LITMIR.BIZ

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      “I’m here to discuss something of a very delicate nature.” Leon locked the door to his suite so no one could interrupt them. “Since I know you just passed your annual medical exam without any major problems, I feel you can handle this.”

      The count’s dark brows met in a distinct frown. “You’re beginning to make me nervous, Leonardo.”

      “Not as nervous as I am.” He stared at his father. “This has to do with Luciana.”

      “Do you think she’s hiding something from me since her medical exam?”

      Leon heard the worry in his father’s voice, revealing how much he cared about her. “I thought you told me she’s as fine as you are. I’m talking about a secret she might have kept from you before you married her.” Leon never was one to beat about the bush.

      His last comment brought his father to his feet. Their gazes clung. “You know?”

      The coffee cup almost fell out of Leon’s hand. That one question told him his father had known about Luciana’s baby all these years. He put the cup back on the sideboard. “If we’re talking about a child she had out of wedlock, then yes.”

      Sullisto’s gray eyes bordered on charcoal and were dimmed by moisture. “How did you find out?” he asked in a shaken voice.

      Leon took a fortifying breath. “Before I answer that question, just tell me one thing. Did she want to give it up, or did she have to? I need to know the absolute truth before I say another word.”

      A look of sorrow crossed over his father’s face. “She had to.”

      “Was she raped?”

      The question hung like a live wire between them.

      The older man took a deep breath. “No.”

      “Do you know the name of the father?”

      A nerve throbbed in his cheek. “Yes. But I wasn’t the father, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

      “I wasn’t thinking it,” Leon replied with total honesty. “I know you’re an honorable man.”

      “Thank you for that.” The count cleared his throat. “To answer your first question, Luciana wanted her little girl more than life itself. A day doesn’t go by that she’s not missing her, wanting to be with her. She doesn’t talk about it all the time, but even after all these years, I see the sadness and witness her tears when she doesn’t know I’m aware.”

      Hearing those words brought such relief to him for Belle’s sake, it broke the cords binding Leon’s chest. “How could she have given her up?”

      “You have to hear the whole story, figlio mio.”

      “I’m listening.”

      His father paced the floor. “Luciana’s father had many enemies and believed his wife was murdered. Afraid his daughter was in danger, he sent Luciana to a special college in New York at eighteen, under an assumed name, while he had his wife’s death investigated.

      “While she was away, she met a student. They fell in love and soon she found out she was expecting. Her situation became desperate because she knew her father would never agree to a marriage between them.”

      “But she was pregnant! Was he that tyrannical?”

      “That’s a harsh word, Leonardo. Let’s just say he was a rigid man. Luciana and her lover decided to be married by a justice of the peace in a town an hour away from New York City, where she was in school. But on the day before the wedding could take place, he was killed in a hit-and-run accident. The driver was never apprehended.”

      Leon grimaced. “Luciana must have thought she was in a nightmare.”

      “Exactly. Because of what had happened to her mother, she was afraid she’d been hunted down and her lover murdered.”

      Aghast, Leon said, “When did she tell you all this?”

      “When I asked her to marry me. You see, despite all the rumors about my wanting to take over the Donatello Diamonds empire, the reason I married her was because I’d learned to care for her a great deal.”

      “It’s all right, Papà. You can call it what it was. You loved her.”

      “So you’ve guessed it.”

      “Yes.”

      His father breathed deeply. “Her sorrow was so great, I thought that having two stepsons to help raise would ease a little of her pain. You boys were only ten and eleven, and needed a mother, especially Dante.” His voice trembled. “As for me, I needed someone who could share my life. Naturally, it wasn’t like the feelings I had for your mother, but then, you can’t expect that.”

      Leon couldn’t believe what he was hearing. They’d never had this conversation about his mother before. Belle was the catalyst to force a discussion that should have taken place years earlier.

      “Luciana’s father was overjoyed, because he knew I would take care of her. Before she gave me an answer, she said she had something to tell me that no one else knew about, not even her father. If I still wanted her, then she would accept my proposal.

      “I listened while it all came pouring out. After bitter anguish and soul searching, she’d felt she had no choice but to give up the baby for adoption so nothing would happen to her precious daughter.

      “When she gave her up, she had to sign a paper that meant she could never see her child again or take her back. It was a sealed document. Luciana signed it because she was positive her own days were numbered, but at that point she didn’t care about herself. When she returned to Rimini, she wasn’t the same vivacious girl I’d known before she left.”

      Again Leon stood there, dumbfounded by the revelations.

      “Her honesty only deepened my respect for her.”

      It appeared Belle had inherited that same admirable characteristic from her mother.

      “Not long after our marriage, her father died of heart failure. She needed me more than ever.” Sullisto eyed his son soberly. “But you still haven’t answered my question.”

      Leon shook his head. “After what you’ve told me, I’m not sure it would be the wise thing to do.”

      “You don’t trust me?”

      “That’s not it. I’m thinking of her daughter, who came to Rimini this week looking for the mother who gave her up.”

      “What?”

      Leon nodded. “Sit down, Papà, while I tell you a story about Belle Peterson.”

      A few minutes later his father was wiping his eyes. “I can’t even begin to tell you what this is going to mean to Luciana when she finds out.”

      “Except that Belle doesn’t want Luciana to know anything.” For the next few minutes he told his father what had been contained in that pamphlet, and Belle’s fear of hurting her mother.

      “Hurt her?” Sullisto cried out. “It would have the opposite effect! I know what I’m talking about. The one thing in our marriage that has kept us from being truly happy has been Luciana’s soul-deep sadness. We tried to have a baby, but weren’t successful. She’s always believed God was punishing her for giving up her child.”

      “Incredibile—”

      “Not until two months ago did we learn that Valeria’s death was ruled accidental. That very day I begged Luciana to call the orphanage and find out what had happened to Belle. At least inquire if she’d been adopted. But she said she didn’t dare, because she was afraid her daughter would hate her. I told her I’d hire a private investigator to locate her, but Luciana was convinced Belle would refuse to talk to her, after she’d given her up.”

      “Belle has the exact same fear, that

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