LITMIR.BIZ

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For a night.

      ‘Ava,’ she said quietly.

      ‘Ava,’ he repeated, and she closed her eyes against the wonder she heard in his voice. ‘How old is she?’

      ‘Ten months. She was born on Christmas Eve.’

      ‘Would you have ever told me about her?’ he asked after a moment.

      She opened her eyes and stared at him helplessly. ‘Larenzo, you were in prison. You were convicted of about a thousand charges all related to being in the Mafia. How could I tell you?’

      He gazed back steadily, unmoved by her argument. ‘The charges were dropped.’

      ‘I didn’t know that. And I still don’t know why they were dropped—’

      ‘You still think I’m guilty?’ he cut her off, his voice hard.

      ‘I don’t know,’ she cried. ‘Larenzo, you have to understand how it was for me. The day you were arrested...those men...’

      Even now, a year and a half later, the memory of that night made shame and fear roil through her. ‘It was horrible. And then I spent the whole day in the anti-Mafia headquarters in Palermo while they told me you were involved in the Mafia, how they had all this evidence...what was I supposed to believe?’

      ‘Me. You could have believed me.’

      ‘You confessed,’ she shot back. ‘I read it in the papers. So I did believe you.’

      He pressed his lips together, his gaze narrowed and hard. ‘Of course you did.’

      ‘And yet you still seem to think I should have believed in your innocence.’

      He didn’t answer, and Emma bit her lip. She felt cold inside, so terribly cold. For a year and a half she’d been so certain of Larenzo’s guilt, and yet now, having seen him only for a few minutes, she felt doubt creep in along with the bittersweet memories. Who was the real man—the Mafia monster or the one she’d made love to?

      ‘But just now,’ he finally said. ‘You wanted me to leave. Even now, when you knew the charges had been dropped, that I was free, you were trying to keep me from my child.’

      ‘Because as far as I know, you’re still a dangerous man,’ Emma retorted. Larenzo’s eyes narrowed and she almost took a step back. Yet even now she realised she wasn’t actually afraid of him. She didn’t think he’d hurt her, but...

      What was she afraid of, then? Because she certainly felt the cold claws of terror digging into her soul, icing over her mind. ‘Even if you are innocent of the charges they laid against you,’ she continued more calmly, ‘you must have Mafia connections, something that made the police—’

      ‘Not in the way you think,’ he bit out, and Emma just shook her head, overwhelmed with too many terrible emotions to respond. ‘I am a free man,’ Larenzo said in a low voice. ‘And you can’t keep me from my daughter.’

      Emma pressed her hand to her forehead. ‘We can’t talk about this now,’ she said. ‘My sister will be home in a few minutes, and Ava is going to wake up soon. I never even expected to see you again, Larenzo. Having you turn up out of the blue...’ She shook her head. ‘It’s a lot to take in.’

      ‘I understand,’ he answered levelly. ‘But know this. I will be back, and I will see Ava again. Don’t think for a moment you can keep me from her.’

      His mouth compressed and his eyes flashed silver and Emma’s stomach did a sickening little flip. She had no idea what to think, to believe.

      ‘We’ll talk,’ she managed. ‘Soon.’

      Larenzo held her gaze for an endless, agonising moment, and then with one swift nod he turned and left the room. Emma heard the click of the front door closing and she sagged against the kitchen counter, utterly emotionally spent.

      ‘Emma?’ A minute later her sister’s voice, lilting with curiosity, floated down the hall. ‘Who was that leaving the house?’

      Emma straightened as her sister came into the kitchen with Ryan in tow, her eyebrows raised, a smile playing about her mouth. ‘Do you have a secret admirer?’

      ‘Hardly.’ Emma took a deep breath. ‘That was Larenzo Cavelli.’

      ‘What?’ The smile slid clear off Meghan’s face and numbly Emma explained the events of the last hour. Ava woke up just as she was finishing and she hurried upstairs, grateful for a moment to collect her thoughts, few as she had.

      ‘Mama.’ Ava wound her arms around her neck as Emma closed her eyes and breathed in her daughter’s scent, baby powder with a hint of the banana she’d eaten for lunch. Ava pressed her cheek against Emma’s chest, letting out a snuggly sigh, and Emma’s heart gave a painful squeeze. She would do anything for Ava. Anything to keep her safe...even if it meant keeping her from her father.

      Yet how could she do that? And should she, if Larenzo were really innocent?

      ‘Ava, sweetheart,’ she whispered against the baby’s silky hair. ‘What are we going to do?’

      She stayed upstairs for a few moments, cuddling Ava and then changing her diaper, wanting to put off the conversation she’d have to have with Meghan. Wanting to put off thinking about Larenzo Cavelli and what she was going to do.

      Yet even in the dim quiet of her and Ava’s bedroom, memories invaded. Memories not of Larenzo as he’d been only moments ago, coldly angry, clearly ruthless, but as he’d been the night their daughter had been conceived. The tenderness he’d shown, as well as the despair. That sorrow and resignation she’d felt in him, had yearned to take away, and the aching, reverent gentleness of his touch...

      Remembering that man made all the certainties she’d cultivated over the last eighteen months scatter like ash.

      What if he wasn’t guilty?

       But what if he is?

      ‘Emma?’ Meghan’s voice was sharp with concern as she called up the stairs. ‘Are you coming down?’

      ‘Yes, I’ll be there in a moment.’ Taking a deep breath, Emma settled Ava on her hip and headed downstairs. Ryan was playing in the playroom adjoining the kitchen and she put Ava on the floor with him, scattering a few blocks and soft toys around. Knowing her daughter as she did, Ava would throw all the toys across the room and then try to grab the trains Ryan was playing with. Her daughter knew what she wanted...just like her father.

      ‘I can’t believe Larenzo Cavelli came here,’ Meghan said, her voice hollow with shock. She filled up the kettle, shaking her head slowly. ‘How did he even know...?’

      ‘The address was on my employment application.’

      ‘And he wants to see Ava?’

      ‘I don’t know what he wants exactly, but he told me I couldn’t keep him from his daughter.’

      Meghan was silent for a moment, her face pale with strain. ‘So do you think he is innocent, if the charges were dropped?’ she asked and Emma bit her lip.

      ‘I don’t know anything any more, Meghan. For a year and a half I thought I knew the truth. I didn’t like it, of course, and at times I couldn’t believe it, but I thought I knew.’

      ‘And now you think you didn’t?’ Meghan sounded sceptical, and rightly so. How could Emma take anything Larenzo said at face value?

      ‘I don’t know. But I suppose I should find out why the charges against him were dropped.’ She reached for the laptop they’d left lying out on the kitchen counter, the browser still on the employment agency’s listings. Had it only been a couple of hours ago she’d been worried about what sort of menial job she’d take? It almost seemed laughable.

      Quickly Emma typed in the browser’s search engine Larenzo Cavelli charges dropped. Hundreds

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