A Corisi Christmas (Legacy Collection #7) (4 page)

Stephan made a motion of zipping his lips and throwing away the key.

Judy shrugged. “I’ll ask Auntie Maddy. She’s not a good secret keeper.”

The fact that Judy already knew that about Maddy had everyone laughing. Even Dominic found himself smiling at the idea that Judy already had Maddy’s number.

In the quiet that followed the laughter, Nicole put her hand on her husband’s and said, “Stephan and I have news we want to share. We’re having a baby.”

Judy’s eyes rounded. “Right now? Tonight?”

Nicole put a hand on Judy’s shoulder. “No, honey, in about six months.”

Dominic looked from Nicole’s face to her husband’s and back then nodded in approval. Stephan had proven himself so far as being good to Nicole and looked excited about the news. “Congratulations.” He walked over to hug his sister then shook Stephan’s hand. “I’m really happy for you both.”

Abby hugged both Nicole and Stephan. “I’m so excited for you.”

Judy crawled onto Nicole’s lap. “Where is it?”

“The baby?” Nicole asked.

“Yes.”

Nicole rested a hand on her stomach. “It’s in here.”

“Why don’t you have a big belly?” Judy asked.

“I will,” Nicole said with a laugh. “It’s early yet. The baby has to grow.”

Judy put her hand on Nicole’s stomach. “There’s a baby in there? Right now? How does it get in there?”

Dominic held back a laugh and Stephan coughed.

Abby said, “We’ll talk about all that later, Judy. Just say congratulations for now.”

Judy snuggled against Nicole. “Congratulations. You’re going to be a mom. I hope you get someone like me. I make my parents happy.”

“Yes, you do,” Dominic said and earned a huge smile from his wife.

Nicole hugged her closer and over her head said, “When I found out I was pregnant, I started thinking about Christmas—”

Abby knocked a glass of water over. “Oh, my God, look at that, I’m so clumsy sometimes.”

Everyone handed her their napkins and Dominic called for the housekeeper who came quickly and cleaned up the mess. When everything was settled again, Nicole said, “As I was saying, I’ve been thinking that this year—”

Abby stood. “Nicole. Can I talk to you in the kitchen for a moment?”

Stephan turned his wife’s hand over in his and gave her a long look. “I have an idea. The holidays are crazy around here. What do you think if this year we do something small, just the four of us?” He winked at Judy. “Five of us. We could fly over to Isola Santos the week before Christmas and celebrate there before we come back and celebrate here. We never do anything with just us. It might be nice.”

Nicole gave her husband a teary smile. “Would you really be okay with that? I’ve been trying to find a way to ask you if we could do that, but I was afraid you’d think I didn’t enjoy Christmas with your family. I do. I just want one Christmas with mine.”

“No,” Dominic said. He met Abby’s guilty gaze and realized she’d known what Nicole wanted to ask. Their conversation from earlier suddenly made sense. Anger began to spread inside him, but he clenched his teeth and kept his thoughts to himself.

Nicole gasped at the abruptness of his tone, and Stephan put his arm protectively around her.

Abby walked over to where Judy was still sitting on Nicole. “Judy, why don’t we go see if Miss Jan has the dessert ready?”

Judy looked around at the suddenly tense-looking adults and said, “Mommy, what happened?”

“Nothing, Baby. Let’s go.”

“But—”

Abby gave her daughter a look that ended whatever Judy had been about to ask. Abby paused in front of Dominic. “I’ll be one minute.”

As soon as she’d cleared the kitchen door, Stephan stood and said, “What the hell is your problem tonight, Dominic?”

Nicole put a hand on his arm. Her eyes were shining with tears. “Don’t, Stephan. I knew he wouldn’t want to. I shouldn’t have asked.”

Normally Dominic would have said something cutting back to Stephan, but he was protecting Nicole and Dominic couldn’t hate him for that. The last thing Dominic wanted to do was hurt his sister, but the scene unraveling over dinner was exactly why a Corisi Christmas shouldn’t happen.

