The Billionaire's Baby Swap
The Montanari Marriages
Wedding bells ring for the Montanari family…
Sister and brother Valentina and Rinieri Montanari have never had time for love—in the Montanari family, work comes before everything else.
Yet when romance blossoms unexpectedly, will they both find themselves saying “I do”?
A hospital mix-up brings single mum Valentina a whole new family in
The Billionaire’s Baby Swap
Allesandra has always been overlooked in favor of her more glamorous twin. Dare she hope billionaire Rinieri is different? Find out in
The Billionaire Who Saw Her Beauty
Let Rebecca Winters enchant you with this heartwarming and emotional duet!
The Billionaire’s
Baby Swap
Rebecca Winters
www.millsandboon.co.uk
REBECCA WINTERS lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. With canyons and high alpine meadows full of wildflowers, she never runs out of places to explore. They, plus her favorite holiday spots in Europe, often end up as backgrounds for her romance novels, because writing is her passion, along with her family and church. Rebecca loves to hear from readers. If you wish to email her, please visit her website at www.cleanromances.com.
To my wonderful father, who brought over 15,000 babies into the world.
At his funeral, our family was besieged with grateful mothers who loved their OB.
I miss him terribly.
Contents
Cover
Introduction
Title Page
About the Author
Dedication
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
Extract
Copyright
CHAPTER ONE
AT FIVE TO three in the afternoon, Valentina Montanari finished her timed online engineering test and sent it into the testing site at the University of Naples Federico II. She could now forget her graduate studies for a semester and concentrate on the baby.
The strange backache that had come on during the test hadn’t stopped. She got up from the table on the terrace, where she’d been working with her laptop and walked inside the villa to the kitchen for a drink. Maybe because of the way she’d been sitting, she’d developed a cramp.
“What’s wrong, Valentina?”
She darted a glance at her brother’s ever-watchful housekeeper, Bianca. “Oh, just a backache.”
“When did it start?”
“While I was taking my test. Don’t worry about it.” She poured herself a glass of freshly made lemonade. Bianca was a fifty-year-old treasure who cooked and cleaned for Valentina’s older brother, Rinieri, who was still a bachelor. She watched her like a hawk.
“A backache this close to the due date could mean your baby is ready to come.”
“I’m due July 6. That’s four days from now. At my checkup last week, Dr. Pedrotti said the baby hadn’t dropped yet and I might even go past my due date.”
“All my babies started with a backache that never went away.” The widowed mother of three no doubt knew what she was talking about. Right now Valentina wished her own mother were alive and here to talk to.
“The doctor said some backache was to be expected.” She drank half a glass. “I’ll walk around for a few minutes to work it off.” But she’d only made it to the doorway of the kitchen when the pain reached around, gripping her like a pair of giant tongs.
“Caspita!” Valentina exclaimed. She braced herself against the door frame, surprised by the degree of pain.
Bianca nodded. “I knew it! I’m calling your doctor.”
“I hate bothering him yet, Bianca.”
The housekeeper ignored her and made the call. After a quick conversation, she hung up. “He says this could be the beginning of labor. First babies generally take a long time to be born, and your water hasn’t broken yet. But he suggests you leave for the hospital. He’ll check you out there. If it’s a false alarm, no harm is done and you can come home. Rinieri said he’d be in Milan today, so I’ll phone Carlo to drive you.”
Before she could stop her, Bianca had made the call to Valentina’s married brother, Carlo, who was two years younger than thirty-two-year-old Rini. After she got off the phone, she said, “Luckily he flew home early from Naples. He said he’d come for you right away.”
“You shouldn’t have called him. The pain is easing.”
“Yes. But it will come back again and again. You get your things together.”
“My bag is already packed,” she called over her shoulder on her way to her bedroom to freshen up. Rini had already seen to that.
His nature to be in charge and have everything under control was the reason he’d been catapulted to CEO of the renowned Montanari Corporation at such a young age. Seven months ago her oldest brother had been the one to take care of her when she’d discovered she was pregnant. He’d talked her into moving out of the family villa in Naples and brought her to his villa a few kilometers from the vertical town of Positano.
