If there was anything Nate hated with all his might, it was a shocker of that amplitude. There was a fire buzzing in his ears and he wallowed in egregiousness as he stared at the woman who had been a mother to him during all his life.
As his mind tried desperately to stick to her words which seemed somehow jumbled, he did not even feel his body misbalance. He would have stumbled had Alessia not supported him just in time. Dazed, he did not even look at the latter, his eyes never leaving Fiona’s face as he pointlessly willed her to either take back her words or to clear her determined expression. Neither happened and the truth finally sank in. So profound was his shock that he barely registered other people who had now joined them in the study.
Suddenly, it all made sense to him, his unca
