Innocent Wife, Baby of Shame

‘Yes, but he’s hedging his bets until the ultrasound and we have a little more idea about the dates. I have an appointment with the obstetrician and he said he’d come with me.’

Jamie tapped at his lips thoughtfully. ‘Have you told Garth about the pregnancy?’

‘Yes.’

‘What was his reaction?’

‘He said he didn’t think it could be his.’

Jamie looked at her for two or three beats of silence before saying, ‘So now you have to find a way to convince Patrizio that he’s the father.’

‘Yeah, like what?’ Keira answered in despair. ‘The only way to do that would be to rewrite the past and have me totally innocent of sleeping with another man, but that’s not likely to happen, is it?’

Jamie didn’t answer but when Keira looked back at him he was frowning, his blue eyes staring into the distance as if he were mulling over something in his mind that didn’t quite make sense.

‘Jamie?’

He gave himself a shake and looked back at her. ‘Sorry, Kiki. What were you saying?’

She reached for the bill for their snack. ‘Nothing important,’ she said. ‘Come on. I have to get home. Patrizio is having his sister Gina and Bruno over for dinner and I don’t want to be late.’

Keira was upstairs dressing for dinner when she felt the first cramp in her abdomen. She stood very still, hoping she was imagining it. She looked at her reflection in the mirror above the basin, shocked at how pale and drawn her features looked.

After a few minutes her stomach settled and she put the finishing touches to her make-up before joining Patrizio downstairs.

He looked up from the drinks tray Marietta had laid out in preparation for the evening. ‘Are you all right, Keira?’ he asked with a concerned frown.

She pasted a bright smile on her face. ‘Yes, of course,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry I was so long getting ready. I didn’t realise the time when I took Jamie out for a milkshake.’

‘How is he?’ he asked, handing her a tall glass of bubbling mineral water.

‘Very relieved the exams are over.’

‘Yes, I imagine he is,’ he said. ‘Bruno said the same when I spoke to him earlier today.’

Keira licked her lips nervously. ‘Patrizio…there’s something you should know about the boys’ feud.’

He looked at her with interest. ‘Oh, really? What?’

‘They had cooled off their friendship after we separated but not to the point of jeopardising their education. Someone suggested they work at bringing us back together by pretending to be enemies.’

‘Did he tell you who the someone was?’

‘No, he said he’d promised not to.’

His frown brought his brows together. ‘Have you any idea who it might have been?’

‘No idea at all,’ she answered. ‘Do you?’

He rubbed at his jaw for a moment or two. ‘The only person I can think of is Marietta,’ he said. ‘She’s always been very fond of you. She never agreed with me going ahead with the divorce and she refused to remove your things from the house.’

‘You think she would go to such lengths to set up something like this? You could have fired her for interfering in your personal life.’

‘We can ask her if you like.’

Marietta came in with a platter of nibbles as if on cue. ‘Did you want to ask me something?’

‘Yes, Marietta,’ Patrizio said. ‘Did have anything to do with Bruno and Jamie’s supposed feud?’