Page 83 of Pretty Plaything
I shake my head.
He takes my hand. “Dance with me.”
I let him take me to the dance floor. Only a few couples are dancing, but it doesn’t matter.
Alessandro’s eyes swirl with so many different emotions as his arms wind around me. I wrap my arms around his neck, pressing myself close to him.
He needs me now.
I can feel it, so I just hold him tightly to me.
Chapter 42
ISTARE AT THE RESULTSof the test that tell me Mauro is my biological father so hard that it’s a surprise there isn’t a hole in the paper.
It feels like my world has been flipped upside down, and I don’t know anything anymore. I’m the last Bellini, except I’m not.
Not really.
I don’t know what to do with that information.
My phone rings. Mauro’s number flashes on the screen. He must’ve gotten the results too.
There’s no possibility that this is a mistake, because I insisted on doing the test in two different labs so I could make sure no one tampered with the results.
Now I almost wish someone had done it.
I pick up my phone.
“Alessandro,” Mauro says from the other end of the line. “I’m so sorry. If I’d known or if I’d even suspected that you were my son, I would’ve done something. I would’ve come for you. I would’ve raised you. I would’ve given you everything.”
I don’t say anything, because what is there to say?
“I understand that this is difficult for you. It’s difficult for me too. But if you want, we can keep this quiet. No one has to know. You worked hard for the Bellini family, and I don’t want you to lose it or that people question your right to rule. They were your real family, after all. You barely know me.”
“Yeah,” I say. “I agree.”
