Ilaria

Sometimes, you wish for the lie when the truth is revealed …

 

Lennox Demetri stood in the center of Elliot’s living room, a muscle working in his jaw. Seeing them together, I was struck by how much they looked alike and yet different. They shared the same towering height uncommon to many Italian men, electric-blue eyes, and dominant air wrapped around their broad shoulders. But even I, enraptured by Elliot on a soul-deep level, could admire the edge of sophistication and laissez-faire control Lennox showed. This could have been his home and he wouldn’t have been any more comfortable.

Elliot cocked his head to the side. “To what do I owe this pleasure, Mr. Demetri?”

“I want to know why she is asking to see my father.” Lennox never looked my way, but his attention touched me anyway. He was not as calm as he appeared.

I opened my mouth to answer, as Elliot didn’t know, but Elliot stopped me. “Natalie, would you please bring the family crest?”

Natalie appeared from the kitchen, quiet enough to startle me as she came to my side. “Would you give me your coin purse?”

My fingers went numb. How did they know? I’d never told Elliot why I wanted to see Oren Demetri, and I let him believe it was because I wasn’t completely sure how he’d react, or maybe I’d known this would change everything. I wanted the more we’d had the last few days, the easy relationship between us beyond our agreement.

I looked at Natalie. “What?”

“Your coin purse, with the medallion your mother left you. I need it, now.”

I was too confused and shocked to reach for it, but that didn’t seem to be a problem for Natalie. After a few more seconds of my stupefied hesitation, she reached into my shirt and pulled out the purse. “Thank you.”

Without another glance at me, she handed it to Elliot. He nodded her way and returned his attention to Lennox. “It’s because of this.”

Slowly, he pulled the golden medallion from the purse and lifted it into the air. “Do you recognize the family crest?”

Lennox’s eyes widened in surprise. “Where did you get that?”

“Do. You. Recognize. It?” Elliot glared at him, his chest puffed, anger sizzling in his gaze.

“It belongs to the Rossis, my uncle’s maternal side. How did you get it?”

“I was born with it, Nox. That girl over there, the one who’s been looking for your dad? She’s the daughter of Tasmin and Federico Paolo.”

The wheels turned in my mind, but I didn’t understand what was happening. Elliot gritted his teeth and opened the medallion easily, as if he’d known the secret all along. The realization he did know snaked down my spine.

“My name, at birth mind you, was Elia Rossi.”

I crumpled to the floor as Nox sucked in a breath. “You’re claiming to be the Rossi baby? What sort of fool do you take me for?”

“A complete one if you think I am not willing to prove it. The blood of my parents is in this medallion, and I’m not against to take the necessary paternity test. Check her records, I know you have the capability, and you’ll see I’m not lying about who she is. In fact, I have a sample of her mother’s blood, if you’re so inclined to make sure.”

Elliot was never real, and I was forgotten. A means to an end. A pathway to his future. My mother told me the medallion would be the key to a man’s future and would secure my own, but she hadn’t told me it would also lead to my destruction. It was only then—stuck between two warring, powering men—that I truly understood. I was desperately in love with one of them, and I meant nothing to him.

I caught my cry just as it slipped out, but Lennox heard it. He peered over at me, and for a moment, his eyes softened. “There are always casualties with the Costellos and Rossis,” he whispered and extended his hand to me.

“What are you doing?” Elliot—Elia—stepped between us.

“I’m helping your woman to her feet, as you were unwilling to do.”

For the first time, Elliot looked down at me and took me in. His visage waivered, watery and blurry, and I blinked to clear my vision. He sucked in a deep breath and reached for me.

“No,” I argued, but it was weak. I was broken, and he was a rock. I hated that I wanted to cling to him, but I did.

His arms wrapped around me as he lifted me to my feet. “I’ll explain, just hold on a little longer.”

I nodded, but I didn’t really hear him. His fingers pinched my chin. “Did you hear me?”

I sucked in a steadying breath. “Yes, Sir.”

“I should have noticed sooner,” he said, but I didn’t know what he meant. He caressed the side of my face before placing a soft kiss on my lips, then his attention was back on Lennox, and all I could do was hold on.

“I’ve got her.”

“I can see that. Why did she want to see my father? It would have made more sense for either of you to contact Vinny with this.”

“Because it was the Rossis who abandoned me and I’m due—” Elliot began.

Lennox interrupted him. “Is that what you think?”

“What?”

“That they abandoned you?”

“The ransom wasn’t paid, and I didn’t go home. What else is there?”

“Perhaps the one delivering the note died before he could hand over details.”

Elliot stiffened. “Excuse me?”

“You didn’t know? Federico botched the whole fucking thing. He came with a ransom note but showed his gun first, got popped, and then the note was found. They weren’t able to find the baby, although they searched.”

I wasn’t sure any longer which one of us was holding the other up. In the face of Lennox’s revelation, Elliot trembled in my arms.

Had he thought his family didn’t care? That they were better off without him? He’d been wrong, so very wrong, and he’d built his entire life around that premise. My mother hadn’t been who I thought she was, and it was hard to reconcile the woman I loved with the image I now had. She was a kidnapper who’d ransomed a baby for money, and when things didn’t work out, she ran. Where had she left Elliot all those years ago, and what sort of life had he lived?

We were both products of vicious lies, caught in a place where the truth was too foreign to accept, yet we had to accept it in order to heal. How does one accept the truth when they only know lies?

Lennox looked to me. “She can be made to pay the debt, you know that, if you go this route.”

“Over my dead body. She didn’t steal me out of that hospital, her parents did, and she wasn’t even born yet. Her mother has passed, and her father is gone.”

“So what do you want?”

“I don’t know anymore. The details aren’t what I thought.”

Lennox nodded. “Take some time. We can play this the right way, and Vinny will accept you into the family, but sometimes that includes on stipulations you may not be prepared for. We can talk about it later. For now, think about what you really want. When you’re ready, call me.”

“I need to know what you mean though. Let’s go in my office.”

Elliot pulled me closer and leaned down to my ear. “Go to the bedroom and wait for me. Don’t leave. Give me a chance to tell you what happened.”

I didn’t have time to answer before he left with Lennox, and I understood what my mother must’ve felt all those years ago. I was alone, holding what was left, with no idea where to go from here.

What decision would I make?