Alessia ignored the comment. “Tell me about my mother,” she said in a low voice.
“Tell you what? She is fine.”
“Have you kept her at the sanitarium, as you promised? We had an agreement. I would be your hostess, take your place entertaining Cesare Orsini, and you—”
“And I would repay you for your actions.” Antoninni smiled. “And what a hostess you were, Alessia!” He chuckled. “I knew you would do far better with the man than I ever could!”
“You mean, you always intended to have me step in?”
“Of course. Once Orsini told me he would send his son instead of coming to Florence himself…” The prince laughed softly. “Do not look so shocked, Alessia. You did a fine job. You not only secured my loan, you doubled it.”
“It was Nicolo, not me. He is the one who decided to give you ten million euros.”
“Ten million euros, and now I am to have one of New York’s wealthiest, most powerful men as my son-in-law.” Antoninni arched one eyebrow. “Are you carrying his child? Is that the reason for this swift marriage?”
“None of that concerns you,” Alessia said sharply. “Our understanding was about my mother. Have you kept your word?”
A dramatic sigh. “I will.”
Would he? Alessia doubted it. He’d pay for her mother’s care for a while. Then he’d stop. She did a quick mental calculation of what it cost to care for her mother, what it might cost over the next years, and then she looked her father in the eye.
“You will deposit three million euros to my account immediately.”
“Three mill— You joke, daughter. That is too much, even for your role in securing ten million euros, marriage to an Orsini and becoming pregnant with his—”
“Go on,” Nicolo said coldly. “Let’s hear the rest.”
Alessia and her father spun around. Her father paled. “Signore Orsini! I did not see you standing—”
“No. Obviously, you did not.”
Alessia blanched. Nicolo had overheard…and, all at once, she was glad that he had. Why hadn’t she shared her concerns with her lover sooner? There was nothing she couldn’t tell him, not even when it was humiliating. Her father was a cold, unfeeling man; Nicolo was just the opposite. She could trust him to see to it that her father did as he had promised.
She could trust him with everything, for the rest of her life.
“Nicolo.” She smiled tremulously. “I am glad you overheard our conversation. I should have told you that my father and I had an agreement—”
“I heard.”
His voice was frigid, his eyes black as coal. He looked cruel and hard and dangerous, and she couldn’t understand the reason…. Until, with terrible suddenness, she realized how easily he might have misconstrued her father’s words, and hers.
“No! Oh, no, you don’t understand—”
She gasped as his hand closed painfully around her wrist.
“I understand everything, principessa.” His gaze dropped to her belly, then rose to her face. “Especially your touching story about being on the pill.”
Her face went white. “You’re wrong! I swear it, you are—”
“Say goodbye to Daddy, sweetheart. You won’t be seeing him for a long time.”
“Nicolo, Nicolo, per favore—”
“Don’t look so stricken, baby.” Nick’s mouth twisted. “You still won the prize. I’m going to marry you. Hell, you’re carrying my child. If you think I’d leave him to the tender mercies of you and Papa, you can think again.”
“Nicolo.” Alessia’s voice trembled. “I know what you think you heard, but—”
“Get out of my sight,” Nick told Antoninni. The prince, eyes wide with shock, took a step back. “If I ever see you again, so help me, I’ll do what your kind has feared for the past six hundred years and use you to wipe the floor.”