The Innocent's Secret Baby(25)

She frowned.

He enlightened her.

'I said I don't like children, and you decided I'd make a very good absentee father...'

'No!' she shouted.

'Correct,' Raul said. 'Because I shan't just be a chequebook father-I'm going to be very hands-on.'

He dismissed her then-she knew it from the wave of his hand.

'We're getting nowhere. We can try again tomorrow if you would like?'

'You're going to schedule me in again?' Lydia asked in a sarcastic tone.

Raul ignored it but answered her question. 'If you want me to.'

And that was how they would be, Lydia was starting to realise.

Parents, but apart.

So, so far apart that she could not see across the void.

'Do you want to see the apartment?' Raul checked before he closed this  disaster of a meeting. 'We should try to get as much as possible done  while you're still here.'

'Fine.'

Raul heard the resignation in her voice and loathed it.

They had ended up fighting, and he knew he tended to win fights.

'I think perhaps we should do this through lawyers,' Raul admitted.

He didn't want to fight Lydia. He just wanted the details sorted. He would leave it to them and then sign.

'Raul, I can't afford a lawyer.'

It was a very difficult admission for someone like Lydia to make.

But he just sat there and leant back in his chair, and wondered just who she took him for.

'We both know that's not true.'

'Seriously, Raul. I know I live in a castle...'

'Lydia,' he told her as he sat there, and let her know himself how to  nail him to the wall. 'Call a lawyer-the best you can find-and tell him  my surname.'

'I can't afford to.'

'Try it,' he said. 'Tell them whose baby you're having and I guarantee  they won't give a damn as to the current state of your finances. They'll  probably offer to hold your hand in the delivery room.'         

     



 

She stood.

'For their cut, of course,' Raul added.

He watched as she walked out, and usually he would be feeling delighted  that a meeting had concluded early and he could get on to the next  thing.

Yet she was the next thing.

When there was so much he should be getting on with Raul sat there thinking. Not even about the baby, but about her.

All roads did not lead to Rome.

But to Lydia.

* * *

Instead of thinking about the baby, which surely she should be, all Lydia could think about was Raul.

He was trying to get this sorted for both of them as best he could,  Lydia thought as the realtor let both herself and Allegra into the  apartment.

It was stunning, with crimson walls and drapes and a view of the canal.

In fact from one of the bedrooms she could see the balcony of his home.

'I missed that when I came this morning,' Allegra said when she looked  to where Lydia's gaze fell, and again she wrote something down.

'Sorry?' Lydia checked.

'I'm sure you don't need a view of Daddy's home from yours! You'll want your own life...'

Allegra was trying too, Lydia realised.

Lydia was so used to everyone being the enemy.

No one really was here.

They were trying to do this without lawyers, and she was fighting them at every point, and Lydia knew why.

It wasn't the Venice apartment she wanted, nor the monthly payment dump  in her account, or flights on his jet for time with Daddy.

It was Raul.

And for a tiny moment she had considered that desire attainable.

That was why she still held on to the statue-because when she'd opened  up that box and looked down from the balcony for a second she'd thought  it was possible that someone might actually love her.

Allegra was talking with the realtor, and then she excused herself to take a call on her phone.

From her affectionate tone, it was her husband, and from what Lydia  could glean they were discussing what they would have tonight for  dinner.

She almost smiled as she recalled for the millionth time one of her and Raul's conversations.

Only she couldn't smile.

Because if they were a couple she'd be texting him now, or telling him  tonight, and they'd be laughing at their own private joke.

But they weren't a couple.

And in that same conversation he'd told her he never wanted marriage.

She looked out to the canal. She was back where she had longed to be, but she ached at the coolness between them.

Lydia didn't just want the parenting side of things to be sorted.

There was a reason she was resisting everything he suggested and she faced the lonely truth-

Lydia wanted Raul, herself and the baby to be a family.





CHAPTER SIXTEEN

'HERE.'

Loretta set down Lydia's dinner. Homemade fettuccini and a creamy sauce that smelt delicious. Finally Lydia's appetite was back.

'It looks lovely.'

'It is nice to have someone to cook for.' Loretta accepted the  compliment. 'This is a recipe from Casta. I haven't made it for years.'

