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“Then what happened?” Matthew wondered curiously.
“I honestly don’t know much,” Nina replied. “Just that Garrett thought he was an ungrateful, rebellious brat. Attending Dartmouth, for instance, instead of Oxford or Cambridge like everyone else in his class. That’s where he met Eric, who brought him home a few times when he was at school. Nice boy. Tall, like you said. After that, I heard he went to culinary school, of all things, and started several restaurants until his father died maybe three or four years ago…”
By the time she was finished, you could have heard a pin drop in the normally cacophonous dining room. Even Nonna was silent in the doorway, holding a plate of antipasti, though she was watching me, not Nina.
And I, for one, could not move.
Died. His father had…died? Three or four years ago, if Nina was correct? Months I’d been seeing him, and he hadn’t mentioned a word about it. Oh, he was full of sob stories about his mother and Lucy, full of vitriol toward his father, the man whom he said hated his guts.
Nothing about his death on top of everything else.
Which also meant Xavier was…an earl himself?
Or was it a marquess?
Did it even matter?
Who even was this man?
Suddenly, I couldn’t feel the ends of my fingers or my toes. The edges of my vision seemed to blur, and my siblings’ faces all moved in and out of focus.
“It isn’t the same Xavier, is it?” Nina asked me in her kind, quiet way.
She was clearly shocked, though. Just like anyone else would be when they realized someone like me had, at least for one night, captured the fancy of blue-blooded, perfect-looking, utterly aristocratic Xavier Parker.
Or been his prey.
“Sometimes he used the name Sato,” Nina said as if that explained the disparity. “His mother is half-Japanese, I believe, and that’s her maiden name. Is that—it’s not the same person, is it?”
Everyone turned to me, and it was clear I didn’t need to say that yes, in fact, it was. I could barely breathe anyway, much less speak. Or correct her on the parts of the story I knew to be wrong. South London, not East London. His mother was gone and had been from Japan, not just half herself. That Sato wasn’t her maiden name, just her name—because Xavier’s parents had never been married.
But how could I correct any of those things when I knew so little about the rest? When it would mean admitting to them all that I had been secretly seeing Xavier for months now?
“Wait a second,” Joni said. “Are you saying that Sofia…our baby Sofia…could be royalty?”
She sounded absolutely ecstatic. I wanted to throw an olive at her. Actually, I wanted to hurl the entire plate of prosciutto.
“She didn’t say her dad’s Prince William, you idiot,” Marie snarked.
“Did you know, Fran?” Matthew asked, reaching across Nina to set a hand on top of mine on the table. “About this title, or whatever it is?”
“I…” I just shook my head. I didn’t know what to say as all of Xavier’s secrets tumbled through my mind. “I knew about his restaurants. And his mother. The rest, though…” I pulled my hands out of my brother’s grasp and shoved my face into my palms, if only to escape the pity launching itself at me from all sides of the table.
I was an idiot. It all made sense now. His one and only “Season.” Going to a garden party hosted by the queen of freaking England. Of course, Xavier was more than he let on. Of course, he was legitimate nobility. And, of course, I had never clued in. I’d been too busy falling over myself in lust and awe while he fell in love with our daughter. Too busy seeing everything through rose-colored glasses than to put on real lenses to find out who he really was.
Stupid. I was so, so stupid.
“I never knew,” I mumbled, more to myself than to them. “I have to…can you all just give me a minute, please?”
To my utter shock, my family obeyed. The rest of the conversation passed in a daze—even the part where Matthew informed everyone he was not only engaged to Nina, but that he’d asked her when he was away in Florence. Interpreting for her. Three months ago.
It was just one shock, one betrayal after another today, wasn’t it?
But it didn’t seem to matter. I listened vaguely as they told a whole other story I hadn’t known. Something about Nina’s family, and a secret, and a copy and a whole bunch of crap I honestly could barely listen to until I finally looked up and realized that while I’d been having a mental breakdown, Nina had somehow managed to win over my grandmother. My sisters were all looking at her like a hero.
And I couldn’t take being here one minute longer.
“Welcome to the family,” Nonna was saying, even as I edged my way out the door. I couldn’t stay for the pleasantries. Not now.