Valentina adored both her brothers, but it was Rini who’d provided her with the emotional support she’d needed when she’d found out the father of her baby didn’t want children or responsibility. Being abandoned by Matteo had damaged her confidence, and Rini had recognized that fact by being protective.
Once her relationship with Matteo was over, it was Rini who’d insisted she live with him instead of their father, who’d been grieving since the death of their mother in a car accident. He’d grown weak and needed a wheelchair more and more. He slept poorly. All he would need was a baby around the family villa in Naples.
Carlo had invited her to live with him, but she didn’t want to intrude when he had a wife and child. She was blessed to have such wonderful brothers, but throughout her pregnancy she would have given anything if her mother had still been alive. They’d been so close. Now she was gone, and a grieving Valentina was going to have a baby without her mother’s loving kindness and help.
A few minutes later she heard Carlo’s voice talking to Bianca. Grabbing her purse and overnight bag, she walked to the foyer of the villa. He broke into a big smile and took the bag from her. “You’re going to be a mamma in a little while. Let’s get you to the hospital.”
“I’m fine now.”
“That’s what Melita said before our little Angelica was born. Bianca was right to call me.”
“Please don’t tell Papà yet. He’ll just worry.”
“I agree.”
She thanked the housekeeper and followed Carlo out to the courtyard, where his Mercedes was parked. As he opened the front passenger door, another pain took over. This one actually stung.
“Take some deep breaths until it passes, Valentina.”
Carlo had been through this before with his wife. He had a calming effect on her. In a minute the pain subsided enough for her to get in the front seat. After some effort, he helped fasten the seat belt below her swollen belly. He patted her tummy. “Angelica’s going to have a little cousin before long.”
“I can’t believe it’s really coming.”
“Don’t be scared.”
“I’m in too much pain to be scared.”
He shut the door and walked around to the driver’s side. Once behind the wheel, he started the car and they left the villa that was perched like an eagle’s nest above the dizzying landscape of the Amalfi Coast.
The evening summer traffic impeded their progress to the main road leading to the Positano hospital. Valentina could see Bianca’s wisdom in calling Carlo to come and get her. It would have taken Rini too long to get there.
Another pain, harder than the others, had taken over. She had a feeling this was really it. Her brother knew what was happening and let out a few epithets because someone was blocking the road.
“I should have brought you in the helicopter.”
Normally unflappable, Carlo was showing a surprising amount of angst. If she weren’t in so much pain, she’d smile because he seemed to be the one who was scared.
He honked the horn, but it did no good. At least a dozen cars were backed up with more cars lined up behind them. It took forever to reach the turnoff. The loud, blaring sound of a siren was getting closer. Another pain had started worse than the others. Valentina had always heard a woman comes close to death giving birth. If it was from the pain, she believed it.
“Carlo—my water just broke!”
“Hang in there. I’ll have you at the hospital in a few minutes.”
Suddenly there was a collision and the sound of twisting metal.
* * *
“Signor Laurito?”
What did his private secretary want now?
“Si? I’m just walking out the door to fly home to Ravello. Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”
“This is an emergency. Signora Corleto is on line two.”
His pulse raced. He knew his pregnant ex-wife could go into labor anytime now. He turned on the speaker to talk to his former mother-in-law. “Violeta? What’s going on with Tatania?”
“Oh, Giovanni, the most terrible thing has happened! She started bleeding and we sent for an ambulance. On the way to the Positano hospital it was involved in an accident with two other cars. My precious figlia—” She was crying so hard he could hardly make out her words.
“How bad is she?” The baby? His heart plunged to his feet. Had she lost it?
“The collision caused her to deliver the baby in the ambulance. Both are at the hospital on the third floor east wing. I don’t care what she says. She needs you.”
Giovanni needed answers, but she was too distraught to give him details. “I’ll be right there.”
