Bought by Her Italian Boss(18)

Because he had no Gallo in him, he had learned, sitting on a retaining  wall overlooking the lake, hearing his uncle explain to him that his  mother, his real mother, was the youngest Donatelli sibling, Zia  Antoinietta. The aunt who had died and was rarely mentioned because her  loss made everyone so sad. Vito would later look at her photographs and  see more of himself in her than in her older sister, the woman who had  called herself his mother all his life.

Your father was a dangerous man, Vito. Dangerous to us as a family, to  the bank and very dangerous to your mother. I pulled her away from him  so many times, but she kept going back. She was pregnant. She thought  she loved him. I'll never forgive myself for not finding a way... She  finally realized what was in store for both of you when he knocked her  around and put her into labor. She called me to come to her where she  was hiding from him. She died having you. I held her, waiting for the  damned ambulance, and she begged me to keep you away from him, to keep  you from turning into a mafioso like him. He wanted an heir to his  empire, but it's a kingdom built on blood and suffering. We would have  called you Paolo's brother, but well, you know the story we tell  instead.                       
       
           



       

Vito did. His adoptive mother, the middle sister, often told the story  of how she had thought she had miscarried, but Vito had miraculously  survived. In reality, she and her husband had spirited her sister's  newborn to the family home at the lake and waited out a suitable time  before presenting Vito as their son. His birthday was off by four  months.

I paid a fortune to the doctors to write out a certificate that you had  died with her. And threatened your father with murder charges if the  affair ever came out. I'm certain he would come for you if he knew you  survived, Paolo's father had warned.

Vito could only imagine the fortune Paolo's father had paid to keep the  liaison from becoming public knowledge and destroying the bank as it  was. If online scandal rags had existed then, the affair wouldn't have  suppressed as easily, he was sure.

Your mother was too precious to me, you are too precious to me, for me  to watch you two beating each other senseless. Turning to Paolo, he had  lifted his shirt, showing a long scar that had always been blamed on  surgery, but not today. Did I take this knife trying to bring home my  sister so my own son could kill hers? Save your strength for the fights  that matter, then fight them together. Understand?

He hadn't had to warn them to keep the secret. That was a given. He had  risen and urged Paolo to come with him, to give Vito time alone.

No, Paolo had said. I'll stay.

They had sat in silence a long time, the space Paolo's father had taken  up a wide gap between them. Finally Paolo had said, Do you want to punch  me?

Yes, Vito had seethed. But he hadn't. They'd never fought again. They  rarely mentioned it. Eventually Vito had learned the name of his  biological father and the man's predilection for violence had sickened  him. Then there was the second son's equally conscienceless disposition.

Vito wanted to believe he was different, but how could he claim to be a  better man than what he'd come from when just the thought of those men  and their actions put him into a state of mind willing to crush and  kill? Vigilante justice was still brute force and only proved he was  more like his biological father than he wanted to admit.

So he couldn't in good conscience make children with a woman without  telling her what kind of blood he carried and he couldn't reveal the  truth without endangering his family and the bank.

Therefore, he was a confirmed bachelor, destined to have affairs with  women who didn't expect a future and to commiserate with the struggles  of child-rearing from the sidelines.

"Your lips are blue. Come out," Paolo ordered his son.

"Three more," Roberto said, holding up three quivering fingers, teeth  chattering, narrow shoulders shaking as he prepared to dive for yet  another colored rock.

"One," Paolo said firmly.

"Two," Roberto responded.

"Everything is a negotiation," Paolo muttered, making Vito set his teeth  because Paolo was complaining about a privilege not every man had.  "Two. Then-"

"Paolo!" Gwyn came to the rail above them, at the edge of the pool deck.  Her eyes were wide, her face pale. "Lauren says her water broke!"

Paolo went white and grim, swearing tightly. "Out, Roberto. Now. Stay  with Vito," he ordered his son, locking gazes with Vito long enough to  cement the command that Vito keep his son from drowning, but also  sharing a moment of genuine fear.

It struck Vito that Paolo had never told Lauren why he didn't find these  home births of hers as much of a joke as she did. He knew women could  die.

It also told him how volatile his secret still was, if Paolo hadn't shared it with the woman who was his other half.

"I'll call the ambulance," he said to Paolo's back, pulling out his  phone as his cousin took the stone stairs in great leaps, already  pushing back his sleeves.





CHAPTER SEVEN

"THAT WAS THE most remarkable experience of my life," Gwyn said forty  minutes later, as the ambulance carried off a grumbling Lauren and an  infant boy who had squawked once, latched perfectly, then fallen asleep  snuggled against her.

"They're just going to tell me that everything is fine and I can go home  if I want to. I wish you hadn't called them," Lauren scolded Vito on  her way out the door.

"Humor us, mia bella," Paolo said with equanimity, buttoning his clean  shirt with hands that might have tremored a little, but he'd barely  broken a sweat while carrying his wife to their bed and catching their  son minutes later.

He'd been very coolheaded, calling Gwyn to bring him the bag he'd  prepared with clean towels and receiving blankets, speaking to his wife  in a calm, tender tone, using sterilized clips and scissors from the bag  to cut the cord himself, as if he'd been a midwife all his life.                       
       
           



       

Their daughter slept through most of it, waking in time to glimpse her  new brother, but quite content to cuddle with Vito amidst all the  activity. Roberto called the little girl Bambi, which was adorable, and  both children stayed with Gwyn and Vito while Paolo went in the  ambulance with his wife. A car pulled out from the house across the  street where the drivers and other ancillary staff were staying,  following to bring them back once Lauren and the baby had been examined.

Vito didn't say anything as he closed the door. In fact, his color was  down and he took a measured breath as if he'd just dodged a train.

"You're green around the gills, Vittorio," Gwyn chided, amused. "Were  you worried?" She hadn't had time to panic and was riding a high of  amazement.

"Lauren makes it look easy," he said in a tone that suggested he was well aware labor and delivery didn't always go so smoothly.

"I'll say," Gwyn responded. "I didn't even get the water boiled!" She  moved into the kitchen where she had managed to snap off the gas on her  way to fetch Paolo. "Shall I finish making dinner?"

"We'll help," Vito said, sliding Bianca onto a stool while Roberto  climbed into the one his mother had been using. Vito was very good with  the children and they openly adored him, grinning at his teasing,  behaving angelically as he gently kept them on task.

Vito exchanged several texts with Paolo, who mentioned that everything  was fine but there was a small delay in seeing the doctor.

"Paolo will be taking some family time now that the baby is here," Vito  said to Gwyn. "We had planned for this, but we'll have a proper meeting  when he gets back to review a few things before I assume his duties. You  and I will spend the night here and head back to the city in the  morning."

Gwyn nodded absently, too caught up in watching him cut up a little  girl's food, steady Roberto's hand as he shook out red pepper flakes  then smoothly reached to top up Gwyn's wineglass with a practiced flair.  Throw in his ability give a woman orgasms and get the laundry done and  he was the perfect man in every way.

He met her gaze.

Her thoughts must have reflected in her it. Building a career had been a  dominating goal in her life, partly because she'd seen how hard her  mother had struggled to support herself without a proper profession.  Gwyn had focused on her degree and finding the right job and chasing  opportunities for advancement. It had meant relegating a husband and  children to a dreamy "someday" that she hoped would find her when the  time was right.

But she longed for a place to settle and call home. She wanted a family  within it that wasn't a tenuous late-in-life connection, but a network  of blood ties like this family had, where a woman could be nosy about a  man simply because she cared about him. She could leave her children  with him in utter confidence that he would keep them safe and give them  the affectionate security that fed their souls.