She flushed and turned away.
That was all the answer he needed. “God, is there one thing you’ve said to me that is the truth?”
“It’s not like that. I mean—well, it is like that, but I’ve been lying to make things right. Doesn’t intention count for anything?”
“No. Hell, I don’t know. Why me?”
“Um…well, it doesn’t necessarily need to be you. Just a Moretti man.”
“So, again I ask, why me?” he asked, becoming even more incensed. He was half-tempted to call his lawyers and find some reason to drag her into court.
“You were the easiest Moretti brother to get close to. And when I looked at you and your brothers, I just felt drawn to you.”
He’d felt a spurt of jealousy when she’d said it didn’t have to be him. That jealousy was assuaged a bit when she said she was drawn to him, but he didn’t like the fact that to Virginia he was just a means to an end.
“Why do you want my baby, Virginia?” he asked, still trying to get his head around the fact that she’d lied about birth control. He came from a loving family. He was always very careful to make sure he didn’t have any consequences from his affairs.
She twisted a long strand of her hair around a finger and walked a bit closer to him. She wore only his shirt and he realized how small and vulnerable she looked. With only the faint lights from the bedroom and balcony illuminating the room, she seemed ethereal.
But he didn’t want to trust the vulnerability he saw in her. She’d lied to him.
“It’s all tied to the curse.”
“Tell me more about this.”
“Well, I think that when my nonna cursed your nonno Lorenzo, she cursed herself. It was as if by denying Lorenzo true happiness, she eliminated it from her own life and from that of successive generations.”
“Your mother wasn’t happy?”
“She fell in love with my father and they were happy for about three months before he was drafted and sent to war. I was born, and three days later she received word that he had been killed. She was brokenhearted for the rest of her life.”
“But you were born in Italy?”
“Yes. Just after my father left, Nonna’s mother fell ill and she and my mom went back to Nonna’s village to help. When Mom discovered she was pregnant, they decided to stay for a while. After word came of my father’s death, I think Nonna hoped some nice Italian man would fall for Mom and marry her, but nothing worked out. We moved back to the States when I was one.”
“And your nonna?”
“She’d had an affair with someone in her village. I don’t know who, but the scandal of her pregnancy caused her to leave the village and move to the United States, where my mother was born.”
Marco was getting a pretty grim picture of Virginia’s family life and he could see why she’d want to find a way to lift the curse. But that didn’t explain why she wanted his child. And he was just realizing that every time he’d made love to her, he hadn’t used a condom.
“How did you connect the tragic past of the women in your family with me?”
“It is the only thing that makes sense. I finally pieced it together when my mother died and left me my grandmother’s journal. I learned a lot about the strega way and the curse my grandmother had put on your family. Until then, I had no idea she’d done that. I just figured we were unlucky in love.”
“You, too?”
She looked up at him, and he realized he was getting closer to the truth. This was a very personal mission for Virginia. He rubbed the back of his neck. He was mad at her for tricking him and lying to him, but he wanted to get past this.
“Yes, me, too. I didn’t want to spend my entire life alone and unhappy the way my mother and my nonna did. So I started researching the strega way and curses. I knew the curse my nonna had used, because Mom had given me Nonna’s journal.
“When I started reading the history of love curses, I realized that they had repercussions on the lives of whomever was placing the curse.”
“How do you hope to break the curse?”
“By having your child. The merging of Moretti and Festa blood in a new generation will bring together what was torn apart and reverse the curse. But I don’t think we can fall in love.”
“I’m not going to fall in love with you,” Marco said, not liking the way she assumed he’d fall for her. She’d done nothing but use him for sex and lie to him. The irony of her actions wasn’t lost on him. He was well aware that for his entire adult life he’d treated women as his playthings. “And I’m not sure about you having my child.”
She flinched and wrapped her arms around her waist. “I’m not asking you to fall in love with me.”
“So you are really here to help me out?” he asked.
She bit her lower lip. “Well, you and your brothers and your children.”
“What will happen to this baby you want to have?” he asked. He’d been the victim of a fraudulent paternity suit when he was twenty-one and had vowed to never allow himself to be used like that again.
“I will raise it. You wouldn’t be responsible for the baby at all.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. He didn’t think he could turn his back on his own child. Family was the cornerstone of everything he did—even racing. “I’d want my child to know me.”
“Then of course we can work something out,” she said. “I wouldn’t keep your child from you.”
Marco put his empty glass on the counter of the bar and walked back to Virginia. He stopped when barely a foot separated them.
“Tell me the wording of the curse.”
“I can let you read Nonna’s journal if you like, but I don’t think I should say the words aloud. They are very powerful.”
“Fine. Get the journal for me, please.”
Marco watched her leave. She came back a few minutes later with a worn, leather-bound book. She untied the ribbon around the middle and opened it. He saw his grandfather’s name on the first page. In Italian, there was the undying love of a young woman. Cassia wrote about her hopes and dreams. He put his hand over Virginia’s to keep her from turning the page.
