Maid for the Billionaire(49)

"Mother," he said the word like an accusation.

The woman stepped toward him despite the closed expression on his face. "Dominic!" she exclaimed tearfully.

"I thought you were dead." His expression held little emotion. It was as cold and lifeless as his hand had become the moment he'd seen her.

"It was necessary for you to think that, Dominic." She wrung her hands, her eyes pleading for his understanding.

"Really?" he said as if it were something from long ago that held little interest for him now.

His mother rushed to explain. "If your father had known that I was still alive, nothing would have stopped him from coming after me. He would have made me pay for leaving him. I would have never been safe."

"You could have told me." His voice became ragged. "I looked for you for years. I paid countless agencies to scour the world for you. Money was no object. They all said you were dead."

She wiped a tear from her cheek and looked at the man beside her. "I returned to my home country, Dominic. To my old village. There is a loyalty there that no amount of money can shake."

"You dare speak of loyalty?" Dominic‘s voice boomed. "You left us."

His mother bent over as if his words caused her actual pain. "I was weak, Dominic. Your father had crushed all of my confidence out of me. He would never have let me leave. And I couldn't take you with me. You were 17. Almost a man. Staying with him offered you a legacy of wealth I never could. Once in Italy, I faked my death and created a new identity for myself, but I had no idea if it would actually work. I chose a life on the run for many years -- living where I could on what money people were kind enough to give me. What kind of life would that have been for you?"

Dominic face whitened with anger. "I didn't want his legacy. I walked away from him after you left. You could have come to me then. You could have given a note to one of the investigators I sent looking for you. Why didn't you come to me? I could have protected you."

His mother paled also. Her thin shoulders shook with emotion. "At first you were too young, Dominic. Your father would have crushed you as he crushed me. He was a vengeful man. Then, later, when your company took off..."

"Yes?" he ground out. "Why didn't you come then?"

"You were on the news, taking over company after company..." her voice trailed away.

Dominic simply stood in silent accusation of her.

She continued in a tormented whisper, "…so much like your father. I was afraid to come to you. I didn't know if you could forgive me and I still feared what your father would do if he found out I was alive."

Dominic railed against this. His hands tightened into fists at his sides. "So now that he is dead you think you can simply jump up and announce that it was all a trick, a ruse? Why did you come here today?‖

Abby moved to stand beside Dominic. She took one of his fisted hands in both of hers, simply holding onto him. Let me in, she thought fervently. Don’t block me out.

Dominic had said that he was ready to share his life with someone, to be a real partner.

Abby felt the sting of uncertainty in the face of that declaration being tested so soon. What would she do if he announced that this was none of her business? Extreme circumstances didn‘t often bring out the best in people and what could be more extreme than a mother Dominic had mourned the death of simply stepping off a helicopter?

What am I doing? He doesn’t need to prove anything to me. He loves me.

If he needed to handle this confrontation alone, she would support that decision. She loosened her hold on his hand in preparation of doing just that.

Instantly, Dominic‘s fingers uncurled and wove with hers. He pulled her ever so slightly closer to him. She gave him a reassuring squeeze that was returned without hesitation. For just a second, he looked away from his mother to gaze gratefully down at her.

Abby fell in love with him all over again. This was the gentle man he didn‘t like to admit he was and the reason she believed he really would have left his company and started over for her.

Dominic‘s mother‘s tearful voice drew their attention again. "I know what I did was wrong, Dominic. I was weak. I was scared. I wish I could go back and undo the whole thing. But when I heard about you and Abby, I knew I had to tell you why I left before you ended up repeating your father‘s mistakes.‖

"I don‘t need your help. I‘m not my father," Dominic growled, his anger increasing at the mention of Abby.

Jake stepped closer and interceded. "Dom, listen to what she‘s saying. She came here for you. She knows that what she did was wrong, but she‘s asking you to forgive her. Can you honestly look at her and say that you've never done anything that you were ashamed of? Are you living a life without regrets, Dom?"

Dominic's hand clenched Abby's painfully. He glared at Jake. "God, I hate that you know me so well." He looked across at his mother, seeing her as a person for the first time and grudgingly admitted, "The truth is that I‘m no better than you, Mother. I left Nicole. For the same reasons that you left me -- except perhaps more out of anger than fear, but I honestly thought that she'd fare better in the gilded cage than fighting him from the gutter as I intended to."

Thomas put a supportive arm around Dominic‘s mother‘s waist. He clearly thought that Dominic could be handling the situation better, but was willing to let the scene play out as long as no intentional hurt was done to the woman beside him.