Free The Infamous Italian's Secret Baby by Carole Mortimer

again, Bella had reasoned, then he would contact her just as he’d said he would. Until he chose to do that—if he chose to do that!—she would just have to get on with her life as best she could.
    Her pregnancy had been something Bella simply hadn’t taken into account when she had made that decision.
    Weeks later, after her pregnancy was confirmed, Bella had been forced to make choices, both for herself and her baby. Gabriel’s failure to phone had simply reinforced Bella’s suspicion that he would want nothing to do with them. Or if he did, he had the power to take her baby away from her. Something Bella would never allow to happen. It was too late now, far too late, for her to explain or undo any of those choices…
    Gabriel watched the emotions that flickered across Bella’s beautiful and expressive face, too fleeting for him to be able to discern any of them accurately. ‘I did not cause the accident, Isabella, but that does not mean I have not carried the guilt of Paulo and Jason’s deaths with me every day since.’
    ‘But why?’ She looked totally confused now.
    Gabriel turned away to look out of the window at the San Francisco skyline.
    How could he ever explain to her how he had felt five years ago when he’d regained consciousness and learnt of Paulo Descari and Jason Miller’s deaths? Of Janine’s hysterical accusations?
    Added to that, Gabriel had felt utter despair, even helplessness, at the seriousness of his own injuries.
    The cuts and burns to his body that were still visible, five years later, in the scar on his face and those thatlaced across his chest, back, and legs. The crushing of his pelvis and legs had kept him confined to bed for months, with the added possibility that he might never walk again.
    Worst of all, worse even than Paulo and Jason’s deaths, Janine’s duplicity, had been the knowledge that their night together had meant so little to Bella that—
    No!
    Gabriel refused to go there. He had not thought of Bella’s desertion for almost five years. He would not—could not—think of it now.
    Now he would think only of Toby. Of his son. And Bella’s second betrayal…
    He turned back to face Bella, his expression utterly implacable. ‘Toby is all that is important now,’ Gabriel told her icily. ‘I will return at ten o’clock tomorrow—or rather, today,’ he corrected, ‘at which time you and Toby will be ready to accompany me—’
    ‘I’m not going anywhere with you, Gabriel, and neither is Toby,’ Bella cut in immediately.
    ‘At which time,’ he repeated in, if possible, even icier tones, ‘you and Toby will be ready to accompany me on a visit to my father. Toby’s grandfather,’ he added harshly.
    Bella’s second denial died unspoken on her lips.
    She had talked with her mother earlier tonight. Or rather, her mother had talked with her. A conversation in which her mother had assured Bella that the relationship between herself and Gabriel was their own affair, and for the two of them alone to unravel. However, speaking as a grandmother, she had added, she had nothing but sympathy for Cristo Danti and the fact thathe had only learnt this evening of his grandson’s existence. That knowledge had been obviously so emotionally profound it had resulted in the older man’s collapse.
    An irrefutable fact against which Bella had no defence.
    Either earlier or now.
    Her shoulders were stiff with tension. ‘Firstly, let me tell you that I deeply resent your use of emotional blackmail in order to get me to do what you want—’
    ‘Would you rather I pursued a legal claim, instead?’ Gabriel challenged contemptuously.
    Bella swallowed hard even as she refused to lower her gaze from his. ‘That would take months, by which time I would be safely back in England.’
    ‘I will have my lawyers apply for an immediate injunction to prevent you, or Toby, from leaving this country,’ Gabriel warned scathingly. ‘I am a Danti, Isabella,’ he reminded her.
    Her eyes