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“I’m so proud of you! Are you still living with roommates?”
“Yes. It’s cheaper and I’ve been able to save some money.” Belle pulled the wallet out of her handbag and passed around some pictures of her friends. She had one photo of the Peterson family to show them.
After studying the photos, Sullisto leaned forward. “I must admit I’m surprised you didn’t show us the picture of your latest love interest. Why aren’t you married? Are the men in America blind? Who’s the miserable man you’re driving crazy at the moment?”
Belle laughed quietly. “I’ve been too busy with studies, along with trying to put my store on top, to get into a relationship.”
“You sound like Leonardo,” he grumbled.
“Concetta keeps me so occupied, there’s no room for anyone else.”
She sensed a certain friction between him and his father. Belle happened to know how deeply enamored Leon was of his little girl. It surprised her Sullisto would touch on that subject, when he had to know his son was still grieving over his wife’s death. No wonder she’d detected an underlying trace of impatience in Leon’s response.
Belle could only envy the woman who would one day come into his life and steal his heart. As she struggled with the possibility that he might always love Benedetta too much to move on, she heard footsteps in the background, and turned her head to see an attractive man and woman dressed in expensive-looking sport clothes walk out on the terrace.
“Ah, Dante!” Sullisto got to his feet to embrace his son, who bore a superficial likeness to him and Leon. “We didn’t expect you until this afternoon,” he said in English. “You’ve arrived back from Florence just in time to meet our home’s most honored guest. Belle Peterson from New York? This is my son Dante, and his lovely wife, Pia.”
Belle agreed Pia was charming, with amber eyes and strawberry-blond hair she wore in a stylish bob. They walked around and shook her hand before taking their places at the table. But already Belle felt uncomfortable, because Leon’s brother had seen her sitting next to Luciana, and had to have noticed the resemblance. He kept staring at them. So did his wife, who whispered something to him.
Sullisto turned to his wife. “Cara? Why don’t you carry on from here?”
Luciana cleared her throat and got to her feet. Belle’s gaze collided with Leon’s oddly speculative glance. She had the impression he didn’t know how this was going to play out, and she felt an odd chill go through her.
“After all these years, my greatest dream has come true.” She reached for Belle’s hand and clung to it. “Years ago my father sent me to New York, because he thought I was in danger here.
“You know the family history, but there are some things no one ever knew except your father, who loved me enough to marry me anyway. You’ll never know what that love did for me and how much I’ve grown to love him since then.”
Her mother’s revelations brought moisture to Sullisto’s eyes and touched Belle to the depths of her soul. But as she saw a bewildered look creep over Dante’s face, the blood started to throb at her temples.
“While I was there, I met a man from England named Robert Sloan, and we fell in love. When we found out we were expecting a baby, we planned to be married with or without my father’s permission. But Robert was killed in a hit-and-run accident. At the time I was convinced he’d been murdered, and it brought on early labor for me.”
Dante looked like a victim of shell shock. As Luciana continued talking, he transferred his cold gaze to Belle. It reminded her of Cliff’s menacing eyes when his mother had first introduced them. That memory made her shrink inside as Luciana came to the end of the story.
“Her real name is Arabella Donatello Sloan. She flew to Rimini this week to try and find me. If it weren’t for Leon, we would never have been reunited.”
Dante turned to his brother. A stream of unintelligible Italian poured from his mouth.
“Our guest doesn’t speak Italian,” Leon reminded him. For an instant his gray eyes trapped Belle’s as reams of unspoken thoughts passed between them. This was the crisis Belle had prayed wouldn’t happen.
Sullisto intervened and in English told Dante how she’d researched the Donatello name until it came to Leon’s attention at the bank.
“It’s an absolute miracle,” Luciana interjected. “It’s one that has brought me the greatest happiness you can imagine. Sullisto and I talked it over last night. We’re hoping she’ll decide to make her home here at the palazzo with all of us, permanently.”
“Mom...”
While Belle was still trying to absorb the wonder of it, Sullisto tapped his crystal goblet with a fork. After clearing his throat, he said, “We want to take care of you from here on out. Now that you’re united with your mother, we don’t want anything to keep you two apart.” He reached for Luciana’s hand. “I’m planning to adopt you, Arabella.”
“Adopt?” Belle gasped. “I—I hardly know what to say—” Her voice caught.
A smile broke out on his lips. “You don’t have to say anything.”
Belle was so overcome with emotions sweeping through her, she hardly noticed that Dante had gotten to his feet. With one glance, she saw that he’d lost color. He stared around the table at all of them. The dangerous glint coming from those dark depths frightened her.
“That’s quite a story. The resemblance between mother and daughter is extraordinary, thus dispensing with a DNA test,” he rapped out. His gaze finally fastened on Belle. “Welcome to the Malatesta family, Arabella. We truly do live up to our name, don’t we?”
“Basta!” his father exclaimed. Belle knew what it meant.
“Mi dispiace, Papà,” he answered with sarcasm. “Now if you’ll excuse us, Pia and I have other things to do.” He strode off the patio with an unhappy wife in pursuit.
“Don’t look alarmed,” Sullisto advised Belle the minute they were gone. “Your mother and I discussed it last night. There’s no right way to handle a situation like this. We didn’t expect them home until later, but since he walked in on us, we felt it was better to let Dante know up front. When he and Pia have talked about it, he’ll apologize for his bad behavior.”
Belle got up from the table. “For you to welcome me into your home leaves me thrilled and speechless, but I’m afraid the shock of hearing your plan to adopt me was too great for Dante. I’m not so much alarmed as sad, Sullisto. It’s because my adoptive brother, Cliff, had the exact same reaction when Nadine brought me to their house from the orphanage. He was unprepared for it.”
“But it’s not quite the same thing,” Sullisto impressed upon her. “You’re flesh of Luciana’s flesh. Dante is flesh of mine. Both of you are beloved to me and your mother.” His words touched her to the core. “The difference lies in the fact that Dante’s not a teenage boy. He’s a grown man who’s married, with expectations of raising a family of his own. Your being brought into the family has no bearing on his life except to enrich it.”
“E-even so—” her voice faltered “—he has lived under your roof all his life and has sustained a huge shock that will impact your family and create gossip. If it’s all right with you, I would feel much better if the two of you had the rest of the day to be alone with him and his wife. They’re going to need to talk about this.”
With an anxious glance at Leon, Belle implored him with her eyes to help her out of this, and prayed he got the message. “Since Concetta is ready for a nap, I’ll go back to the villa with Leon.” She leaned over to kiss her mother, then Sullisto. “Thank you for this wonderful morning. I don’t deserve the gift of