Page 13 of A Baby Scandal in Italy

Neither of Ivy’s parents had taken much interest in her when she’d been a child and nor had her two stepfathers. A year ago, her mum had moved to Cyprus with her latest lover, and had vaguely mentioned that Ivy should visit some time soon when building work on the villa was finished, but a date had never been set.

Ivy had given up hoping for a close mother-daughter bond and accepted that her mum loved her, but she wasn’t a priority. Her feeling of being unimportant to both her parents had made her determined that Bertie would grow up knowing that he was loved unconditionally, just as Gemma had loved her. Ivy’s flight back to England was in a few hours’ time, but Rafa hadn’t returned Bertie’s and her passports.

Ivy had explored the penthouse and found a room that Rafa must use as his office. Bertie was asleep and, conscious that she should have left for the airport by now, she did something she would never normally do and searched the drawers in the desk for the passports.

‘What are you doing?’

She flushed guiltily when she looked up and met Rafa’s lethal gaze across the room. She quickly shut the drawer, feeling like a child who had been caught with her hand in the sweet tin. Her chin came up as she reminded herself that she was not the one at fault. ‘I’m looking for the passports. You didn’t return them.’

He strolled towards her, his deceptively lazy strides at odds with his razor-sharp eyes that pinned her to the spot like a butterfly in a display case. ‘I admit, I forgot about them with everything else going on. The passports are locked in the safe, and that’s where they will stay for now. I need you and Bertie to remain in Italy for a while longer.’

Ivy hated him for being suave, and confident that she would obey what sounded like an order. She hated herself even more for finding him so devastatingly attractive. The black jeans he was wearing teamed with a black silk shirt emphasised how much taller than her he was. His tan belt and loafers were no doubt hand-crafted from the finest Italian butter-soft leather. He dropped his designer shades onto the desk, and the gleaming gold watch on his wrist sent a message that the wearer was wealthy and powerful, and he could do what the hell he liked.

‘How much longer do you want us to stay? A week? A month? You can’t try out fatherhood in the way you would test-drive a new car.’

‘I am not Bertie’s father.’

‘Don’t you dare lie,’ Ivy said furiously. ‘I’ve seen the paternity test report which states that Bertie is your child. Yesterday, when you left the room, I asked the doctor who took the samples for DNA testing to email me the result at the same time as you. I am Bertie’s legal guardian and I have a right to know who his father is.’

She spun away from Rafa, feeling unaccountably disappointed that he was as shallow and irresponsible as she’d thought. She was disappointed with herself for being attracted to him even though he was a smarmy liar who used his good looks and charisma to fool people—women,her—into hoping he was a better man than her common sense told her he was.

‘Ivy, listen to me.’ Rafa caught hold of her shoulder and frowned when she gave a yelp of pain. ‘You should get that looked at by a physio.’

‘I’ll make an appointment with my GP when I go home. Please give me the passports.’ She stared at Rafa, noticing for the first time the lines of strain around his eyes. His hair looked as though he’d been raking his fingers through it.

‘I need you to hear me out. Bertie is not my son.’ He held up his hand when she opened her mouth to tell him what she thought of him. ‘It is possible...likely...’ he said heavily, ‘That he is my father’s child.’

Ivy decided that she must have misunderstood him. ‘But...you told me that your father is dead. How couldhebe Bertie’s father?’ Disbelief turned to anger. ‘Have you spent the whole day thinking up such a ridiculous excuse?’

‘I know it sounds crazy. When the idea first came to me, I felt disloyal to my father.’ His jaw clenched. ‘I still do. But I think I’m right, and the facts back me up. Your sister was a hostess on the cruise shipOcean Starthat set sail from Southampton at the beginning of April last year.’

When Ivy nodded, he carried on, ‘The ship crossed the Atlantic and docked in Miami to collect more passengers, including Rafael Vieri. If you remember, I suggested that there could have been another passenger on the ship who had the same name as me, but it did not occur to me that he could have been my father. However, my mother told me today that my father had gone on a Caribbean cruise after his holiday plans in Miami fell through.’

He looked intently at Ivy. ‘Did Gemma say anything at all about the Rafael Vieri she’d had an affair with on the ship?’

Ivy shook her head. ‘When Gem announced that she was pregnant, she’d said that she couldn’t be with the father. I had an idea he might have been married, but I didn’t ask, and she never spoke about him. She only told me his name just before she died.’

‘The confusion stems from the fact that my full name is Rafael, the same as my father.’ Rafa exhaled heavily. ‘I can prove that I was in Asia for business when Rafael Vieri was on the cruise ship. I’d already asked my PA to look back at my diary for last April. When my mother revealed that my father had been away on a cruise at the same time that I was on the other side of the world, I could only draw one conclusion.’

‘But the paternity test proves you are Bertie’s father.’ Ivy’s mind was spinning. Initially, she’d assumed that Rafa had made up the elaborate story, but the fact that he and his father shared the same name made the whole thing plausible—except for the paternity test.

‘If a father and a son are both the possible father of a child, a basic paternity test could give a false positive result. That’s what I believe happened in this case.’

If it was true, and Rafa was not Bertie’s father, then there was no reason for her to feel guilty that she’d kissed him. The distracting thought slipped into Ivy’s head. If Rafa and Gemma hadn’t been lovers, it meant that she had not been disloyal to her sister. But she had still been a fool to have responded to Rafa when she knew he had a reputation as a playboy, Ivy told herself firmly.

‘What did your mother say when you told her what you have just told me?’

‘My mother is unaware of what I suspect,’ Rafa said harshly. ‘Only you and I and the DNA testing company, who have signed a watertight confidentiality clause, know that I have requested an extended paternity test where more genetic markers are studied. A child inherits fifty percent of their DNA from their mother and fifty percent from their father. The extended test can exonerate me as Bertie’s father and prove with a high percentage of reliability that he is in fact my half-brother.

‘Together with what else we know, it will be safe to assume that my father and your sister were lovers on the cruise ship and Bertie is the result of their affair. It will take a couple of weeks for the paternity test company to produce a result, which is why I want you and the baby to stay in Italy.’

Ivy did not know what to believe, and tears filled her eyes as the strain of the past few months overwhelmed her. Losing Gemma in such a shocking way and becoming responsible for a tiny baby had been life-changing events. The uncertainty of the identity of Bertie’s father was too much to take in.

‘Is the prospect of staying in a luxurious apartment in Rome really so bad that it makes you cry?’ Rafa asked in a cynical voice.

‘It’s not that. If what you have said turns out to be true, it means that Bertie is an orphan, and it’s just so tragic.’ She rubbed her hand across her eyes. ‘I hoped he would have a family in Italy who would want to be involved with him.’

‘It was falsely reported by the media that you and I are Bertie’s parents. That is the story my mother believes.’

---