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and he finally broke down and explained who he worked for and why he couldn’t come home to the United States. Two weeks later a bomb went off at my friend’s house. He didn’t survive. Most of his family died with him.”
    “His brother blew his cover?” Garrett’s eyes widened.
    “According to the investigation, it was an inadvertent disclosure. He told his wife in confidence, who then told a friend. It didn’t take long before something ended up on the Internet. That was all it took for the group my friend had infiltrated to discover his true identity.”
    “That’s awful.”
    Janessa nodded, and she blinked back the tears that misted her eyes. “It really brought home how important it is to protect my cover, even from those I trust the most.”

Chapter 9
    Stefano moved gingerly as he walked down the stairs. He knew Patrice would have a fit if she saw him up and around without his sling on, but he was already tired of wearing it, and he still wasn’t convinced it was helping. Not that he’d spent the past twenty-four hours dwelling on his injuries. His thoughts instead had been consumed by the doctor’s news, the news that had been confirmed only an hour ago when the doctor had called to give him the results of the second set of tests. There wasn’t any doubt. He had Merid’s syndrome.
    He thought he’d accepted the diagnosis after his first conversation with the doctor, but the phone call had proven to him that he’d still held on to a seed of hope that there had been some mistake. That seed had been smashed beyond repair. Now, after being cooped up for the past couple days, Stefano found himself in desperate need of some fresh air and a fresh perspective.
    He crossed the chateau’s main entryway and moved into the main parlor. Light streamed through large windows into the enormous room and spilled onto the comfortably faded furnishings. Couches, chairs, and loveseats were arranged to create cozy conversation areas, but Stefano ignored them and headed through the room toward a set of French doors leading to the terrace.
    For as long as he could remember, the chateau had been the place he was always drawn to when he needed some time to himself. He supposed it was ironic that he was here when he was forced to face an alternate reality for his future from the one he had always planned for himself.
    He had never seriously considered what he wanted in his future family life. He had simply expected that he would someday marry and have children of his own. As the heir to the throne, he had been subject to the media’s speculations about whom he might marry since he’d turned twenty, but now at the age of thirty-two, he still hadn’t met a woman who held his interest for more than a few months.
    His heart ached at the realization that he would never know what it was to have children of his own, that he would never experience the joy of being a father. Now that the duty to produce an heir could no longer be his, he wondered if marriage would even be in his future. What woman would want to wed a man and live in the spotlight while the world anticipated the children that would never come?
    Still moving gingerly, he pulled open the door and stepped outside just in time to see two dark-haired bodies streak past him and head toward the gardens.
    He stared after them, confused at first by the presence of children on the grounds. Then he remembered the impending arrival of Janessa’s friend. He thought back to the days when he and Garrett had spent their summers playing hide and seek in the bushes and creating havoc as often as humanly possible. If these two little boys were anything like he was at their age, Stefano imagined they were more interested in the beach that lay beyond the gardens than they were in smelling the flowers.
    His eyebrows lifted when he heard a woman’s voice call out in Italian. “Boys, come back here!”
    Both boys stopped, and Stefano could have sworn he heard their twin sighs of