Belle’s groan filled the room.
“It was so horrifying I went into labor and was taken to the hospital. You came a month early, Arabella. You were still in the intensive care unit when I had a graveside service for Robert. The police never found the man who killed him.”
“How terrible for you.” Belle reached out to hug her harder.
“It was terrible, since I couldn’t tell my father. He didn’t know about Robert. I knew if I took you back to Italy, he wouldn’t let me keep you at the palazzo. Worse, I was afraid you wouldn’t be safe with me anywhere.
“When I made arrangements for you at the orphanage, you still needed a lot of care. But my father sent for me to come home. He wasn’t feeling well, because of his heart, and hinted that he wanted me to meet Count Malatesta, who’d recently lost his wife to cancer. My father wanted him for a son-in-law.
“We married on my twentieth birthday. The fact that he still wanted me after I confessed everything to him in private proved to me he was a good man. But while I was still in New York, I couldn’t imagine ever marrying again. It was agony, because I had to rely on the sisters to watch over you. I told them I’d named you Belle. That way no one could ever trace you to Robert or me. I also told them they had to promise that whoever adopted you would take you to church.”
“Nadine always took me.”
“Thank heaven for that.”
In all the years Leon had known Luciana, she’d never made such long speeches. In one breath he’d already learned enough about her past to erase the lies he’d heard whispered by the staff and others who lived on gossip. Those lies about her being shallow and of little substance had colored his thinking for years.
He left the living room and remained outside the doors for several minutes to get a grip on his emotions, before taking the stairs two at a time. When he entered the nursery, he found his father helping Concetta stack some blocks. Sullisto saw him in the doorway. “Well…I guess I don’t have to ask how it went. Your eyes say it all.”
Leon nodded. “You were right. This was one reunion that was meant to be. Come downstairs and see for yourself.”
He plucked his daughter from the floor, still clutching one of her blocks, and they headed out the door with Rufo. When they’d descended the staircase and entered the living room, he discovered the two women still seated on the love seat, deep in conversation punctuated with laughter and tears.
“Forgive us for barging in on you, but my daughter wants to join in.”
“Concetta…” Luciana rushed over to take her from Leon’s arms. Belle was right there with her. Both women fussed over his daughter, laughing, and his little girl broke out in smile after smile. She’d never had so much loving attention in her life.
Leon glanced at his father. They shared a silent message that left no doubt this watershed moment had changed the fabric of life in both Malatesta households.
“Dinner’s ready. Let’s go in the dining room. Tonight we’ll all eat together.” Leon’s words delighted the women.
After he brought the high chair in, they both begged him to put Concetta between them at the candlelit table. Happiness reigned for the next hour, with most of the attention focused on the baby.
Leon looked around, realizing he hadn’t felt this sense of family since before his own mother had died. His father hadn’t seemed this relaxed and happy in years, either. As for Luciana, being united with her daughter had transformed her to the point Leon hardly recognized her. Gone were the shadows and that underlying look of depression.
But it was the new addition to his table that filled him with emotions foreign to him. Since Benedetta’s death, Concetta had been the only joy in his life. Having lost his wife, he hadn’t been able to think about another woman. As for marriage, he had no plan to marry again. His daughter was all he could handle, all he wanted to handle.
Before Benedetta had died, she’d been Leon’s comfort. With two losses in his life, plus Dante’s aloofness, it was Concetta who was the beat of his heart now. Though she was loved by his staff, he guarded her possessively, afraid for anything to happen to her.
He’d been functioning on automatic pilot at work, unenthusiastic about the pleasures he’d once enjoyed. His good friend Vito had phoned, no doubt to make some vacation plans, but Leon hadn’t even called him back yet.
While he’d been going along in this whitewashed state, Belle Peterson had exploded onto the scene. Her presence reminded him of someone who’d come along his private stretch of beach and purposely destroyed the sand castle he’d made for his daughter with painstaking care.
In Belle’s case it wasn’t intentional. Far from it. But the damage was just as bad, because nothing could be put back the way it was before. Leon didn’t like having his world turned upside down, leaving him with inexplicable feelings percolating to life inside.
He should never have kissed her. Obviously, he needed to start dating other women. There were many he could choose from if he wanted to. But it was disconcerting to realize that none of them measured up in any way to Belle.
When Carla came into the dining room to pour more coffee, he asked her to tell Talia to come and put the baby to bed. Concetta was too loud and squirmy, a telltale sign she was tired. But after the nanny arrived and pulled her out of her high chair, his daughter cried and fought not to be taken away. To his astonishment, she reached for Belle and quieted down the second his houseguest grasped the baby to her.
Diavolo! He couldn’t blame it on the green suit or the shape in it. Belle herself, with her creative ways of doing things, had captured his daughter’s interest.
Those dark blue eyes sought his with a trace of concern. “If it’s all right with you, I’d love to get her ready for bed.”
This wasn’t supposed to happen, but what could Leon say? “I’m sure that will make Concetta very happy.” When he saw the way she interacted with Belle, it came to him that his daughter needed a mother. Until now he’d been thinking only of his own needs. It had taken Belle’s advent in their lives for him to realize a father wasn’t enough for Concetta, who deserved two parents to make her life complete.
“Oh good! Come with me,” she said to Luciana. “We’ll do it together.”
“You’ll find a stretchy suit in the top drawer of the dresser,” Leon suggested.
“A stretchy suit?” Belle said to the baby. “I wonder how many pink ones you have.”
“It’s a beautiful color on her, but then she’s lovely in every color,” Luciana said as they left the dining room, chatting together like a mother and daughter who’d never been apart. “She’s already a great beauty.”
Once they were alone, Sullisto eyed Leon. “I can see that Luciana won’t want to be separated from Belle now that they’ve found each other. You say she’s flying back to New York on Sunday?”
“That was the plan,” Leon muttered, not able to think that far ahead.
“Well, as long as she’s in Rimini, she’ll stay with us at the palazzo. I’m anxious to get them both home.” After a slight hesitation, he said, “I haven’t told Luciana this yet, but I’m planning to adopt Belle so she’ll be an integral part of the family.”
After learning how much Luciana had suffered since giving up her daughter, Leon wasn’t surprised by the announcement. What it did do was convince him how deeply his father had learned to love Belle’s mother.
Feeling restless with troubling thoughts he hadn’t sorted out yet, Leon got to his feet. “I’ll go up and make sure Concetta is settling down without problem. Have you told Dante about Belle?”
“No. Pia has been so upset because she hasn’t conceived yet, he took her to Florence