Chapter Twelve
ALL NIGHT, JADE’S OLD doubts of her self-worth picked at her. Her mind began sifting through her alphabet of contingency plans, the ones she had relegated all the way to Q, R, S, T. The ones where Luca rejected her and she had to move in with her mother and put herself and her life back together.
At least she was already in London. Her new job gave her a strong footing and would allow her to thrive professionally. She had no doubt that she could give her child a secure upbringing, with or without Luca.
She didn’t need him.
She wanted him, though. She loved him.
She wouldn’t beg him to love her back, though. She wouldn’t accept crumbs when she knew she deserved more.
He had taught her she deserved better.
If her mother wasn’t expecting her, she might have stayed in bed all day, but she rose and dressed in a simple tunic and maternity pants.
She would be an adult about all of this and kiss her husband goodbye, even though his going back to Milan without her felt like a painful step in an inevitable direction.
His clipped voice carried from the dining room as she came down the stairs. “That’s called blackmail and I don’t respond well to threats.”
“I don’t want money.” That was her father’s voice! Jade paused on the stairs to listen.
“What then? My vote on policies of your choosing? Go to hell.”
“No, you go back to the hell you came from. Jade can come to my town house to apologize and start fixing this mess she’s made.”
What mess? Not still Giselle? The endless nerve of the man!
Luca’s voice dropped lethally. “I’ve promised my wife she never has to hear your ugly voice again, but she’s listening to this conversation.”
Jade gasped and snatched her hand off the newel post.
A muted blip cut off whatever her father had almost said, then there was the scrape of a chair.
Jade set heavy feet on the final two stairs and turned to face Luca at the bottom. He was still in his workout shorts and T-shirt.
“Blackmail?” she asked with a throb of anguish in her voice. “He knows about your father? I’m so sorry, Luca. I—”
“It’s not your fault.” He was coiled tight, expression grim, jaw like iron. He was as coldly angry and untouchable as he’d been when he had crashed her wedding five months ago.
She took it doubly hard since it was coming on the heels of her confession last night, making him seem that much more withdrawn from her.
I can’t be with you, Jade. You know why.
Her stomach turned. Why did he have to go after Luca in such a painful way? It was just like her father to jab below the belt, but completely intolerable.
“I’ll go talk to him,” she said, hugging herself. It only meant letting him lecture her until he ran out of breath, then apologizing and doing whatever he thought she must.
“Never speak to him,” Luca said vehemently. “Your mother is expecting you today. I’ll handle this.”
“Luca.” She set her hands on his bare arms and he cupped her elbows, but only to hold her off. Her heart clenched again, aching.
“I promised I wouldn’t allow him to hurt you,” he said stiffly. “He won’t.”
“He is. Because he’s hurting you. Let me fix it.”
His expression flexed, tortured. Regressive.
“He doesn’t want money, Jade. He wasn’t trying to manipulate my position for political reasons.
If he only wanted to humiliate me, he would have already released whatever he has.
No, he can’t stand that I’ve set you free of him.
Let me get dressed. I’m going to put an end to his place in your life once and for all. ”
“What are you going to do?”
“Just go to your mother’s.” He tried to shift her out of his way.
“Luca.” She let her fingernails dig into the skin on his arms, trying to pierce past the rage that gripped him.
Was it for her? Or the anguish of loss that still sat so heavily on his heart?
“Whatever you’re thinking of doing, I won’t let you.
You also promised me we were in this together.
Remember that? Don’t do something that will leave me to raise this baby alone. ”
“You’re better off alone,” he bit out, gaze flashing.
He might as well have jabbed a stiletto between her ribs. She gasped and stepped back, dropping her hands to her sides.
“If that’s how you feel, by all means.” She waved at the stairs. “I would rather be alone than unwanted.”
“You know I want you,” he said through his teeth.
“And you know I love you. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
“It means everything!” he near bellowed. “Why the hell do you think I have to do this?” He brushed past her and went up the stairs.
She took a step to go after him, but realized she wasn’t going to change his mind.
No. What she had to do was confront her father herself.
You don’t know what you’ll do for someone you love.
Now he did. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t even fully rational, but it was necessary.
As Luca had parsed out that Noel Atbridge was bent on separating him from Jade, so he could go back to abusing her, he had lost whatever civility he possessed.
