Page 20 of The Baby His Secretary Carries

“Molly,” Gio answered for her, voice blunt as a hammer. He stopped Molly from lifting her hand to shake, bringing both her hands to his lips while holding his mother’s gaze. “My fiancée.”

Fridrika’s wild-eyed gaze pinned itself to the ring. She raked in a breath.

“You gave her the ring?” She shot a look to Otto, who was watching from the bed, looking weary.

“No!” Ambrose came across and made to grab at Molly’s hand himself, but Gio angled his body between them and brushed away his father’s reaching hand.

“If I had thought you would have the gall to show your faces here, I would have told the hospital staff to refuse your entry,” Gio said grimly. “Leave or I’ll have Security escort you out.”

“He’s myfather,” Ambrose insisted. He was shaking, gaze pinned on Molly as though she was some multiheaded monster that had arrived to nip at him.

“When it’s convenient,” Gio shot back.

“It’s convenient for you that I’myourfather, isn’t it? You think you can take all of this without a fight from me?” Ambrose waved his arm. “Think again.”

“How much do you want? Hmm? Leave without a fuss and I’m more likely to be generous. Molly, go see that Nonno isn’t upset by this while I walk them out.” He gave her a small nudge in the middle of her back then jerked his head at the door.

The older couple wore disgruntled expressions, but shuffled out, glancing back once. Gio pulled the door firmly closed behind him.

Molly swayed under this fresh shock. It must be equally upsetting for Otto.

“Do you know that I’ve actually led a very quiet and boring life until the last few days?” She picked up his hand to warm it between her own. “At one point, I thought I might become a librarian because I was so content seeing the world through books, rather than with my own eyes.”

He smiled faintly. “Tell me more.”

“To help you sleep?” she teased. She told him about her first jobs babysitting, then her work in a bistro, where she had exploded the shop’s popularity with social media. “Everyone said I had a flare for marketing so I started my degree in that field. Then I discoveredstatistics.”

“Now I will sleep.” He closed his eyes.

She chuckled and told him about her entry position in the Casella Corporation and the small successes that had allowed her to advance to London and work for Valentina.

“That was hard, leaving my mother and sister.”

“No father?”

“He moved to California after their divorce. I still see him sometimes, but I’m much closer to my mother and sister. They’re still in New Jersey. Not the exciting part of the state, either,” she confided with mock glumness. “It’s a rural town in the hills. Very beautiful, though, especially in the fall. I like to take my sister walking...”

She had first discovered those trails with Sasha. Her friend’s dire condition rushed back with such force Molly began to choke up.

“I’m so sorry.” She released Otto’s hand and gathered a couple of tissues, trying to stem her tears before she smudged her makeupagain. “I had some upsetting news about a childhood friend today. It keeps hitting me.”

“Oh?” he prompted with concern.

“I...” She shouldn’t talk about Sasha, she knew that, but her anguish was so great, she had to spill out something of what was going on inside her. “She was the closest friend I’ve ever had. Even though I was so envious of her when I met her that I was downright rude.”

She still chuckled at the memory of Sasha, when she’d asked, “What is wrong with you? Your life is perfect. Gawd!”

“Her life looked very glamorous from the outside, but she had a lot of heartache.” Molly blinked back tears, remembering quiet walks in the woods and playing board games. “I was at that age when you’re in a hurry to grow up. She made me realize how lucky I was to have my simple life and the last pieces of childhood.”

Sasha had been the sister she always wanted, then her baby had become that cherished sister.

“She sounds wise.”

“And generous. She gave me more than I could possibly tell you.” She swallowed. “We were so close for a short time, then I didn’t see her for years. I thought she’d forgotten me.” Sasha had probably tried. It had been a very dark period in her life. “I understood. Her world is very different from mine, but when I did see her, it was as though we picked up where we left off.”

She couldn’t help smiling as she remembered the huge hug she had received the moment she had stepped into Sasha’s stateroom on theAlexandra. The mood between them had turned melancholy when Sasha burst into tears, then refused to hear about Libby. That had hurt, a lot, but Molly had seen the agony in her friend’s eyes. It was too painful for Sasha to go back to that time. Molly had to respect that, especially when she learned that Sasha’s life had become a fresh level of torture, trying to conceive and having that dream not work out.

“What can I do to help?” Otto asked.

---