Weak hope suddenly took life in Humphrey’s gaze. “Her mother-her mother must be-”
“As tar black as Roman’s favorite piece of ass.”
“Her father-”
“Same. Recorded as Brogan Lucas.”
Humphrey squeezed his eyes shut and then pressed his fists to his eyes as if to wipe out some brutal imagery. “Can’t be...” he groaned.
“Well, unless your plan is to ask her family or maybe her new husband knows-”
Humphrey yanked Vale to his toes again. “Who else have you told! Answer me!”
“N-no one! No one, I swear!” Vale shook, chilled to the marrow under the feral gleam in his brother’s eyes. He tried to pull away, but Humphrey yanked him closer. Vale’s eyes watered. “P-please Hump...”
Humphrey let go, sending Vale faltering into the nearest chair. Humphrey came to lean over the chair, trapping his kid brother there. He leveled a finger at Vale’s nose.
“If you ever speak a word of this, I’ll kill you.”
~34~
Summer, 1971~
Stone Tesano’s loss was still keenly felt by his family and all who knew him. Outside of Tesano board meetings and other company engagements, Liam and Athena were rarely seen together. They maintained the same residence for appearance sake. With the exception of Vale, the couple’s remaining sons had all moved into their own places. Humphrey even sat on the hiring board at his new apartment building. There, he occupied a lavish 10-room penthouse that Giselle had helped him to decorate.
Despite the heartbreak that had consumed everyone over Stone’s death, love still found a way to thrive. Pitch and Candace enjoyed the freedom that came with having their pick of private retreats. Candace had moved to her own place, not far from Tesano headquarters in Manhattan. Though Pitch spent most of his nights with her there, he’d kept his New York City loft.
Gabriel and Giselle continued to settle into their roles as husband and wife, as did Roman and Imani. Sadly, the rift between the brothers had continued. It was an exhausting task for Giselle to convince Gabriel to join in on a couple’s night. When he did give in, his manner toward his brothers was distinctly distant. The reality was dismal, but Giselle wasn’t dismayed. She had made it her mission to ease the tension within the Tesano family.
Giselle’s ‘beautiful secret’ as Liam Tesano called it, had yet to be shared with all her in laws. Stone’s death had put the brakes on any such revelations.
Those brakes were beginning to slip.
***
Roman checked the wall clock and then his wrist watch when he heard the uproar of voices and laughter outside his office door. The scheduled meeting with his team should have started five minutes ago.
Muffling a groan, Roman left his desk chair and moved to the door on resigned steps. He’d expected to find his three partners crowding his secretary’s desk and hounding the woman into laughing at their pitiful jokes. He got more than he expected when he found his secretary as well as his wife laughing over his friends’ poor attempts at humor.
Gaze fixed on Imani, Roman cut through the small group until he had her in his arms. “You okay?” he spoke the question against her cheek.
Imani nodded. “I need to talk to you, but it can wait-”
“Start without me, alright?” Roman turned to instruct his partners and then he was taking Imani to a small office at the end of the hall.
“Are you okay?” he asked again once they were alone in the cramped room.
She smiled, studying her fingers fidgeting around the salt and pepper lapels of Roman’s suitcoat. “I’m fine. I really am.” She said.
Roman looked only partly convinced. “You didn’t wake up when I left this morning. You haven’t woken up any morning I left this week.”
“I’m sorry,” her smile trembled. “I’ve just been a little tired, but they say it’ll pass soon.”
He tensed. “Who says what will pass soon?”
“The doctor I saw this morning.”
Roman lowered to the corner of the desk. His dark eyes pooled with worry. “Imani-”
“I’m pregnant.”
The worry glimmered into disbelief and his eyes drifted to her waist. He reached out to touch her and then hesitated.
Imani swallowed as though she were trying to work up her nerve. “I’ve been meaning to see someone about birth control.”
“Why?”
“I just,” she swallowed again, focusing on her nervous fumbling with his suit coat. “We haven’t talked about kids and I...” She saw that he wasn’t listening, but seemed fixed on his hands pressing to her belly. A look of wonder accented his darkly handsome features.
“Roman?”
“When will he be here?”
Imani smiled and reached out to drag her fingers through his hair while his head was tilted. His eyes were following the movement of his hands across the pleated gold skirt she wore with a matching capped sleeve blouse.
“Sometime next spring,” she said.
“Next spring...” Roman was still focused on his wife’s waistline.
