New Arrivals: His Expectant Mistress: Accidentally Pregnant! / One-Night Pregnancy / One Tiny Miracle...

She darted him a second glance. “I love Dino like my own child. Our own children…I want that more than anything in world.”

Was Irena admitting she loved him because she’d accepted Dino? She still hadn’t our baby yet. Vincenzo knew the doubt surrounding the paternity of the child weighed heavily on her shoulders. “I have a solution for us down the road, but only if you’re willing.”

“What’s that?”

“One day we’ll have another baby.”

Her eyes suddenly filled. “Why do I get the feeling you think that one woman in two hundred will be me?”

Vincenzo reached for her and held her close to his chest. “You’re wrong, Irena. If you do go ahead with the test I’m sure everything will be fine and we will have a healthy baby. I just want you to know how eager I am to have a child with you. Our child. With no shadow of doubt hanging over us, and a child that will never have to leave this home. Our home. The truth is, I was never in love with Mila and she knew it. But both our fathers wanted the marriage and my ailing mother urged me to go ahead with it because she was convinced Mila would make me a good wife. She worried about my wild side.”

A faint smile broke the corner of Irena’s mouth. “So I didn’t imagine you had one.”

He bit her earlobe gently. “Mama feared I was enjoying my bachelorhood too much. Like all mothers and fathers, my parents felt marriage would have a stabilizing effect on me, so Mila and I married. It was the worst mistake of my life. To pay me back for not loving her, she didn’t tell me she was pregnant until her sixth month when she couldn’t hide it any longer.”

Irena’s expression revealed her horror.

“Dino came four weeks early. The two months before she delivered were the happiest I’d ever known because the idea of being a father had taken hold. But it turned into a nightmare after he was born. She refused to let me be around Dino and help with him. Her doctor called it postpartum depression.

“I recognized it for what it was. She couldn’t hold on to me, but she wanted our baby to herself, nothing more. By the time Dino was three months old, I was completely shut out of his life. I told her we couldn’t go on in our marriage that way. She told me there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I told her I’d divorce her. She claimed I wouldn’t dare.”

Irena let out a groan.

“Hideous isn’t it? When my father found out I was leaving her and realized he couldn’t stop me, he disowned me, shouting that he never wanted to see me again. The only reason I was granted any visitation at all was due to my mother who prevailed on Papa before she died. To this day we haven’t seen or talked to each other.”

“So the wedding—”

“Will be a new beginning for my father and me,” he broke in.

“How will our marriage change anything in his eyes?”

“I know my father. He never wanted to disown me, but he had to save face in front of Mila’s father. Now that he’s heard I’m getting married again, I’ll go to him a new man and tell him I’d like us to start over. By reaching out to him, I’ll have allowed him to retain his pride. He’ll be overjoyed and speak to the judge who will give me back my full rights as a father.”

A glint of suspicion entered her eyes. “A marriage to any woman could have helped you accomplish the same thing.”

His spirits plunged. “Following your logic, I could have married years ago, but there’s a flaw in your thinking. Why don’t you sleep on it? Hopefully one day soon you’ll have figured it out.”

He drew in a ragged breath. “Go to bed, Irena. You look exhausted. I’ll clean up the kitchen and see you in the morning.”

Chapter Five (#ulink_80406c05-9327-5536-95a3-e4dc4c191610)

IRENA’S WEDDING DAY dawned, but she’d had a fitful night. It was a good thing Vincenzo had left early for the drive to Milan to pick up Dino. When she looked in the mirror and saw her drawn face, she was glad she had time to repair the damage before they returned.

Part of her restlessness stemmed from the fact that she hadn’t told her parents anything since her last call to them. She vacillated whether to phone them now or after the honeymoon.

But as the morning wore on, she realized she couldn’t put off telling them her news. To hurt them like that when they’d been such wonderful parents to her all her life would be unconscionable. She would have to tell them the truth. Not everything, but enough to satisfy them.

After getting ready for the big day, she walked through to the kitchen to take her pills and make her phone call. As it turned out, her father had already left for work, so her mother phoned him there and they set up a three-way call.

“Irena? I’ve been anxious about you,” her father began without preamble.

“I know. How are you?”

“Fine, but that’s not the point.” Her father sounded upset. “What’s this about sightseeing with some Italian and his son? Who is he?”

She took a fortifying breath. “His name is Vincenzo Antonello. He’s divorced and has a six-year-old boy named Dino. He manages the Antonello Liquers plant in La Spezia.”

“The one you covered in the magazine section.”

“Yes.”

“Is he the reason you’re still in Italy?” Her mother’s question wasn’t an idle one.

The blood hammered in her ears. “Yes.”

“I’ll never forgive Andreas for what he did to you,” her father blurted emotionally.

“Please don’t say that. I believe it was meant to be. He couldn’t help how he felt when he met Gabi a-anymore than I could help my feelings for Vincenzo.”

Her words were met with silence before her mother asked, “What feelings?”

Now was the moment. “When I met him two months ago, we spent all our time together. I didn’t mean to, but it just happened. By the time I had to leave, he’d asked me to marry him.”

“When you were already promised to Andreas?” Her father sounded stunned.

“I wasn’t promised to him, Father. We weren’t even engaged! It’s true we both loved each other, but apparently not enough to make it to the altar. There were times he turned to Leon before he turned to me. I know now I was never in love with him. That’s why I came back to Riomaggiore.”

Her mother made a sound in her throat. “So what are you saying?”

She gripped the phone tighter. “Vincenzo and I are getting married in a few hours.”

“A few hours—” both parents cried in unison.

“Yes. There’s a church down the road from his apartment. A Father Rinaldo is going to marry us. I know this comes as a huge shock to you. To me, too, actually. You have no idea how much I love him. He’s a wonderful man with a darling son.” The realization that her feelings for Vincenzo had grown into love came as a shock to Irena, but the moment she said the words she knew them to be true.

Her father was the first to recover. “Does the boy live with him?”

Irena closed her eyes. “No. Dino lives with his mother. They’ve worked out visitation.”

“So you’re going to be a part-time mama before you’re a mama!” Spoken like a mother.

Tears slid out from beneath Irena’s eyelashes. “I’m very happy about it and hope you will be, too.”

“When are we going to meet him?” her father wanted to know.

“We’re taking a honeymoon to California for two weeks. I’ll phone you when we get there. After we return and everything settles down, the three of us will fly to Athens. Vincenzo’s heard all about how wonderful you are and is anxious to—”

“Irena?”