Leon’s admiration for Belle grew in quantum leaps. “I believe you would,” he murmured, before making a quick decision. “Your mind appears made up, so I’ll see you back to your rental car.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll meet you in the foyer after I let my housekeeper know I’m leaving.”
She nodded, and he went to find Simona. On his way back through the house he stopped in the dayroom to pick up the photograph Belle had been looking at. It showed Luciana and his father on their wedding day, outside the church. At twenty she bore an even stronger resemblance to her daughter.
When he reached the foyer, he found Belle studying a large oil painting of his family. “That’s my brother leaning against my mother.”
“You look about six years old there. How old was Dante?”
“Five. We’re just fourteen months apart.”
She turned to him. “What a handsome family. You resemble both your parents.”
“Genes don’t lie, do they?”
“No. Your mother has the most wonderful smile.”
“She was the most wonderful everything.”
Belle stared at him. “You were very lucky to have a mother like that. What was her name?”
“Regina Emilia of the House of Della Rovere in Pesaro.”
“A princess?”
“Yes.” He opened the door so she could walk past him. After he helped her into the car, he handed her the photograph. “I want you to have this. No one deserves it more than you do.”
Tears sprang to Belle’s eyes. “I couldn’t take it.”
“There are dozens more where this came from.” He shut the door and walked around to get behind the wheel.
* * *
Belle was still incredulous over what had happened. She hugged the photograph to her chest in wonder that she’d come to the end of her search. It was all because of Leon Malatesta, who was the most remarkable man she’d ever met. But it wasn’t his generosity that had caused her to tremble in his arms just now.
While he’d been holding her, kissing her like he would to comfort a child, feelings of a different kind had curled through her like flame. The need to taste his mouth and let go of her feelings had grown so intense, she knew she was in deep trouble. He was her stepbrother!
In the past, when her friends had talked about desire, she’d never experienced it. Until a few minutes ago she hadn’t known what it felt like. Shame washed over her to think she hadn’t wanted him to stop what he was doing to her. By easing away from her before she was ready, he’d sent her into another kind of shock.
“Are you all right, Belle?”
“Yes. I—I’m just feeling overwhelmed,” she stammered.
“Who could blame you?”
If he knew her intimate thoughts, he’d drive her straight to the airport right now. Earlier, he’d been ready to run her out of town, when he’d thought she was some gutter reporter out to dig up something salacious about his family. Instead he’d come after her at the pension and had single-handedly led her to her dream of finding her mother.
To tell him she was indebted to him couldn’t begin to convey what was in her heart. To think that after all these years of aching to know anything about her origins she had her answer...
With one glance at the amazing man behind the wheel, Belle knew she could trust him to keep his silence. It was herself she didn’t trust. There was such a huge part of her that wanted to visit her mother while she was still in Rimini; it was killing her.
The sooner Belle left Italy the better. But that meant she’d never see Leon again. How would she stand it?
You have to handle it, Belle.
Before they reached the library, she put the picture in her shoulder bag and pulled out her car keys. The minute he turned into the parking space next to her rental, she opened the door and got out, before he could help her. It only took a moment before she was ensconced in her own vehicle and ready to drive off.
As his tall, powerful frame approached, she opened the window. “Thank you for everything, Leon. I’ll never forget your kindness or the photograph.”
“I’ll never forget you,” he said in his deep voice. “Good luck in your future position at TCCPI. Have a safe trip home.”
Home. The word didn’t have the same meaning anymore. “Goodbye.” She started the engine and drove out to the main street. As soon as she reached the pension, she would phone to change her flight plans.
Through the rearview mirror she could see Leon standing there watching her, a bold, dynamic throwback from an earlier time in Italian history.
When she turned the corner and he was no longer in sight, a troubling thought came to her. He’d given her no grief about leaving Italy immediately. Her heart jumped all over the place because he’d made their parting far too easy. In truth, she knew the dark, mysterious son of the count could move heaven and earth if he felt like it.
* * *
Once Belle’s rental car had disappeared, Leon pulled out his cell phone and gave Ruggio instructions to go to the pension and keep a close eye on her. If she went anywhere, he was to follow her.
After making a call to Simona to find out how his little girl was doing, and let his housekeeper know he might not be home until late, he headed for the bank to talk to his father. Leon found him in his suite on a business call. His parent waved him inside.
While Leon waited, he poured himself a cup of coffee from the sideboard and paced the floor with it. Whether his father knew about Belle’s existence or not, what Leon had to tell him was going to come as a shock.
“It’s good to see you,” his father exclaimed after hanging up the phone. “Have you dropped in to tell me you’re willing to consider ending your mourning period and start looking at another woman I have in mind for you?”
“No, Papà.”
By marrying Benedetta, Leon had foiled his father’s plan for him to marry a woman of rank he’d carefully picked out for him. The hurt hadn’t been intentional, but Leon had always cared for Benedetta and refused to honor his father’s wishes in the matter of his marriage. No argument the count raised had made any difference to Leon.
