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Nan shook her head sadly, “This is Natalia, is it not?”
She didn’t wait for a response before continuing, “My boy has loved you since the moment he saw you. I can’t tell you how many times we talked about you.”
Natalie moved from the photos and went to sit woodenly on the couch.
“I don’t understand. You’re Italian but speak with an English accent. Your family is Italian Mafia, but you were raised in Kent. Things aren’t adding up. In fact, I feel more confused now than I did before.”
Julio sighed, “That is why we are here. I want to tell you everything. The good and the bad. I want you to understand why I made the choices I did. Much like my cousin Jennings, I wasn’t raised in the family. Jennings knew a little about our history. But my mother, after she learned about the Mafia, ran and gave me up for adoption.”
Nan smiled, “My daughter and her husband adopted him, and they lived very happily for three years until one night, I was watching Julio, and they were killed in a car accident.”
Julio swallowed, “I don’t remember them, but Nan has told me so much about them.”
Nan nodded, “I didn’t have very much money, and the funeral costs for my daughter and son-in-law nearly crippled us. We lived a difficult existence. I wish I could have given Julio more.”
“You gave me everything,” Julio was emphatic. “It wasn’t your fault that I fell in with the wrong crowd. And it certainly wasn’t your fault that I was the spitting image of my father. It was only a matter of time. I was following a dangerous road.”
Nan scowled. “That you would never have walked had you not been trying to provide for me as a seventeen-year-old.”
Natalie shook her head. “Seventeen?”
Nan sighed, “I began to have some severe health problems. The jobs that Julio could get were often of the illegal variety. It was a chance of fate that his father came across him and claimed him as his son. Apparently, he had looked for Julio his entire life but never dreamed Rebecca would take him as far as Kent.”
“And you continued because your father wouldn’t help Nan?” Natalie said incredulously.
Julio shook his head, shame brightening his cheeks. “No, I went into the family business because I liked the money, the fast cars, the beautiful women, and the adrenaline of living life and death at every turn.”
28
“Way to sell it, Kid.”
The sarcasm in the older woman’s voice, coupled with her look of clear exasperation, had Natalie fighting back a smile. And perhaps the fact that Julio had been completely honest with her about why he did what he did.
Natalie could see in those photographs just how humble Julio’s beginning had been. He might think he had been a selfish bastard, but Natalie knew him.
She knew him.
It was as if a light turned on, and everything looked a little differently. Yes, he had been young and foolish. But was Natalie so perfect that she had never made any mistakes? Stupid, awful, terrible mistakes?
Julio cleared his throat, “Natalie?”
She looked up and noticed that she hadn’t been paying attention. Her stomach was doing that weird flippy thing, and she suddenly felt hot. His gaze was warm on her face, and she had the overwhelming urge to fling herself at him.
Julio, sensing something was different, took a step forward.
His hand captured hers, “Are you alright?”
Natalie nodded, her voice coming out breathless as she added, “Just thinking things through.”
“Well, you can think over a meal. I know it’s not supper time, but I have made Julio’s favorite, bangers and mash.”
Julio pulled her toward the dining table. The apartment was small but well furnished.
“Can I just take a minute to wash up?” Natalie asked.
Moments later, she was splashing water on her face and giving herself a firm talking to.
Don’t do anything stupid, Natalie. Just because he brought you to meet his Nan and opened up about a subject that was strictly forbidden doesn’t mean you need to fall into the man’s bed.