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For just a second, all his insecurities, all his fears that he couldn’t give Nyra everything she deserved came back, pummeling him.
No, he told himself, pushing those fears back. He was being ridiculous.
Nyra was six and a half months pregnant with his children. She was thriving, and happy, if uncomfortable most nights. And days. She had such a thin frame with barely any hips and his two daughters—God had granted him one wish of his—were growing so rapidly, that they were putting too much strain on their mother’s pelvis. She had been advised bed rest for the last month.
The only thorn in an otherwise content marriage was his wife’s worry for her twin. Nadia had finally started calling her twin for a weekly chat from the clinic. After he’d intervened and told her how much Nyra missed her and how she needed to clean up her act if she wanted to see her sister and her nieces in the future.
It was the hardest thing Adriano had ever done—to not ask Nyra how her sister was faring. Or why she still looked so worried even after several chats with her sister.
And now this…
It had killed him to go away on this trip to Japan again for two weeks, but Nyra had reassured him that she was fine with Fabi and Bruno and Maria for company and that she would rather have him by her side when the babies came. So, he had reluctantly made the trip a week ago.
“What did she make you promise?” he asked softly, dreading the answer.
“It’s about her twin,” Fabi said, after another prolonged silence that twisted his nerves into painful knots.
Adriano pressed his head to the wall in front of him. Of course, this had to be about Nadia. It was only her that Nyra would go against his wishes for. The one person, sometimes it seemed to him, that Nyra loved more than anyone in the world.
Definitely more than him. If she loved him at all, that was.
And he…he loved her with every breath in him. Enough to forgive her anything and everything if only she was safe.
“What about her twin, Fabi? You might as well tell me the whole story.”
“Will you promise not to be mad at Nyra? I mean, I helped her because I understand her pain.”
He sighed. Apparently now his wife had an army of allies. “I won’t be mad at my six-months-pregnant-with-twins wife,” he said, a humorless laugh punctuating each word. “Just tell me what happened.”
“Nadia left the rehab clinic. I think she ran away and she came to the villa. To see Nyra.”
His breath stuttered in his throat. “When?”
“Almost to the day after you left. And I can assure you that Nyra didn’t know. She was…shocked to say the least. She looks so much like Nyra, Adriano. Except for the pregnancy, I mean. No, except, around the eyes, actually. Nyra has kind eyes.”
“And?” Adriano prompted. Though he could imagine what had happened. Nyra must have told her twin that he would be out of the country. And it was the chance her volatile twin had been waiting for.
“After the shock, Nyra was crying and sobbing and hugging her sister,” Fabi continued. “And I thought this was good, you know. But then…”
Adriano bit his lower lip hard to stop himself from losing his temper with his sister.
Finally, Fabi spoke again. “Right away, she started talking about how Nyra should leave you. How cruel and ruthless you are. And how not only had you thrown Nyra away once, but had Nadia locked up because you wanted to isolate Nyra. She said you threatened her about talking to Nyra…” Fabi sounded both alarmed and horrified. “Her conspiracy theory against you went on and on. It scared me to hear all the stuff she said about you and Nyra, about how much she was urging her to leave you, to run away with her.”
It felt like his heart was now permanently lodged in his throat. He knew that Nyra would never do something as foolish as running away with her drug addict sister. But the thought of her in pain at what her sister had become…pricked him sharply, as if it were his own.
“What happened today, how did she…fall?”
“Nyra told Nadia she would meet her at this café. And she asked me to come along. When we arrived, Nadia started arguing with her immediately. Demanding that she give her the cash she asked for if she was going to ditch Nadia anyway. Then she saw that Nyra had alerted Bruno. Nyra was holding her hands, begging her to go back to the clinic, that it was the drugs making her talk like this. Nadia jerked away so fast that Nyra fell and hit her head on the footpath. She lost consciousness for like two minutes. And in the scuffle, Nadia ran away.”
“And she’s okay now? You aren’t lying to me?”
“No, Adriano. She’s fine but she won’t stop crying these…silent tears. She…needs you here.”
Adriano told his sister that she had indeed become very wise and that, yes, he would be on his private jet in a half hour. Only when Fabi hung up and he reached the privacy of his suite did he lean back against the door, nearly sliding to the floor on shaking knees.
She was fine, he told himself over and over again.
He needed to be strong because she needed him. Whatever else he might be feeling now—anger, fear and this…knee-buckling love for her—they were all his to bear and manage.