Chapter Ten
She would be lying if she said she wasn’t nervous about meeting with Romeo’s mom.
She was obviously very important to him, and a huge part of their issues came from the fact that the divorce had hurt her so much.
And Heather had been lumped up into the grouping of very bad things that had caused trauma.
She figured it was in her best interest to dress demurely so as not to draw attention to herself or bring up any feelings about her being some kind of seductress who had trapped Romeo into this.
“I have trapped you into marriage, though,” she said cheerfully as they got into his car and began to drive toward his mother’s home.
“Have you?”
“Yes. The ultimatum that I issued you was quite firm.”
“I truly hate to be the one to tell you this, but you effectively couldn’t trap me if you wanted to. You might have inherited a sizable fortune from my father, which we split, but don’t forget I was already in possession of my own.”
That made her bristle. “What are you saying?”
“You don’t have as much power over me as you think.”
She gazed at the Austrian countryside, which was beautiful, particularly in comparison to how annoyed she felt just at the moment.
“But you agreed.”
“Yes. Because I think it’s the best thing.
I don’t think that our child should experience the difficulties that either of us did.
And I think that it’s best, for many reasons, for the two of us to be married.
But if I had decided not to marry you, I would never have surrendered full custody just because you said that was my only option. ”
“That is really annoying.”
“Why? Why does it matter, when you got your way?”
“It matters because…” Well, now she felt manipulated.
“You wanted to think that you got something on your own?”
“Maybe. Or like maybe I was compelling.”
“You are compelling, Heather Gray. If you weren’t, I wouldn’t have gotten you pregnant in the first place.”
That placated her slightly. But only slightly. At least she had some pull, she supposed.
His mother’s house was beautiful. Palatial and situated on top of a mountain that overlooked the city.
“Beautiful,” she said.
“It is,” he replied. “You would think that she might find some peace here.”
“She doesn’t?”
“Peace is not really in my mother’s wheelhouse.”
Her stomach twisted with nerves, or maybe it was morning sickness. It was really hard to tell. She had been feeling better in general, but sometimes nausea hit her, and not necessarily always early in the day.
They were ushered in by one of his mother’s employees, and through the entryway, into the dining room. It was set up beautifully for high tea, with tiered trays of desserts and delicate china all around.
“This is beautiful.”
Heather said that just before his mother swept into the room, and the look of delight on her face at hearing it instantly alleviated some of Heather’s worries.
“I’m glad that you think so,” she said.
Carla Accardi was one of the most beautiful women in the world.
This was a truth universally accepted by many fashion magazines, and age had not dimmed her beauty.
Her dark hair was just as it had been the last time Heather had seen her.
Long and falling in waves around her shoulders, not a single strand of silver to be seen, though that was probably the work of color artists.
She still had the slim frame required of a runway model back in the ’90s, and as Heather remembered, looked elegant just standing there.
She was wearing a floral robe in a highly saturated silk.
It could have been a dress, it could’ve been only a robe, but she made it look like high-fashion either way.
“Lisa’s daughter,” she said, her dark eyes fixed like lasers on Heather.
“Yes.”
“Your mother is dead now.”
“Yes,” Heather said.
There was no real compassion in the other woman’s voice. But no venom either. It was an observation. And even though it felt unkind, Heather wasn’t going to react to it. She had too much practice being bullied.
“Let’s all have a seat,” Carla said, smiling brightly.
Heather returns the smile. “Yes. Let’s.”
“You’re pregnant,” Carla said, in that same matter-of-fact tone. No indication as to whether or not she was pleased by the news.
“Yes. And Romeo and I are getting married. I know he told you already.”
“I do hope that you have a prenuptial agreement.”
“Yes,” Romeo said. “We do. Of course. To protect the both of us.”
“You obviously need more protection than she does,” Carla said.
“Financially,” Heather said, shrugging. “That is inarguably true.”
Both Romeo and Carla looked at her.
“Well,” she said. “It is. I’m not offended by that.”
