Page 184 of Modern Romance June 2025 1-4

‘It’s a long story, Jasmine.’

‘We’re forty thousand feet in the air, Emilio, we’ve got nothing but time.’

This was too much. Telling Jasmine about the will would mean revealing so much more about his childhood, his family. He’d never been this vulnerable with anyone. Not since Gia. But he knew Jasmine wouldn’t stop until she knew. And she had a right to push: this included their child.

It was the comforting hand she placed on his thigh that finally made him speak. No partner, Gia included, had offered him that before.

‘When we were younger, much younger, my father gifted the vineyards to my mother. Everyone knew how much she loved them. In fact, for years I suspected that the only reason she stayed married to my father was because of them. Growing up, we all knew there was a condition attached to her ownership—that upon her death Enzo would receive them.’

‘That way the legacy would be whole again,’ Jasmine guessed.

‘Yes. When she died, her will was read. She had honoured my father’s wishes.’

‘So what happened?’

‘The day you came to my office, I had received a different version of her will, a later version. Her lawyer says it’s valid. In it, she has left the vineyards to me.’

Understanding dawned on Jasmine’s face. ‘And our baby will inherit them.’

Emilio nodded.

‘There’s more you aren’t telling me… What was in the wills—both your father’s and mother’s?’

‘My father left everything to my brother.’

‘And nothing to you. Like, at all?’ Jasmine was outraged and it filled him with a bitter sort of happiness to have someone upset for him.

He shrugged. ‘In death as in life.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘It doesn’t matter.’ Emilio appreciated her concern, but it wouldn’t fix anything. It wouldn’t heal the hurt from his childhood. It wouldn’t make him any more worthy of love now. He was who he was, the sum total of all the rejection he’d experienced. ‘My mother left everything to me. I think it was her way of trying to balance things.’

‘Is this why you’re being so pig-headed about being there for our child?’

‘I know what it’s like to have a father around and not have him care.’

‘And I know what it’s like to watch a father walk away. That doesn’t mean we would ever do those things.’

‘I know we won’t,belleza, because I won’t let that happen.’

Jasmine leaned forward, taking Emilio’s hands. He wanted to pull her off her seat and onto his lap, but he couldn’t. Not without breaking his promise to her.

So, as he did every day, he fought his impulses.

***

Jasmine knew there was so much Emilio must be leaving unsaid, but for once she was happy to allow it. He had already revealed so much, especially about his father. How ironic that the man she found most irresistible had had a disappointment for a father too.

Emilio wouldn’t be like that. She could see how much he was trying to be there for their child. After this conversation, even his insistence that she move into his home looked a little different. Had he been difficult? Yes. But the way he spoke of his mother and of wanting to fight for his child’s inheritance told her that the move hadn’t just been for appearances.

‘Can I ask you something?’

‘Anything,belleza,’ Emilio replied.

‘When you insisted we move in with you, was it so you could keep an eye on us?’ She placed one hand on her stomach, her tiny bump. ‘Take care of us?’

Emilio looked out of the window, refusing to answer. But it was answer enough for her.

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