I nod. “That’s understandable. Not fair to you, but it was a bad situation all around. If you and some other woman had a love child, I wouldn’t be jumping for joy about it.”
“Right, I understood that. But she actually came around pretty quickly once she met me. Anyway, when I first got there my dad was focused on keeping me out of her way, so I pretty much lived alone at his country estate. There was a staff to keep the place up, but since no one was staying there, they didn’t have a full time cook on staff.”
“How sad for you,” I tease, taking another sip of my wine.
“Yeah, poor me,” he says with a self-aware smile. “I didn’t know anything about cooking, so the housekeeper who lived there would cook for me, but she wasn’t there to coddle me, either. She expected me to pull my weight and help her out, so I did.”
“That’s legitimately exactly how it went down in my fantasy of what your life in Italy must have been like. Was she a grandma?”
He cracks a smile. “No, she wasn’t old. More middle-aged.”
“I was still close.” On a whim, I take a bite of my steak with a forkful of the simple salad he prepared to go with it.
Mm, so good.
“So, your stepmom. You said she came around?”
Hunter nods, spearing another piece of meat. “Yeah. I expected her to be chilly anytime we had to see each other, but she warmed right up to me.”
“Does he cheat on her a lot, or…? Maybe she’s used to it.”
Hunter frowns, shaking his head. “No, it’s not like that. I don’t know how much my mom told you, but she only saw things from her side, you know?”
I nod. “Sure.”
“He’s really not like that. I mean, I guess he was. But he was young and he didn’t really know better. This is not a problem you’ll probably sympathize with, but I get it, personally. He was in a similar situation to me. He was used to people pretty much doing what he wanted them to do. He was surrounded by yes-men. He’d dated plenty of women who let him get away with whatever the fuck he felt like doing and wouldn’t call him out because they were too afraid to lose him. See, when you’re in a position like that, people like your status, not you. I know it sounds like rich people problems, but it really is a thing, and it makes it hard to know who really likes you.”
“I get it,” I tell him, shaking my head. “I won’t diminish your spoiled rich boy problems,” I add with a fond smile to soften my teasing. “I can certainly see how it would be harder to know who is genuine when you’re… such a great catch, for lack of better wording. The more people who want you, the less you can be sure why you’re wanted.”
“Exactly. And it was like that for him, too. He wasn’t just some cold asshole, you know? Relationships seemed transactional to him. Being with him came with certain benefits, and he got what he needed. It was more an arrangement than a relationship most of the time, and he found that out when he realized it didn’t really matter how he treated them or if he strayed. They didn’t really care, as long as they could be on his arm at the next event.”
My face scrunches up in disgust. “Gross. I can’t imagine living that way.”
“Yeah, well, you’d be surprised how easily it can start to feel normal. Anyway, it did to him. And then he met his wife, and he fell for her pretty hard, but he had developed all these bad habits. He figured she’d put up with them like everyone else did. He was wrong. As soon as she found out he’d strayed, she dropped his ass—even though she was pregnant.”
“Good for her,” I murmur, taking a sip of my wine.
He doesn’t disagree. “When he lost her, he was miserable. He realized he’d fucked up. He realized he was being an asshole. He knew she was right when she told him she deserved better. He tried to get her to come back, figured as soon as he apologized she would, but she didn’t. She kept her distance. In fact, she started dating someone else. He was fucking crushed.”
My lips curve down in sympathy, even though he totally deserved it.
“He tried to move on, but he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He didn’t want anyone else. She was it for him. He finally convinced her to give him one more chance, promised her he’d never put her through anything like that again. Asked her to marry him—they’d already been engaged, but she called it off. All he needed was one more chance. He knew he wouldn’t blow that one. And he didn’t. They got married a couple of months before I was born, and they’ve been happily married ever since.”
“Was it a condition for her that he not be a part of your life, or…?”
Hunter shakes his head, looking down at his plate. “I don’t know. It may have started out that way. He wouldn’t have told me if it did. Wouldn’t have wanted me to hold it against her. Which I wouldn’t have,” he adds with a shrug. “I get it. Especially when it was fresh, they probably needed to pretend I didn’t exist. Their relationship needed to be repaired. Even if not for him loving her so much, she found out she was pregnant around the same time my mom realized she was, so it was a pretty big mess.”
“Yikes.”
Hunter nods. “Their eldest daughter was born a month after me. She’s pretty cool, I think you’d like her.”
I smile. “I’m sure I would.”
“They had two daughters, so I’m the only son, even if I’m illegitimate. Since my mom was a model and—not to be an asshole—I got some of her looks, they discovered I photograph pretty well. My dad had this clothing line. He put some of the clothes on me and tried me out on their social media, and… the rest is history.”
I stab another piece of steak. “So, they kind of warmed up to you after it became clear you could benefit them in some way.”
“Kinda,” he says, shrugging. “But it’s whatever. It’s a warmer response than I ever expected, you know? And like I said, it turns out he did have some things in place for me once I came of age, I just didn’t know he did.”
I nod. “So, is it public knowledge that you’re his son? I tried to Google it, but I couldn’t find anything. I can’t read Italian, though, so I wasn’t sure if maybe it just wasn’t news here.”
Hunter shakes his head. “Not openly, no. It’s mainly for legal reasons. Technically, since I was born a month before his daughter, I’m the oldest of his children. I’m a bastard, but I’m also a male, so… Just to keep things friendly and make it clear I’m not trying to take anything from his legitimate heirs, we’re not making it public knowledge that I’m his son.”
I frown faintly. “Got it. Are you still going to model for his line, or was that just while you were in Italy?”
“Yeah, I’m still gonna do that for now. The line belongs to him, but I’m the face of it. I even took over running the social media because he wasn’t getting much engagement with what he was doing before. When my photos started getting attention, I asked him to let me give it a try, and when I took over, things picked up. I wrapped up my last shoot in Venice over the summer before I came back here, but I have some more travel coming up. I was actually going to talk to you about that.”