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“You didn’t ask a question, Sebastian. You stated it as a fact. I have no DNA proof, but there is no doubt in my mind that you are my son. That’s why it was a double punch when Izzy ran,” he said. “She was pregnant. I’ve spent a great deal of time and money trying to find you and your mother.”
Bash leaned forward in his chair, feeling the need to defend her. “She obviously didn’t want to be found. I’m sure she had good reasons.” He stopped for a few moments to gather his thoughts. “When I was growing up, Mom never did anything spontaneous. She was a planner … to the extreme. Every decision she made was carefully thought out.”
“Your mother and I met at Harvard wh…”
“Harvard?” Bash’s voice went up a few octaves.
He nodded. “I was in my junior year studying pre-law. She was a freshman in liberal arts. She wanted to be a writer. It’s fitting that you have fulfilled that dream for her.”
“How did you meet?”
“She showed up at the wrong building on her first day of class. I noticed her frantically searching the campus map. She was walking in circles with her arms flailing as she scolded herself for getting lost. It was adorable. I couldn’t resist offering to help. Since I was free for the next hour, and she was the most beautiful and naturally animated woman I had ever seen, I offered to escort her. There was no way in hell I was letting her out of my sight until I knew how to get in touch with her. Our attraction was immediate. We both felt it. We became inseparable. Best friends. Lovers. Confidants. Explorers of brave new worlds. Everything to each other. We found out she was pregnant a couple of days before I graduated. We were going to quietly get married at the courthouse. There was never any doubt. I couldn’t breathe without Izzy. No future if she wasn’t in it.
“What we didn’t know was that my father was having us followed. His men caught us going into the courthouse and refused to let us go inside. We were manhandled into a limo and taken to my father’s office. He had to have threatened or bribed Izzy’s doctor because he knew she was pregnant. Izzy was scared out of her mind, but she knew I had no problem walking away from my family. Izzy and I had talked about it at length. We didn’t want to be part of that world. When I told my father I was not going to work for the family business, he agreed with conditions. He would pay for law school and not interfere with my choice of firm if I agreed to a traditional wedding so family and friends could attend.
“My mother and aunts pulled out all the stops to plan it. Izzy’s parents disowned her. They believed my family would tarnish their social status. They cut Izzy off and basically put her on the street, hoping to force her to cut all ties with me. Everything was fine on the morning of the wedding. We couldn’t have been happier. I didn’t realize anything was wrong until she didn’t show up when the wedding march began to play.
“At first, I thought someone had kidnapped her. There was no way Izzy would leave me of her own free will. But then one of my dad’s men said she had asked for $6000 to pay the hairdressers for the wedding party. She left the procession with the pretense of going to the bathroom to fix her make-up. She never returned. We found out the hairdresser had already been paid. Izzy needed cash to make her escape.”
Bash was speechless. Dizzy. Light-headed. Suddenly nauseous. Trying to absorb Fontana’s words and make sense of them. He knew his mother well enough to know something had scared her. She didn’t intentionally hurt the people she loved.
“What happened?” he asked in a small voice.
“She left a note with two words. ‘Please understand.’ My world stopped. I couldn’t function. Something had happened. Panicked her. She never would have left me if it hadn’t. My father sent his men to all the bus stations, train depots, and airports. He wasn’t concerned in the least about her. It was the baby he cared about. I knew in my heart when things calmed down, she would reach out to me. I frequented our favorite spots. Looked for her in every crowd. After three years passed, my loss turned to anger. Whatever had happened, she didn’t trust me to fix it. Trust us. When I graduated from law school and passed the bar, my father made it clear he never intended to let me go. He would destroy any firm I tried to work for. If Izzy and I had still been together, I would have left the city, found a small town in the Midwest, and hung out my own shingle. But she left me. My father eventually had enough of what he called my ‘self-indulgent brooding’ and started pressuring me to get married. Find an appropriate wife from our social circle. Rose and I were married for eight years. She left me. We have a daughter. Francesca. Her nickname is Frankie. You’d like her. Beautiful and smart as a whip.”
So many things fell into place. Why his mother stayed off social media. Would only vacation in remote rural locations. Campgrounds on lakes and in the mountains. She didn’t have a lot of friends. Kept a low profile in their small town. Never talked about her past. But it stung. This man had been out there looking for her. For him. Why had she forgotten about him? Not given him a chance.
“Why did your first wife leave you?” It seemed important to know.
“Rose was tired of competing with what she called ‘Izzy’s ghost.’ She is a lovely woman, and I’ve always been very fond of her, but I didn’t love her. I couldn’t blame her for wanting what I couldn’t give her. She’s been happily married to a surgeon for fifteen years. We’ve maintained a good relationship. We both adore Frankie and have always wanted the best for her.”
Bash rubbed his hands over his face. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“For me, too.”
“Do you still hate her?”
“I could never hate Izzy. She was part of me, and in many ways, she still is. I felt betrayed, but at least now I understand why she left. Not long before he died, my father showed up at my home after having dinner with his brothers. They didn’t want him to leave the CEO position and controlling interest to me. Didn’t feel I was committed to the business and had no male heirs. He began railing about Izzy and how she stole his grandson from him. Dad was sure our baby was a boy. Then he revealed the mistake he made on our wedding day. He told Izzy he would never let me abandon the family business. It was just a fairytale he had spun so I would get my law degree and remain compliant. He accused her of trying to destroy his relationship with me. Threatened to make sure she never saw her baby again if she didn’t stay out of the family business. My father’s big mistake was underestimating her. It would have been more prudent to wait until after the wedding to make his threats. I wanted to kill him with my bare hands in that moment.
“All the years of torment I have lived second guessing everything I had done. Wondering where I screwed up. But as much as I wanted to blame him, it was always on me. I was the one who underestimated my father. Let him get to her. She obviously didn’t trust that I could protect her. I was hoping when I found you, I would somehow be able to make amends to both of you. But that’s not possible now. She’s—dead. My failure will haunt me until my dying day.”
Bash could see his father’s grief. Feel his genuine, raw emotions.
“Can you tell me about her? Did she marry?”
Bash shook his head. “She did not. There were a few nice guys over the years. Some even wanted to make it permanent, but that was the kiss of death for the relationship. I hated seeing her alone, but she always said, ‘There is only one great love in your life, and sometimes it just slips through your fingers.’ She didn’t want that to happen to me. I guess I’ve never found that ‘one.’”
The color seemed to drain from Fontana’s face. He looked away, squeezing his eyes shut. It was all so tragic. Is he remembering? Regretting? Why didn’t Mom tell me? Why did she lie? Tell me my father didn’t know about me? It hurt. All of it. The tangle of emotions swirling inside him felt like they would swallow him whole. It was too much.
Fontana suddenly stood up and ran his fingers through his hair. “Where is Morgan tonight?”
“In her room. She wanted to give us a chance to talk alone.”
“There’s something there, Sebastian.”
“What do you mean?” Bash asked, searching his eyes.
“Never mind. I’ll meet you at breakfast at 7 a.m. if that’s okay?”
