“You’re hurting me, Michael,” I inform him in a small voice.

“You realize, I’ve to present your father credit score. It truly is a genius plan. Cover you away simply lengthy sufficient till everybody forgets what you seem like. Then he brings you residence and has you seduce me. Did your father know concerning the faux outcome? Was the plan at all times to get pregnant then?”

“Michael, please cease.”

“Have been you going to only run away and go residence to Daddy as quickly as you might? Depart my household to be torn aside by your deceit? Forcing me into breaking the fucking marriage contract between you and Igor? Is something you mentioned true? Have been you even kidnapped? Is Liam even mine? You have been so fast to fuck me that evening, in spite of everything. Makes me surprise what number of different males you could have unfold—”

That’s sufficient. I slap him exhausting throughout the face. His head snaps to the facet, his eyes blown vast in shock and shock. The urge to finish the poison spilling from his mouth is so intense that I didn’t trouble stopping myself.

“You bastard,” I snap and glare at him by way of blurry, livid eyes. “I didn’t mislead you that evening, and I’m not mendacity to you now. I hate my dad greater than you might ever think about. He was the asshole who bought me when he discovered me with a child in Italy. I used to be sullied items now, however I may nonetheless fetch him a fraction of what Igor was paying at the least.” Tears fall down my face, however I’m too indignant to wipe them away. “You realize, I waited out right here on this seashore, ready for the second I’dfeel terrified of you. As a result of I needs to be. You characterize the whole lot I hate, the whole lot I ran away from…but it surely by no means got here. For no matter fucking motive, I’ve felt secure, and heat, and liked with you as a result of you could have at all times made me really feel like that. From the very begin. However this?” I gesture to the house between us, my left hand nonetheless held hostage in his iron grip. “This isn’t secure, Michael. You’re hurting me. And proper now? You’re simply as horrible as my dad.”

Michael’s eyes fall to our arms, and he flinches as if he out of the blue feels the ghost of my slap. He releases my hand, and I rapidly pull it away, cradling my throbbing hand to my chest. A number of heartbeats later, Michael rises to his ft and takes a staggering step again. I watch him with cautious eyes as he pulls out his cellphone and pops off a textual content. The sudden change in his habits is jarring, as if a swap has been flipped, and it leaves me feeling uneasy. Did I get by way of to him? I do know what I mentioned was harsh, however he mentioned and acted a lot worse than me.

Afterward, he crosses his arms over his chest and turns his again to me. He stares out over the horizon. A storm cloud is rolling in and the wind has picked up, bringing with it the scent of rain and the sound of distant thunder.

I don’t understand how lengthy we wait there, however the silence stretches till it’s virtually suffocating. His rejection stings worse than I believed it will, and I hate that it does. He doesn’t get to be the one one damage or upset right here. By no means as soon as did the thought cross my thoughts that Michael has some type of secret agenda. To not point out, the bastard informed me his final identify was Gallo. So if he’s going to level fingers, he higher level one at himself too. Hell, he higher level a complete hand.

“Boss?”

I flip my consideration to the walkway and see Enzo cease on the edge the place wooden meets sand. His eyes dart between Michael’s stiff again and my weeping type, cradling a throbbing hand.

Lastly, Michael turns round. Combating the urge to take a look at him, I give attention to a chunk of tree bark buried within the sand as an alternative. I refuse to present him the satisfaction of seeing me cry. Proper now, he doesn’t deserve a single factor from me. Besides possibly one other slap or two.

“I would like you to take Rose again to the penthouse instantly. I’ll have the physician meet you to look at her hand,” he orders earlier than he walks away.

As a result of I’m apparently a glutton for punishment, I watch him go, wishing he would simply look over his shoulder as soon as at me. I don’t care if it’s with anger or remorse as a result of if he simply appears to be like at me, it means he nonetheless feels one thing, and something is best than watching him stroll away as if I imply nothing.

With a heavy coronary heart and tears in my eyes, I watch him disappear across the nook and out of sight, by no means as soon as trying again.

29

Michael

I watch Enzo depart with Rose.

Rose…brief for Rosaleen.

Rosaleen O’Leary.

Fuck.

The mysterious Irish mob princess, who vanished from her sister’s marriage ceremony, is engaged to Igor Mikhailov, and the mom of my son.

FUCK.

I flip away, my anger boiling over, and punch a gap within the drywall. Ache explodes in my hand, the pores and skin of my knuckles splitting and bleeding. I welcome the damage as a result of it drowns out the chaotic noise of my demons and helps me to focus with a clearer fucking thoughts.

Her confession took me abruptly, and as an alternative of simply listening, I lashed out and accused her of scheming together with her father. Then I attacked her character and her advantage, which had been like throwing gasoline on a smoldering fireplace. One thing I’m extraordinarily good at tonight. Actually, I deserved that slap and extra. Rose was proper to match me to her father. As a result of at that very second, I used to be no higher than him.

Solely after I was surprised into silence did I lastly pay attention, and the extra I thought of it, the extra it made sense. Rosaleen O’Leary left Miami over ten years in the past, and nobody has seen her since. We by no means met earlier than she left…and why would now we have? She’s ten years youthful than me. She was getting her first coaching bra whereas I used to be busy taking them off.

This isn’t secure, Michael. You’re hurting me.

Rose’s phrases echo again and again in my thoughts, making me really feel worse by the second. As a lot as I wish to chase her and repair this mess earlier than it will get even worse, we each want some house, and I would like to speak to my dad. This revelation isn’t one thing that may wait.

I cease within the nearest lavatory and bandage my bleeding hand earlier than leaving in the hunt for my dad. I’m passing a room that hasn’t been used since Gabriella was a child and cease, opening the door to disclose a nursery. The workers retains the room clear and arranged regardless that it hasn’t been utilized in over 20 years. My eyes scan the room earlier than fixing on the crib, and a picture clear as day involves my thoughts, like I’m seeing it play out proper earlier than my very eyes.

Rose stands subsequent to the crib, rocking our new child daughter as she hums a nursery rhyme. Liam sits at Rose’s ft, flipping aimlessly by way of a kind of pop-up kids’s books. Our little woman is bundled up, wisps of brown hair poking out from beneath the cap she wears. Her eyes slowly shut as she drifts away, joyful as could be after a shower and a heat bottle. As soon as asleep, Rose kisses her brow and lays her within the crib. She watches our daughter with a loving smile earlier than she turns and goals the identical smile at me.

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