She closed her eyes and pressed their joined hands to her forehead.“There’s something I want to tell you, but I’m so afraid that once I tell you, something bad is going to happen.”
“Nothing bad is going to happen,” he said.“I’m here.I’m with you.”
Clarissa lifted her head and stared at him.“I’m scared.”
“Don’t be.”
“But, what if something bad happens?This is ...I’ve wanted to tell you, but, I’m scared.”She’d been wanting to tell him this for a while, and it scared her how he made her feel, and she knew she kept on repeating herself.
Nerves gripped her.She felt sick to her stomach.
“What is it?”
“If I tell you this, you can’t freak out and you’re not allowed to die.”She nodded.
He stroked some of her hair back from her face.“It is going to take a lot to kill me, baby.”
“I love you, and it scares me because I don’t want anything to happen to you.I love you and I don’t care what was said at that party.I want to get over it, and I want to have a family with you, and love you, and be with you.”She had tears in her eyes.“And I feel guilty because I want to be happy and you were supposed to belong to my sister.”
He lifted up and took possession of her lips.
Clarissa cupped his face, as she sobbed against his mouth.
Suddenly, she moved, and he was over her.
He broke the kiss first, and she looked up at him as he stared down at her.“I love you,” he said.“I love you more than anything in the world, and I’m so sorry about what happened with your sister.Truly, I am.I love you, and there’s no one else I want.It’s just you and I want you to be the mother of my children.I want to live the rest of my life with you.You’re not boring.You’re not dull.I’m the fucking asshole that didn’t know how to treat my wife the way she deserved to be treated, and that is on me.Trust me, I know what I’ve got, and I know you’re the best woman for me.Marry me, Clarissa?”
“We’re already married.”
“I know, but I want to marry you, for real.Me, you, and our friends.Just us.Our wedding.”
Clarissa gasped.“Really?”
“Yeah, really.”
“But, Tatiana ...”
“When we find Tatiana, we’ll get married for real.”
She smiled and held him tightly, not wanting to let him go.
****
One Week Later
Lorenzo drove down the long driveway of his father’s home, and he saw his mother’s car was gone.There were several guards on the front door, and the moment they looked at him, they nodded their heads and left.
It had been a full week of revelations.
Emilio was no closer to finding Tatiana.They discovered the train where she journeyed to, but from that point, the security cameras were out, and they had lost the trail.His friend was moving from town to town, figuring Tatiana had learned to lay low and probably was using a different identity to hide her tracks.They were all on call, ready to get to wherever Emilio needed them to be.
Stepping out of his car, he buttoned up his suit jacket.It was neither designer nor off the shelf.He finally wore the suit Clarissa had made for him.This was meant to be his Christmas present, but he fucked everything up by saying some stupid shit about her that he didn’t fucking mean.He couldn’t believe how quickly he nearly messed up his marriage.He’d learned his lesson.All four of them had learned their lessons.
He and Clarissa were now doing fine.They were closer than ever.Mia and Giovanni were doing great, as were Liana and Diego.All that remained were Emilio and Tatiana.They needed to help their friend to fix this, because being married to a woman you loved was the best fucking feeling in the world.
Stepping up to the door of his parents’ home, he felt absolutely nothing.He didn’t knock.There was no butler in sight, and he stepped inside.
The air was clean.There was always that overtly clean smell that was close to bleach, and lemon that always grated on his last nerve.He hated the scent, it made him feel sick.
