Chapter Seven #2
“Based on the results, I can confirm that the child is indeed a DNA match to you, and based on the amount shared, the most likely conclusion is that she is your brother’s child.”
It was forthright and to the point. And still, the information landed with such force. Not quite the blow Agustin expected, but more a sense of relief.
This child was his, after a fashion. A piece of his brother. Another responsibility, but he knew what to do with responsibility. At least, he would figure it out. He would ensure Julia lived a life suitable for any Delgado heir.
She was the Delgado heir at the moment.
The thought of this swamped him with a mix of twisting emotions he couldn’t totally sort through.
The only thing he knew for sure was…this was no disappointment, no complication.
A piece of Felipe lived on, and Agustin would make sure to give her everything he had not been able to afford his brother.
“Thank you, Doctor. I trust that this information will stay between us and only between us.”
“Of course, Mr. Delgado. If there is anything else you require, you need only let me know.”
“Thank you.”
He ended the call with Dr. Cressaro, then stood there for a few moments, trying to fully absorb this information and what to do with it. Paulo still needed to track down the mother. She was a loose end they couldn’t have, but Agustin could start moving forward with this knowledge.
Julia was his now.
He glanced at the window and no longer saw the trio of women. They must have made it inside, so he went to go in search of them.
He found Mara and Julia in the sunroom toward the back of the royal wing of the castle. Mara’s hair was still up, but strands had fallen loose and curled around her face—no doubt from the wind when she’d taken her walk.
Her cheeks were a little rosy, as were Julia’s, likely from the cold wind outside.
But in this moment, they were both soaking up the rays of sun through the large windows.
Mara was kneeling on the floor over Julia who was lying on a spread-out blanket.
She was making her little noises and rolling this way and that.
When she finally went from stomach to back, Mara clapped enthusiastically and cooed, “Yay!” at the baby, who gurgled and kicked in happy response.
“This is indeed impressive.”
Mara jumped a little—clearly having no idea he’d been watching.
She didn’t look at him. Instead she leaned forward and scooped up Julia before turning to face him.
But she kept her gaze on the baby. “I thought she could use some fresh air and sunlight today. Senora Silva helped me out when I had calls or emails to answer, so we did not need your assistance this afternoon.”
“Ah.”
Silence descended. Not awkward but…tense. Perhaps uncomfortable. Just like every moment since that night in her room. Too much knowledge of how each other felt, their bodies pressed against each other.
“I have had a call from Dr. Cressaro,” Agustin offered, somewhat abruptly.
Finally, Mara’s dark gaze lifted to his.
“She is Felipe’s,” he said.
Mara exhaled sharply, then nodded. “I suppose this is not a surprise. At least not any more than her appearance.” She smiled down at Julia. “What is next, then?”
“I will have to determine what will be done with her on a permanent basis. In some ways, little changes. No one can know.”
She frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
“The press frenzy over his death would seem an afterthought if they found this out. Felipe having a secret child? My family would never know peace.” And bigger than that…that poor defenseless child would be marked and labeled and hounded by the world’s obsession with her father.
It could not get out. It could never get out. Not unless the fervor around Felipe died down someday, and in the current moment, Agustin did not know how to believe it would ever be the case.
“You cannot hide her away forever. That isn’t fair to her. She deserves a life, Agustin.”
Frustrated with Mara’s certainty, particularly when he couldn’t totally disagree with her but couldn’t agree either, Agustin scowled down at her. “Then what do you suggest, Ms. Valdez? That I throw her and my mother to the wolves?”
His mother. He was going to have to tell his mother. He knew she’d be pleased to have a piece of Felipe, but it would come with so many complications and so much grief that Felipe was not here to be a father to his daughter.
Did you know?
That letter from the mother made it sound like perhaps Felipe had known about his baby. Perhaps he’d been some small part of Julia’s life. Without Felipe, we are nothing. That was what the mother had written. Surely it meant she’d lost him when everyone else had.
But then why had Felipe been in Paris racing cars and being foolish? Why had the baby been left here? Would Agustin ever know? And more important, he supposed, did it matter?
