His Merciless Marriage Bargain

She yanked away and, taking several steps back, began unpinning the veil, not caring that it was tearing at her elegant chignon. “I would never shame him! You’re the one that withheld support because you doubted the legitimacy of your brother’s love.”

“My brother was not himself at the end. The tumor was impacting critical thinking, and he made a number of rash decisions. After his death I was inundated with crises, all requiring my attention as well as that of Marcello’s legal team. I wasn’t even aware of Michael’s existence until my private investigators informed me just before Christmas that your sister had given birth in September and had put my brother’s name on the birth certificate.”

“So why didn’t you reach out to my sister then?” she demanded fiercely.

Gio didn’t answer and she swallowed around the lump filling her throat. Her voice was hoarse when she added, “Because you thought she was a gold digger and you were not going to reward her.”

“You admit your sister’s history was problematic, and I wanted to have a DNA test done to see if the baby was truly my brother’s—”

“That was December,” she said, balling the long lavish lace veil and throwing it at him. It fell short, though, fluttering to the ground. “This is March. DNA tests do not take three months. And the drag…the excessive amount of time wasn’t due to the investigation, it’s due to your own blindness because you were duped by a gold digger, and so you assume every woman is a gold digger. This isn’t even about Juliet and Antonio…it’s about you!”

“Not true.”

“Oh, it is true, absolutely.”

“Rachel, your sister was not the only one to claim to have borne my brother a child. Your sister was one of dozens.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Over the years many women have claimed to be pregnant, demanding financial support, or worse, a wedding ring. All were eventually proven false. Until Juliet.” He drew a breath, features taut. “Money makes people do stupid things.”

“Yes, it does,” she shot back, growing angrier, not calmer. “And it’s made you selfish and cynical and hard. You think the worst of people, not the best. But once you knew the truth about Juliet, you owed it to her to reach out and do what was right. You owed it to her and Antonio to make amends.”

“I would have eventually,” he answered quietly.

“Eventually,” she repeated, voice strangled. “Eventually killed her, Gio.”

“Money wouldn’t have changed her mental state, Rachel. Clearly, she wasn’t well if you—who were there—couldn’t help her. How could I?”

“You accept no blame, do you?”

“My job was to protect my family, including the business, a business that employs thousands of people. To give a quarter of a billion-dollar company to a young woman halfway across the world without doing due diligence, could have meant the end of Marcello Enterprises—”

“It’s always about the business, isn’t it?”

“I was raised from birth to put the family business first.”

“I think you mean from birth you were raised to put the business first. Family appears to be a very distant second.”

“I won’t apologize for being skeptical. I thought your sister took advantage of a dying man, and I wasn’t about to see his estate go to someone who hadn’t loved him, but rather saw an opportunity to grow rich at someone else’s expense. I will apologize for the lengthiness of the investigation. I insisted it be thorough, but I realize now that my legal team was perhaps too meticulous—”

“You can’t even apologize without adding in disqualifiers.”

“I’m sorry your sister is dead, but my brother is gone, too.” His voice was deep and granite hard, and yet his accent softened the words, taking the truth and pain in them and searing them into her heart. “They’re both gone,” he added, “but they’re not lost to us. They’ve left us their love child.”

“Stop. You don’t love, and you don’t believe in love.”

“That’s not true. I love you—”

“Now you say it? Now, when it’s all over? When it’s too late? My goodness, you’re desperate—”

He moved while she was speaking, reaching for her, bringing her hard against him. He cupped her face and kissed her, a kiss that was unlike any of the kisses before. This one wasn’t hard and fierce, nor was it scalding, blistering with bone-melting desire. This kiss was dark and intense, layered with emotion and raw, undeniable need. He didn’t just want her lips and touch. She felt as if he wanted to reach into her and steal her very heart.