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“I did what I thought was right,” he answered tersely.
“But it wasn’t right, and you...you don’t know the first thing about love. You have no idea what love means, or you wouldn’t have worried more about your Marcello stock and investments than your late brother’s child!”
“I was wrong, Rachel.”
“You....you...” She shook her head, eyes burning, chest so tight she couldn’t breathe. “You’re not just wrong. You’re not even the man I thought you were, Giovanni. You’re not at all the man—” She turned away to cover her face with her hands. She pressed her fists against her eyes, holding back the scalding tears, and the grief, and the pain.
Gio had lied to her. Lied. Nothing about their relationship was true. He was false, and selfish, and incapable of caring for anyone but himself. Incapable of loving.
“Thank God you told me now,” she said, choking on a muffled sob. “Thank God I found out before it was too late.”
“We’re still going to marry, Rachel. We still need to protect Michael.”
She nearly lost it then. “You’re the last one I’d trust to protect Michael! You’ve done everything in your power to punish him—”
“I had to be cautious.”
“Of course you’d see it that way. I don’t. But what I do see is the light, and the truth, and the exit, because I want out. I’m not going to do this. I don’t have to do this with you, not anymore. You see, Gio, I don’t benefit from marrying you. I don’t win anything. I just lose. I lose out on the opportunity to be cherished and loved. And it’s not worth it—”
“What about Michael?”
“I love Michael, and will always love him, but we don’t need you. We don’t need your help. I don’t want anything to do with you. Keep your precious Marcello stock. Keep your Marcello name.” She glanced down at the huge yellow diamond weighting her hand. She’d thought it absolutely beautiful when he’d put it on her finger but now it symbolized all that she hated. Rachel tugged the ring off and dropped it on the bed, next to the antique wood box. “And your Marcello jewels.”
“You don’t mean that, cara.”
“Oh, but I do.” Hands shaking, Rachel took off one earring and then the next and tossed them onto the bed, too. “I’ll take Michael back to Seattle with me, and I shall raise Michael myself, and he’ll be a Bern, and he’ll be loved and we might struggle, but at least we’ll struggle with love, away from your contempt, and condemnation, and judgment.”
Gio crossed the room and caught her by the arm, pulling her toward him. “I understand why you’re upset. I was upset last night, too—”
“For different reasons, I imagine.”
“No, for the same reasons. My brother loved your sister, and they had a tragic love story, and a tragic ending, but we are not going to continue the tragedy. It ends here. It ends now. Michael was a true love child, and he shall be brought up with love, not fear or shame.”
She yanked away and, taking several steps back, began unpinning the veil, not caring that it was tearing at her elegant chignon. “I would never shame him! You’re the one that withheld support because you doubted the legitimacy of your brother’s love.”
“My brother was not himself at the end. The tumor was impacting critical thinking, and he made a number of rash decisions. After his death I was inundated with crises, all requiring my attention as well as that of Marcello’s legal team. I wasn’t even aware of Michael’s existence until my private investigators informed me just before Christmas that your sister had given birth in September and had put my brother’s name on the birth certificate.”
“So why didn’t you reach out to my sister then?” she demanded fiercely.
Gio didn’t answer and she swallowed around the lump filling her throat. Her voice was hoarse when she added, “Because you thought she was a gold digger and you were not going to reward her.”
“You admit your sister’s history was problematic, and I wanted to have a DNA test done to see if the baby was truly my brother’s—”
“That was December,” she said, balling the long lavish lace veil and throwing it at him. It fell short, though, fluttering to the ground. “This is March. DNA tests do not take three months. And the drag...the excessive amount of time wasn’t due to the investigation, it’s due to your own blindness because you were duped by a gold digger, and so you a
ssume every woman is a gold digger. This isn’t even about Juliet and Antonio...it’s about you!”
“Not true.”
“Oh, it is true, absolutely.”
“Rachel, your sister was not the only one to claim to have borne my brother a child. Your sister was one of dozens.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Over the years many women have claimed to be pregnant, demanding financial support, or worse, a wedding ring. All were eventually proven false. Until Juliet.” He drew a breath, features taut. “Money makes people do stupid things.”
“Yes, it does,” she shot back, growing angrier, not calmer. “And it’s made you selfish and cynical and hard. You think the worst of people, not the best. But once you knew the truth about Juliet, you owed it to her to reach out and do what was right. You owed it to her and Antonio to make amends.”