“I do have a suggestion,” Mara said, speaking so softly, he almost thought he’d imagined it. “Though it would require the countess to be on board.”
Agustin had to look at her now. Even with her hair carefully twisted back and away from her face, he could picture the way it had been the other night.
Wild curls, like the few that corkscrewed around her face now.
Like there was a completely different person under the careful persona she moved through the world with.
A dangerous thought he could not let himself wonder about.
“What about the countess?” he managed to grind out, though he couldn’t even picture what the countess looked like at the moment.
“Julia is your blood. She is your responsibility with Felipe gone and the mother…missing. If the mother truly doesn’t want her or can’t keep her for whatever reason, then you could claim she is yours to the broader public. This would help with the media scrutiny for her.”
He rubbed his temple where a headache was beginning its dull ache. “I wished to bring the press off my mother and my brother’s memory with a wedding, not a scandal.”
“Well, it needn’t be a scandal with the right framing. If there is no record of Julia’s birth, her parents, where or when or how…then you can make her origins whatever to suit your purposes.”
“My purposes? And what would those be?”
“To keep Julia safe from the vultures.” There was a fervor in the way she said that. A disgust with the press that he had not seen from her when it was about Agustin.
In such a short time, the child had grown to mean something to her. She cared for Juila’s protection.
“If you marry the countess, as is the current plan, and the countess is amenable, you could present Julia as a child the two of you had. Together.”
He mulled this option over. A child of his would garner some attention but not the way a child of Felipe’s would. The wedding could overshadow a child, perhaps, except the wedding was the problem. “A child we had out of wedlock.”
Mara shrugged. “Perhaps. I’m not sure wedlock is a modern concern, but you can work around it if it is a concern for you.
” She made it sound like he was some kind of old-fashioned ogre.
“You’re an incredibly wealthy man with a lot of connections.
If wedlock mattered, I’m sure you could backdate a legal marriage and forge whatever documents necessary to prove you and the countess are the parents.
I don’t need to tell you that money can buy just about everything. ”
She was not wrong there, but he wasn’t sure he understood her full vision. “We would simply…marry and pass Julia off as our own?”
“Yes. You would raise her as yours. She would have some notoriety, I suppose, as a Delgado. But nothing like being Felipe’s daughter. Which is not something you need to keep from her. This is about protecting her. Not lying to her.”
It was perhaps a bit of a preposterous plan but not impossible. Not out of the question. There was certainly some merit to it. Something had to be done with Julia. Mara was right in this respect. Julia could not simply live here in this castle alone with the Silvas.
“The countess would have to be one hundred percent on board with this,” he murmured, thinking of the woman he knew…
and did not know well enough to determine how she would feel about this.
Based on his time with her, he believed she’d be amenable to a marriage.
Even one in name only. But he had no idea how she’d feel about becoming a parent.
“Yes. But she is on board with marrying you, and quickly, to be a distraction. This is only a slight change.”
“There is a difference between entering into a name-only marriage and entering into being a parent. A real parent.”
“I did not realize it was meant to be name only,” Mara said quietly.
And for a brief moment, their gazes held. The implications settled around them like a reminder of that moment when they’d been so close to crossing a line that could not be uncrossed.
Except all he could think of was crossing it. Day in day out. Every second, whether she was in his orbit or not. Perhaps crossing it was the only option. The spell had to be broken.
He could reach out now, fix his mouth to hers and know.
Mara broke eye contact first and stepped slightly away as if she knew where his mind had gone. As if she could read his intentions.
Julia sat on her hip, eyeing him with suspicion as if she could as well.
You’ve lost all grip on sanity.
“It is only a suggestion,” Mara said, her voice a little raspy. “One to consider. For Julia.”
Yes, everything had to be for Julia now. He could not concern himself with Ms. Valdez as anything more than the assistant who would help make it happen.
But his body, his mind, his very being was not getting the message.
They avoided each other for the rest of the day. Mara even managed to eat dinner in the sitting room, rather than with the Silvas and Agustin and Julia. She excused it by saying that taking care of Julia all day had put her behind on some work.