He went upstairs to dress, but also to make a call, one that his wife wouldn’t overhear.
Years ago, when he and Nonna had been struggling particularly hard to make ends meet, Luca had said to her, “Maybe I can just do one job for them?”
“You can’t walk into a hornet’s nest and not get stung,” she had said.
He was risking a sting if he called the number he was given, but there was nothing he wouldn’t do for Jade. He understood now. Love was a terrifying vulnerability, but it was a superpower, too.
When he came downstairs, he discovered Jade had left for her mother’s. Edoa had driven her so he booked a car service, then texted his assistant for Atbridge’s address.
It hadn’t been forty-five minutes since he’d spoken to Atbridge. Perhaps thirty since he and Jade had exchanged heated words. Twenty since he had climbed into this car.
And yet when he stepped out of it, he spotted his own car on the other side of the block.
She had gotten here ahead of him.
Jade brought Edoa into the town house with her, all the way into the den where her father sat behind his mahogany desk.
Weirdly, he looked smaller than she remembered. Grayer in complexion and more a player at power than someone who actually possessed it.
Had he weakened in this short time? Or was she finally seeing him as he had always been: pathetic?
“You saw reason. That’s something. You can go,” he said offhandedly to Edoa.
“Edoa doesn’t speak English.” He actually spoke a lot more than he let on. He was also a trained bodyguard. She had already directed him to interfere at the least sign of physical aggression. “Please wait outside the door,” she said in Italian. “But leave it open.”
He stepped out of the room and positioned himself so she could see the bulk of his shoulder.
“Now, what is your problem this time?” she asked her father.
His gaze flickered with surprise that she was taking such an antagonistic tone.
“Because I look after Mum myself now,” she reminded him. “I don’t even live in London. I’m completely out of your hair, but you’re still making threats against my husband?”
“You broke Abigail’s engagement last night.”
That took her aback. “I barely spoke to her.”
“She said Wyatt still loves you so she broke it off. I want this match.” He tapped his blotter to emphasize his words. “You need to convince him it’s over between you and send him back to Abigail.”
She let out a burst of laughter. Had she really been intimidated by these tactics in the past? His blame-shifting and insistence that his needs were higher than hers?
“Why would he listen to me? He left me because I’m your great embarrassment. Although I have to say the tables have turned on that. The way you’re treating my husband?” She dropped her tone into icy disgust. “I’m ashamed to say I know you.”
“Mind that cheek.” He rose and flattened his hands on the desk. “Has he told you what sort of business his father was in?”
“I know his family died very tragically and that he only has his grandmother left.” She lifted her chin. “She’s very frail. If you engage in a smear campaign, you’re liable to kill her. Is that who you are now? Someone who pushes elderly people into an early grave?”
“The truth hurts,” he said with cold disdain.
“It does.” She set a hand on her bump, heart hammering with fresh threat.
With the potent rage of a mama bear. “I found it very hurtful when you tried to intimidate me into terminating this pregnancy. It would be a particular shame if that got out, wouldn’t it?
Considering your pro-life stance in parliament. Your own grandchild?”
“I didn’t say anything of the sort,” he said blandly. “It must have been a misunderstanding on your part.”
“You’re willing to go to war in the press like that? Why? Because you lost? You never wanted me in the first place!”
“No. But you’re useful.” His lip curled with contempt. “And he needs to learn his place.”
“You know why I’m useful? Because I have a brain in my head.
I’ve read the laws, you know. I can go after a portion of your estate once you’re dead.
Perhaps you want to discuss that with your children before you take this any further because I’ll start that procedure today if you don’t back down and leave us alone. ”
“I looked after you,” he said as though all those reluctant quid pro quo deals had been enough, but she suspected it was bluster. His gaze was turning inward, calculating whether he wanted to take on lawyer fees as well as scandal.
She held his gaze, silently daring, Try me.
Into the charged silence, there was a noise behind her. A rap on the front door, a flustered houseman saying, “Sir!”
Her husband shouted, “Jade!”
“I’m here,” she called, turning to see Luca’s thunderous expression as he strode into the room. “Everything’s fine, amuri miu,” she assured him. “Noel is deciding whether he wants to go to court over my portion of his fortune or whether we’ll go back to pretending we’re not related or acquainted.”