The Billionaires' Club. Rebecca Winters

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      “Your father told my mother to get out and take her baggage with her—meaning me, of course. Your father’s outrage was frightening. The idea that his son, who would one day become the Duca di Lombardi, was enjoying life below the stairs with one of the cooks’ daughters put him into a frenzy.

      “He vowed to make certain she never got a job anywhere else. He threw Bianca and her mother out that same morning before he left with the police to start searching the countryside for you. That’s why Mamma made me use the Bonucci name, so he couldn’t find us.”

      Vincenzo’s pain bordered on fury. He fought to stay in control. “What he did was inhuman. You should never have been forced to live through such a nightmare, and all because of me. I can never hope to make this up to you.”

      “It’s over, and he was a sick man.”

      His jaw hardened. “More than sick. You don’t know what a frenzy is until you’ve seen him raging drunk. My uncle was the same. Dimi had to get away, too.”

      She swallowed hard. “You said he lives in Milan with his mother.”

      He nodded. “They left the same day as you and your mother did, while my father was out with the police hunting for me.”

      “When I first met your aunt Consolata, she was in a wheelchair. I always worried about her.”

      “I know you did. She always spoke of you with fondness, but she isn’t well and has lost her memory.”

      “That’s so sad.”

      This was the girl he’d remembered and dreamed about. She’d always had a sweetness and kindness that made her stand out from any woman he’d ever known.

      “Did you ever hear how she ended up in her wheelchair?”

      “Mamma told me she had a disease.”

      “No, Gemma,” he ground out. “That was a story the family made up to cover the truth. My father and my uncle Alonzo were the ones with the disease.”

      “What do you mean?”

      “They are alcoholics. Alonzo drove Dimi’s mother home from a party when he was drunk out of his mind. She begged for someone else to drive her, but he became enraged and dragged her to the car. En route home, there was a terrible crash. The man in the other car was killed and Dimi’s mother was paralyzed from the waist down, unable to walk again. But as usual, my father had it hushed up to protect the family honor.”

      Tears splashed down her cheeks.

      “Just know that since my uncle has been imprisoned, Dimi and my aunt have been able to live in peace. But there’s a lot more you need to hear in order for you to understand my sudden disappearance.”

      “A lot more?”

      His fear for what his father might have done to her triggered other thoughts. “The night we almost made love, you thought I’d been recovering from a fall after I’d been out horseback riding.”

      She nodded. “That’s what they had been gossiping about down in the kitchen. I snuck upstairs that night to see how bad your injuries were.”

      “My bruises and welts weren’t because of an accident, Gemma.”

      A cry escaped her lips. She looked ill. “Your father was responsible?”

      “Si. He beat me almost to a pulp.” Gemma winced. “But he did worse to my mamma, and she died because of it.”

      “Oh, Vincenzo—no—” Hot tears spurted from her eyes. “Why would he do that? She was a wonderful person.”

      “My parents’ marriage was a political arrangement with a lot of money and land entailed. But my grandfather Count Nistri, the one who lived in Padua, didn’t trust his new son-in-law. Even back then my father had a reputation for drinking and gambling. But he came from a family of great wealth and was a business wizard.

      “To make certain his daughter, Arianna, my mother, always had security, he’d put a fortune in a Swiss bank account for her alone.”

      “He sounds like a loving man and father.”

      “He was, but my father resented me having any association with him. Still, he couldn’t stop me from visiting him from time to time. My grandfather had the foresight and the means to help me get away when the time came.”

      “How did he do it?”

      “Through a secret source, he learned my father had been badgering my mother for her money. At that point he gave her the information to access it and passports for both of us so we could escape.”

      Another gasp flew out of her.

      “During the last year before she died, my father started hitting her when he couldn’t get at her money. She couldn’t withstand all those beatings.” His eyes stung with tears. “Do you have any idea what I went through, hearing her cries while I was held back by the guards so I couldn’t help her?”

      Gemma covered her mouth in horror.

      “I was helpless. He was the acting duca. He was the law. No one questioned him or his authority. If I’d sent for the police, they wouldn’t have stopped him. Mamma needed me, but I failed her as her son.”

      “Of course you didn’t!” Gemma cried. “Don’t say that! Don’t even think it!”

      “For a long time she’d begged me to take the money and escape because she feared for my life. That’s when I started to plan my disappearance, but I would never have left her behind. As far as escaping, I had to be an adult and couldn’t go anywhere until I was of age.

      “My uncle had no reason to stop his brother, since he was in worse trouble financially and was fighting to stay out of prison. To escape my father, I had to get as far away from Italy as possible. The US suited my plan perfectly.”

      She shook her head. “What plan?”

      “The one Dimi and I devised a year before I left.”

      “A whole year, and you never once told me?” Her voice shook with pain.

      “I didn’t dare until I knew it was safe for you. But when that time came, you were nowhere to be found in Italy. Dimi hunted endlessly for you, too. When I escaped, our family had been unraveling at the speed of sound, Gemma, but until I turned eighteen and Mamma passed away, I couldn’t do anything about it. If my father had gotten wind of anything, that would have been the end of me.

      “Worse, if he’d found out that you knew where I’d gone, there’s no telling what price you might have had to pay. As it was, your mother paid dearly for my disappearance. Thank heaven you got away without him beating you, too.”

      “This is a horror story.”

      “After Mamma’s funeral, my father followed me to my room. He’d been drinking heavily. This time he beat me with his horse whip after I’d gone to bed.”

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