Page 62 of Hidden Heir, Italian Wife

“Would you let her know I’m here?” he asked. “And tell her I’d like to know where the hell to tell my pilot to land.”

“I will, but maybe go back to New York and wait for her to call.”

“Thanks,” he muttered and let her go.

In the car, he tried Bree again.

To his relief, the call connected. Sofia’s smiling face appeared.

“Piccolina, where are you?” he asked.

“At home,” she said, as though that was obvious.

That was when it clicked. The last few times he’d spoken to her, he’d seen only the back of a sofa and a photo above her that he recognized as one that Melissa’s husband had taken showing Melissa and Sofia posed in painter’s clothing near a ladder. He’d seen it in their condo when they’d dropped Sofia in Virginia Beach on their way to Saint Martin.

But that wasn’t the only copy. There was another.

“Which home, Sofia?” He strained to keep his tone even. “The one in New York?”

“Uh-huh.” She nodded.

“Will you please get Mama? I need to speak with her.”

She called for her and Bree’s voice said something indistinct.

“She can’t talk right now. Nanny is coming so Mama can go see— What’s it called again?”

“A headhunter,” Bree said off camera.

Sofia giggled. “Not like Easter eggs.”

“No, not like Easter eggs,” Bree confirmed in a stronger voice. “Tell Papà I’ll call him later.”

“Bree,” he said through his teeth, barely restraining himself from barking it, not wanting to alarm Sofia.

“You didn’t ask, Jax.” Bree appeared on the screen and carried the phone into the bedroom. “I thought you might want some emotional support,” she hissed. “But you have made it very clear that you don’t need me. If your goal was to kill what I felt for you, then job done. I have an appointment. I’ll talk to you later.”

She ended the call.

The sensation in his chest was so painful, he nearly wept.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

That had been cruel. Bree knew it as soon as she hung up.

It was alie. But she was releasing the kind of anger she hadn’t allowed herself to feel or express as a child, waiting for her father to notice her. Or when she’d been an adolescent, beholden to her father for payments into her college fund. Or when she’d been an adult needing a referral to a good obstetrician.

But this was different. She had laid her heart bare to Jax. Not only when she told him she loved him, but when she told him how she hadn’t been loved when she had had every reason to expect it.

And yes, she knew she couldn’t force those feelings out of him. It was fine if he didn’t feel them. She didn’t want him to pander to her.

But the part where he left her in Virginia Beach and acted as though she didn’t have a place in his life? When they were married? With a child?

What a callous way to behave! She refused to stand for it.Refused.

So, when her mother and Quinto had left for Miami, she brought Sofia to New York. Was it underhanded and passive-aggressive and juvenile not to tell Jax that’s where they were? Absolutely.

She didn’t care. She wasfurious.

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