Marco knew he had to get over his anger if he was going to figure out how to move forward from this.
“Do you want to see the curse?” Virginia asked.
“Yes.” He lifted his hand.
She flipped the pages to about three-quarters of the way through the journal. There was the same handwriting, only it seemed angrier. The curling script of earlier had become shorter and more compact, the lines of ink slashing across the page.
My love for you was all-encompassing and never-ending, and with its death I call upon the universe to bring about the death of your heart and the hearts of succeeding generations.
As long as a Moretti roams this earth, he shall have happiness in either business or love but never both.
Do not disdain the powers of a small body. Moretti, you may be strong, but that will no longer help you. I am strong in my will and I demand retribution for the pain you have caused me.
“What makes you think having a child will break this curse?” he asked.
“The part that speaks of retribution. My grandmother wanted to create a family with your grandfather, and since he denied her that and placed racing above her, she wanted to deny him love forever-more.”
Marco looked at the words again. He noticed a different handwriting in the column. These words were in English and not in Italian. “Is this your handwriting?”
“Yes. I have spent a lot of time researching the words Nonna used, so I could figure out how to break the spell.”
“Can’t you just reverse it?”
“No. I can’t. Nonna could have, but she’s dead.”
“Okay, let me make sure I have this right. You are here to get pregnant so you can break the Moretti curse?”
She nibbled on her lower lip and then nodded.
“What’s in it for you?”
“It will keep me
from ending up bitter and alone like my mother and grandmother did. And it will give me the chance at a future with a husband and more children.”
He looked at Virginia, pictured her growing big and round with his child, and felt a primal rush. He wanted to plant his seed in this woman. Not just because it might break the curse on all the Moretti clan, but because on some primitive level he believed that Virginia was his.
He made a gut decision. “Okay. In the morning I will have a contract drawn up that details this arrangement. You will travel with me for this racing season until you are pregnant. Then you will live in a house I pay for until the child is born. I think I should like for you to continue to live there with the child and raise the child close by me. I will have free visitation of the child.”
She put her hands on her hips. “You will not be making all the rules of this arrangement, Marco. I’m not going to just do what you tell me to.”
He reached out and grabbed her wrists, drawing her into his arms. “I think you will, Virginia. Because without my ‘rules’ you will have nothing.”
Seven
Marco knew this meeting wouldn’t be easy. Dom had always had a thing about their family curse, and bringing it up wasn’t going to go over well. But since he’d called everyone last night and asked them to meet this morning at his parents’ townhouse in Milan, he had no choice but to follow through.
“Bon giorno,” Marco said as he entered the sun-room.
His mother rose and gave him a kiss on the cheek and his father hugged him close. As much as Marco was an adult, he still liked the feeling of coming home.
“What was so urgent we had to meet so early in the morning?” Tony asked, sipping his morning espresso.
Marco took a seat across from his mom and next to Tony. He served himself some food, even though he didn’t feel like eating.
“It involves the family curse,” Marco started.
The silence was electric. Then Dom spoke. “What about it? You know this is a crucial year for us. Does this have anything to do with that woman you were with in Melbourne…Virginia something?”
“Yes, it does.”
“I knew it.” Dom said. “I had a bad feeling about her.”
“Maybe you were picking up on the fact that she’s Cassia Festa’s granddaughter.”
Dom’s face reddened. “Don’t mention that name in our house,” he said.
“What does she want with you, mi figlio?” asked his father.
“She says she’s figured out a way to break the curse that Cassia put on Nonno and the family.”
His mother leaned across the table. “How? Lorenzo asked every witch he knew, and all of them said that without the exact wording, it was impossible.”
Marco stood up. “Virginia claims that the way to break the curse is for her to have my child.”
“What?” Dominic yelled, his voice booming across the room.
“Marco, that sounds crazy,” his father said.
“I thought so, too, but…just listen to this. When Cassia put the curse on Lorenzo, she was angry at the death of her dream—husband, family and future. So she wanted to punish him in the same way. Make it so he could never have it all. But when she cursed him, she also cursed the Festa women. None have found happiness in love. Virginia has studied the wording of the curse and believes that if she bears a Moretti heir, the curse will be broken because Lorenzo’s legacy will fall to a Festa.”
“Who would raise your child?” his mother asked.
“I am having our attorney work on the details. I want to share the responsibility.” He paused, considering whether or not to share the rest. “Virginia thinks one key to breaking the curse is that she and I can’t fall in love.”
“Is that a possibility?” Tony asked.
“No,” Marco said, quickly denying the charge. He wasn’t going to entertain the thought of Virginia meaning more to him than an affair.
Dom nodded. “So, what do you need from us?”
“I’d like the both of you to come to the offices with me this morning to talk to our attorney. I told Virginia we had to have a contract if this was going to work.”
