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Marianna’s intuition was like a series of fireworks going off. There was obviously a whole lot more to this story than she knew. Way more than Nico had let on. Alethea was not simply the daughter of a wealthy investor.
“I don’t know why I’m saying any of this to you.” She shook her head, her eyes shimmering. “I was young and stupid. Losing Nico was hard to deal with, and I know he probably thinks I’m a terrible person, but I want him to know I never meant any of it to end that way. Of course, I’ve tried to talk to him, but he won’t listen.”
It suddenly dawned on Marianna that maybe this lunch wasn’t the casual catch-up she’d thought it would be. “What are you asking of me?”
“Nothing…I don’t know.” She sucked in a shaky breath. “I’ve been grieving so much the past year and I feel like I can’t let it go. Every time someone tells me it’ll get easier I want to scream. I don’t want it to get easier, I just want my family back.”
Marianna’s heart wrenched in her chest. She knew that feeling all too well. There was something deeply tangled in their past—something that wasn’t business.
“You don’t have to let it go,” Marianna said gently. “You’ve suffered a huge loss, and it’s supposed to hurt.”
Alethea grabbed the napkin on the table and dabbed her eyes. “Thank you. Some people think they’re saying the right thing, and I know they mean well. But hearing it’ll get easier makes me even more aware of how bad I feel now.”
“I understand.”
“I know it’s not fair to try and put you in the middle,” she said. “But I think maybe I’ll do better if Nico would talk to me…so I can at least tell him how bad I feel. He was such a big part of my life for those five years, and I have tried so many times to apologize.”
“What happened, exactly?” Marianna asked. The moment the question was out of her mouth, she had a horrible feeling she’d opened Pandora’s box.
“I was smitten with him,” Alethea said. “Who wouldn’t be? He’s gorgeous.”
Jealousy burned in the pit of Marianna’s stomach, but she drowned the feeling with a long gulp of water.
“But I was young, and my family was traditional. I started sneaking out at night to see him, but he said he’d never touch me while he lived there. He couldn’t betray my father’s trust. But I kept hounding him. I wanted to be with him.” She waded her fork through her salad but didn’t eat anything. “Eventually we…you know. I was eighteen and he was twenty-two. I wanted to marry him.”
Marianna forced herself to chew her food slowly so she didn’t react the way she wanted to. A strange, dark possessiveness reared up inside her—the thought of Nico and Alethea making love burning like a bright, painful orb in her stomach.
“But my father caught us one night. He was furious.” Alethea shook her head. “It’s tradition that women keep their virginity until after marriage here. I don’t believe in such old-fashioned values, but my father did. He fired Nico and kicked him out of the house.”
Marianna suddenly had a whole lot more insight into why Nico had flipped out upon learning she was a virgin. The scenario must had reminded him of the past. Of all he’d lost.
“He was devastated, of course. Nico had become like a son to him, but he didn’t want me to set a bad example for my younger sisters. But it was too late.” Her voice wavered. “I was pregnant and…I told Nico. But I didn’t keep the baby.”
Oh.
“He was so angry, but I couldn’t…” She sucked in a breath. “I couldn’t have a baby at eighteen. I was supposed to go to university, build a life.”
“And he wanted you to keep it?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
Marianna wasn’t sure what to say. Theirs was a complicated and messy history, but it was clear Alethea lived in remorse of her actions. How could Nico not have told her any of this?
“I was so frightened,” she said. “I thought my parents were going to kill me. I thought I’d ruined everything.”
“I’m so sorry.” Marianna reached across the table to squeeze her hand.
“So am I,” she said. “I’m sorry I asked you out to lunch and now I’m a babbling mess. I saw you and your little bump, and it all hit me.”
Marianna startled. No one was supposed to know she was pregnant yet. The dress she’d worn today was loose and flowy, designed to hide her growing stomach.
“I won’t tell anyone,” Alethea promised. “But I saw you tip some of your wine out at the party, and then you refused a glass today. You have that glow, too…and it all came tumbling out because I can’t talk to my mother or my sisters about it. They already think I’m the family screw-up.”
“I’ll talk to Nico,” she said. “See if I can convince him to meet with you.”
She nodded. “Thank you. It would mean the world to me.”
Marianna had no idea what this was going to do to the fragile bond she and Nico had formed in the last few weeks, but she would face it head-on. There was no way she wanted any more secrets between them.
