Show Me a Family Saga (Cowboy Crossing Romances Book 11) by Alexa Verde & Alexa's Cowboy Crossing Romances

Author:Alexa Verde & Alexa's Cowboy Crossing Romances [Verde, Alexa & Cowboy Crossing Romances, Alexa's]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Faith, Hope, & Heartwarming
Published: 2022-03-07T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

THE TENSION ROSE LIKE dough left too long.

“What did you just say?” Constanzo’s dark skin blanched.

Tears burned in her eyes. She started to reach for him, then clenched her hands at her sides. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve told you sooner. I thought I was protecting you, but I was protecting myself.”

“Glad you’re admitting that.” Lorenzo Flavio leaned against the back of the chair, appearing pleased.

Anger seethed inside her as she snapped at him. “You have no right to say it.” But it was her son—her son—she needed to focus on. His eyes were so huge.

“No! No.” Constanzo seemed to stagger even in his seat. “This can’t be true.”

So she took a deep breath of the air filled with a distant scent of cookies, hoping to calm herself. “It turned out, my sister had a valid reason for being so adamant against me taking lessons from Lorenzo Flavio. He wanted her to keep their relationship a secret, so she did. I guess she had suspicions about his womanizing ways when he offered to give me lessons.”

Lorenzo crossed his arms over his chest. “I broke up with her before I fell for you. I didn’t know about the baby then.”

“But when she came to you, you told her she’d be on her own unless she agreed to an abortion.” Her heart ached as she turned to her son again. “In the eighties, people couldn’t just buy a DNA kit and prove paternity yet. It would be my sister’s word against his. And there, he was a respected professor, a pillar of the community, while she was a foreigner whose reputation could be trashed with a few rumors. Plus, after he broke up with her, she dated another guy in a silly attempt to make him jealous.”

“See? That could’ve been his child, for all I knew.” Lorenzo Flavio looked away.

“Then why are you here now?”

He hung his head. “I... I did some research. I found Constanzo’s photos on social media. When I looked at the photos, my heart squeezed.” His gaze fixed on Constanzo. “You look just like me, mio figlio.”

Constanzo jerked up. “Son? Don’t call me that.” Then he got up and hugged her before returning to his seat. “Mama, how did you make it all work?”

“I told my sister I’d raise her child as my own. I didn’t care if people gave me dirty looks or whispered behind my back if it meant my nephew would live. But our parents had a different opinion. So, once we flew back, they told me I had to find a husband fast who’d be willing to raise a child who wasn’t his—before anyone found out about our family’s shame. They thought it would make me change my mind. But I was determined. So when my childhood friend from a neighboring ranch, a boy I’d grown up beside, a boy who loved me, was thrilled I was back and wanted me to marry him, I told him everything.

“We had a hasty wedding. A

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