Page 34 of Pregnant in the Italian's Palazzo

Aria sat up in the bed, as she took in the two identical blobs for the thousandth time. Those blobs were inside her, she thought with a sense of awe. Until now, this pregnancy hadn’t seemed real yet. Obviously, she knew she was pregnant and would eventually give birth. But she hadn’t really given thought to the fact that there was an actual life forming and growing inside her. There had seemed too much else to consider. But when the doctor had placed the ultrasound wand on her stomach and she had heard those two little hearts beating slightly out of time with one another... Nothing else had seemed more important.

She leaned back on the pillows, placing both of her hands on her slightly rounded stomach and closed her eyes. ‘I know you guys are probably much too small to hear me,’ she said softly. ‘I’m sorry if things got a little crazy in there lately. I’ve been making myself far too busy. But you’re going to be my priority now.’

Priya was surprisingly patient when Aria arrived at her hotel. She listened as Aria talked about what had occurred in the weeks since her friend’s failed wedding and her reappearance, and Priya shared her own story.

It surprised Aria deeply to learn that Priya had trusted Eros so blindly, but then she realised that she was not so different herself. She had done exactly the same thing, had she not? She had taken one look at Nysio and wanted him badly, so she’d jumped into bed with him the first chance that she could. Or jumped onto a bathroom vanity counter, whatever! Priya’s eyes widened when Aria shared that particular story. She wasn’t ashamed of her actions. She’d always shared everything with Priya, after all. But things were different now, Priya was in love and somebody’s wife. She had plans for the future. Aria was still adrift.

‘You could set up your business wherever you are; why don’t you come back to New York with me?’

Aria thought about it, thought about taking Priya’s offer and going ahead with her plan to start up a small lingerie label. But the thought of embarking upon the pipe dream that she had rolled over for so long suddenly had absolutely no pleasure in it.

‘No... The time isn’t right, I think,’ she said, lowering her hand to her stomach where her two little beans were safely nestled. ‘I got a scare, thinking something was wrong with the babies. I think I want to stay here, in Florence, for a bit. Here is where I’m going to live. I want the babies to be near their father...and I want to be near him too.’

She hadn’t realised that was how she felt until the words left her lips. When she said them aloud, she knew it was true, she knew it was what she wanted. Stay here with Nysio, to raise their children near their grandmother and grandfather who had already shown more love and excitement at the babies’ existence than even she had.

‘Have you told Nysio that?’ Priya asked, a strange look in her eyes.

‘I haven’t seen him since yesterday; I think he’s been avoiding me. We had a fight. He asked me to marry him and I said no.’

Priya’s face stiffened with surprise. ‘Oh. That probably didn’t help you to relax.’

‘But now I’ve thought about it, I think I’ve been an absolute fool. He’s amazing, Priya, and I think I’ve been completely unfair to him and allowed my own wounds to still dictate my life. I think...I think I at least owe it to myself and my babies to try.’

‘I should tell you that Eros had a meeting with Nysio and Xander this morning. He told me that your baby daddy was planning to do something big with them. Something about getting balance?’

Aria sat up straight. ‘What does he mean?’

‘I’m not sure... I only know that he said that it was for his family, so I didn’t question it. But Eros seemed stunned on the call, and he asked Nysio if he was sure he could part with so much history.’

His history. His place as legitimate heir. Aria felt her stomach drop. What had he done?

‘I actually can’t believe he would do something like that for me without talking to me first. I have to go.’ She stood up and moved, grabbing her bags and hastily throwing in her belongings.

‘Slow down, you’ve just got out of the hospital,’ Priya begged.

‘I’m not on bed rest, I’m quite able to go downstairs and get into a cab.’ She closed her eyes, placing a hand on her chest as she felt a panicked sob pass through her. ‘I’ve made so many mistakes; I need to go to him. I need to make this right or I’ll never forgive myself.’

‘Okay, but at least take my car. Being lovesick makes you crazy apparently,’ Priya said, smiling. ‘But I can see why you love him. I see the way he looks at you too, the way he cared for you in the hospital. I think you know what you want now, so go and get him.’

Aria still couldn’t believe what Nysio was telling her, as they stood once more in the centre of the maze at thepalazzo, where she’d found him.

‘I realised that I don’t want my children to be raised under the same weight of expectation that I was,’ he was saying. ‘I don’t want them to have that life.’

He moved away from her and she felt something tense within, urging her to move closer, to hold him to her, but she held back.

‘So you just...gave it all away? The Bacchetti part of your wealth?’

‘I’ve given it back to the people who treasure it most: the people of Florence. I’ve set up a charity for the benefit of our community and all funds will go to those in need. They can also open thepalazzoto the public; you were right that the treasures inside should be seen and admired.’

‘It’s a wonderful thing to do,’ she said approvingly.

‘For decades I hid myself within these walls, working myself to exhaustion just to try to prove that I was worthy of the Bacchetti name I had been born with. But then I met you...’ He smiled at the memory. ‘You made me remember what it felt like to feel free. Then I brought you here and you made me see it for what it was. A prison of my own making. I believed I had no choice but to continue clinging to the reputation that my father had guarded so fiercely. I believed that I owed it to him and to my mother. You made me see that what I wanted mattered too.’

She smiled tremulously back at him.

‘Once upon a time, being a Bacchetti was everything that I was. I was raised to be the heir to a dynasty that spanned generations. It was a duty that I performed happily, because it made my father proud. I idolised him. But I know now that love doesn’t always mean having to live up to other people’s expectations.’

‘Oh, Nysio...’

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