Page 59 of Nobody's Girl

“Sometimes, Sofia Amory Zacca, you are wiser than your years. Thank you, darling.”

She turned around and straddled him. “God, I will miss you though. You only have to pick up the phone and I’ll come to you, you know that, right?”

Ivo slid his hands onto her face and gaze at her. “I do know. Sofia, I can keep saying I love you but it doesn’t even come close to how I feel about you.”

Tears glistened in her eyes. “I feel the same way, Mr. Zacca. I know this is a sad time but we can get through it. Good things are coming for us.”

Ivo crushed his lips to hers. “You bet your sweet little ass they are.”

Sofia felt the wrench the next morning when Ivo left for the airport. She kissed him passionately and sent him off with an erection. Ivo chuckled. “Demon woman. I love you. I’ll call you as soon as I land.”

Sofia felt like a sulky schoolgirl as she went back upstairs. She had arranged a few days off to spend with Jonas and a few minutes after she got back to the room, he knocked at her door. “Hey, sis.”

“How’d you sleep?” Sofia hugged him, grateful of the distraction. Jonas grinned at her, flopping down on the couch.

“Unbelievably well. I have to say, I’m coming around on the luxury lifestyle.”

Sofia laughed, knowing Jonas didn’t mean it. “Yeah, right. Listen, J, we have so much to catch up on that it seems overwhelming. Want to go do some touristy stuff and talk on the way round?”

“Sounds good to me. I got the impression you wanted to talk about Mom. Am I right?”

Sofia nodded. “I do, or rather…I want to talk about whether she spoke about our life before she married Fergus.”

Jonas looked uncomfortable. “Why would she tell me anything?”

“Jonas.” Sofia sat down with him. “Ivo and I…one day we would like to have kids. Well, I should say, at the moment Ivo wants to have kids.” Sighing she rubbed her face. “I’m not so sure. There’s something in me that’s broken. Something stopping me from wanting to a be a mother and I think it has to do when I was a kid. Mom confided stuff in you, right? She told you about my biological father?”

Jonas looked away from her and was silent for a long moment. Sofia waited him out. Finally, Jonas, his eyes full of pain, shook his head. “She didn’t give me details. She just said he was a very bad man, that they had a one-night stand and when she told him she was pregnant…he tried to have her killed. He came after both of you when you were about two, in a shopping mall. He had a gun, and he knocked your mom out and shot you in the shoulder, but you screamed the place down and he left you there. The police caught up with him but he’d put the gun in his own mouth.”

“Oh, god…” Sofia put her hand over her mouth as a memory came flooding back. Pain, terror, blood. She darted to the toilet and threw up. Jonas came to help her, rubbing her back.

“You are nothing like him. You are your mother’s goodness and kindness. If an outsider was brought into our family, they would swear blind that Tamara was your biological dad’s daughter. She’s a psycho.”

Sofia looked up at him through her tears. “You know what she did?”

Jonas, his expression hard, nodded. “I know she killed my mother. Dad knew it too, he just covered it up.”

Sofia rinsed her mouth out and wiped her face clean with a face cloth. “My real dad was a killer.”

“But you are not, and never could be. Was that the only thing stopping you from having kids?”

She shook her head. “Honestly, no. I’m conflicted because one moment, I see our son, with Ivo’s hair and green eyes and it’s all I want. The next…I’m terrified.”

“You’re also twenty-one,” Jonas said kindly. “There’s plenty of time.”

“Ivo’s thirty-seven.”

“I know, I did my research. But, Boo, listen, you two are meant for each other, anyone can see that. Stop stressing about it. This woman, his pregnant ex-girlfriend…she nice?”

Sofia nodded. “Yes, she is. In fact, I have to go see her preferably today. Do you mind tagging along?”

“Not at all.”

“Shall we go first, get it over and done with? Then we can play all we like.”

“Let’s do it.”