Because Of Love

Rafe stumbled into his office, his hand over his chest. He felt like he was going to have a panic attack.

“Non, it can’t be true, it just can’t!”

He fell onto his couch, his head in his hands. Renaldo wasn’t capable of doing such a thing. The kid was a screw up but he wasn’t a monster.

“God, please don’t let it be true!”

“Rafe, I did what you asked,” Angelo’s voice filled the room. Rafe heard him move around the room, pacing before he stopped in front of him. “Do you think Renaldo…”

“No!” Rafe protested jumping to his feet. “My brother is a lot of things but he is not a monster. He would never do such a thing.”

“Do you think she’s lying then?”

Rafe shook his head. “You saw her face. She had no clue of what I was talking about, and I’ve never introduced Renaldo to her. But she has seen him.”

“What do you mean?”

“The same day as the dinner, I saw Renaldo hitting on her at the office. I was so mad I almost took his head off. But she dismissed him. She just shook her head, told him ‘this is an office not a bar’ and walked away. I laughed so hard, then I warned Renaldo away from her before I asked him to leave the building and never step foot in it again.”

“Rafe, I know you don’t want to admit it,” Angelo began carefully. “But you’ve just given me a reason as to why Renaldo would drug and rape your girlfriend.”

Rafe paced his office floor, his heart beating hard in his chest. “She didn’t say she was raped!”

“No, but she did imply you two were together,” he answered softly. “Rafe, it seems no one told her the full story. I understand why. She’s asthmatic and pregnant, not a good combination especially when she’s expecting twins.”

Rafe stopped dead in his tracks. “Come?”

Angelo’s eyebrows shot to his hair line as he stared shocked at Rafe. He shook his head and asked, “You didn’t know she was expecting twins, did you?”

Rafe sat back down on the couch, the room spinning around him. Twins, my twins. He now believed that he was responsible for her pregnancy. Why didn’t she tell him there were two?

Then he remembered the conversation they had at the priest’s office. Did she believe she told him about having twins that day?

Merda! What was he to do?

“Renaldo, did you find him yet?”

“Yes. He’s at the mansion. He’s been locked in the pool house since your almost wedding.”

Rafe chuckled bitterly. His own mother had been hiding the brat from him. Well, not for long.

Rafe stood up and moved to his desk to grab his car keys and wallet. “Angelo, I need you to come with me.”

“Why?”

“To keep me from killing my brother.”

****

Talia tossed the cordless phone to the other side of the couch with a huff. “That woman drives me crazy!”

Carrie chuckled, picking up the phone and placing it on the coffee table before she sat down with a tub of ice cream in her hands. “I’m sorry to say this but your mother is jaded. I thought the news would make her happy. How much are you getting again?”

They were back at the condo and Rafe had given Carrie the day off to keep Talia company. She was grateful even though she thought it was unprofessional. Carrie didn’t mind one bit.

Talia slid lower against the corner of the couch and stuffed a cushion behind her back. Her back felt like it was splitting in two. “I get a bank account full of money. Millions of it by what Angelo said, but my spending will be monitored.”

Carrie whistled. “That’s a lot of dough.”

Talia pressed her fingers under her ribcage, attempting the impossible-pushing her son’s kicking foot from her already sore rib. “But not exactly what I wanted.”

Carrie held the spoon in her mouth as she studied Talia. Talia’s first instinct was to look away, to keep her friend from reading the truth in her eyes but she was tired of lying.

She was tired of lying to her friend, to her mother, and most importantly to herself. It was time to face the truth. And the truth was she came to Italy to follow Rafe, not for retribution but for love. She loved him, and she couldn’t live a life without him in it.

“You want him to be the father you never had, don’t you?”

The right answer would be ‘yes I want Rafe to be a father to our twin sons because they deserve one’ and she knew that he would be a remarkable one too.

But instead she said, “No, I want him for myself. I can’t accept that our love doesn’t matter just because some awful things have happened to keep us apart. We owe it to each other, if not for our children, to fight to be together.” She turned to Carrie, suddenly feeling unsure of herself. “Don’t we?”

Carrie placed the tub on the coffee table and moved closer to Talia. “Sweetheart, you guys only knew each other for four months and were only romantically involved for two of those.”

“But it takes just a moment to fall in love!” she protested, tears burning the back of her eyes and a sting in her throat.

Carrie smiled. “Your mother would be gagging by now if she heard you say that.”Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

Talia sighed, batting the tears back. “Well then, it’s a good thing she’s not coming.”

Carrie huffed, picked the tub of ice cream back up and leaned back to her previous position. “Like I said, your mom is jaded.”

No one was disputing that. Her mother had issues. Understandable but suffocating. And since they were on the subject…

“Carrie, what aren’t you telling me?”

She licked ice cream off the spoon. “What do you mean?”

“During the mediation meeting, I got the distinct feeling I was out of the loop.”

Her brows furrowed. “What makes you say that?”

“Right after I told them what happened that day-” something flushed in Carrie’s eyes and her lips dropped open for just a second before she pressed them together “-you see, like that. Their faces were exactly like yours is right now. What is it that no one wants to tell me?”

Talia had to remind herself to stay calm despite the frustration that was building up inside her. And right next to the frustration was fear. What could have possibly happened to warrant such reactions from them?

Carrie remained silent, her ice cream abandoned as she stared at Talia with tears in her eyes. Unexplainable fear mounted, completely filling Talia. What were they hiding from her? How bad was it?

“I’ll call mom and ask if you don’t tell me right now!” her voice rose with hysteria.

“She won’t tell you a thing.” Carrie rasped, a weary look on her face.

“Why not?” she demanded.

“Talia…”

The doorbell rang silencing Carrie. Quickly, she moved to answer the door but Talia stopped her. She had a feeling it was Rafe and she didn’t want to give them time to conspire to hide the truth from her.

She pushed herself off the couch and waddled to the door. She opened it, not at all surprised who had been on the other side of it. With a smile that belied what she felt she said, “Speak of the devil. We were just discussing you and the secret everyone is keeping from me.”

Rafe stared at her, that famous emotionless mask on his face. She stared pointedly back with a raised brow. She remained standing in the door way, blocking his entrance until he responded. Someone was going to fess up and she didn’t care who and what she had to do to make it happen.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

He asked so quietly, the fight Talia had been preparing for drained out of her.

The corner of his right eye twitched. His mask was slipping, exposing the weariness in his eyes. But this wasn’t overworked tiredness, he looked emotionally drained.

“Rafe, what’s wrong?”