Modern Romance March 2021 Book 5-8 by Carol Marinelli (desktop ebook reader txt) 📗

driver handed to her and tried to come to terms with the fact that her life, her childhood—in fact, all she had ever known—had been built on a lie. Her parents’ marriage, of which she’d been so proud, had been a sham. They’d both had other partners and the marriage had been in name only, so much so that she and Stefano had been IVF babies.

It felt as if she was the very last to know.

They drove for ages. It was rush hour in Rome, all the workers spilling out, some rushing for transport, others taking their time for a coffee, or to sit in a bar.

She felt like an alien.

A stranger in her own body.

As they passed La Fiordelise she had never been more tempted to ask the driver to pull in, to push through the brass doors and escape to the cool calmness of Gian’s office and unburden herself, as she would usually do. Except, thanks to their argument yesterday, that refuge was denied her now.

Instead, Ariana asked to be dropped off where they had walked that lonely night. She wandered there, too shocked and stunned for tears. It was a sticky late spring day and she drifted a while, ignoring the buzz of her phone.

Finally she glanced at the endless missed calls.

He came first and last.

Gian.

Mamma.

Gian.

Gian.

Mamma.

Gian.

Stefano.

Gian.

She had nothing to say to any of them, at least not until she had gathered her thoughts. Eventually, drained from walking and with a headache creating a pulse of its own, she wandered listlessly home.

‘Hey,’ she said to the doorman, who was dozing behind his cap. She took the elevator up, jolting when she saw a very familiar face. Gian was leaning against the wall, but came to his full height as she approached.

Her heart did not lurch in hope or relief. In fact, it sank, for right now Gian felt like another problem to deal with, another person to hide her true self from.

For her true self was hurting and dreadfully so—and her emotions were clearly too much for him.

‘What are you doing here, Gian?’

‘You didn’t respond to my calls...’

‘No.’ She didn’t even look at him. ‘Because I was not in the mood to speak to anyone. How did you get up here?’ She let out a mirthless laugh as she answered her own question. ‘I really am going to fire that doorman.’

‘I told him we were friends.’

‘Friends.’ She let out a mirthless laugh at his description of them. ‘Well, however you described yourself, the doorman shouldn’t have let you up.’ She opened her door and her words dripped sarcasm as she invited him in. ‘Come through, friend.’

She did not rush around making him welcome or offering a drink. Instead, she dropped her bag and headed straight to the kitchen, where she went to a drawer and took out two headache tablets and poured a glass of water.

For herself.

Gian watched as she downed the tablets and wondered how she still managed to look so put-together, even though he was sure her world had just been turned upside down. ‘I saw you leaving Romano Holdings...’ He tried to open the conversation, but Ariana didn’t respond.

She was in no mood for conversation, and for once she didn’t fill the silent gaps, offer drinks, or make him welcome. In fact, it was Gian who finally broke the tense silence.

‘What happened?’

‘We’ve been having a family catch-up and filling each other in on a few things.’ She had been holding it in all day, sitting through revelation after revelation, and then a formal board meeting, always having to find a way to smile. ‘Dante and Mia are expecting. That’s for family’s ears only,’ Ariana needlessly warned, for she knew, because of his damned discretion, she might as well be telling it to the wall. ‘There is to be a marriage in May, so that makes two Romano weddings.’ Her voice rose and she almost let out an incredulous laugh, that both her brothers, who had always been indifferent to marriage, would soon both have all she had ever craved for herself.

But there was far more on her mind than her brothers. ‘Gian, there’s a reason I didn’t take your calls. I have nothing to say to you. Nothing polite anyway.’ Her confusion at the unfolding events was starting to morph into anger and she turned accusing eyes on him. ‘Did you know?’ she asked, her eyes narrowing into two dangerous slits.

‘I told you—’

‘I’m not talking about Dante and Mia.’ She put down the glass with such a bang that he thought it might shatter, but Gian didn’t even blink. ‘Did you know that my father was gay?’

‘Yes.’

‘For how long?’

‘Since I took over the hotel, I guess.’

‘You guess?’ she sneered.

‘I wasn’t taking notes, Ariana.’

‘And what about my mother’s affair?’

‘I knew about that too. Look, your parents didn’t sit me down and tell me, but given the nature of my work, they rightfully expected discretion. I would never gossip or break a confidence. I didn’t even tell Dante and he is my best friend...’

‘We were lovers!’ Finally she shouted. Finally a sliver of her anger slipped out. ‘I had every right to know.’

‘Oh, so in your perfect world the fact we were sleeping together meant we should have started holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes and sharing?’ He spat the last word with disdain. ‘Tell me, Ariana, when was I supposed to tell you? The first time we made love? The second...?’

‘If we were ever to have a relationship—’ She stopped herself then, her nose tightening as she fought to suppress the tears building in her eyes, because a relationship, a real one, a close one, was the very thing he didn’t want. ‘You could have at least told me as a friend.’

‘I wanted to,’ he admitted. ‘But it was not my place. They were not my secrets to tell. I tried to get you to speak to your father, that day of the interview—’

‘You didn’t try hard enough then.’ Her anger, however misplaced, she