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“I didn’t give her a chance. I told her everything about me, so she was too busy with my revelations to think of you. But I’m sure she will. What do you want me to say when she does?”
“What do you want to tell her?”
That was the last thing she’d expected he’d ask. “I...I honestly don’t know. I think she deserves to know the brother she loved and clearly still misses terribly is alive. But you probably have nothing in common with that brother, so maybe it’s not in her best interests to know you. It’s your call.”
“Don’t tell her.”
Hating that this was his verdict, but conceding it was probably the right one, she nodded.
Then her original point pushed to the forefront again. “So you knew about Mauri all the time you were here before, and as I told you everything about myself. Yet you gave no indication that you were in the least interested.”
“I wasn’t.” Before her heart could contrarily implode with dismay, he added, “I was flabbergasted.”
That astounded her. “I didn’t know anything could even surprise you.”
“Finding a seven-year-old replica of my dead brother on my ex-lover’s threshold? That’s the stuff strokes are made of.”
The “ex-lover” part felt like a blow to her heart.
Sure, she’d walked away this time, saying it was over. But was that what he already considered her? What he’d decided she was? When they’d made love...had earth-shattering sex...just yesterday? If he wasn’t here to pursue her, then why was he here?
“I walked out of here intending not to come back.”
“And that was the right decision. Why are you back?”
“Because the facts have been rewritten. Now instead of wanting to end your friendship with Rose, I want to be your and your family’s...ally.”
Ally? Ally? That was downright...offensive after what had happened the past couple of days. Not to mention in the past.
“I don’t need allies.”
“You never know when and how you might. Having someone of my influence on your side can be more potent than magic.”
She tamped down the need to blast his insensitive hide off his perfect body. “I have no doubt. But I don’t need magic. I work for what I have. And I have more than enough to give my son the best life and to secure his future.”
“Even if you don’t want or need my alliance, you don’t have the right to make that decision for Mauricio. The fact remains, he’s my flesh and blood. And my only heir.”
After a moment of gaping at him, her nerves jangling at his declaration, she choked out, “Are you here because you decided to tell him that?”
Mauri chose this crucial moment to stampede into the living room. “I got all my drawing stuff!”
Before she could say anything more, Richard turned his attention to Mauri.
Brain melting with exasperation and trepidation, she could only watch as father and son ignored her and got engrossed in each other. She had to wait to get her answer.
A no would mean resuming her life as it was. A yes would turn it upside down. And it was all up to Richard.
As it had always been.
* * *
Richard had swung around at Mauricio’s explosive entry, infinitely grateful for the distraction.
As heart-wrenching as the sight of him, the very idea of him, still was, right now he’d take anything over answering Isabella’s question. Since he didn’t have an answer for it.
He had no idea what he was doing here, or what he would or should do next.
In the distraction arena, Mauricio was the best there was. The boy—his son—wrenched a guffaw from his depths as he hurled himself at him, dropping his armful of drawing materials in his lap.
