Maybe a tiny part of her deep down inside had longed to see him again, despite the unforgivable way he had treated her, but she could never have guessed that things would end up like this. That Vito, the man she’d once foolishly believed she was falling in love with, would rub her nose in the humiliating misery of her childhood. And then propose to her.
‘Being someone’s dirty little secret is not a pleasant position to be in.’ Vito’s voice was cold and unfeeling as he broke the silence. ‘Don’t make your child suffer the same fate. You don’t need to make the same choices as your mother.’
‘You’re the one making it dirty!’Lily responded hotly, her gaze flashing back to his impossibly inexpressive face. ‘And leave my mother out of it—she’s happy living in the countryside, working with the hospice patients.’
‘But you’re not happy,’ Vito said blandly. ‘And your childhood was far from happy.’
‘You don’t know anything about my childhood,’ Lily threw back at him.
‘I know that your father refused to acknowledge you,’ he said. ‘That he paid your mother off to keep her quiet. That you’ve never met him or your two halfsisters,— and that it seems unlikely that you ever will. Unless you’re prepared to let your mother lose her home and income, just to satisfy your curiosity about the man who didn’t want you.’
‘Why would I want to meet my father?’ Lily responded— automatically, despite the way she was reeling— under the onslaught of Vito’s words. ‘He’s nothing to me.’
‘You mean you’re nothing to him.’
Vito turned away to select a Danish pastry from the tray on his desk. Lily gripped her glass of iced water dangerously tightly and stared at him angrily.
‘You are utterly vile,’ she said, looking at the plate in his hand, because suddenly she couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze.
How could he eat at a time like this? Did dishing out heartless comments over something so important to her really mean so little to him that he thought he’d combine it with a light snack?
She’d spent a lifetime trying not to think about the way her father had discarded her. And she didn’t want to think about it now. She could have searched for him, tried to make him acknowledge her. But she’d always known no good would have come of that. And, in any case, she would never, ever have done anything to cause her mother distress.
‘Here, eat this.’ Vito removed the glass of water from her grip and handed her the pastry on a highly glazed black plate. So it hadn’t been for him after all.
‘I’m not hungry,’ Lily said mutinously, trying to pass the plate back.
‘Nevertheless, you must eat,’ Vito said. ‘You’ll feel better if you boost your blood-sugar level. You really are exceptionally pale, even for you.’
‘Even for me?’ Lily snapped. ‘Don’t act like you know me. You may know my secret—a way you can coerce me into doing what you want. But that’s not really knowing someone.’
‘It’s not coercion,’ Vito said. ‘I’m merely helping you to recognise the full implications of trying to go it alone with an illegitimate child. In fact, it’s more of a reminder, really—after all, you know from first-hand experience what it can be like.’
‘It wasn’t as bad as you’re making it sound,’ Lily protested. But in her heart she knew it had been pretty tough—constantly dealing with her mother’s depression— and her own sense of abandonment and disappointment. She hated the thought of her baby growing up without a father, feeling unwanted and worthless.
‘Don’t you want to protect your child?’ Vito asked. ‘Marry me, and he or she will be free of the misery that blighted your childhood.’
‘My childhood wasn’t miserable,’ Lily insisted. She could hear the doubt in her own voice, but suddenly it felt disloyal to her mum even to let herself think it.
‘As my heir, your baby will have every opportunity,’ Vito continued. ‘And you won’t experience the difficulties— that your mother faced on her own.’
‘I don’t know,’ Lily said. Vito’s proposal was totally unexpected and overwhelming. She didn’t know what to think any more. ‘I don’t know what to say.’
Two months ago she would have been unimaginably happy to have Vito propose to her. Now things were different. It was clear he didn’t love her. He didn’t even trust her. But he was offering her a chance for her child—and wasn’t that the most important thing to consider now?