In that regard he wasn’t so different from his widowed parent, who’d married a second time while Leon and Dante had begged him not to. But their pleading fell on deaf ears, and there’d been tension with their father ever since he’d brought Luciana into their home.
“I’m here to discuss something of a very delicate nature.” Leon locked the door to his suite so no one could interrupt them. “Since I know you just passed your annual medical exam without any major problems, I feel you can handle this.”
The count’s dark brows met in a distinct frown. “You’re beginning to make me nervous, Leonardo.”
“Not as nervous as I am.” He stared at his father. “This has to do with Luciana.”
“Do you think she’s hiding something from me since her medical exam?”
Leon heard the worry in his father’s voice, revealing how much he cared about her. “I thought you told me she’s as fine as you are. I’m talking about a secret she might have kept from you before you married her.” Leon never was one to beat about the bush.
His last comment brought his father to his feet. Their gazes clung. “You know?”
The coffee cup almost fell out of Leon’s hand. That one question told him his father had known about Luciana’s baby all these years. He put the cup back on the sideboard. “If we’re talking about a child she had out of wedlock, then yes.”
Sullisto’s gray eyes bordered on charcoal and were dimmed by moisture. “How did you find out?” he asked in a shaken voice.
Leon took a fortifying breath. “Before I answer that question, just tell me one thing. Did she want to give it up, or did she have to? I need to know the absolu
te truth before I say another word.”
A look of sorrow crossed over his father’s face. “She had to.”
“Was she raped?”
The question hung like a live wire between them.
The older man took a deep breath. “No.”
“Do you know the name of the father?”
A nerve throbbed in his cheek. “Yes. But I wasn’t the father, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“I wasn’t thinking it,” Leon replied with total honesty. “I know you’re an honorable man.”
“Thank you for that.” The count cleared his throat. “To answer your first question, Luciana wanted her little girl more than life itself. A day doesn’t go by that she’s not missing her, wanting to be with her. She doesn’t talk about it all the time, but even after all these years, I see the sadness and witness her tears when she doesn’t know I’m aware.”
Hearing those words brought such relief to him for Belle’s sake, it broke the cords binding Leon’s chest. “How could she have given her up?”
“You have to hear the whole story, figlio mio.”
“I’m listening.”
His father paced the floor. “Luciana’s father had many enemies and believed his wife was murdered. Afraid his daughter was in danger, he sent Luciana to a special college in New York at eighteen, under an assumed name, while he had his wife’s death investigated.
“While she was away, she met a student. They fell in love and soon she found out she was expecting. Her situation became desperate because she knew her father would never agree to a marriage between them.”
“But she was pregnant! Was he that tyrannical?”
“That’s a harsh word, Leonardo. Let’s just say he was a rigid man. Luciana and her lover decided to be married by a justice of the peace in a town an hour away from New York City, where she was in school. But on the day before the wedding could take place, he was killed in a hit-and-run accident. The driver was never apprehended.”
Leon grimaced. “Luciana must have thought she was in a nightmare.”
“Exactly. Because of what had happened to her mother, she was afraid she’d been hunted down and her lover murdered.”
Aghast, Leon said, “When did she tell you all this?”
“When I asked her to marry me. You see, despite all the rumors about my wanting to take over the Donatello Diamonds empire, the reason I married her was because I’d learned to care for her a great deal.”
“It’s all right, Papà. You can call it what it was. You loved her.”
“So you’ve guessed it.”
“Yes.”
His father breathed deeply. “Her sorrow was so great, I thought that having two stepsons to help raise would ease a little of her pain. You boys were only ten and eleven, and needed a mother, especially Dante.” His voice trembled. “As for me, I needed someone who could share my life. Naturally, it wasn’t like the feelings I had for your mother, but then, you can’t expect that.”
Leon couldn’t believe what he was hearing. They’d never had this conversation about his mother before. Belle was the catalyst to force a discussion that should have taken place years earlier.
“Luciana’s father was overjoyed, because he knew I would take care of her. Before she gave me an answer, she said she had something to tell me that no one else knew about, not even her father. If I still wanted her, then she would accept my proposal.
“I listened while it all came pouring out. After bitter anguish and soul searching, she’d felt she had no choice but to give up the baby for adoption so nothing would happen to her precious daughter.
“When she gave her up, she had to sign a paper that meant she could never see her child again or take her back. It was a sealed document. Luciana signed it because she was positive her own days were numbered, but at that point she didn’t care about herself. When she returned to Rimini, she wasn’t the same vivacious girl I’d known before she left.”
Again Leon stood there, dumbfounded by the revelations.
“Her honesty only deepened my respect for her.”
It appeared Belle had inherited that same admirable characteristic from her mother.
