Page 22 of A Baby Scandal in Italy

Rafa glanced at Ivy. ‘I think my mother is tired and we should let her rest. Also, Bertie needs his nappy changed.’

Ivy nodded. She had felt awkward, pretending to be engaged to Rafa in front of his mother. Even worse had been having to lie and introduce Bertie as their son. But Rafa was determined to protect his mother from finding out that her husband was possibly Bertie’s father. Earlier, Fabiana had admired the baby, but she’d been too weak to hold him.

‘The child looks like you,’ she had told Rafa. ‘You should have called him Rafael. It is a family tradition to give the firstborn son his father’s name.’

‘Two Rafaels were confusing enough,’ Rafa had muttered.

Ivy moved towards the door of the private room and paused when Fabiana spoke. ‘Rafa, I would like to talk to your fiancée for a little longer. I’m sure you can change the baby’s nappy.’

Ivy looked doubtful as she handed Rafa the baby’s bag. ‘Can you manage a nappy change?’

‘Of course he can,’ his mother said. ‘My son has had plenty of practice at caring for a baby.’

While Ivy was trying to digest that surprising statement, Rafa carried Bertie out of the room. She gave his mother a faint smile, wondering what Fabiana wanted to talk to her about.

‘So, you are going to marry my son. It is strange that he had never mentioned you until the newspaper reported that you are the mother of his child. Where did you and Rafa meet?’

‘Um... Singapore.’ Ivy tried to remember the story they had concocted. ‘Rafa was there on business at the same time that the cruise ship I worked on had docked. We bumped into each other in a hotel near the marina.’ She blushed, sure that she sounded unconvincing, and wishing she had not mentioned a cruise ship. She hated lying, but she simply could not tell Rafa’s mother the truth about their relationship.

Fabiana was watching her closely. ‘The baby is four months old, I believe. Did you have an easy pregnancy?’

‘Um, it was normal. I had some morning sickness.’ Ivy was floundering. She had been working on a cruise ship for the first few months of her sister’s pregnancy, but she remembered Gemma had said that she had been sick a few times.

‘Tell me about your family in England.’

‘My mum and dad divorced when I was a child, and both went on to have new partners. I’m not close to either of my parents,’ Ivy admitted. She felt sad that there was no one in her family she could turn to for support. ‘My sister...’ She swallowed. ‘My sister died in an accident three months ago.’

‘Life can be very cruel. You were close to her?’

‘Yes.’

Fabiana was silent for a moment. ‘Do you love my son?’

‘Er...yes, of course.’ Ivy fiddled with the yellow diamond ring that Rafa had insisted she should wear to make their engagement appear real.

‘Why do you love Rafa?’ Fabiana persisted.

Ivy tried to think if Rafa had any loveable traits. He was arrogant, forceful and he liked his own way. But he cared about his mother, and he cared about the company he had inherited from his father. So much so that he’d given up his successful career as a professional basketball player and abandoned his ambition of training as a sports physiotherapist to take charge of Vieri Azioni. He had also promised her that, if the DNA test proved Bertie was his half-brother, he would share responsibility for the little boy’s upbringing.

‘Rafa is loyal and protective, and honourable.’ It was a strangely old-fashioned term, but instinctively Ivy believed it was true. Even though their first meetings had been explosive, when Rafa had angrily accused her of speaking to the press, she realised that she trusted him.

‘He is a good son.’ Fabiana sighed. ‘I know that Rafa misses Rafael as much as I do. He was close to his father and there were no secrets between them.’

Oh, Lord! Ivy could not meet the other woman’s gaze.

‘The one thing Rafa will not tolerate is deceit. His insistence on honesty is not surprising after his ex-wife deceived him. I suppose he has told you why his first marriage ended? He tried to keep the story out of the media to protect Lola because he still loved her.

‘I never thought I would see my son with a broken heart,’ Fabiana said. ‘Since his divorce, I sense that Rafa has built a wall around his emotions.’ She gave Ivy a shrewd look. ‘Perhaps he will fall in love with you, as you hope he will.’

Rafa returned with Bertie then, and Ivy was spared trying to think of a response to his mother’s astonishing statement while she strapped the baby into the portable car seat. Of course she did not secretly hope that Rafa would develop feelings for her, and she certainly wouldn’t fall in love with him, she assured herself.

They stayed for a few more minutes while Rafa chatted to his mother, but it was obvious that Fabiana had found the visit tiring. ‘Get some rest now,Mamma,’ he murmured as he kissed her cheek. He carried Bertie in his car seat, and he looked sombre when they walked out of the hospital. Ivy instinctively reached out and touched his arm.

‘I’m sorry your mother is ill,’ she said sympathetically. ‘It must be hard for you when you recently lost your father.’

He shrugged. ‘You heard her. She would rather be with the ghosts of my father and the children she lost than in this world with me.’

Beneath Rafa’s unemotional voice, Ivy heard something that tugged on her heart. She wondered what his childhood had been like when his mother had been grieving for her failed pregnancies and perhaps hadn’t had much time for him. It would explain why he was so self-contained and enigmatic.

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