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Samuele got to his feet. He could watch him but he could do very little else. Whenever he had tried to see Mattio, Violetta had always had a reason why it wasn’t convenient. Perhaps he hadn’t tried hard enough, which was why he was now little more than a stranger to his own nephew.
When Maya returned with the warmed bottle, Samuele was kneeling beside the baby, one large finger in the tight baby grip of a pink chubby hand, but it was the long thin red mark down the side of his face that suddenly caught Maya’s attention.
‘He has sharp nails,’ he mused, standing up and looking slightly self-conscious.
‘He isn’t the only one,’ she said, looking at the scratch on his face and wondering if there were others on his back... The idea of him lost to passion like that left a sour taste in her mouth.
‘It’s definitely not what you’re thinking,’ he said drily as she settled with the baby in a chair.
She flashed him a startled look before bending her head over the baby to hide the mortified heat that was stinging her cheeks. ‘You have no idea what I’m thinking,’ she mumbled, focusing on the baby as he eagerly attached his rosebud mouth to the teat and began to enthusiastically suck.
Samuele knewexactlywhat she was thinking but he didn’t say anything until the bottle was empty and she had carefully placed the baby over her shoulder and was patting his back.
‘This happened at the will reading.’ He touched the mark. ‘The others have faded. It was Violetta’s reaction to hearing that she would not have control of Cristiano’s money, the money that, according to her, she hadearnedas Cristiano’s wife,and that apparentlyIam stealing. Running away with Mattio is all part of her vow to make meregret it.’
‘That’s a terrible, wicked thing to accuse someone of!’ she exclaimed, horrified. ‘You really would say anything to get what you want, wouldn’t you? That’s slander!’
‘Only if it’s not true, and there were witnesses there, including the lawyer.’
She shook her head, but Samuele could see, once again, the doubts about Violetta creeping into the edges of her previous certainty. Cuddling the baby in her arms, she got to her feet. ‘There are two sides to every story.’
He sighed out his frustration as she settled Mattio in his little rocking chair. Maya eased her own chair protectively closer.
‘I agree. There are always two sides, but it seems to me that you are only willing to hear one. Why are you so determined to believe that I am the one in the wrong? How do you think I knew you existed, knew your name, found this place?’
The groove between her feathery brows deepened as she shook her head.
‘I had inside information from Charlie. Believe me or not, but the truth is that Violetta has a new, extremely wealthy boyfriend who very much wants to marry her.’ Deluded fool.
‘So you don’t want another man bringing up your brother’s baby?’
‘The point is the other man doesn’t want to bring up another man’s baby or, for that matter, any baby at all.’ He spelt out the situation with brutal brevity. ‘Charlie wants Violetta but not Mattio. He has no interest in any child restricting his lifestyle.’
‘So it was him who told you that Mattio was here?’
He nodded, seeing more cracks appear in her conviction and pushing home his advantage. ‘He told me exactly where to find Mattio because it would suit him very well if I claimed the baby.’ He held up a hand, the action drawing attention to the thin red line on his face and the tension round his sensual mouth. ‘Yes, I know this might be another one of my very wicked lies, so how about you call her and hear the proof from the merry widow’s own lips?’
‘I can’t call her because she left her phone here.’
‘That was a nice touch. Let’s face it, Maya, you are in no position to negotiate and there is a time limit on being awkward. Not that I’m suggesting you don’t do it very well.’
Maya slung him an unamused smile, realising that if he did take the baby, it was going to be harder for his mother to reclaim him. Violetta needed to come back right now, and Maya was sure if she could just talk to her, her half-sister would understand.
‘If you know who she’s with and have his contact details, then let’s call him, but letmespeak to her. I’m sure by now she’ll be feeling...’ She petered out. She really wasn’t qualified to guess how a woman who had walked away from her child felt. ‘Guilty probably, so saying the wrong thing could tip her over the edge.’
‘You think I can’t be sensitive and tactful?’ Maya pulled a face, which drew a reluctant laugh from him.
To hide the effect the unexpected sound had on her Maya channelled chilly disproval. It was a pity it only went skin-deep; to her shame, just under the surface she was all quivering, melting warmth. ‘This isn’t a joke.’
The smile in his eyes vanished, snuffing out like a candle. ‘No, it isn’t,’ he said, producing a phone from his pocket. ‘How about I put it on speaker? Then if I get too insensitive you can rescue the situation.’
He was being sarcastic, she could see that, but what she didn’t understand was what he imagined he could achieve. Did he think he could bully Violetta into telling Maya to hand over her son? Evenimaginingsuch a situation brought her protective instincts to high-alert level and she’d only known the child existed for hours. Imagine if you’d carried and given birth...being apart from your baby would be like losing a part of yourself. Wouldn’t it?
‘You must see that the babyneedshis mother.’ She searched his face for any hint of understanding but, after a moment, sighed.
There was more give in a granite rock face.
‘It depends on the mother. I don’t know how well you knew Olivia, but you were far better off without her, I assure you. Just look how Violetta turned out.’
