Page 20 of Pregnant in the Italian's Palazzo

She forced herself to meet that gaze, to straighten her shoulders and accept that this was one situation she couldn’t currently run from. ‘Yeah. I might be.’

Nysio was utterly silent as the doctor listened to her symptoms and gently asked if she’d like to do a quick test to rule it out. She hummed to herself, her feet bouncing of their own accord as she waited and studiously avoided where Nysio sat silently observing.

‘But I have a contraceptive implant,’ she repeated. ‘So this test is just a precaution, isn’t it?’

‘No form of protection is fully effective against pregnancy,’ the doctor said again patiently. Other than never having sex, of course.’ She chuckled, clearly finding humour in her own words. Meanwhile Aria was horrified. The other woman smiled softly, her head tilting to one side as she surveyed the small plastic rectangle in her hands.

‘Well, it appears we have a very clear result.’ She moved closer, placing the test on the surface of the low coffee table between them. ‘You are most definitely pregnant.’

Nysio could do nothing but watch as Aria shook her head wildly for a moment before swiftly excusing herself to use the bathroom as if the hounds of hell were at her feet. The unmistakeable sound of retching ensued.

Nysio studied the pregnancy test. It was barely the length of a credit card and only a third of the width with one small plastic screen at the centre. A screen that currently showed two pink lines, side by side.

He paled, composing the rapid thrum of his own heartbeat under his fine silk suit jacket and placing the small test back down onto the table as though it were a bomb, set to erupt any moment. In a way, he supposed it might be, considering the doctor was now studiously avoiding looking at him. He knew that she was a medical professional, but as a man who had lived decades now with people using even the most ridiculous information against him, he felt the swift instinct to protect this delicate new development.

‘I’ll give you both some time to talk,’ the doctor said gently. ‘But I’ll need to return to remove the birth control. It’s a simple procedure. I’ll talk you both through some more of the details of what to expect then too.’

‘Thank you, Doctor. You will receive an additional payment for your discretion,’ he said quickly, grateful when the woman shook his hand and disappeared without any prompting. Nysio wandered back to the bathroom door, knocking once and noting the stark silence coming from within.

‘Just let me know you are still conscious in there.’

A small sound, suspiciously like a muffled sob, came from the other side of the locked door and Nysio felt his chest tighten in response.

‘I just...need a moment.’ Aria spoke between deep breaths.

Something tightened in his chest at the forced strength in her words. Even now, she was putting on her brave face. The urge to force his way into the bathroom to see that she was okay consumed him, but alongside that was an equally strong urge to run far from this apartment and the momentous life-changing revelations that had taken place.

He took a seat in the living area directly across from the bathroom, feeling the weight of reality pressing in upon him. Before finding out the truth of his birth, he had assumed that once the reserves for their foundations and investments were restored he would settle down and have a family of his own. It was the Bacchetti way, after all, to ensure the bloodline continued no matter what it took. But, of course, he was assuming that this pregnancy was a result of their night on the jet. That might not be the case. That realisation stopped him in his tracks, his gut tightening. Was it even his baby?

He sat frozen for a while longer, until the silence was broken by the sound of the bathroom lock sliding open. Aria emerged, her face wan and flushed and her shoulders sagging with clear exhaustion. Nysio stood, stalking across the open expanse of the living room, and took her gently by the elbow, guiding her to a cushioned armchair with a footstool. Once she was adequately seated, he busied himself with pouring a glass of water and placing it within her reach.

To his surprise she didn’t fight him off for fussing, instead she seemed to deflate before his eyes. Her muttering of a limp ‘thank you’ under her breath was almost enough to have him calling the doctor back.

The question of their situation lay between them in the form of the positive pregnancy test on the coffee table, a gauntlet of sorts, and Nysio tensed as he anticipated her next move. The woman he had come to know over the short time they’d spent together had been a refreshing force of brutal honesty. But this pale-faced version looked weak and cagey, as if she was poised to run from him at any moment. He felt his fingers tighten on the arms of his chair with the effort not to reach out to ensure she stayed put.

Her eyes dropped and she spied the test still lying in the centre of the table behind him. She paused, her lower lip quivering as she averted her gaze, trying to hide her expression from him. The look of vulnerability on it shocked him.

He waited until she finally met his gaze. ‘So, you’re pregnant.’

‘Yes.’

He waited a moment, waited for her to elaborate on that monosyllabic response but no more came. ‘Do you have any idea how far along you are?’ he asked delicately, watching as she sipped the water slowly.

She closed her eyes for a moment. ‘No more than six weeks for sure.’

His own knowledge of reproductive biology was pretty basic but he knew that if she was six weeks along, that put conception right around the time they had first met. He had no idea how many times they had made love that night but he knew it had been...a lot.

One night of abandon.

Was that really all that it had taken for his carefully laid plans to be so thoroughly changed? His recent decision to remain a bachelor was a deliberate one, born of the knowledge that his very existence was a lie and he would never want to inflict that upon another generation.

He kept his voice neutral, seeing the tension in the fine lines around her mouth. He needed to tread carefully, to be tactful. ‘That night on the jet you said you had not been with anyone for a long time. Is that still the truth?’

She met his gaze instantly. ‘Yes. I...there has only been you for years now.’

He felt her hushed words pierce the breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. And they stayed there in the air, vibrating through him for a moment with quiet finality. He nodded once. Even though he’d suspected as much, he’d needed to give her the space to confirm it. To acknowledge that there were two of them in this.

A movement jolted him out of his thoughts and he looked up as Aria put her glass down with a heavythunkand dropped her face softly into her hands.

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