Page 228 of Modern Romance May 2026 Books 5-8
They caught up with the Viscontis for lunch on Friday, dining in the roof-garden restaurant of the hotel in Naples.
On the surface, it was a casual get-together, but it was an integral step toward knocking Otto’s legs out from under him.
Rocco wanted the contracts after the Visconti merger with WBE so Jackson needed to see him, not Vorstoben, as the sure bet.
When the women excused themselves to the powder room toward the end of the meal, Jackson turned to Rocco.
“I don’t want to pry,” he began.
“Mira’s reasons for leaving Vorstoben are personal,” Rocco interjected. “But it’s having a tremendous impact.”
“I can see that,” Jackson said dryly, no doubt alluding to the way Rocco couldn’t keep his eyes off Mira and was compelled to play with her hair or caress her wrist—as though Jax was one to talk when he had checked out Brielle’s ass as she walked away. “Otto must be angry that she broke her engagement to Axel and intends to marry you. There are rumors that he disinherited her over it.”
“There are rumors that she’s pregnant. Those aren’t true, either,” Rocco said pithily. “But she and Otto have had a falling-out.” The old man was livid, using every channel to try to get to her. Rocco intervened every time, using his lawyers to thwart Otto’s threats of legal action against her by calmly countering with his spying accusations.
“As I say, none of my business,” Jax said mildly. “But I do wonder how it will affectourbusiness.”
“I want all of it,” Rocco said plainly. “I’m in a much stronger position than Vorstoben. You must have seen the market reports that Mira is taking her investment capital out of it?” She was considering moving it into GPS specifically so Rocco could compete more robustly against Otto.
“I have and I spoke to Dom last night.” Jax mentioned his brother-in-law. “He has always had a good relationship with Axel so he wants to speak with him before—” He glanced at his phone as it pinged. “That’s him.” Jackson’s eyebrows went up as he read the text. “Did you know about this?”
Jackson showed Rocco the screen where a text read,Severin is not taking calls while he’s on his honeymoon.
Axel was married? The text was followed by a link to a news story.
“Will you send that to me?” Rocco glanced up as the women wound their way toward them. Had Mira known Axel was seeing someone? Was that the real reason she had broken her engagement? If so, why hadn’t she told him?
He didn’t want to mistrust her again, but found himself rising, saying to Jackson, “The bill is covered. Add whatever you like, but we’ll have to continue this another time.”
“What’s wrong?” Mira asked as they took the elevator to their suite. “Why did you rush us away like that?”
“Was Axel seeing someone while you were engaged?” Rocco asked with a slicing glance.
“No.” Mira had told Axel to date if he wanted to, so long as he was discreet about it. He’d said it wasn’t worth the gossip. “Why?”
“He’s married.” He clicked on his phone and showed her the announcement Jax had forwarded. “It went online an hour ago. Someone named Joy Youngston? According to Jackson’s brother-in-law, they’re on their honeymoon.”
Mira covered her mouth, fingers suddenly cold against her lips. She didn’t mean to speak her thought aloud, but the words blurted out in a shocked rasp. “He found her.”
“Who?”
She shook her head, still taking it in. She hurried out of the elevator toward the doors to their suite.
Stupid tears arrived as Rocco let her in. She wasn’t sure why she was upset. Shock? She wasn’t hurt. Not really. It had nothing to do with her. She genuinely didn’t blame Axel for going after what he’d been promised. This was a more general reaction to being pulled back into that awful morning in Otto’s office. She stopped in the middle of the lounge and dropped her face into her hands, submerged again in the agony of learning the truth about herself and being cast out by the man she’d thought was her father.
“You do care about him,” Rocco said grimly from across the room.
The naked emotion in his voice was enough to pull her from her own spiral and pick up her head. Blinking away the gloss wetting her eyelashes, she took in the tension radiating off him—the set of his shoulders and the clench of his jaw and the knotting of his fists.
He wasn’t jealous. He couldn’t be. There was no way she had that much of an effect on such a powerful, self-possessed man.
Besides, “This isn’t about Axel.” She used her knuckle to brush away the dampness beneath her eyes. “I’m furious that Otto is such a hypocrite. He was filthy to me because my mother let him believe I was his, but he—” She stopped herself. This wasn’t her story to tell.
She could see Rocco retreating into himself, though, erecting defenses against her.
A pang of loss struck. Their nascent connection was disintegrating before her eyes.
“Can I trust you, Rocco? Really trust you?” she asked. “Because this is a very sharp weapon to use against Otto and he’s not the one who would be most hurt by it.”
