Page 48 of Bound by Their Christmas Baby

‘They weren’t together at all, period.’

Abby frowned, remembering threads of past conversations. ‘You told me that you destroyed your father…’

‘Yes.’ He nodded once, a cold jerk of his head.

‘He hurt her?’

‘He ruined her life,’ Gabe grunted.

‘How? Why?’

‘Because I hardly fitted into his plans, tempesta.’

‘He didn’t want to be a father?’

‘He was already a father,’ Gabe corrected. ‘A grandfather too.’

Abby frowned. ‘I don’t understand.’

Gabe expelled an angry sigh, and now his eyes held resentment. ‘My mother was a cleaner. Here. In this castle.’ He waved a hand around the room. ‘My father was a lecherous jerk who liked to get his hands on the maids when his wife wasn’t looking—which was pretty often.’

Abby frowned, but she didn’t say anything. She didn’t want to interrupt him. Not now that he’d started to open up.

‘She loved him. When she found out she was pregnant, she was overjoyed,’ Gabe spat, his derision for that emotion obvious.

‘He wasn’t overjoyed, though,’ she surmised.

‘No.’ Gabe sipped his wine then turned his head, his eyes running over the view through the window. The snow was still falling—a thicker layer had settled on the railing now. ‘He paid her to have an abortion. And fired her.’

Abby gasped. She couldn’t help it. ‘You’re not serious?’

He didn’t answer. Her question had been largely rhetorical.

‘She took the money and tried to make a life for herself in a nearby village.’ His eyes shifted to Abby’s for a moment. ‘It was tough. Being a single mother to an infant is not easy, as you are well aware.’

Something was prickling at the edges of Abby’s brain, something she didn’t want to think about until later. But it offered darkness and doubt and complications she hadn’t been aware of when she’d agreed to this.

‘What did she do?’

‘She blackmailed him,’ Gabe said softly. ‘He paid a small amount to keep her quiet and refused to see us. I don’t think she even wanted the money,’ he said. ‘She wanted him to be in our lives. She really did love him. He was forty-five years older than her and he’d had a string of affairs. He was an out-and-out bastard to her, by all accounts. Apparently love makes people act like fools.’

‘Eventually, as he grew older, I suppose he became worried about what would happen when he died. Would my mother seek a share of his inheritance?’

‘She’d have been entitled!’ Abby snapped, ignoring the parallels between her own situation and that of Gabe’s mother.

‘Yes.’ His gaze narrowed thoughtfully on Abby. ‘But she wouldn’t have tried. As I said, she loved him.’

‘So what happened?’

‘He convinced her to go back to her home. He bought her ticket, told her he would come and see us, that if we were over there it would be easier for him to visit and be in our lives. He offered her a lot of money to leave Italy.’

Gabe’s face was taut with anger. ‘He lied to her. He wanted her gone. He knew he would never visit, but he also knew that once she was in Australia it would be harder for her to come here.’

‘But he gave her money…’

‘He promised to give her money. It never eventuated. Once she landed he broke it off.’

‘Oh, God.’

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