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“You’re not some woman I picked up in a bar, baby. You’re my wife.”
Most of my friends were excited for motherhood since they were in their early twenties, but I’d never been that way. I had othergoals I wanted to achieve before I changed my life irrevocably. I wasn’t looking to be a mother right now, but being the mother of his children didn’t sound scary to me.
His eyes continued to watch me.
My eyes dropped to his chest, seeing the hard pecs that looked like the stone pillars that still stood in the ancient city of Pompeii.
The playfulness in his eyes started to set like the sun. “We need to figure out what to do about your father.”
My eyes immediately closed, and the winter storm swept through me. Agonizing pain that had started to penetrate my mind tried to break into my body, but I continued to block the doors. “No.”
“Baby—”
“Please.” My eyes lifted to his. “Can we just…stay like this for a while?”
His eyes hardened in sadness as he looked at me. Seconds ticked by as the sympathy came through. “Alright…but just for a short while.”
Axel had his men come to my apartment and gather all my things—again.
The only things left behind were the furniture and all the pots, pans, and dishes in the kitchen. It was ready for a tenant, someone who wanted to be walking distance to the market and all the nearby shops. The rental income would cover mymortgage, although I should probably consider selling it because I didn’t exactly need it anymore.
When I walked back into our bedroom for the first time, it was clean and tidy, the scotch and cigars put away, the bed made like no one had slept in it since I’d been gone. I saw a prism of color coming from the nightstand, and as I approached, I realized the beauty came from my stunning wedding ring.
The ring I never should have removed.
I stared at it for a moment before I slid it onto my left ring finger and over the knuckle, aware of Axel watching me from behind.
“Better not take it off again.”
When I turned around, I saw the partial smile on his lips, the affection that dimmed the resentment. “I won’t.” I admired it on my hand, the ring I’d missed since the moment I’d taken it off. I’d been coerced into marriage with him, but once I was his wife, it was really hard not to want to be.
My father had texted me multiple times asking if I wanted to talk over gelato, but I told him that I’d taken his advice and decided to give Axel another chance. This all happened through text, thankfully, because I wouldn’t have been able to keep a straight face or steady my voice. He was clearly preoccupied with his plan to fuck over Axel and Theo because he accepted my explanation without further inquiry. Maybe he assumed I would go back into the honeymoon phase—or, as I suspected, he was too busy with his own coup to care.
I didn’t tell Axel that he’d texted me because I was afraid the mention of him would provoke the conversation I didn’t want to have, to force me to accept the horrible truth I’d ignored for so long.
It was a defense mechanism, shielding my mind from the horrible truth.
Axel and I sat across from each other in the bathtub, bottles of wine and champagne on the table Aldo had provided, and there was a pizza there as well. We’d eaten most of it, and Axel waited until I was done eating before he devoured everything left over.
“Sometimes I wonder if you actually love my cooking or you just love food.”
His arms were spread over the sides of the tub as he lounged there, most of his chest exposed above the water line. “I do have a soft spot for pizza. It’s the kind of food that’s never bad.”
“Fair,” I said. “I’m glad you rehired Aldo.”
“I never really fired him. After you left, I went downstairs and told him to put his stuff away.”
“Good.” I’d felt terrible that I was responsible for what happened. If I’d just listened to Aldo, he wouldn’t have lied and gotten himself canned. “I felt so bad.”
“Don’t. He shouldn’t have lied, especially about something like that.” He grabbed his wineglass and took a drink. “I told him he would be unemployed if he ever chose to speak on my behalf that way again.”
“He was probably just afraid of your reaction when I broke down your door?—”
“I don’t care. It’s unacceptable to tell my wife I’ve been unfaithful when I haven’t been.”
That made me feel wonderful…and also shitty. “So…you weren’t with anyone else?” I assumed that was the answer, but I wanted to know for certain.
His beautiful eyes suddenly turned hostile. “You have a lot of gall to ask me that.”