“Not long after our marriage, her father died of heart failure. She needed me more than ever.” Sullisto eyed his son soberly. “But you still haven’t answered my question.”
Leon shook his head. “After what you’ve told me, I’m not sure it would be the wise thing to do.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“That’s not it. I’m thinking of her daughter, who came to Rimini this week looking for the mother who gave her up.”
“What?”
Leon nodded. “Sit down, Papà, while I tell you a story about Belle Peterson.”
A few minutes later his father was wiping his eyes. “I can’t even begin to tell you what this is going to mean to Luciana when she finds out.”
“Except that Belle doesn’t want Luciana to know anything.” For the next few minutes he told his father what had been contained in that pamphlet, and Belle’s fear of hurting her mother.
“Hurt her?” Sullisto cried out. “It would have the opposite effect! I know what I’m talking about. The one thing in our marriage that has kept us from being truly happy has been Luciana’s soul-deep sadness. We tried to have a baby, but weren’t successful. She’s always believed God was punishing her for giving up her child.”
“Incredibile—”
“Not until two months ago did we learn that Valeria’s death was ruled accidental. That very day I begged Luciana to call the orphanage and find out what had happened to Belle. At least inquire if she’d been adopted. But she said she didn’t dare, because she was afraid her daughter would hate her. I told her I’d hire a private investigator to locate her, but Luciana was convinced Belle would refuse to talk to her, after she’d given her up.”
“Belle has the exact same fear, that her mother won’t like her.”
His father rubbed his hands together. “To know she has come all this way looking for her mother will be like a dream Luciana never thought could come true.”
“Then you don’t have a problem if they’re united?”
“Mind? How can you even ask me that?” he cried. “It’s my dream to make Luciana happy, but it has always been out of my hands.”
That was all Leon needed to know. He could only imagine Belle’s joy when the two of them finally met. “I have a plan. Bring Luciana to the villa for dinner this evening. Tell her the baby is better.”
His father nodded. “She’s been waiting forever for an official invitation from you.”
“I know. I’m sorry about that, but it’s something I plan to rectify.”
It was regrettable, but true, that though his father had come by the villa on occasion, Leon had never invited them over as a couple. His cool attitude toward Luciana had prevailed all these years. He wished he’d known early on that she’d given up her child. It wouldn’t have changed his feelings over his father’s remarriage at the time, but he might not have been so quick to judge her because of false assumptions and the many rumors that had reached his teenage ears.
“It doesn’t matter, Leonardo. I know how much your mother meant to you and Dante, and I’ve understood. As for Luciana, we both know how much she loves your Concetta and will rejoice at the opportunity to be with her in your home.”
Leon did know that. “Come at seven. By then Concetta will have been fed.”
His father seemed more alive as they walked to the door. He gave Leon the kind of hug they hadn’t shared in years. It wasn’t just the fact that Leon had broken down and invited them both over for dinner. Only now was he beginning to understand how much his father had suffered in his second marriage because of Luciana’s pain.
Once Leon left the bank, he aler
ted Simona about the plans for the evening, then drove to the pension. Ruggio was parked two cars behind Belle’s rental near the entrance. Leon walked over to thank his security man, and told him he wouldn’t need him any longer for surveillance.
A feeling of excitement he hadn’t known in over a year passed through him as he went inside the pension and pressed the buzzer to announce his arrival. Before long Rosa appeared. “Signore?”
“Forgive me for not introducing myself before. My name is Leonardo di Malatesta, signora.” The older woman’s eyes widened in recognition of his name. “I need to see Signorina Peterson on a matter of life and death.” He’d spoken the truth and felt no guilt about it. “I know she’s here. Ask her to come out to the foyer, per favore.” He put several bills on the counter for the woman’s trouble.
After a slight hesitation she nodded and hurried through the alcove. Leon didn’t have to wait long before Belle appeared, with a tear-ravaged face and puffy eyes. He wasn’t surprised to see her in this kind of pain.
“Leon?” Her breathing sounded ragged. “What are you doing here? We’ve already said goodbye.” Maybe he was crazy, but he had the gut feeling she was glad to see him.
“Yes, we did, but something’s come up. Let’s go to your room and I’ll tell you what’s happened.”
She nodded. “All right.” Any fight she might have put up seemed to have gone out of her for the moment.
Leon thanked Rosa before trailing Luciana’s daughter into the alcove and down the hall to her small room. She was still dressed in the white dress she’d been wearing, but it looked wrinkled.
When they went inside and he’d shut the door, he saw the indention on the single bed, where she’d been sobbing. Leon knew she couldn’t bear the thought of having to leave Italy without meeting her mother.
He came straight to the point. “I went to see my father after I left you.”
“Oh no—”
“Before you get upset, hear me out. I learned that he knew all about you before he married your mother.” Belle’s eyes widened as if in disbelief. “I asked him if Luciana had wanted to give up her baby, or if she’d had to.”
A Marriage Made in Italy Page 5