'You're from Casta?'

'I worked for Raul's father, and now for him. I know who I prefer.'

Lydia didn't respond at first. She assumed from that that Raul worked her too hard.

'I guess Raul must be demanding.'

'Raul?' Loretta laughed. 'No. I love working for him. It's been nearly  ten years now, and I still pinch myself to make sure that it's true. I  worked in his father's bar for more years than I care to count. Then  Raul brought me to Rome and I used to take care of the apartments, and  then I ran the housekeeping side of his first hotel.' She gave Lydia a  smile. 'I'll leave you to eat.'

'Thank you,' Lydia said. Only she didn't want to be left to eat-she  wanted to chat with Loretta, and she wanted to know more about Raul, but  it wasn't her place to ask.

What was her place?

Lydia didn't know.

And so she ate her dinner and had a bath, and then pulled on summer  pyjamas which were short and a bit too tight, then lay in her bed in the  guest room while no doubt Raul headed out.

Perhaps for another dinner to discuss her and the baby.

His latest set of problems.

And all because he wanted to get back at Bastiano!

Lydia didn't have the energy to think about that right now.

She was hurting.

They had to talk.

And, no, she didn't care if she was running outside his schedule and it wasn't her appointed hour.

They were going to discuss this.

Properly.

Even the difficult things, like nannies and visiting times.

She had no idea where in the house he was.

But she'd find him.

And if he wasn't at home...

She would wait.         

     



 

* * *

Raul was actually in his office.

He looked up as Allegra stopped by on her way home and told him what she had organised.

'I've arranged two other apartments for Lydia to look at tomorrow, and there's a courier coming tomorrow at nine.'

'A courier?'

'You said you had a package you wanted hand-delivered to Casta?'

'Oh, yes.'

'How did you find her in the end?' Allegra asked as she pulled on her  coat. 'I think I visited maybe fifty castles and rang a hundred more.'

'She found me,' Raul replied.

Only that wasn't quite true. But he didn't run everything by Allegra,  and he certainly wasn't going to discuss the meeting he'd had with  Bastiano with her.

With anyone.

'Anything else?' Allegra checked.

'I don't think so.'

She was gone.

And Raul didn't blame her a bit.

Last night she had worked till close to midnight, trying to have things as prepared as possible for today.

And tonight he had kept her again past ten.

'Raul?'

He looked up and there was Allegra, still hovering at the door.

'Yes?'

'I just thought I should let you know I'm also looking for a nanny.'

'Maybe hold back on that till Lydia has got more used to the idea.'

'I meant for me.'

'Oh,' Raul said, though what he really wanted to say was merda.

What the hell was going on with everyone?

'You're supposed to say congratulations.'

Raul rolled his eyes.

'I'm going to be running a crèche-I can see it now. Go home.'

'I am going. Seriously, though, it's going to be difficult finding a  nanny who works to your hours. I don't want Lydia to explode in temper,  but we really do need to start making some enquiries.'

'Leave it for now,' he said, and as Allegra walked off he wearily  remembered his manners and congratulated her on the news of her baby.  'Complimenti!'

Allegra just laughed as she walked out.

She knew he didn't mean it!

And her care factor?

Zero.

She really was a most brilliant PA.

But Allegra was wrong about one thing, Raul thought-Lydia didn't explode.

She imploded rather than let out the rage she held on to.

He'd seen it himself.

Whereas he...

Raul poured cognac and it was well earned-especially when he recalled  how he had held on to his temper when Bastiano had insulted his mother.

But, no, that wasn't right.

It had been the truth that had held him back.

Bastiano had thought it was love between them.

Yet he had been just seventeen.

His mother had been in her mid-thirties.

What a mess!

Raul went into his drawer and took out the ring and went to package it for the courier.

Usually, of course, his parcels and such were left for others to deal with.

Not on this occasion.

This was beyond personal, Raul thought as he looked at the ring.

It was like holding a ghost-and one he didn't even know.

Bastiano was an orphan.

Had this been his mother's ring?

What the hell had his mother been doing, taking such a ring from a teenager?

A kid, really.

They had been children then.

Sure, they had thought they were adults, but what the hell...?

His mind leapt to the defence of the seventeen-year-old Lydia.