He alerted his helicopter pilot, then raced out of the office and took the steps two at a time to reach the roof of the Laurito Corporation in downtown Naples. The flight to Positano took twenty minutes. After the short trip, his pilot set them down on one of the two helipads.
Giovanni waved him off and hurried inside the hospital. He reached the east wing and approached a doctor putting information into a computer at the nursing station. “Scusi—who can tell me the status of Signora Corleto and her baby?” When they’d divorced, she’d taken back her maiden name of Corleto.
The doctor looked up. “You are...?”
“Her ex-husband, Giovanni Laurito.”
“Ah.”
“Signora Violeta Corleto, her mother, phoned and told me she’d been in an accident.”
“That’s correct. She’s in with her daughter now. By some miracle she wasn’t injured, but she had the baby in the ambulance before they could get her here. I’m glad you’ve come. I understand your ex-wife doesn’t want to see the baby or keep him.”
“That’s right. It’s been settled in court.”
“Then that means you are the sole parent to your son.”
“Si.”
“Why don’t you talk to the pediatrician in the nursery? I just came from there. Your baby is doing fine.”
“And my ex-wife?”
“She lost some blood, but is recovering nicely.”
“So she’s out of danger?”
“Si.”
Grazie a Dio.
“If her mother looks for me, tell her I’ll be in the nursery.” Violeta had never given up hope the two of them would be reconciled. That would be an impossibility.
“Go down the other end of the hall and through the doors. You can’t miss it. Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
Giovanni was still reeling with shock when he reached the nursery. The clerk alerted the pediatrician, who came out of his office to greet him.
“Signor Laurito, I’m Dr. Ferrante. Your ex-wife’s doctor told me to expect you. You have a fine boy, who is doing well. Twenty-one inches long, seven pounds and five ounces.”
“That’s wonderful to hear. How soon can I see him?”
“Right now. Come in this other room and wash your hands. While you do that, I’ll have the nurse wheel him in here, where you can hold him and inspect him all you want. Later she’ll show you how to bathe and feed him.”
Giovanni’s heart started to pound hard. He’d played with the nieces and nephews from his two sisters’ marriages, but he’d rarely held a tiny baby. To think this newborn was his own son!
When Tatania had first learned she was pregnant, she’d threatened to have it aborted. No doubt she’d wanted to punish Giovanni because of their failed marriage that she’d blamed on him. But her father, Salvatore, had threatened to disown her if she went through with it. His will had prevailed, grazie a Dio.
After removing his suit jacket and tie, Giovanni washed his hands and dried them with the automatic blower. The moment was surreal for him as the nurse pushed the cart through the door and smiled up at him.
“You have a beautiful bambino, Signor Laurito. Here. Put this cloth over your shoulder and you can hold him. He’s asleep, but he’ll soon wake up for his bottle.”
He did as she said, but his eyes had fastened on the baby wrapped up in a crib blanket. His boy lay on his back. He had a beautiful face, almost angelic. Since Giovanni had black hair and Tatania was a brunette, the wisp of gold hair came as a surprise. His heart melted at the sight of him.
“Vitiello, mi figlio.” That was an old family name he’d decided to give him after he learned they were having a boy. He’d call him Vito for short.
Without hesitation Giovanni picked him up and put him against his shoulder. The warmth of his tiny body seeped through him. “To think your first experience in life happened inside an ambulance. That’s a story the whole family will talk about for the rest of your life.” He kissed his cheek and neck.
Giovanni might not have given birth, but his paternal instincts had taken over, and he was filled with a joy he hadn’t known in years. His marriage to Tatania had never taken. Since the divorce he’d felt relief, but was pretty much devoid of any other feelings. She’d gone through the greater part of her pregnancy without Giovanni’s help. To be united suddenly with his son thrilled him to the core of his being.
He couldn’t comprehend that Tatania didn’t want to coparent with him. According to the doctor, she hadn’t asked to see the baby. If he knew Violeta, she would work on her daughter, but Giovanni didn’t hold out hope. Every child needed a mother and father, but during their marriage, Tatania had shut down. It was as if every motherly instinct had been drained out of her. Psychiatric counseling hadn’t helped.
