aisling. It had taken a bit of prodding, but he spilled most of the details eventually. My athair might not have been present, and I missed being walked down the aisle by him, but at least there wasn’t any drama I had to endure in regards to his relation to Sofia. Christian wasn’t so lucky.
“My parents loved each other,” I murmured, swallowing a lump in my throat. “Yes, my mother died, and I expect my father had women in his life after her death, but it hurt learning he’d taken up with someone even before she passed away.” His eyes snapped to mine. “And it wasn’t a brief fling, since he managed to have twins with her.” I let out a strangled laugh, the entire situation beyond absurd. “It’s actually your great-grandmother, Sofia, who was his lover.”
He didn’t react, his eyes simmering with emotions I had a hard time identifying. It made me wonder whether he knew already.
“But I take it that wasn’t a surprise?” I asked.
“No, but nothing surprises me.”
“I met her once… Sofia… when I was a little girl, you know,” I said, and something shifted in the air.
“Your father took you to her?” he growled.
I shrugged. “I think I was around five. I didn’t understand most of their conversation, but I must have known it was wrong because I never told my mother about it.”
“Probably because you wanted to protect her,” he pointed out.
“Maybe. The dynamic between the two of them… Sofia and Athair… it was all wrong. He was so protective and dangerous, but around her, he was almost smaller. A completely different person.” I thought back to that night and memories of the child that had a hard time comprehending what was going on. “I wish I’d said something to my brothers. Maybe they could have killed her and she would have never had a chance to kill Athair.”
“Probably best that you didn’t. Your brothers might’ve ended up dead.”
“Maybe.” I studied his closed-off expression, hoping to get through to him. “Or I could have saved countless others, my father included.” I sighed. “The point is there are no guaranteesin life. We could sit here until the end of time pondering our decisions, but I have to believe that Aisling thought she was doing the best thing for you.”
I expected him to tell me off, that I needed to mind my own business, anything. Instead, he remained quiet, the silence stretching for many heartbeats. I squinted at him, something about his blank, emotionless face hitting me all wrong.
“Okay,” he finally said through his clenched jaw, returning his attention to the plate in front of him. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt to be shut down like that, but I couldn’t exactly force him to open up. He’d had almost three decades to perfect this obvious strategy of hiding behind his emotions.
“I booked our honeymoon,” I blurted, not wanting to dwell.
He paused, turning his head back to look at me. “Honeymoon?”
“Yes, it’s when a married couple??—”
“I know what it is.”
I pursed my mouth, stifling a snarky comment. “We leave later today. A plane will be waiting for us, taking us to Rome. Are you okay with that?”
