AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A twinge of warmth moved through my chest.
“You’re right,” Dante said. “Axel is a fine man with admirable qualities. Over time, he’s proven to me how much he adores you. All I ever wanted is for a man to love you more than himself…and he definitely loves you more than anything.”
“Did you realize this before or after you plotted to kill him?” she snapped.
“Before,” he said honestly. “You need to understand that all I’ve wanted is my business, and Axel crossed me when he took it. I’m not the kind of man to accept defeat. My decision had nothing to do with your relationship?—”
“Which means my relationship didn’t matter. Which means that I’m not the single most important thing to you. Your business is.” Her ferocity burned like a wildfire. “Always has been and always will be.”
Dante released a barely contained grimace.
“How could you hurt me like that?” Now the ferocity was gone, replaced by raw pain. “You knew he was going to walk into that restaurant with her. You knew I was going to see it and die. You knew…you knew all of it. For months, you watched me sufferand saidnothing. You set me up with Theo when I’d already found someone I wanted to be with.”
“I didn’t know you felt so strongly?—”
“Bullshit. You knew. And then when Axel took your business right from underneath you, you asked me to marry him to get it back. The very man you’d taken away. Now that it suited you, you suddenly had a change of heart. If Axel hadn’t done everything in his power to get me back, he would have ended up with someone else and I would have ended up with the lesser choice. How can you live with that?”
His head was bowed in shame.
“There is no coming back from this. I want you out of my house—and out of my life.”
Dante lifted his chin to display his face, and that’s when the tears were visible. His eyes were wet and glistened in the glow of the fireplace. “Sweetheart?—”
“Don’t sweetheart me.” She kept her voice strong, but her eyes were purposely elsewhere, like she couldn’t see him like this, no matter how angry she was. That meant she cared…she still cared. “Please go.”
He remained in the chair, blinking several times to dispel the burn in his eyes. “There must be something I can do?—”
“If you’re really sorry, you’ll leave me alone and never bother me again.”
The words made him flinch, made him suck in a harsh breath and blink several more times. “I promise I will never do anything like this again?—”
“It’s not about a repeat offense.” She looked at him again. “It’s the fact that the entire time, when I thought we were so close, I was just your fucking puppet. You were never going to give me the business, were you? You were just using me to marry me off to someone powerful so you could grow your alliances.”
“You were never my puppet, Scarlett,” he said. “I just got lost in all the bullshit. I got lost in the money and the power. The only thing that actually matters is the two of us…and I somehow forgot that.”
Her arms tightened over her chest.
“I worked so hard when you were little because I wanted to provide for you. I wanted you to have a better life than I did, the four of us sleeping in a single bedroom. But I took that too far, lost sight of why I was doing all of this, let my good intentions mold into something entirely new and terrible. I know I’ve done awful things, and I’m honest about that. But never once have I not loved you.” His tears started to break through the cracks in his armor. He struggled to look at his daughter, who continued to give him the cheek. “Axel is right. Family is everything. Give me another chance.”
“This family is toxic, manipulative, and conniving.” When she looked at him again, it was with the same coldness. “And I want no part of it.” She got to her feet. “Did my mother actually not want me, or was that a lie?”
Dante couldn’t hide the hurt the question provoked.
“Did you kidnap me, and she’s been looking for me all this time?”
He bowed his head and let her question hang in the air between them.
Scarlett turned away and walked out of the room. Didn’t wait for me to join her.
Dante remained there and slid forward, catching his face on his palms as his elbows rested on his knees. His fingers pushed through his hair, and he gave a painful sigh. And in the light of the fireplace, I saw a tear fall.
I should have felt nothing. Nothing at all. But…I felt sad.
He took a moment before he righted himself and sniffed loudly. He wiped his face on his sleeve and took in a hard breath. His cheeks were full of crimson, and his eyes burned from the inflammation of his sinuses.
I moved to the couch and took a seat. “Give her some time.”
He rubbed his palms together and composed himself, hiding his weakness from me. “She’s right. What I’ve done…is unforgivable.”
