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Ana blinked, befuddled.
Auntie looked distinctly uncomfortable. “I wish this didn’t have to happen to you. You were…the daughter I always wanted…my last hope when IVF wasn’t working,” she murmured wistfully before jerking her shoulders back stiffly and raising her chin. “Father never agreed. When I conceived Antonio just a year after adopting you, he thought I ‘jumped the gun.’” Auntie’s lips thinned. “Still, I tried, in my way, to care for you…but the Mancini name carries a heavy weight.”
A strange emotion filled Ana, raw and bittersweet.
Why was she only saying this now? After all these years.
For so long, it felt like Ana had been reluctantly adopted into the family. A pity gesture by her late uncle. That’s what Grandfather had always implied–or perhaps, what her aunt had made him believe. They had treated her like an outsider, making her constantly go through hoops to please them. She was forced to act like the perfect child, so they didn't send her away.
To think…Auntie had wanted Ana all along. All the training and strict regimens had been because she wanted Ana to succeed, so Grandfather would accept her as a Mancini. Not because she resented Ana's presence in their family.
Through the numbness, Ana felt a wave of affection stir within her as she regarded the thin, polished woman. She could have never imagined such softness beneath all those layers of steel.
The daughter I always wanted…
If there were any tears left to cry, they would have flowed now as Ana absorbed those words.
“It will all blow away soon, though. I’ll make sure of it,” Auntie said fervently, her face drawn in grim focus. “But you should lay low, Ana. Keep out of society for some time…and don’t say anything to anyone.” She glanced pointedly at the phone, which was still lying face down on the floor. “It will only fuel the fire.”
Blinking out of her stupor, Ana eyed the phone with similar disgust. She had no desire to speak to anyone. All she wanted was to sink into her bed until it swallowed her whole. All the years of perfect manners, perfect speech, and a perfect smile–no matter how horrible she felt inside–were all in vain. It didn’t matter how hard she’d worked to be a good Donna. All anyone cared about now was her ‘romp’ with the guard.
While she was engaged to Gio, no less.
Ana squeezed her eyes shut. The allegations were so horrible. Why wouldn’t people judge her?
And that was the biggest problem. She could fight an enemy, but how could she fight a rumor? It felt so overwhelmingly insurmountable.
Fine tremors broke out all over her arms, causing her teeth to chatter.
Auntie’s eyes narrowed at the sound. “Didn’t the therapist’s tips help you stop that?”
Since they’d been crammed into three jam-packed sessions–not really. Ana hadn’t even been allowed to divulge all the details of the incident to the therapist. Still, she had tried her best to maximize those sessions, knowing how rare they were in the Family. They had given her much-needed calm, allowing her to center herself and heal before her wedding day.
And, for a while, it felt like she had healed. Things had seemed…normal in the initial months of her marriage. Safe and secure. Until their new bodyguard arrived. That had been the start of her carefully constructed façade fraying at the seams. And once this scandal hit, the façade had unraveled entirely.
“Gio will be here soon, so just try to pull yourself together before then. It will be unseemly to appear this way in front of the Don.”
Ana bit her chattering teeth, too exhausted to even respond.
“We’re both figuring out a solution,” Auntie assured.
“We? You s-spoke to him?”
“Just earlier today.”
“Did he…ask for me?”
Auntie regarded her for a long time, wavering between some unknown decision in her mind. With a dismissive flick, she waved. “Don’t worry about that. We’re sorting things out.” After lecturing Ana some more on regular meals and grooming, insisting she take a shower, Auntie eventually returned to her tasks.
Leaving Ana to absorb everything in silence.
Auntie and Gio were sorting things out, whatever that meant, while Emma covered client meetings. So there wasn’t much for Ana to do. There wasn’t much she wanted to do when she felt so grimy and sluggish…so mortified. Turning into the sheets, Ana buried her head there, hiding from the morning light.
Why hadn’t Gio spoken to her?
Her phone had been turned off for almost a full day, so he couldn’t reach her directly. But if he’d gotten in touch with her aunt, wouldn’t he have wanted to hear her voice?
As she desperately wanted to hear his?
