Chapter 46
“This can’t be fucking real!”
“Do I need to remind you again that we’re talking about Beau Carmouche-LeBlanc? If he’s determined not to let you find her, Gianni, you won’t.”
I pace back and forth in frustration.
It’s been a week since I came back from New Orleans the same way I left: empty-handed.
I tried every possible way to meet with Beau, but the man is worse than a secret agent.
“Maybe you should just let it go,” Abaddon says.
“It’s not in my nature to leave things unfinished. If she wants to end it, she needs to say it to my face.”
“Right now, you should focus on the problems you actually can solve.”
“If you’re talking about Capria, I’ve already handled that. Pull up Italia News.”
He takes out his phone and scrolls until he finds the paper’s website.
When he’s done reading a few minutes later, he says, “She deserved worse.”
“It’s the best I can do for now.”
The deal I made with Capria was that, within seventy-two hours, she’d retract the news about our supposed engagement. Instead, the bitch doubled down, reaffirming the wedding, and even had the audacity to say it would happen in a few weeks.
I only found out what she’d done once I got to New Orleans. I immediately called my U.S. lawyers, and they arranged for me to record a statement with a major TV network, denying the so-called nuptials.
I didn’t mince words when I said my relationship with Capria was over, and I didn’t even mention the baby.
I hate media exposure, but I would never let the public humiliation Capria inflicted on my girlfriend slide. Because of those photos of me and Elodie at the charity gala, some gossip rags went as far as to call Elodie a mistress.
Besides the rage I felt at Capria for exposing her that way, the very idea of being compared to my father, living two parallel relationships, sickened me to the core.
I had planned to hold off on the interview for a few more days, until I could speak to my family, especially my mother, to prepare them.
But the frustration of not being able to meet Elodie in New Orleans pushed me forward.
If putting my private life on headlines around the world was what it took to make Elodie at least hear me out, I’d do it.
I’m losing my mind not being able to reach her.
I’m clinging to the hope that once she sees the headlines, she’ll finally let me explain.
Now the whole world knows the truth.
There will be no wedding. The only thing tying me to that lunatic is the baby she’s carrying.
“There’s something you need to know.”
“What?”
“The Mancini family is broke,” Abaddon says.
“What? They’ve got as much money as we do.”
“They had money. Now they’re drowning in debt. Maybe that’s why your ex is so desperate to drag you to the altar.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I don’t deal in rumors, only in facts. Like you said yourself, you’ll only know if the child is yours when you do the DNA test after it’s born.
But I find it suspicious that Capria is trying to tie you down by any means exactly when her family’s about to go bankrupt.
Now, as for the other matter, we still have nothing. He’s still hiding.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose, my eyes burning from sleepless nights and stress.
“I’ve reinforced security for my sisters,” I tell him as I walk him to the door. “Keep looking for him.”
Once Abaddon is gone, I go to my desk and open the drawer with Capria’s pregnancy test results.
I look through them one by one again.
I wondered if it was all a setup, but when she was admitted after hitting her head, the doctors confirmed the pregnancy was real.
Not even five minutes after Abaddon leaves, the door to my office opens again, and Tommaso storms in like the devil’s on his heels. “How far along did Capria say she was?”
Instead of answering, I hand him the tests I was just reviewing.
He takes them, sits in the armchair, and starts reading.
“What’s going on, Tommaso?”
My brother rises and comes closer to me. “That baby can’t be yours.”
“What?”
“I came here only because I still have a shred of humanity left and didn’t want to be unfair.”
“I don’t understand a damn thing. What the hell are you talking about?”
“I had your ex investigated. I heard rumors her family was broke,” he says, confirming what Abaddon had already told me. “So, I hired a PI who found out your ex-girlfriend is having an affair with the gardener.”
“What?”
“I don’t trust that snake. When I first heard about the Mancini bankruptcy, I didn’t care.
But then came the pregnancy, and right after, Capria announcing a supposed engagement, and I got suspicious.
I had someone tail her. She’s been sleeping with her parents’ gardener.
That alone made me think it was a setup.
Now, with the test results, I’m certain that child isn’t yours. ”
“How can you be so sure about something even I don’t know?”
“Because the day you broke up with her, you were at my vineyard. We talked, and I remember the date clearly—it would’ve been Nicolo’s birthday, Ricco’s son, if he were alive.”
I grimace, a mix of pain and guilt. We’ve spent so long hating each other—my family against the Morettis, and theirs against us—that I never even got to know my nephew. When Nicolo died, every single one of us felt like shit.
“I’d gone up to the terrace to think, and then you showed up. Here,” he says, pointing at the papers, “it says she was six weeks pregnant when she was admitted to the hospital. Unless you cheated on Elodie. . .”
“Of course I didn’t.”
“Then that baby can’t possibly be yours. And there’s more. With the right incentive, the man is willing to testify he slept with Capria almost every day since you two broke up. He’s married, so he’ll only speak up if he gets something in return, since he knows it could ruin his marriage.”
“Jesus, this just keeps getting better!”
I grab my phone and place the call in less than five seconds.
“I hope you’re calling to retract that awful interview, Gianni,” Capria says, her voice tearful. “If you let me call a magazine and come to my house for some photos, there’s still time to fix the damage. We both know we’ll end up married anyway. If you don’t, I’ll leave with the baby.”
“So that was your plan? Blackmail me with the threat of running away with my child, forcing me into marriage? Honestly, Capria, I thought you knew me better. I’d go to Hell and request an audience with the Devil himself if that’s what it took to stop you from using my child against me. Too bad for you that baby isn’t mine.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“I already know everything. Don’t even try to deny it. You’re pregnant with your gardener’s child. I’ve changed my mind. I want a DNA test immediately,” I bluff, “or I’ll give another interview telling the whole world you don’t even know which one of us is the father.”
I’m not letting her off the hook. Either way, she’s going to pay for screwing up my relationship with Elodie, but I need her to admit whether my brother’s suspicions are true.
“I’ve got your test results here. The doctor in Paris gave me a copy. That day, you were six weeks pregnant. This baby can’t be mine.”
She starts crying, but the time when her tears affected me is long gone.
“So, what’s it going to be? Keep lying?”
“Gianni, I only did what I did because I was desperate and—”
“Go to hell with your excuses. You have my word you’ll pay for what you’ve done. I never forget an offense.”