Page 12 of A Baby Scandal in Italy

Rafa grimaced. Tiffany had taken Lola to live with her real father, and the abrupt separation from the little girl he had believed was his child had been as painful as a bereavement. It had given him an insight into how his mother must have felt when her pregnancies had ended in disappointment.

He wondered if his father had been as deeply affected every time his mother had lost a baby. Rafael senior had rarely showed his emotions, and when Rafa had been growing up he had tried to emulate his father. Even now he never opened up to anyone about his feelings. Big boys did not cry. The mind-blowing result of the paternity test made him want to punch the wall in frustration, but he answered his mother calmly.

‘I have only just found out about the child.’ He could not bring himself to refer to Bertie ashischild. He needed time to process the frankly bizarre situation. He had been utterly convinced that Ivy Bennett was a liar, but it seemed that she was what she’d said she was—a grieving sister seeking the father of her motherless nephew. Except Rafa’s gut instinct was that he had not slept with Gemma and then since forgotten her.

‘Of course, you will have to marry the boy’s mother. You cannot have an illegitimate heir. I have seen the girl’s picture in the newspaper.’ For some reason, the disapproval in Fabiana’s voice irked Rafa. ‘She is not one of us.’

He did not attempt to explain that Ivy was not Bertie’s mother. The news story had damaged his reputation, but it would not improve matters if he made a public statement that he did not remember having sex with Ivy’s sister. His mother had meant that Ivy was not part of Italy’s, and more specifically Rome’s, social elite. The Vieri family had been rich and powerful since the fifteenth century and Rafa had never been allowed to forget his heritage.

‘Ivy is devoted to the baby,’ he said curtly. He did not know what to make of Ivy Bennett and her motives for talking to the press, but Rafa had seen the love and care she showed Bertie.

‘I am glad your father is not here to witness the shame you have brought on the family.’

Dio!His mother did not pull any punches. Guilt added to his confusion and anger. Fabiana sagged back against the cushions. It was only two months since she had been widowed and the raw emotion in the room was too much for Rafa to take. ‘I need to look for some paperwork inpapà’s study,’ he muttered before he strode from the room.

It was the first time he had entered the study since his father had died. The room looked as it always had—immaculately tidy, the few items on the desk neatly arranged. Rafael Vieri senior had been a precise, controlled man who had worked hard and rarely taken time off to relax, apart from to play golf occasionally.

Rafa had respected his father hugely, and he missed the friendship that had developed between them when he had returned to Italy. He threw himself onto the chair behind the desk and dropped his head into his hands as his mother’s words echoed in his ears. After a few minutes, while he fought to regain his self-control, he opened the drawer in the desk, although he had no idea what he was looking for. He was about to close it again when something at the back of the drawer caught his attention.

Why had his father kept a model ship hidden in his desk? Rafa lifted the model out. It was evidently a scale reproduction of a cruise liner, and his heart gave a jolt when he read the name on the hull.Ocean Star.

Gemma told me she had met Rafael Vieri aboard theOcean Staron a cruise around the Caribbean islands.

It was surely a coincidence that Ivy’s sister had been a hostess on a cruise ship with the same name as the model ship on his father’s desk. Rafa dismissed the preposterous idea that came into his head. His workaholic father was as likely to have taken a trip to the moon as to have gone on a cruise. The model ship had probably been a gift from someone. He wondered why his father had shoved it in the drawer.

‘I found this inpapà’s study. Do you know why he had it?’ Rafa asked his mother when he returned to the drawing room with the model ship.

‘Oh, that thing. Rafael kept it as a memento of the cruise he took last year.’

Rafa’s heart crashed against his ribs. ‘When exactly last year?’ He tried to keep his voice calm. ‘I don’t remember thatpapàwent on a cruise.’

Fabiana shrugged. ‘You had gone on a business trip. Somewhere in Asia, I think.’

‘That would have been last April. I went to Hong Kong and Singapore before I flew to Perth, and I was away for nearly a month. My trip coincided with whenpapàhad been advised by his doctor to take a complete break from work. He left Sandro Florenzi in charge at the office and went to Florida to meet up with his cousin for a golfing holiday.’

‘Cousin Enrico broke his ankle on the day your father arrived. Rafael did not want to go to the golf resort on his own and was about to return home. But then he called to say that he had secured a last-minute booking on a cruise ship leaving Miami for the Caribbean islands. It wasn’t like Rafael to be spontaneous. I believe the stroke he’d had a few months earlier had affected him more than he’d admitted.’ Fabiana glanced at the model ship. ‘Your father brought that back with him. It’s a cheap trinket, and I thought he had got rid of it.’

‘Can I keep the model ship, if it meant a lot topapà?’ Maybe he was crazy, but Rafa was certain that the mystery of Bertie’s paternity was connected to the model of the cruise shipOcean Star.

His mother nodded. ‘In return you must promise to bring your son to visit me.’

Rafa avoided his mother’s gaze. ‘Give me a little time. There are things I need to sort out.’

‘I miss Rafael so much.’ Fabiana held a tissue to her eyes. ‘He was my one true love. My only consolation is that, when this wretched illness takes me, I will go to him.’

Dio!Rafa couldn’t reveal that Bertie was not his son, but that there was a chance the baby was his half-brother. His mother would be utterly heartbroken if he told her of his suspicion that his father had been unfaithful with a hostess on the cruise ship. She had already suffered so much sadness in her life. He needed time to find out the truth, but the situation was already spiralling out of his control. The story in the media that he was convinced Ivy had been responsible for had made everyone believe they were lovers and that she was the mother of his illegitimate son.

Of course, you will have to marry the boy’s mother.

Rafa frowned as he recalled his mother’s words. There was not a chance in hell he would ever get married again. But his involvement in a baby scandal meant that he was in danger of losing the support of the majority of Vieri Azioni’s board members.

And then there was his mother, who he was desperate to protect. The idea that had come into Rafa’s head was crazy, but the whole thing was crazy. He felt disloyal to suspect his father of having had an affair, but he had to discover the truth, for his sanity and for baby Bertie’s sake. He had emailed the DNA testing clinic and learned that a more in-depth test could solve the mystery, but it would take time, which Rafa did not have. All he could hope was for the press to lose interest in the story that he had fathered an illegitimate child. And perhaps he could make that happen.

The best way to flatten the story would be to announce his engagement to the baby’s mother. Suddenly there would be no scandal and no more paparazzi camped on his doorstep. Vieri Azioni’s board would have no reason to vote him out and, most importantly, he would prevent his mother from finding out the awful truth.

Rafa raked his hand through his hair. Could he pull off a fake engagement to Ivy? The chemistry between them was real, and he did not doubt that in public they would be able to put on a convincing act as a couple in love, but in private he must ignore his inconvenient desire for her. She might have been telling the truth when she’d said that Rafael Vieri was the father of her sister’s baby after all, but Rafa still had reasons to mistrust her, and frankly he did not know who or what to believe any more.

WherewasRafa? It was late afternoon and Ivy had spent much of the day wheeling Bertie in the pushchair around the penthouse. Rafa’s disappearance and lack of contact were proof that he did not want his son. She knew he must have received the result of the paternity test and his absence was damning.

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