“I agree,” Dom said. “We’ll be there.”
“What about your mother and I?” his father asked.
“I think you two should wait to meet her for now.”
His mother nodded. “I agree. But we do want to meet this girl soon. After all, she’ll be the mother of our first grandchild.”
The thing about the Moretti family, Virginia realized the next morning as she sat in a corporate boardroom at a prestigious law firm, was that they were a family. That Marco and his brothers all stuck together as a group was abundantly clear to her, and as she sat at the far end of the table by herself, she felt very small and alone—and very wistful.
She never had the kind of bond that Marco had with his brothers, and she wanted that. Not only for herself, but for any child she might have.
“Virginia, do you agree to the terms?” Marco asked.
She hadn’t been paying attention and knew better than to just say yes. “May I have a few minutes to review everything?”
“Certainly,” Marco said.
Dominic Moretti was an intimidating man, and he looked like he wasn’t pleased to give her a few more minutes. In fact, his face had gotten tighter as she’d explained what she wanted and Marco’s attorney had taken notes, then relayed the terms of the contract Marco was proposing back to her. Antonio, Marco’s middle brother, said very little at first, but surprisingly, he’d been the one to add a few stipulations in her favor.
Virginia didn’t have the money to hire a good attorney, and she certainly had no friends here in Europe who could recommend a solicitor. But that was neither here nor there. She knew what she wanted, and this was nothing more than a formalization of everything she and Marco had talked about the night before. But hearing it in this sterile setting made her feel kind of cheap and unsure of herself.
Dominic, Antonio and their lawyer left the room, but Marco remained.
“Do you understand everything as it’s laid out?”
“I think so. I just don’t want to throw away all my rights without thinking this through.”
“I’m not going to agree to anything less than what’s been laid out.”
“I know,” she said. Part of what drew her to Marco as a man—aside from his being a Moretti—was the forceful and determined way he lived his life. He was a winner on and off the track, and she doubted that he’d settle for less than he wanted.
“So what’s the hold up?” he asked.
“Nothing. If you must know, I wasn’t focused enough to comprehend everything when the lawyer was talking, so I just want a chance to read over the contract.”
Marco came close to her side of the table and leaned against it. He was dressed in a fine Italian suit and he looked so good that it was all she could do to pretend she wasn’t entranced by him. She hoped she was successful and he didn’t notice the way she stared at him as if she were fascinated by him.
“Go on then,” he said. “Read over it.”
But she couldn’t. The scent of his cologne teased her with every breath she took, and she was hyperaware that he was standing close to her. All she wanted to do was move beyond the lawyers and the contract, to the next step—living with him until she was pregnant.
That wasn’t something she’d ever dreamed she’d have, and she wanted to begin this phase of her life. Even though they’d have this contract between them, for the first time in her life she was going to have someone to share her days with.
Her mother had never really been a participant in Virginia’s life. From the earliest memory, she’d known that her mother was simply existing until Virginia was old enough to survive on her own.
She pulled the papers closer to her and skimmed over them. They had been prepared in Italian, but there was a translation into English. It didn’t matter to her what the papers outlined. She knew that if she didn’t break
the curse she was going to spend the rest of her life alone, and probably sad and bitter.
She took a deep breath and signed the papers. And then pushed them to the center of the table. She stood up. “Okay, that’s done. Let’s get out of here.”
“Not so fast. You didn’t even read the contract.”
“I skimmed it, and as you said, it’s not as if I have much choice. You have something I want. Something I’m willing to do anything to get. So in a way, I’ve already signed a contract. I want your child, Marco.”
“Why is having my child so important to you?” he asked. “It sounds like it goes beyond breaking the curse.”
“You won’t understand,” she said. A man who knew what a real family was, a man who had the support of his parents, brothers and friends, would never be able to comprehend what kind of lonely and isolated life she’d had. There was nothing she wouldn’t trade to have someone special in her life. She wasn’t willing to be the sad by-product of a long-ago curse, the way her mother had been.
“Try explaining it to me. I’m a very smart man.”
She smiled up at him. “I know you are. It’s one of the things that attracted me to you.”
“Dominic and Antonio are smart, as well. So why my baby?”
“I don’t care about your brothers. From the first moment I realized the way to break the curse, I knew that you were the one I wanted.”
“So not just any Moretti would do?” he asked, stroking his finger down the side of her face.
She caught his hand and kissed his fingers. “Exactly. It was you or no one.”
It was only at this moment that she realized the truth of her words and how important he was to her. And she made a promise to herself. She wasn’t going to let herself fall for him, because Festa women and Moretti men weren’t meant to be in love.
Lorenzo and Cassia had proven how disastrous that could be.
Marco was used to traveling and doing promotional events. He gave interviews to both broadcast and print media and was entirely at home in front of the public. He had always craved the spotlight and freely admitted that he liked the attention.
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