Stephan approached Dominic, his voice rising with anger as he did. He stopped within inches of Dominic. “Pick a side, Dominic. Either you’re a loving brother or an asshole who I won’t let anywhere near my wife.”

This is the man my sister loves. He’s the father of the child within her.
“Don’t come between my family and me, Stephan. It’s a dangerous place.”

Stephan didn’t back down. He snarled, “I’d take your own advice, Dominic. Nicole and our baby, that’s my family. You hurt them, and you’ll spend the rest of your life regretting you did.”

Abby returned and stepped between them, putting a hand up. “No one is hurting anyone. Both of you take a deep breath.”

Neither man did. They both remained postured for what was moving toward a physical altercation. Between gritted teeth, Dominic said, “I would never do anything to hurt my sister.”

Stephan fired back, “What do you think you just did?”

“Please stop,” Nicole said, looking back and forth between them with tears running down her face.

Abby took the two men each by one arm and turned them toward Nicole. “Do either of you think you’re helping Nicole feel better, or are you both so wrapped up in yourself that you can’t see you’re upsetting her?”

Dominic saw real distress in his sister’s face and was overcome with anger at himself. He hated that he couldn’t be the brother she needed, not when they were younger and not now. Stephan had every right to call him every name in the book. This was what he’d wanted to avoid. He met Abby’s eyes briefly then strode out of the room.

N
icole was shaking. Stephan was talking to her, but he sounded far away. In her mind she was reliving what Dominic had said and fighting back the fear that she could lose her brother again.

Abby looked at Stephan. “We can’t work this out for them, Stephan. No matter how much we want to.” She took one of Nicole’s hands in hers. “Nicole, Dominic loves you. He’s not angry with you, he’s angry with himself. As hard as it is to imagine, inside that man is a young boy who wanted to save you and your mother from your father and failed. That’s what he hates. That’s why he’s afraid to look back. You’re about to become a mother. Not everything your child says to you will be kind, but you have to be strong enough to love them through that. Learn that skill here. Dominic needs you right now. He can’t ask you to be there for him. He doesn’t know how. He’s hurting as much as you are. Go in there and give him a hug. I promise you it’s what you both need.”

Stephan opened his mouth but held his thought to himself when Abby raised a hand and said, “Trust me on this one. Please.”

Nicole clasped her hands in front of her. “He won’t want to talk to me.”

Abby looked at the door Dominic had walked out of. “So don’t say anything. Just give him a hug.”

Nicole met her husband’s eyes. He was angry. He was worried. He wanted to tell her not to go, but he also knew how important her brother was to her. In that moment Nicole saw the strength of Stephan’s love. Words were easy to say, but he put his pride
and
his anger aside for her.

Nicole squared her shoulders and nodded. She had always relied on Dominic to be the strong one. Maybe change would only come when their roles flipped. She walked out the door of the dining room and saw Dominic standing near his desk in his office. Without saying a word, Nicole walked to him and wrapped her arms around him. His arms instantly came up to embrace her, and he hugged her tightly.

In the past Nicole would have said something. She would have tried to fix what was broken between them, but she heeded Abby’s advice. She hugged him back and let her questions and insecurities fall away. She wasn’t turning to him for help or feeling scared he would leave her. This time, if only for a moment, she was the strong one.

He dropped his arms and stepped back. “I’m sorry, Nicole. I know what you want, but—”

Nicole saw her brother through Abby’s eyes, and it was a revelation. Dominic wasn’t saying no because he didn’t want to be with her. He was saying no because he was afraid. Fear was something she understood far too well. She touched his arm gently. “I get it now. It’s okay.”

“No. Stephan was right. I didn’t have to say no the way I did. I don’t want you to think—”

“I know you love me, Dom. I love you. That’s all that matters.”

Dominic looked away as he spoke. “I hate him, and I hate who I am because of him.”