Eager to examine his son, he put him on the changing board and unwrapped him down to his shirt and diaper. Being uncovered had wakened him. His eyes opened. Giovanni couldn’t tell their color. Maybe a muddy slate blue.
He kissed him on either cheek. “I’m your papà. Welcome to my world.” He checked his legs and feet that were wiggling. Those tiny hands had fingers that curled around his finger. Before long he would pull him up slightly to discover how strong he was. Laughter came out of Giovanni.
In a minute the pediatrician walked in the room and smiled. “It looks like father and son are doing well. The nurse will bring you a bottle and teach you how to feed him.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
The rest of the night turned out to be pure delight as he fed and bathed Vito. By 11 o’clock Giovanni felt like an old hand, but he was exhausted. He arranged for his pilot to pick him up. He’d go home to sleep, then come back in the morning.
Once the baby was released, they’d fly home, where Stanzie and her husband, Paolo Bruno, were waiting for him. The attractive couple in their early forties had been managing the Bruno Advertising agency under their uncle Ernesto Bruno. Giovanni had become acquainted with the dynamic couple three years earlier through business. But months ago their uncle let them go because the business was failing.
Giovanni had stepped in to help them out and asked if they’d take care of his villa and garden for a temporary period. He believed in them and planned to set them up in their own advertising business a little later down the road that would benefit the three of them. Until that could be accomplished, he’d hired them to work for him, an arrangement that suited everyone. They’d been hoping to have children, but it hadn’t happened yet and they could hardly wait for the arrival of the baby.
He’d spent the past month turning one of the guest rooms into a nursery with everything the baby would need. But nothing had prepared him for the sheer wonder of being a father. This tiny infant was his heart’s blood. Already those protective feelings had taken root. He could tell his life had changed in ways he’d never dreamed of.
* * *
Two weeks had passed since the birth of the baby. Valentina looked down at her handsome son while he slept on his back. She was still trying to breast-feed, but the baby wasn’t getting enough milk so she supplemented with formula.
She’d also struggled trying to decide on the right name for him before he was born. But once she’d laid eyes on him, she felt Riccardo suited him best. She’d called him Ric from that moment on.
“Did you name him after our grandfather?” Carlo questioned while they were gathered round in the nursery. Everyone was crazy about the baby, who luckily slept soundly.
“Yes, but let me ask you a question. I want your opinion on something. Because Matteo was blond, and I am, too, I didn’t expect to have a baby with black hair. Dark hair does run in our family, but Ric’s hair is a stark black. I don’t know. Do you think Ric looks like our grandfather Riccardo?”
Carlo shook his head. “No. Not at all.” Other than the dark hair, Valentina didn’t see any similarities, either, but she’d had to ask. “This little guy has a distinct widow’s peak.”
“Papà noticed it immediately when he came to visit and thought it odd. Now I’m going to ask another question. Do you think he looks like me?”
Rini’s eyes narrowed on her. “No.”
“But he doesn’t look anything like Matteo. He was blond and blue-eyed. My baby’s eyes are dark already.”
“Now that you mention it, Melita thought it strange he doesn’t look like you.”
At Carlo’s comment a sick feeling grew in the pit of her stomach, and she turned away from the crib. “Let’s not talk about it anymore.”
“He could be a throwback to an ancestor, but none of it matters. Don’t worry about it.” Carlo kissed her cheek. “I’ve got to go home. Melita is waiting for me to help put Angelica to bed. Talk to you later.” His footsteps faded down the hall.
Rini stayed in the nursery with her. “Valentina? Look at me.” She was afraid to. “I know what has been going through your mind since you brought Ric home from the hospital. At first I didn’t dwell on it, but tonight I have to admit I’m puzzled that I see no signs of you or our family in the baby. Before you turn yourself inside out, there’s a simple way to learn the truth.”
“I know,” she whispered. “Get a DNA test done.”
