Proof of Their Sin(20)

Paolo shook his head, unable to comprehend this piece of information. He wanted to dismiss it completely, but when he glanced from the road ahead, he saw Lauren struggling with myriad emotions, fighting to hold on to her pride. Her bottom lip trembled with injured dignity before she firmed it, causing a strange tremor to hit deep in his chest.

This baby is a miracle.

He pulled his attention back to the road, uncomfortable with what she was saying because it supported a profile of Ryan that Paolo had long been trying to put from his mind. He grew even more uncomfortable in front of Lauren, given a certain conversation they’d almost had at Ryan’s birthday a couple years ago.

“Are you sure, Lauren?” he blurted, willing her to be mistaken. “How did you find out if he didn’t tell you?”

“Their family doctor came to see Elenore a few days after the funeral. She was a wreck and I said that I wished we’d at least been able to give her grandchildren and he said, ‘Well, I tried to talk Ryan out of that vasectomy, but he insisted.’ He said it like he thought I knew. I pretended I did while I finished my coffee, then I went upstairs, packed my things and flew home to Quebec.”

Lauren was still ashamed of that abrupt departure, but she’d hit the end of her rope in playing the mourning widow. She had already been months into accepting Ryan’s philandering, but it had been a fresh blow to count up all those years of anguish at what she had believed was her inability to conceive. She was just grateful Ryan had apparently used protection against disease while he’d been sleeping around because she had tested clean.

Tell him, she thought, glancing at Paolo. Tell him that Ryan was probably also ensuring none of his many affairs turned up with the sort of complication Paolo was currently facing.

She couldn’t do it, though. Paolo’s face was a wall of stubborn refutation, not unlike the way he’d looked the other time she’d brought up Ryan’s peccadilloes. Paolo didn’t want to hear anything against his friend and she wasn’t in the mood to be called a liar.

Deflated by his stubbornness and the long flight, she asked, “How far to my hotel?”

“You’re not going to a hotel. I told you, you’ve put me in a difficult position. The last thing I’ll allow you to do is run around Milan attracting attention.”

“Like whose?” she exclaimed. “I’m not even traveling under my married name. I’m back to being Lauren Green, complete nobody.”

“Don’t be naive, cara. After the stir you created last night, our photos are everywhere, all tagged to raise the same speculations as three months ago. Your new hair is a red flag. The paparazzi would love to spot you, especially going into a doctor’s clinic. Did you have plans to do such a thing?”

“Such a scandalous thing as having my blood pressure checked? Yes, I made arrangements. It’s a sensible precaution. But what stir? I was at your party for ten minutes and hardly spoke to anyone.”

“Exactly. Everyone was asking about the mystery woman who stole the host.” He muttered a few base curses in Italian. “Even Isabella was fielding questions. It was very awkward.”

“Well, I’m sorry for Isabella,” Lauren said sarcastically. “Maybe for your fiancée’s sake, the next time you have a one-night stand, call after a few weeks to see if there’s anything you need to know.”

Dead silence, then a dangerous, “Did you really just say that to me?”

“Is my naïveté showing? Because the not calling is what makes it a one-night stand, is that right? I’ll work on getting that right while I’m here.”#p#分页标题#e#

“That’s not funny, cara,” he said in a gentle voice that chilled with warning.

“I’m not trying to be funny. I’m trying to get over the fact that you don’t want anything to do with me, yet you’re abducting me. Why? Just take me to my hotel,” she insisted. “Or I will use my very decent Italian and my new mobile phone.”

She was so enamored with the cute little gadget, she couldn’t resist pulling it from her pocketbook to show it off. “Look, it even has the two-way camera and global coverage. That means I can do this.” Holding the locked screen before her as though she had a connection, she spoke in Italian. “Good afternoon, Officer. I am being held against my will by this man.” She turned the phone to Paolo’s supercilious expression.

Before she realized he could move so fast, the phone was in his breast pocket and his hand was draped casually over the stick shift again.