The Ambassador and Me: an unlikely love story (The Ambassador Trilogy Book 1) (22 page)

“Fabrice, I have to go. We can’t let anyone see you with me. I…I have to go.”

He was beautiful beyond comprehension. I kept my gaze on him as I walked out of the SUV. He looked hurt and I wanted him to know how much he meant to me; how hard it was for me to do this to him. How my heart broke knowing I had to stay away. How I could stay away from him for a couple of days was going to be impossible. Not to have him touch me, inside me, and kissing me was something I was not quite prepared for.

Chapter 15

T
rying
to avoid my parents was not likely. Around lunch time my mom was waiting in the office for me. I was shocked when I saw her talking to the Attaché, and he was either in a jovial mood or he was flirting with her. Either way, it was uncomfortable and I wanted out of there.

“Miss Piori, you didn’t tell me you had such a young and beautiful mother!” He gushed as I walked into their conversation.

Funny, he can be nice and talk now. Typical man.

“Yes, I try to leave her out of conversations so she doesn’t up-stage me.” I laughed and so did my mom, though I could see her face was anything but happy.

“I’m going to steal Isabella away for a while,” my mom said warmly. “She and I are going to go to lunch so we can talk about Paris.”

My mom grabbed my arm and rushed me out of the office before the Attaché said anything else.

“How could you do this, Isabella?” she said, through gritted teeth.

“Do what, exactly?”

“You know damn well what! I’m not discussing this here.” She shot me a look that I knew, from the years of living with her, that I better not argue. This was the lips pursed, arms crossed, nostril flare look, and her Brooklyn accent was easing out.

She paid the valet and they brought up her car. I didn’t know if I should start talking, where she was taking us, or if she was going to wreck. Her driving was bad on a good day, not to mention how it was when she was pissed off.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Anthony?” she asked not taking her eyes off the road.

“I thought I could handle it.”

“Thought you could handle a man abusing you, scaring you? I have taught both you and Sophia to stand up for yourselves and not to become one of those women that takes shit from a man. Why would you allow this to happen to you?”

“I don’t know, Mom. I was confused. I was afraid and you and Dad would be upset if I didn’t marry him, especially after last year. Wait a minute. Didn’t you put up with shit from Dad?”

“Don’t you dare bring up last year or blame this incident on you father and me! This is a different set of circumstances.”

“I wasn’t blaming it on anything. I know you had a lot to deal with and you didn’t need to worry. I thought he would leave me alone once he did that.”

“First of all, last year is done and over with. We got past it and I’m good with what is happening. Angry that your father cheated? You're damn right! Did I make it known that I would not tolerate it ever again? Yes. It won’t happen again. I’m in a different circumstance than you, Isabella. I have a family with your father. We have this business together and an image to uphold. I have other things keeping me with him. He may have cheated on me, but he never laid a hand on me.”

“You’re right, he didn’t hit you, but what you went through because of it was worse. It is like being hit- only your emotions were hit.”

I couldn’t believe she admitted to me that Dad cheated on her. We were not allowed to bring that up under any circumstances. We knew it could be a possibility and Marco saw him and this woman kissing, but it wasn’t allowed to be discussed. Since I was away at school I didn’t know anything was wrong except for the fact my mom treated my father differently when I saw them.

My mom pulled into a parking spot at a local shopping mall and turned off the car.

“This is different, Isabella. This is so different. To be hit and choked is inexcusable. Why would you tell Danny and not your parents?”

“I don’t know, Mom. I saw Anthony outside our condo, Avery said he tried to break in and I wanted him to help me with it. I was desperate. And Mom, there is something else. There is something that happened that night. No one knows but Avery.” The tears started and I could not stop them. I have thought about what else that night, but I never brought it up, even to my therapist. I couldn’t bring myself to talk about it. I had to get it out and this was the best time.

“You know how your brother feels about you and your sister! You know his temper and his friends can be over the top. Why the hell didn’t you call the police? Wait, what do you mean there is something else?”

She looked over at me and I grabbed my face with my hands. It was so painful and degrading. No one knows this something else but Avery. I have kept it inside for four years now.

“Oh, Mom.”

She reached over to me and grabbed my hand. I wanted to curl up and hide myself. It was too much to bear.

“Baby, what is it? Please tell me. It won’t leave this car. I promise you.”

“I’m sorry I told him. Danny said the police won’t do anything because of who he is. I was sure he wouldn’t do anything other than scare Anthony. He said he didn’t do anything.” I regretted bring it up and I tried to change the subject. My mother wasn’t that easily persuaded.

“Yes, he says he didn’t do anything, but we don’t know if he had someone do something. This publicity is not good for us. If Anthony, God forbid, dies we are all going to be questioned.”

“I’m so sorry, mom.” I didn’t know what else to say to her. I was truly sorry I told anyone and I should have went to the police.

“Now, tell me what else is bothering you. I want to know before I turn this car back on.”

“Mom, please don’t think less of me. I truly thought I loved Anthony. I thought we were going to be married. You have to know that.”

“I do know that. I also know that you were going to marry him to make us happy. That’s a bunch of shit! You don’t do anything to make someone else happy. Nothing you could do or say could make me think any less of you. You are my baby and if you went out and killed someone, I would still love you. Now, tell me.”

“The night I broke up with Anthony, I told him I was three months pregnant. I told him I didn’t want him in the baby’s life. I wanted to raise it alone.”

The silence in the car was deafening.

“Were you?” my mom finally asked.