“Exactly. Then you’ll know the baby is yours and you can stop driving yourself mad with worry.”
Her breath froze in her lungs. “You wouldn’t suggest my doing that if you didn’t have doubts, too.” Nothing got past her successful brother who was known for his genius in the business world. She held herself taut. “What if the baby isn’t mine? I love little Ric with all my heart and soul. He’s so gorgeous and so sweet.”
They stared at each other for an overly long moment.
“Find out the truth first before you tear yourself apart.”
Tears filled her eyes. “If he isn’t my son, then it means that someone else went home from the hospital with my baby. Things like this just don’t happen!” she cried out. The baby stirred before growing relaxed again.
“I agree switched babies are very rare, but it does happen. That’s not to say that it happened to you, but to remove all doubt, call the doctor and have the DNA test done. I’ll take you to the hospital in the morning and we’ll get this thing settled.”
Though she wanted to be more independent, she didn’t know how she could do this alone and was grateful for Rini’s loving support.
They hugged good-night and she went to her room, leaving the doors open so she could hear Ric when he woke up for his next bottle. Unable to sleep, she got on the internet and researched switched-baby stories. The latest one had come out of France. But the switch hadn’t been discovered until twenty years later.
How horrible that must have been for both sets of parents. If Valentina’s baby was given to the wrong mother, then she wanted her own baby back as soon as possible. But she wanted Ric, too. He was her very heart. How could she possibly give him up? They’d already bonded. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
Was there a mother out there who was worried that her baby didn’t look like her, either, and wondered if some terrible mistake had been made? If so, then she’d already bonded with Valentina’s birth baby. Valentina could hardly bear it.
She spent the rest of the night in agony. Instead of sleeping, she went in the nursery and sat in the rocker, holding Ric. The nursing just didn’t give him enough milk. She fed him bottles to satisfy him at two different times during the night. Morning couldn’t come soon enough. There wasn’t any time to lose getting to the hospital to learn the truth!
* * *
Giovanni fed Vito his early-morning bottle before turning him over to Stanzie. He hadn’t expected her to be a babysitter to Vito and had decided to hire a nanny. But when Stanzie heard that, she begged to do the honors.
In two weeks his boy was filling out and so much fun to play with, Giovanni had a hell of a time leaving the villa to put in a day’s work at his office. He’d had visits from his parents and sisters since he’d brought the baby home. Violeta had begged to see him. He could hardly refuse her.
Giovanni realized she was a doting grandmother and could understand her pain over her daughter’s refusal to see Vito. His son would be lucky to have the love of two grandmothers who already worshipped him.
After his flight to work, he met with Ernesto Bruno over a working lunch in his office conference room. The man’s company did advertising for major companies, including the Montanari Corporation. For the last little while Giovanni had been working to buy Bruno’s failing advertising business. He’d settled on a price that would be very lucrative for him. A win-win situation.
But by the end of the meeting, it became clear that Signor Bruno was still stalling. Maybe Giovanni had underestimated his loyalty to the Montanari family. It appeared the new CEO Rinieri Montanari, a shrewd entrepreneur, wanted to make Bruno Advertising a part of his company. Giovanni realized that in order to get to the root of the problem, he needed to go through Rinieri himself to settle this one way or the other.
He and Ernesto agreed to look at numbers and meet again in a week. After the other man left, Giovanni went back to his office to look over last month’s accounts. He should have done it before, but Vito’s arrival had consumed him.
Giovanni told his secretary to hold all calls. To his surprise she walked in on him, disturbing his concentration. “Signor Laurito? Forgive me, but there’s a call for you on line two. It’s Signor Conti, the administrator of the hospital in Positano. He said it was extremely urgent.”
The administrator? Why?
He thanked his secretary and got on the phone. “This is Giovanni Laurito. You wished to speak to me?”
“I realize you’re an important man, but something has come up I need to discuss with you. Could you come to the hospital this afternoon? Because of confidentiality, I can’t talk about this over the phone.”