Nicole didn’t have to ask who he was talking about. Dominic only hated one man—their father. Nicole put her arms around her brother again. Abby’s insight into Dominic helped shape what Nicole said next. “We are more than what he did to us, Dom. You are more than whatever you regret doing. You have a temper. I’m a nervous wreck. So what? You have an amazing wife and a beautiful daughter. I have a man I love so much it hurts and a child on the way. Instead of looking back at everything we did wrong, can we remember some of what we did right? This year, I’m going to give you something that is technically already yours and you are going to love it. And I want you to give me something that is already mine. That’s it. That’s all I want for Christmas. Can you do that?”

Dominic relaxed. “Yes, I can.”

Nicole took her brother by the arm and together they walked back into the dining room. Abby and Stephan were both carefully quiet.

Judy rushed back into the room. “Mom, Miss Jan said the yogurt isn’t ready. Can we have cake instead?”

“Sure,” Abby said without taking her eyes off Dominic.

Judy’s jaw dropped open. “Yes?” She looked to her father for confirmation. “Really?”

“Whatever you want, Judy, just go get it,” Abby said.

Judy hesitated. “It’s a school night. Are you sure you want me to have all that sugar?”

Abby turned to look at her daughter. “What did you say?”

Judy’s eyes rounded innocently. “Nothing. Dad, you heard her, she said yes.”

Dominic stared at Judy for a moment, then a smile spread across his face. “She did. Why don’t you have Miss Jan bring out cake for everyone?” He walked over and slid an arm around Abby’s waist. “Thank you.”

Nicole watched her brother and his wife exchange a few more words quietly, and it warmed her heart. Stephan came up behind Nicole and wrapped his arms around her. “Did you work things out?”

Nicole nodded. “We did.”

“Are we getting together for Christmas?”

Nicole leaned back against Stephan, loving how safe he made her feel. “I don’t know, but I’m not worried about it anymore. Abby was right; he needed a hug.”

Stephan made a sound in his throat but didn’t disagree. “I’m sorry I flew at him like that. I don’t know what came over me.”

Nicole hugged his arms closer around her. In a voice low enough so Abby and Dominic couldn’t hear, Nicole said, “Don’t knock down Dominic’s house on Isola Santos. I want to give it to him for Christmas.”

“How about we demolish it, but build him a new one? It’s an eyesore.”

In the past, Nicole would have relented, worried if she said what she really wanted, Stephan would be angry. Embracing her faults, though, was helping her overcome them. “Dominic built that house, and it’s beautiful to him. This will show him we accept him the way he is.”

“We couldn’t just get a card that says that?” Stephan joked.

Nicole elbowed him.

“Okay. Okay. I’ll call off the demolition. But when you’re standing on your beautiful Italian balcony and all you can see is a reflection of yourself in the enormous glass windows of his home, it’s on you.”

Nicole turned her head to kiss Stephan’s cheek. “I love you.”

He turned his head so their lips met briefly. “I love you, too. Any chance you want to be the one to explain this to Gio?”

Later that night Dominic and Abby stood in the doorway of Judy’s bedroom, watching her sleep. Dominic tucked his wife into his side and said, “I didn’t think she’d ever fall asleep.”

“That’s what we get for giving her cake so late in the day.”

Giving in to the temptation to tease her, Dominic said, “Who said yes?”

Abby swatted his chest. “I was distracted by all the testosterone. I thought you and Stephan were going to wrestle each other to the floor.”

“I would have won,” Dominic said, and earned himself another swat. He didn’t care. He grabbed Abby’s hand, brought it to his mouth and kissed it. “Nicole wants me to give her something that’s already hers. We used to do that when we were kids.”

“I know. She told me the story.”

“I was an ass tonight. I should have agreed to celebrate Christmas with them.”

“You weren’t ready to. I think Nicole understands that now.”

“How did I end up with such a wise wife?”

Abby shot him a cheeky smile. “You were that good in bed.”

His eyebrows shot up in pleased surprise. “I figured as much.”

“So, what are you going to give Nicole?”

