Page 43 of A Son Hidden from the Sicilian

He was so tired of the wordlove. Saverina saying it. Him feeling it. Hating it. He pulled away from her. He was walking out the door, but that didn’t stop her.

“If I was in your position, or Brianna’s...what would you want for me?” she said as he walked away.

Everything good.

But not love. Because love was the root of all the bad. All the complex. All thedeath. When had love ever done anythinggoodfor the people in his family? It was duty, it wassacrificethat had saved them.

It was his mother’s love for his father, and Rocca’s love for both of them, that had been a curse.

But when Saverina put itthatway, asking him to imagine her in his position, it haunted him. Because he wanted every joy for her, like he did for Gio, and he did not know how to protect either of them from all the pain that went along with it.

It didn’t change his mind. Nothing would. Or so he told himself as he left Saverina and went to his office. To plan. Because feelings didn’t matter. They only hurt. He would plan them away. Erect all the necessary defenses.

Saverina had said marrying Brianna should be an option, and she was right. Itwouldbe.

But he would put all the necessary walls in place to make certain it never broke him or her or their son.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

BRIANNAWOKEUPfeeling bruised, body and soul. She had not slept well at all. Reliving fractured moments of the art show over and over.

Not just the sex, though she couldn’t lie to herself. Reliving that had her body thrumming with need all over again because she couldn’t seem to put it out of her mind. The way he touched her. The way he made her feel.

What waswrongwith her?

But she was also stuck in that moment of pain at realizing... There was no cure for what she felt for him. If she would beg him the way she had in apublicsetting, two years after he’d left her so abruptly, there was no hope for her keeping her pride. No hope to be the strong, independent woman and good mother she needed to be.

So she had to get away. She knew this on an intellectual level. Even on an emotional level, as her heart twisted over the gruff way Lorenzo had spoken to her at the show. At the arrested look on his face when he’d seen his sister.

But deep down, no matter what, she didn’twantto go home. There was still this part of her that wanted to ignore the complications and sayyes. Living in an estate in Sicily with her child and the father of said child was just fine, regardless of the emotional turmoil of him marrying someone else.

“You need to go home,” she said aloud to herself in the hopes that saying it out loud would get rid of her doubts.

She did not know how to not want Lorenzo. Even when he made her angry, she wanted his hands on her. And she cared about him too much as a person to believe they could burn through all that lust and be left with nothing. Take away wanting him, that ridiculous heat between them, and there were still other things. There was the whole of him.

The way he looked at Gio and his sister, with a kind of pride mixed with love that made her heart swell. The way he listened—not just to her, but to her parents. Then there were the glimpses of hurt she saw underneath all that control that she wanted to soothe. Memories ofbefore, when he’d listened to her prattle on about her art and made her feel special. Important.

She loved the man he was, even if she could somehow get rid of all this physical chemistry she felt for him. But they were two parts of the same coin. Something about this man—body and soul—called to her.

And he wanted tomarrysomeone else, while she was tucked away in a corner of his estate. She just...couldn’t.

Could she?

She heard quiet voices and realized her mother must have entered Gio’s room. She went through the adjoining door to find Mom lifting Gio out of his crib.

“Oh, you’re up,” Mom greeted with a smile. “I heard this one babbling and I couldn’t resist.”

Brianna took in Gio’s sleepy eyes and the way he leaned his head on her mother’s shoulder and wondered if Mom just didn’t like exploring the estate without Gio as a buffer.

She smiled at her mother. Soon, Mom could be home. They could go back to the way things were. They wouldn’t need to be uncomfortable in this strange world that wasn’t theirs.

Except Lorenzo will be in your life, not something you can pretend doesn’t exist.

She shook that gloomy thought away. “Well, we’ll be heading home soon. Get back to a normal routine for you and Dad.”

Helene’s eyebrows drew together. “I thought you might want to...stay.”

Brianna cleared her throat and expressly did not meet her mother’s gaze. Instead she stared out the window in Gio’s room, taking in the beautiful and expansive gardens. It would be such a treat for Gio to grow up here.

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