She did not rush around making him welcome or offering a drink. Instead, she dropped her bag and headed straight to the kitchen, where she went to a drawer and took out two headache tablets and poured a glass of water.
For herself.
Gian watched as she downed the tablets and wondered how she still managed to look so put-together, even though he was sure her world had just been turned upside down. ‘I saw you leaving Romano Holdings...’ He tried to open the conversation, but Ariana didn’t respond.
She was in no mood for conversation, and for once she didn’t fill the silent gaps, offer drinks, or make him welcome. In fact, it was Gian who finally broke the tense silence.
‘What happened?’
‘We’ve been having a family catch-up and filling each other in on a few things.’ She had been holding it in all day, sitting through revelation after revelation, and then a formal board meeting, always having to find a way to smile. ‘Dante and Mia are expecting. That’s for family’s ears only,’ Ariana needlessly warned, for she knew, because of his damned discretion, she might as well be telling it to the wall. ‘There is to be a marriage in May, so that makes two Romano weddings.’ Her voice rose and she almost let out an incredulous laugh, that both her brothers, who had always been indifferent to marriage, would soon both have all she had ever craved for herself.
But there was far more on her mind than her brothers. ‘Gian, there’s a reason I didn’t take your calls. I have nothing to say to you. Nothing polite anyway.’ Her confusion at the unfolding events was starting to morph into anger and she turned accusing eyes on him. ‘Did you know?’ she asked, her eyes narrowing into two dangerous slits.
‘I told you—’
‘I’m not talking about Dante and Mia.’ She put down the glass with such a bang that he thought it might shatter, but Gian didn’t even blink. ‘Did you know that my father was gay?’
‘Yes.’
‘For how long?’
‘Since I took over the hotel, I guess.’
‘You guess?’ she sneered.
‘I wasn’t taking notes, Ariana.’
‘And what about my mother’s affair?’
‘I knew about that too. Look, your parents didn’t sit me down and tell me, but given the nature of my work, they rightfully expected discretion. I would never gossip or break a confidence. I didn’t even tell Dante and he is my best friend...’
‘We were lovers!’ Finally she shouted. Finally a sliver of her anger slipped out. ‘I had every right to know.’
‘Oh, so in your perfect world the fact we were sleeping together meant we should have started holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes and sharing?’ He spat the last word with disdain. ‘Tell me, Ariana, when was I supposed to tell you? The first time we made love? The second...?’
‘If we were ever to have a relationship—’ She stopped herself then, her nose tightening as she fought to suppress the tears building in her eyes, because a relationship, a real one, a close one, was the very thing he didn’t want. ‘You could have at least told me as a friend.’
‘I wanted to,’ he admitted. ‘But it was not my place. They were not my secrets to tell. I tried to get you to speak to your father, that day of the interview—’
‘You didn’t try hard enough then.’ Her anger, however misplaced, she aimed directly at him. ‘For two years I felt pushed away by Papà. Now I find out that he just wanted to live out his days in peace with Roberto. My God! I was led to blame Mia. I was goaded and encouraged to hate her by my mother, just because she didn’t want the truth getting out.’
‘Ariana...’ He tried to calm her down. ‘Your mother came from a time—’
‘I don’t care!’ She swore viciously in Italian and told him what rubbish he spoke. ‘I’m his daughter. I deserved to know...’ He crossed over as she swallowed down a scream that felt as if it had been building since her father died. ‘If I’d known the truth, I could have spent quality time with him. Had you told me...’
She was almost hysterical and for once he was not trying to keep a lid on the drama or stop a commotion. It was not for that reason that he pulled her into his arms, but to comfort her. But she thumped at his chest and then scrunched his perfect shirt in her fist, knowing it wasn’t his fault, knowing that the truth could only have come from her father.
‘It was all just a farce...’ She was starting to cry now in a way she never had before. Angry, bitter tears, and Gian held her as she drowned in his arms. ‘I was so proud of their marriage, but it was just a sham. Even Stefano and I were conceived by IVF to keep up the charade...’ All she had just learned poured out in an unchecked torrent he allowed to flow. ‘They didn’t really want us...’ It was then Gian intervened.
‘No.’
‘Yes!’ she insisted. ‘It was all just a sham.’
‘You were wanted,’ he insisted, but Ariana would not be mollified.
‘You don’t know that...’
‘But I do.’ He was holding her arms and almost shaking her in an effort to loosen her dark thoughts before they took hold. ‘I know for a fact you were wanted and loved.’
‘Oh, what would you know?’ Ariana responded. ‘What would a man like you know about love?’
‘Nothing!’
She stilled in his arms at the harsh anguish in his voice.
‘I know nothing about love!’ He hated to tell her, for Gian was loath to share, but he would expose his soul if it saved her from the dark hole she was sinking into. ‘I wasn’t wanted, Ariana. I was a regretful mistake and they never let me forget that fact. When Eduardo caved to their lifestyle, I brought myself up. I could see my mother’s loathing on the rare occasions she actually