“Is he only marrying you because you’re pregnant?” she asked.
The question was cutting. But again, nothing that had never been leveled at Heather before. By Romeo himself, in fact.
“Yes. We both think it would be better to avoid the messy situation that we found ourselves in growing up.”
“I’m familiar with the mess,” Carla said.
“I know,” Heather responded. “I wasn’t casting any blame. It must’ve hurt you very much, what happened between my mother and your husband. I know that it’s ancient history now, and both of them are gone. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a painful history.”
Heather wasn’t being disingenuous. She might believe that Giuseppe and her mother were the love story, but it didn’t mean there was no cost to it.
As a kid, she had filtered that out. Because it had been inconvenient to think about it or dwell on it.
Because it didn’t feel beneficial. But as an adult, she could look at it with a little bit more complexity.
Now that she was not looking at Romeo as an enemy, now that she was actually giving some space to how his relationship with his father had been damaged, and it was entirely on him, she was just… seeing it differently.
“I was very hurt by it,” Carla said. “Thank you.”
“I promise that I don’t want to hurt your son in any way. And we’re going to be the best parents possible for your grandchild. You’re their only grandparent. The only one they have left. The only one they’ll ever know. That’s an incredibly special position.”
It wasn’t about placating her, or managing her, though she was well aware she was doing that, but it really was about the relationship. Romeo couldn’t fix the relationship with his father. He was gone. Their child wouldn’t have another grandparent.
“That is a very…kind thing to say,” Carla said.
“It’s true,” Heather said.
“We’re building a family. I think it can be a good thing.”
“I would like to wear green to your wedding,” Carla said.
“Of course you can,” Heather replied.
“I prefer a Kelly green.”
“You can wear whatever shade you want. And I will choose whatever shade I like for everything else.” On that she was firm. His mother would not be taking over every aspect of the wedding.
Of course, maybe it didn’t matter if the wedding was… Was it a sham wedding? They were getting married for the baby? They weren’t in love—they…
They certainly had a sexual relationship. Right now. But all of their paperwork had all those contingencies, and if they had sex while they were married, the stakes of it all went up.
But it was the only marriage she would have.
She had never really dreamed of marriage, or having children. Because the way that Romeo had obsessed her, wrapped himself around her desires and her fantasies at such a young age, had kept her from doing so.
And now she was marrying him. Consigning herself to life with him while they raised their child—it was what they had both agreed on.
But she couldn’t see life after Romeo, because she had never been able to see life after Romeo.
And in the one moment when she had thought she might have a life after him, she had cut her own fantasy short by finally snapping the thread that had stretched between them for all this time.
She’d crossed a line with him and couldn’t go back. So as far as she was concerned, the marriage was real.
The marriage was real.
What she didn’t know was how to ensure it was still about their child.
Because right now that was a distant hope, and Romeo was here now. She wanted him, she craved him, but she also knew they’d only been getting along for about forty-eight hours.
That thought echoed inside of her as she tried to finish her tea. But that left so many unanswered questions. If it was real, then what were her feelings toward him? And what was she going to do when they walked down the aisle with all that paperwork between them?
Was there a world where they could try to make something real out of all of this?
When they left, he walked around to her side of the car and pulled the door open. He looked at her for a long moment. “You did amazingly well.”
She got into the car, and he shut the door, and she released a shuddering breath on a realization.
She had never really hated him at all.
The way that she handled his mother had been skillful on a level he had never seen before.
Moreover, she had made it seem easy. He had expected some kind of blowup, but that hadn’t occurred.
Instead, Heather had seemed to know exactly what to say and what to do.
And though his mother was…happy with the arrangement, at least for now, he knew better than anyone how quickly his mother’s moods could change.
But he was pleased to be in the middle of a good one now.
Everything was working out well right now.
But he had never been more aware of exactly what was at stake.
The ecosystem was fragile. Between him and Heather, everyone and his mother.
The environment that they were bringing their child into had the potential to be volatile.
He had never experienced family any other way.