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such a cloud of speculation.   And it would only have gotten worse when my engagement ended.”
    Megan itched to ask what happened with the relationship but couldn’t bring herself to pry.   Press releases from both the Barrali and the Bassi families issued only three weeks before the wedding date stated that the couple decided to part amicably and that neither family would discuss the matter with the press.   Despite Stefano and Ariana’s requests for privacy, gossip about the couple continued to fill the media for months, only dissipating after Ariana eloped with a famous Argentinian polo player.
    Had Stefano been heartbroken?   Or relieved?  
    During the long nights Megan spent walking back and forth through her small apartment with a colicky baby, worrying about whether she’d be awake enough to make it through her next day of classes, she’d harbored a deep-down fantasy about Stefano picking up the phone and calling her to say he’d ended the relationship with Ariana because he missed what he and Megan shared in Venezuela.  
    Unsurprisingly, that call never came.   Megan’s mother advised her struggling daughter to simply love the child and trust that the rest would fall into place.   She was right, of course.   Anna outgrew the colic and Megan finished graduate school and landed a full-time job at the Minneapolis Convention Center.   In the meantime, Stefano started to date other women—models, actresses, and women from well-connected European families.   Megan’s midnight fantasies eventually gave way to reality.   She embraced her new career, her growing financial independence, and the ups and downs of life with an exuberant toddler.   Then, the summer before Anna started kindergarten, Megan nabbed the position at the Grandspire, which turned out to be a dream come true.  
    Had Stefano actually called during those difficult weeks and months following Anna’s birth, Megan suspected the relationship wouldn’t have transcended its status as a brief, heady fling.   She and Stefano were from two different worlds, as evidenced by her inability to contact him, if nothing else.   His stratified circumstances weren’t ideal for Megan, let alone for Anna.  
    He’d known it the entire time he’d been with her in South America.   Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so anxious to see Ariana when he’d returned home.
    Stefano faced her again, his demeanor back to the same easiness he exuded whenever he appeared in public, giving no sign that he was thinking of a long-ago broken engagement.   “Let me ask the important questions, then.   Anna is doing well?”
    Megan nodded, unable to elaborate as their waiter approached the table with breakfast.   The scent of freshly-made omelets and hot buttered toast filled the air as the young man set their meals before them.   He arranged each plate with extra care, his posture rigid as he did so.   Megan forced herself to stay quiet, though she was dying to offer him reassurance.   He was clearly anxious to impress the prince.   Sensing the waiter’s nerves, Stefano set aside the hotel information folder to offer his compliments on the meal and the quick service.   Once the waiter departed, Megan said, “That was kind of you.   You have a talent for putting people at ease.”   People other than her.
    “If I were really talented, they wouldn’t be uneasy in the first place.”   Stefano gestured for Megan to go ahead and eat, urging her to tell him about Anna between bites.   “You mentioned last night that she’s in fourth grade?”
    “Yes.   She attends an international school here in Barcelona and loves it.   Her teachers and classmates come from all over the world.”   Megan couldn’t help but share Anna’s enthusiasm for the school.   “It’s a unique experience.   She has new stories to tell me every night about things that happened to her and her classmates—who did well on a spelling test, who told a funny joke, who brought