Chapter 50

She's gorgeous, Liz," Nadia gushed, and Eliza smiled tiredly, nodding her appreciation of the comment. 

Nadia seemed not to notice her lack of enthusiasm, or if she did, probably dismissed it as exhaustion.

Ryan had been in earlier but was at work at the moment. 

Romano was leaning against a wall, arms crossed over his broad chest and legs crossed at the ankles.He said nothing but Eliza was aware of him watching her every move with brooding intensity.

It has been just over a day since the baby had been born, and Romano had gone home only to shower and change and to bring Eliza a change of clothes. 

He also packed a bag for the baby, filling it with the tiny little pink and white things he'd bought months ago while Eliza had been industriously buying toys and clothes for a baby boy.

"Have you thought of names yet?" Nadia was asking, and Eliza winced slightly at the memory of a conversation she once had with Romano. 

Romano must have remembered too because he made a caustic sound.

"Last time we talked about it," Romano spoke for the first time since Nadia had arrived 2 hours before, "she had her heart set on Kieran, Ethan, Alesso or Romeo." Nadia frowned at that.

"Only boys' names?" Nadia asked in confusion.

"You forget, your cousin was obsessed with having a son," Romano said. "What a pity for her that she failed so dismally at achieving her goal." 

Eliza’s soft mouth quivered at the slight, and Romano’s eyes went misty at the sight but he kept pressing.

"She’s so torn up by this inability of her to do anything right, that she hasn't even bothered to look at our daughter. Or hold her. Or even attempt to feed her. Why hassle with a mere girl child when it won't get her out of her miserable marriage with me? When it won't win her the affection of her thrice-damned pathetic father?"

"Liz?" Nadia prompted gently, watching as tears spilled onto Eliza’s pale cheeks. Romano cursed rawly before levering himself from the wall and sitting down on the bed to wrap Eliza in his strong arms.

"Don't cry, please, I am sorry," he whispered. "I'm a bastard. Just don't cry cara."

"You're not a bastard," Eliza sobbed. "You're right. I can't look at her. I can't hold her. I don't understand why I feel this way. I hate myself for feeling this way. I just wanted to make this all right. I wanted to have that son and release you from your obligation to me. I wanted to finally do something right in my father's eyes. Everything would have been perfect."

"Do you hate our baby?" Romano asked painfully, misery alive in his voice, keeping his face buried in Eliza’s hair.

"Of course not. I love her so much it hurts. But I feel like such a failure."

"Oh God, sweetheart, you are anything but that, you are incredible," he groaned. "Let yourself love her. Allow yourself to be happy."

"But what about you?..."

"I told you before, I don't want out of this marriage. And if you give me nothing but daughters for the next twenty years, I would consider myself blessed."

Eliza made a muffled sound as she buried her face in Romano’s neck and wept. 

She so desperately wanted to believe Romano.

Romano rocked her soothingly and after a long while, he released her and gently lowered her until her head rested on the pillow.

 "Why don't you rest, cara, and when you wake up, I think it's time you meet your daughter and give her a proper welcome into this world." 

Eliza stared up at his dark, handsome face, barely noticing when her cousin got up and left!, squeezing her taut shoulder on her way out.

Her vision started to blur after a while and she fell asleep still trustingly clutching one of her husband's large, capable hands in both of his.

Eliza awoke to the sound of angry, hushed voices and blinked groggily as she tried to get her bearings.

"I don't want you anywhere near her." Eliza heard Romano hiss furiously and tried to concentrate on the drama unfolding at her doorway where she could see two large men’s silhouettes.

One was unmistakably Romano, and the other...she narrowed her eyes slightly, trying to focus a bit better. It looked like her father.

"She’s my daughter and I'll damn well see her when I want to," the other man blustered, confirming that he was, indeed, Victor Harrington.

"So that you can damage her more than you already have?" Romano asked, almost shaking with rage.

"I won't let you get close enough to hurt her like that again. And you can forget about getting that heir you want anytime soon. I refuse to give you that pleasure."

"Well, then stay married to her until you do, or give up the vineyard," her father sneered.

"The vineyard never meant as much to me as it did my father. You can have the damned place back. I want your grasping paws out of my business and the taint of your presence away from my marriage. You won't be getting your hooks into my mate again, and you most certainly will not be any kind of presence in our children's lives."

"Rome..." Eliza sat up slightly. "It's okay. I want to speak with him."

"Eliza..." Romano’s voice shook with anger as he stepped into Eliza’s slightly darkened room. "No, you don't have to."

"It's okay." She smiled, her lips trembling. "He doesn't have the power to hurt me anymore. I want to see him."

"Tesoro..."

"Romano." Eliza’s voice was firm and brooked no argument, and Romano sighed before stepping aside to let her father in.

"Father." Eliza nodded warily as she watched the large, handsome man whose affection and approval she had craved her entire life enter the room.

"Eliza, you look none the worse for wear," he observed in the cold, distant voice he always used on Eliza, and she immediately went back to that insecure little girl who had never understood why her father didn't hug her and didn't want to spend time with her.

"Have you seen my daughter yet?" Eliza asked, her voice strong and sure. Not betraying the little girl who still lurked somewhere inside.

"Not yet, no." Her father seemed uncertain in the face of the new strength in her and unsure of what to make of it.

"It's funny," Eliza suddenly observed, "what having a baby does to you. You would go out of your way to protect that new life from anybody who would threaten its happiness. I won't allow you to hurt my baby the way you hurt me. I don't want you in her life unless you're prepared to love her in the way you were unable to love me: wholeheartedly and unconditionally."