“I don’t know.”

Abby chewed her bottom lip for a moment in an uncharacteristic moment of uncertainty. “I have an idea, but I don’t know if it’s a good one.”

Dominic studied her face for a long moment. He knew that expression. Whatever she was about to say was something she’d been thinking about for a while. “Just say it.”

“Do you remember that box Nicole found in your father’s things? She wouldn’t open it because she was too afraid of what would be inside it. You wouldn’t open it for the same reason—”

“I’m not—”

“I know. But the box has been in the attic for years now. Stephan said she still visits your father’s grave.”

“I didn’t know Nicole—”

“She does. She always has. She’s just too afraid to tell you. I know you say you hate your father, Dom, but Nicole loved him. What if there is something in that box she would want?”

Dominic tensed at the mere thought of looking at something his father had owned. “There is nothing in there I want to see.”

“I peeked inside, Dom. There is an envelope addressed to both you and Nicole.”

He didn’t blame her for being curious because she’d never met the piece of work that was his father. “If I know him it’s some sick document claiming that Nicole and I aren’t even . . .”

“Even what?”

“My father was a bastard. He’d do or say anything to hurt us, even from the grave.”

Abby hugged him. “He can’t hurt you anymore, no matter what is in that envelope. You need to prove that to yourself. Open the box. Tear open that envelope. Don’t let your father define you.”

Dominic didn’t promise anything, but Abby’s suggestion came back to him several times the next day. Every time he thought about his sister, he wondered what he could possibly give her for Christmas, and then an image of the box would fill his head.

He waited until both Abby and Judy were sleeping and retrieved the box from the attic. He took it to his office and set it on his desk.

Abby was right. His father couldn’t hurt him or his family anymore. No matter what was in the box, it wouldn’t change anything. He removed the cover and picked up the envelope addressed to Nicole and him. Instead of opening it, he walked to the fireplace and held it above the flames.
I don’t care about you or whatever you wanted me to know.

The paper on the envelope darkened, but Dominic pulled it back from the flames before it caught fire. He tore it open. Inside was a handwritten letter from his father.

Dominic,

Thomas Brogos just left with my new will. The doctors say I don’t have much time left and something about facing death has made me rethink a few things.

My father was a vicious drunk. I’m not saying that as an excuse, it’s merely a fact. There is a rage inside of me I’ve never successfully contained. I fear I’ve passed that rage down to you.

I would apologize, but there was never anything my father could have said that would have made me hate him less. I hated who he was and the man I became because of him.

Dominic dropped the letter to the desk as if stung by it. He’d spent most of his life afraid he would become his father and there, in black and white, were his own words written by his father. With a shaking hand, Dominic picked the letter back up and continued to read it.

I thought I had it all, but in the end I drove my wife away, made my son an enemy, and watched my daughter cry tears for a father who had done nothing to earn her love.

Don’t make the same mistakes I did. Don’t bequeath your rage to your children. Let it die with me.

I can’t go back and undo anything I’ve done. I can’t be the father you should have had, but I can do one thing right. You and your sister would have been closer if it weren’t for me. I’m leaving the company to her under the stipulation that you run it for a year. Use that year wisely. Find your way back to being a family.

She’s angry with you, Dominic, but you were not the one who failed her. That was me. Forgive her, no matter what she says to you. Forgive yourself, no matter how many times you look in the mirror and see me.

Nicole,

Don’t hate your brother for what I did to both of you. Don’t hate your mother for leaving. The weight of all of that rests on my shoulders alone.

You stayed by me when everyone else left. I know you think I didn’t care about you, but I had to pull away, otherwise I would have hurt you, too.

Take this time with your brother to get to know each other again. Forgive him. There is darkness in his heart, but I put it there.

You’re still here with me, Nicole. I could tell you this in person instead of writing it down, but there is too much I’d have to say. I’m sorry I am taking the easy way out.

I loved you both. My greatest regret is that I will die without either of you knowing it or being better because of it.