Page 279 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

‘He still lied, Enzo,’ Charlotte said, patiently.

Yes, his father had lied. And his mother had lied to him.

And Emilio had lied to everyone.

Would the betrayals never end? His family were incapable of being trustworthy. His father’s lie felt like a splinter in Enzo’s skin. But he couldn’t deny that ithadprotected the vineyards.

‘My father isn’t the problem here. My mother did betray him.’ Enzo laughed without mirth. ‘They betrayed each other. There was no trust.’ The realisation was like acid in his throat. He had always thought of his parents as having the perfect marriage, one that compared to his great-great-grandparents’. To him the vineyards were exactly the same as the fountain at Perlano: a symbol of the love they shared. But he was blind. Blind to so much. Looking back, he could have—no,shouldhave—learned his lesson on trust from watching them. It would have saved him from learning it the hard way.

His mother was never included in decision-making, not at De Luca and Co. nor at Perlano, despite being the contessa, and she never included their father in her business dealings either. Emilio had inherited all that belonged to her. His father had left nothing to her, only to Enzo. There was such a clear divide between them that Enzo couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it for what it was it before now.

‘Enzo,’ Charlotte whispered, cradling his head against her chest, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry that you’re having to question things when you can’t get answers, but maybe they both did what they thought was best in their own misguided way.’

‘Misguided? From where I’m standing, my father is the reason those vineyards are safe. He must have known that my mother might give them to Emilio.’

Charlotte looked at him. ‘But Emilio was his son too. Even if they did fall to him, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. You would have had everything else. The company which owns the winery. All Emilio would have had would have been the grapes. The wealth would have remained in the family, so why would the idea of Emilio getting the vineyards be so upsetting that your father would betray your mother’s trust?’

The question had Enzo reconsidering his childhood. Every memory he had of his father was of just the two of them. Alone. He’d been trained to take over alone. Had Emilio been deliberately excluded?

Except what Emilio had beenexcludedfrom was never meant for him. Emilio had always had their mother’s affection. All that time that Enzo had spent with his father, Emilio had spent with their mother.

Really, Enzo should have expected her to betray him for Emilio.

‘I was the one qualified to take over, not Emilio. Since I was a young boy, my father took me to the company, to the wineries, on his business trips. When his health failed, he was happy to have me take the reins because I had been trained since I could walk. I was the one he could rely on.’

‘Did he do any of that with Emilio?’ Charlotte asked.

‘No, Emilio was tutored privately in Perlano. My mother looked after him.’

‘Do you have any memories of your father that don’t relate to work?’

Enzo was forced to think hard, and he came up with nothing. ‘Only that he would have dinner with us. That was our mother’s rule.’

‘Enzo, don’t you see? Maybe Emilio was jealous of the affection you received, and maybe that’s why your mother defied your father’s instructions, but you need to see thatyoudidn’t receive any affection either. You were groomed to be theConte del Perlano. That’s not how a father should be with their child. You were more than a project, meant for more than duty. But you didn’t have a chance to think of anything else, have any dream other than the one your father set out for you.’

‘How can you know that?’ Enzo sniped, trying to push her off his lap, but she stubbornly refused to move. She took his face in her hands, and he was forced to give her his attention.

‘BecauseIwas raised to take over my father’s empire, and when I was more useful as something to be traded, he did that for his company to prosper. We are more than just pawns for our fathers’ legacies.’

Enzo shook his head, refusing to believe Charlotte’s words. ‘That daunting path, the legacy, was my own, laid out before birth. I never shied away from it, Charlotte. I took it all on. Emilio has nothing to complain about. Nothing to be jealous of. He wasn’t deprived of affection, and I wasn’t a pawn.’

‘Isabella told me she calls you Leoncino because even when you were little you wanted to protect others. You updated the kitchen because you wanted to take care of your mother. Did you ever consider you wanted others to feel what you didn’t?’

That drew him up short. No. He hadn’t ever thought about it. Given Charlotte’s history he could understand why she saw things that way, but they weren’t the same. Enzo’s father hadn’t failed him.

‘Being groomed to take on the family legacy isn’t the same as care and protection,’ Charlotte continued. ‘It isn’t love. I have chosen something different for myself, and you can do the same, Enzo.’

Charlotte had chosen a path for herself, but Enzo didn’t need to. There was no reason to hide from who he was. Yes, his path had been set by his father, and even if it was disappointing that his father had lied at all, Enzo still respected his utter devotion to the family legacy. And what was more, his father’s actions had confirmed to Enzo that he was right not to trust anyone. His distrust of his wife meant that the vineyards were safe, that Enzo could be done with this whole second-will situation.

Enzo would hold that lesson close. Especially now that he had someone else in his home. His parents had been married for nearly thirty years without trust. He would bear that in mind with Charlotte too.

‘None of this matters,’ he finally said. ‘This—’ he pointed at his laptop ‘—settles the issue of ownership. That was the only goal.’

Charlotte sighed. ‘Send the email,’ she said almost tiredly, ‘but Enzo, it matters a great deal. How you and Emilio were treated caused this conflict in the first place. Coming to terms with who your father really was will be hard. You wish he was the person in your head, but the reality of it hurts.’

He read longing in her eyes. Hurt in her downturned lips. That was her reality, not his.

‘I don’t have any words that can make this better,’ she said. ‘You need to allow yourself to grieve the loss of who you thought your father was, but, Enzo, maybe this could be a chance to get some of your family back.’