Page 44 of Secret Match
Her hormones? That wasn’t what she felt. She tensed but said, “I have to go.”
“Answer the phone when I call you back.”
Kiwi’s driver pulled into the international terminal and stopped. Kiwi swiped her card to pay for her fare and stepped onto the white sidewalk. “I’ll be on the plane.”
Serenity then said, “Okay, that’s reasonable. But don’t ignore me.”
She’d told someone her plan, and now she needed to find her way. She stepped inside and stared at the departure board to find an airline with a flight to Miami. “Never, Serenity. Talk to you later.”
Once she hung up the phone, she figured out the counter. She needed distance from Gio to discover how they’d raise their daughter without getting married.
She’d been a fool to think he might one day love her and that they could live happily-ever-after. But now she needed to be an adult and model good behavior. Love was something she deserved and it was worth more than any amount of dollars.
Chapter 16
Gio’s hand was pressed against his son’s car seat strapped into the passenger side of his two-seater.
Tom cried the entire time.
The sports car was toast once he made it back home. He’d order a string of SUVs and sedans for his needs from now on.
However the entire ride home he kept imagining Kiwi with him and his blood turned cold with disappointment whenever he saw the empty head cushion of where she should be seated.
He arrived at the villa and parked, his son still crying. He freed him from the car seat and scooped him up, rushing up the stairs. Caro directed him and Tom into the library like she was the woman in charge. She crossed her arms and asked, “Where is Kiwi?”
Everything was a whirlwind of sights but all he could focus on really was that his son had his square chin and his blue eyes were way darker than his mother’s. He also noticed Caro texting people on her phone and he saw the words “baby emergency” clearly while he juggled baby Tom.
The diaper had felt heavy so he probably needed to clean this baby without breaking him.
If Caro knew anything about calming Tom, he was all ears. Once she finished with her phone, she took the boy from his arms and made a sound with her tongue.
Tom calmed and Gio answered her question about Kiwi. “She left me once she met my son.”
Caro’s chin lifted but one of the staff brought in a bottle. She directed him to sit and handed it to him, and then gave him his son. “That doesn’t sound right at all. Kiwi is usually the queen of organized.”
Gio held the bottle to Tom’s small mouth and the baby sucked at the formula. Relief settled over him as Tom at last stopped crying. Gio’s heart still beat fast but he said, “This is Tom. Piper had my baby and never told me.”
The staff returned with a diaper and a bowl of water with a cloth. Caro knelt down while he fed the boy and she unfastened the diaper. “Oh, wow. But Kiwi is so good with the kids. I don’t understand.”
The diaper looked really wet. No wonder Tom had cried hysterically. The bottle was half gone already. How long had it been since Tom’s last meal? Gio’s adrenaline eased as things calmed around him. But Caro had asked about Kiwi. As she finished with the diaper change, he said, “I walked out of the bedroom to introduce her and ask for her help and she bolted.”
“She’s having your baby. That doesn’t make sense.” Caro took the soiled diaper, cloth and water bowl, leaving it on the silver tray on the floor and then washed her hands with a clean towel. “There has been a lot of change in both your lives these past few days. Kiwi takes a while to open up, but once we figured out how to work together, she was the leader of organizing us.”
“I was there. It happened.” He remembered how Kiwi had stormed past him, like she was so angry she was on fire.
Caro stood and took out her phone again, answering texts. “Something else must have happened. Why didn’t Piper tell you about Tom?”
Good question. The baby stopped sucking but his eyes were closed now. Dark lashes on a tiny face. If Gio moved, would he wake Tom? He decided to hold the baby and himself still just to be sure. “I have no idea. Piper could have talked to me when I answered—she’d called twice. She didn’t speak. I don’t know why, but she didn’t need to send out the sex tape to prove what we’d done. Kiwi said Jennifer heard a message on the kitchen phone.”
“I’ll ask Jennifer what she heard.” Caro met his gaze, her eyes kind. “Is that why she put out the sex tape? Why didn’t she just tell you she couldn’t handle her own baby?”
“She had cancer.” He said though he had trouble ever seeing Piper as sick. But he quickly said a quick prayer to himself that she was in a better place.
“Oh.”
Her husband, Luke, came into the library as Gio gently rocked his son. “I’m guessing Piper went back on drugs. Cancer is a good reason to call me, but she never said anything. I don’t know for sure, but she quit when we were together, or so she claimed. Either way I need to find a pediatrician to ensure Tom is fine.”
Caro stopped her fast and furious texting. “What did the police say?”