“Yes, Mom, I was. I don’t make that shit up. I took a test two weeks before I graduated. I didn’t want to tell anyone. I didn’t know if I would keep it or not. Anthony was acting so weird and there was that other girl he was seeing. If I was going to keep the baby, I made up my mind Anthony wouldn’t be a part of it. No one knows this but you and Avery and, of course, Anthony.”

“What happened that you lost the baby?”

“He punched me in the stomach twice after he tried to choke me. I started bleeding and when he finally left, Avery took me to the emergency room. I lost the baby while I was there.”

I looked over at her and she had her eyes closed. Tears ran down the side of her face.

“Mom, please don’t cry. It’s okay now. I was checked out several times and he didn’t do anything that would cause me to not be able to have children.” I grabbed her hand and she squeezed it.

“I need to kill him. With my bare hands I could strangle him and watch his life leave him. Coma or no coma, he needs to be dead.” She looked up to the roof and made the sign of the cross. “Being beat to a pulp is too good for him. He needs to die for this.”

It took a lot for my mom to get worked up like she was. She was shaking and there was a look of evil in her eyes.

“Mom, stop this. What did you say last week to Marco when he got in that fight? You said and I quote, 'Nothing is solved through violence'. Do you remember that?”

“I lied. It is solved through violence if someone hurts your child. There is no excuse in what he did.” She looked at me.

“I know there isn’t. But it’s done and over with. I didn’t know if I was going to keep the baby, Mom. I didn’t need to be reminded of him every day of my life. Honestly, I was not ready. Please, settle down. I go to you, my family, for advice because all of you say I don’t tell you anything, and when I do, none of you can handle it.”

She calmed down and rolled down her window and pulled out a pack of cigarettes out from under her seat. I never saw her smoke in my life. She lit it up with no problem and smoked away like she did it every day.

“What are you doing? When did you start smoking?”

“Last year when your father had his little affair. I keep them for emergencies. This is an emergency. They calm me down.”

“And take years off your life! Put that out, Mom. This is insane.”

“Do you want one?” She put the pack in my face.

“No, I don’t want one! That’s trashy. Put it out. I don’t feel like smelling like smoke.”

She took another drag off it and tossed it out the car window. I was shocked that she behaved like that. What else did she hide I wondered.

“Danny told us that you’re seeing this Ambassador.”

Thanks, Danny. The one thing I asked you not to tell them about.

“We went out to dinner a couple of times. It’s harmless.” I lied, but I had to at that moment. My mom was becoming increasingly upset and tears were pouring out of her eyes. If there was one thing I could not stand it was my mom being upset.

“Don’t make another stupid mistake, Izzy. Please. This man is a lot older than you, isn’t he?”

He was thirty-six and I was twenty-six. He wasn’t that much older. Besides, my dad was eight years older than my mom.

“It’s harmless, Mom. Now with this Anthony nightmare going on, he isn’t going to want to be seen with me or have any contact with me.”

I looked out the window and watched people going on with their lives. Simple lives that didn’t involve half-dead ex boyfriends, crazy killing brothers, and gorgeous insatiable Ambassadors. I longed to have their life at that moment.

“Did you tell the Ambassador about Anthony?”

“Yes, some of it. He doesn’t know about the baby.”

“You told a complete stranger before you told us?”

“I wanted to tell him. He had a right to know if he wanted to see me or not. I didn’t need any surprises to come out. Plus, Anthony had pictures of me going to his house and Fabrice coming to my house.”

“So, he is more than a casual dinner date and you are intimate?”

“What? That is none of your business.” I checked the time on my phone and knew this inquisition could not go on too much longer. My mom had to be back at the restaurant for lunch. She started preaching how I should act like a classy lady and sleeping with an older man was not going to lead to anything but problems. I saw her lips moving but I wasn’t listening after she told me I needed to cool it with Fabrice.

“Mom, come on. What does it matter? I’m twenty-six years old. Who or what I spend my time with is no one's concern.” She grabbed a tissue from her purse and wiped her nose.

“Yes, and you can see what you do, and who you do it with, caused us some issues today. Am I right?”

“No, Anthony is who you wanted me to be with. That is all I heard from you and Dad. Marry him. He’s the perfect Italian boy.”

“We were going by what you told us.” My mom had brought us both coffee and handed me mine. She took a sip out of hers and then started up again.

“We need to keep our stories straight about Anthony. The police are going to be questioning us. Have you told anyone else you dated about Anthony?”

“Well, since I haven’t dated anyone after Anthony, no I have not told anyone else.”

I stared out the window watching the people in the parking lot, afraid to look at my mom’s face. I knew it was not going to be good.

“Hopefully, this will die down soon. I’m going to see his parents tonight. I hope Danny didn’t have anything to do with this. Next time, come to me first.”

Next time I would go to no one. If this is what happened when I wanted some advice, I would not tell them anything ever again.

~~~~~~~~~~~

That night I wanted to be left alone. I went straight to the shower and then to my room. Thankfully, Avery was out so I didn’t have to talk to her about anything. I wanted to go to bed and sleep. The flannel sheets on my bed were calling my name, along with my sound machine and fan to drown out any noise. I turned off my phone and fell asleep until the next morning. I had not heard from Fabrice since I told him we needed to cool it for a while. He must have agreed to it.

The next morning we were all summoned to the house to talk, including Avery. Since my phone was off, my parents called her and told her to be there by noon. She was more than happy to inform me where we were headed for the day. I woke up to Avery fully dressed and smiling at me as she poked me in the back repeatedly to get up.

This was going to be a long day and one that I was not interested in. Avery was thrilled to eat and hang out with my family. She loved going to my house. I wanted to be left alone. I wanted to stay in the apartment and sulk. I missed Fabrice and I was hoping he would have contacted me somehow.