A Forever Family: His Unexpected Family. Rebecca Winters

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СКАЧАТЬ she was the one who played with us and made life exciting. No one could be more fun. We could go to her with any problem and she’d fix it.”

      “You were blessed to have her that long.”

      “We were, but at the time all we could realize was that her death left a great void. Sometimes Benedetta saw me walking on the grounds and she’d join me with her dog. She wouldn’t say anything, but she was a comfort, and I found myself unburdening to her the way kids do. Unfortunately, Dante didn’t have that kind of a confidante. All he had was me, and I was a poor substitute.”

      “Don’t say that, Leon. Just having a sibling, knowing you’re there, makes such a difference. There were several siblings at the orphanage. They had a special bond without even talking. If you could discuss this with Dante, I’m sure he would tell you how much it meant to have a brother who understood what he was going through.”

      Leon studied her for a moment. “You have so much insight, Belle, there are times when I’m a little in awe of you. But you haven’t heard everything yet.”

      She smiled sadly. “I was the great observer of life, don’t forget. You’ve seen people like me before. We hover at the top of the staircase, watching everyone below, never being a part of things. But I eventually grew out of my self-pity. I had to!”

      “Look at you now, a successful businesswoman.”

      Belle leaned forward. “What happened to your relationship with Dante? I want to know. Was it terrible when your father told you boys he was getting married again?” The compassion in her eyes was tangible.

      “The truth?” She nodded. “We both felt betrayed.”

      “You poor things.”

      “To be honest, I couldn’t fathom him marrying anyone else. Our mom was a motherly sort, the perfect mother, if you know what I mean. She made everything fun, always laughing and lively, always there for us.

      “Her death brought a pall over our household. Dante came to my room every night and cried his heart out. I had to hold back my tears to try and help him.”

      “That’s so sad, Leon. I believe the heartache you two endured had to be worse than anything I ever experienced at the orphanage. To be so happy with your mother, and then have her gone...”

      He sucked in his breath. “Things got worse when Papà brought Luciana to the palazzo to meet us. The diamond heiress looked young enough to be his daughter. In fact, she didn’t look old enough to be anyone’s mother. I found her cool and remote.”

      Belle’s heart twisted. “I can’t picture her that way.”

      “That’s because meeting you has changed her into a different person. At the time I hated her for being so beautiful. Anyone could see why she’d attracted our father. As you heard through the librarian, there’d been rumors that both Luciana’s mother and her widowed father might have been murdered.”

      Belle nodded.

      “Some of those rumors linked my father to the latter possible crime. I knew in my heart Papà couldn’t have done such a thing, but I was filled with anger.”

      “Why exactly?”

      “Because I was old enough to understand that love had nothing to do with his marriage to her. He’d done what all Malatestas had done before him, and reached out to bring the Donatello diamond fortune under the far-reaching umbrella of our family’s assets.

      “Gossip was rife at the time. People were waiting to see if he produced another heir. It felt like he’d betrayed our mother, and I couldn’t forgive him. Dante felt the same way and threatened to run away.”

      “How terrible,” Belle whispered sadly.

      “I told him we couldn’t do that. But when we turned eighteen, we would leave. Until then we had to go along with things and deal with the ugly rumors surrounding the Donatello family. But I let him down when I made the decision to go away to college.”

      “You had to live your own life.”

      He raked his hair back absently. “This morning’s explosion lets me know I made a big mistake in leaving.” Pain stabbed his insides, forcing him to his feet.

      “What do you mean?”

      “I left Dante on his own to deal with his pain. I should have stayed and helped him, but I didn’t. Papà’s marriage to a princess shrouded in gossip and mystery was so distasteful to me, I couldn’t get out of the palazzo fast enough. I could have gone to college in Rimini, but instead I went to Rome in order to get away.

      “During the years I was gone, Dante’s pain turned to anger. When I returned, he was involved with his own friends. I moved to the villa, one of the properties I inherited from our mother’s estate, and dug into business at the bank. Later on I began to spend more time with Benedetta. My brother and I had grown apart, but that was my fault.”

      Belle put a hand on his arm. At the first contact, tiny sensations of delight he couldn’t ward off spread through his body. “You couldn’t help what happened then,” she murmured.

      Leon looked down at her hand. “Oh yes, I could have, but I was too caught up in my own pain to reach out. Dante didn’t display any outward signs of rebellion, but obviously, he was riddled with turmoil once our father’s marriage was a fait accompli. I didn’t see it manifested until I came home from college.”

      “Didn’t your father try to prepare you for his marriage to my mother?”

      “No, but to be honest, if he had tried, it wouldn’t have done any good. Be assured I’ll always love my father, but there was a gulf between us. While I was gone I stayed in touch with him and Dante, even made a few short visits on holidays. But it was four years later before I returned to Rimini to live.

      “By that time Dante no longer shared his innermost thoughts with me. The closeness we once enjoyed seemed to have vanished for good. I’m afraid that for him, it was a hurt that never went away.

      “He married Pia Rovere, a distant relative from our mother’s side of the family. They chose to live in another wing of the Malatesta palazzo. That arrangement pleased my father and suited me, since I preferred living on my own at the villa.”

      “She’s lovely.”

      “And very good for Dante, I think. Since then the three of us work in the family banking business. Unfortunately, the relations between my father and me continue to be frayed because of my marriage to Benedetta.”

      Belle’s delicately arched brows met. “I don’t understand.”

      “When I married her, I did something no other Malatesta has done, and took a woman without a title for my wife. I made it clear I wanted nothing to do with such an archaic custom. My father has had no choice but to look to Dante to follow in his footsteps.”

      “Which he has done by marrying Pia, who’s from a royal house.”

      Again Leon frowned. “But now that Benedetta is gone, Papà is counting on my marrying a titled woman he has in mind to be Concetta’s new mother. He’s made no secret about it. Every time he brings it up in front of Dante, which is often, I keep СКАЧАТЬ