Page 40 of Hidden Heir, Italian Wife

“Paloma,” she said stiffly, refusing to look at him. “I heard.”

And thought he was lying about there being no one since her?

“It was long before you and I met. I was twenty-four. Her father was one of my father’s investment partners. We were neighbors on Martha’s Vineyard so we saw them every summer, growing up. I went to university with her brother, Tucker, and considered him one of my best friends. As soon as I got my degree, I was made head of marketing at Visconti. We both wanted children right away. Marriage made sense.”

“So it was a practical marriage? Or did you love her?” Now she looked at him. Her thick lashes emphasized the vulnerability in her blue-green eyes.

Your heart isn’t broken.

No, but it had been dented. Badly.

“It was young love.” Maybe it had been what he thought love should be. Closeness built on shared history. Fondness and sexual intimacy. “But this is how I know that marrying because youthinkyou love someone isn’t enough.”

She rolled her lips together, looking to a corner as though being scolded for wanting love, but she didn’t understand how badly those emotions set you up for anguish.

“The morning after our engagement party, Tucker and I were nursing a hangover. I noticed scratches on his neck. He mentioned someone we both knew. Corinne. I won’t repeat what he said, but the implication was that she had acted like she didn’t want his attention, but came around in the end.”

“That’s horrible.” She recoiled in revulsion.

“It was. It was equally disturbing that he expected me to let it slide without calling him out for it.”

“Bro code?”

“I wouldn’t let either of myactualbrothers get away with something like that, but yes. Tucker expected me to keep it to myself. All I could think was,What if it happened to Eve? To Paloma?In fact, I went to her first.”

“Paloma?”

“Yes. She was my fiancée. He was her brother.” He rubbed his jaw, still conflicted over how he’d handled it. “I warned her I was going to the police. She was upset, obviously. Corinne was one of our friends, but Paloma was equally—maybe more—worried about Tucker. She didn’t want me to get him into trouble.”

You can’t do that to him. What kind of man does that?

“She said that if Corinne wanted to do something—or nothing—that was up to her.” Now he ran his hand into his hair at the back of his skull, trying to release the old tension that gathered there. “I took her point. I hadn’t even heard Corinne’s side of it, but Paloma told me to drop it or she’d break our engagement. I called Corinne anyway. I told her what I knew and said that if she wanted to make a statement to the police, I would support her.”

“Did she?”

“Eventually. She was devastated, but hadn’t thought anyone would believe her. Or care. They’d both been drunk. She was blaming herself, but after a week or so, she spoke to the police. She hadn’t had one of those kits done, though. By then, Tucker’s scratches had faded. It turned into her word against his.”

“But you were able to corroborate. Heconfessed.”

“And I had told Paloma what he said, but she sided with her family. She told the police I was lying and hadn’t told her anything about it. She said I had sour grapes because she’d broken our engagement, which she had by then. Her entire family started smearing my reputation to drown out the gossip around what Tucker had done.”

“And Corinne?”

“Tuck’s father paid her to withdraw her statement. I don’t blame her, considering what they put me through. It was hell. At first, I didn’t care because I knew I was right.” He sneered at his youthful principles. “Then they joined the Blackwood camp and started including my family in the attacks. At that point, Dad sent me to Nonna and suggested I set up the Euro division.”

“He banished you?” Her expression was so empathetic, so filled with sorrow on his behalf, Jax thought he might remember it for the rest of his life—the crinkled brow, the soft, sad pout of her mouth. The blink of sheened eyes.

“It wasn’t like that,” he said, but his voice traveled over rough ground. It had felt exactly like that. Ostracized. Exiled.

He drew a breath, trying to ease the ache of being punished for doing the right thing. Of being separated from the people he loved most.

“Dad had the whole family to think of.” He cleared his throat. “Mom was getting blocked from social events. Nico and Christo were taking it on the chin, but Eve was only seventeen. When they went after her, saying some really filthy stuff, my temper was so short, I broke a man’s nose. Dad put me on a plane for my own good.”

This time when she fiddled with the ring, she was only centering it on her hand. “At least your grandmother was there for you.”

“She was. They all were, in their way. Dad wasn’t just getting me out of the city. He had his hands full with Dom and Dom’s father. Sending me to run Europe was a strategic move. I genuinely prefer Italy, and Eve was starting school in Switzerland. I saw her all the time. It was probably best that Dad split up us boys, too. We stand together against an enemy, but we’re competitive enough to break each other’s noses when we disagree. Best to keep large bodies of water between us.”

She only looked at the ring, somber. “I thought she was making sure I knew I didn’t belong there. She said I’d tricked you into marrying a nobody and that Sofia was a bastard.”

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