Page 39 of A Son Hidden from the Sicilian

And the best and brightest of them. She remembered so little of the ugliness of the family, hoped for so much for her future, and had every opportunity to make a success of herself. Even without Lorenzo’s help she would succeed, he knew, though he had given it and would continue to at every opportunity.

“I’ll go,” she said, with a raised eyebrow and narrow-eyed look of recrimination. “Ifyou come with me.”

Lorenzo did not see a way out of that, so he gave a sharp nod. They would talk privately. The walk up to her room would give him time...somehow, to put his thoughts in order. To refigure a plan.

Saverina turned and Lorenzo noted she didn’t look at or acknowledge Brianna. Only the boy in her arms.

“And I’ll see you tomorrow,niputi.” She leaned in and gave Gio a smacking kiss on the cheek that had the boy squealing in delight. Clearly Saverina had worked her usual magic and already won Gio over far more quickly than Lorenzo had been able to.

Still, in this moment the boy smiled shyly his way too. He hadn’t called himDadayet, but he no longer hid. He no longer considered Lorenzo scary.

And Lorenzo did not have time to try and continue the work he’d done there. He had to deal with his sister.

She said nothing to Brianna. Just walked past, looking over her shoulder once to nod for Lorenzo to follow. He felt all the Andersens’ eyes on him. Normally he would not behave in such a way that made it look like he was some sort of servant to his sister, but...

He needed distance from Brianna. Even if he’d followed her home. Even if looking away from her was torture. Standing here staring at her in front of her parents, his sister and their son made him...too vulnerable. Too exposed.

So he followed Saverina. Away from the Andersens, to the staircase and then up toward his wing and Saverina’s room.

“So. This woman,” Saverina said, making no attempt to whisper or keep her voice down, so her words likely echoed and carried behind them.

“The mother of my child, you mean?” Lorenzo returned at a much more reasonable decibel level.

“Yeah. Her. What’s her deal?”

“She is an artist. She is here on business. We are working out an agreement on how to co-parent Gio. Then she is going back to New Jersey.” The pain carved deep, but he saw no other way.

Protecting Gio had to come first, and they could not protect him with all these swirling feelings between them, that was for certain. This he knew from experience.

Saverina stopped abruptly on the top of the stairs, whirled to face him. “With Gio?”

“Yes, but we will have a custody arrangement in place. I will not be kept from my son again, nor does she wish to keep me from him. This is all very...” He didn’t dare use the wordmodernwith his young sister, who viewed him as anything but. “...civilized.”

Saverina made a considering noise as she continued to walk down the ornate hall to her room. She had been sixteen when he’d finally amassed enough fortune to buy this estate, so she was the only sibling who’d still been living with him permanently when he did. She’d gotten the first choice of rooms.

“So, do we hate her?” Saverina asked conversationally.

“Why would we hate her? She is the mother of my son.”

“She kept your son from you.”

“She had her reasons. Unfortunate though they may be, they are more Marino’s fault than her own.”

Saverina rolled her eyes. “You blame that guy for everything.”

“Oddly enough, Saverina,that guybeing my rival and trying to ruin my business is to blame for many of my problems.”

She pushed open the door that led to her room. Even though she was off at university, he left it just as she liked so that she could always have somewhere to come home to. So that she felt like she had a home with him always.

So she would never feel alone. So she would never think the answer to any of her problems could only be solved by ending it all.Hewould solve all her problems. Always.

Lorenzo would have liked to have made his excuses now, leaving her to settle in, but he needed to find a way to neutralize the damage Saverina could likely do with Brianna.

“Why have you come, Sav?”

“Well, I called Stefano about the story I saw on the gossip site. You didn’t tell me.” She settled herself onto her bed, then looked up at him, still all speculation. Looking like Rocca and their mother and a grown woman when she should still be a babe in his arms.

“You should have calledme,” he returned gruffly.

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