Page 111 of The Fall Affair

He nodded once. “That’s a big deal, yes? You spent six years working for the last opportunity.”

“Yeah.”

Silence stretched between us.

“I’m going to turn it down,” I said.

His eyes flickered to mine, but he stayed quiet, seeming to wait for me to continue.

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I love practicing law, but I don’t want to go back to working the way I did. The offer they made was generous, but it came with a lot of expectations. I’m thinking it’s time for…a change.”

He looked at me. “What kind of a change?”

“I don’t know. Open my own small firm, maybe? So many things can be done remotely since the world changed during the pandemic—hearings, arbitrations, depositions. Some divisions even allow oral arguments to be done without stepping foot in the courthouse.” I paused to get up the courage to say what I really wanted to say. “I was thinking I’d still go back and forth to New York, but I want to be here, too.”

Matteo looked down, ran a hand through his hair. “Take the job,” he said quietly.

I blinked. “What?”

“Take it,” he repeated, softer this time. “I don’t want you to make decisions because of me. I cannot be the one to keep you here. You’ll be unhappy in the long run.”

“You don’t know that…”

He met my eyes. “And you don’t either.”

The words stung. Because he wasn’t wrong. I couldn’t possibly know what the future held. But I couldn’t imagine one without him. He wasn’t being unkind. He was being honest.

My eyes filled with tears. “I’m in love with you, Matteo.”

He closed his eyes and swallowed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let things go so far. It was a mistake.”

A mistake? It felt like I’d been slapped across the face. My breath caught in my throat, and I couldn’t speak. I could only stand there, staring at him, waiting for him to take it back. Waiting for him to say something—anything—that made his words mean something other than what they did.

But he didn’t.

He just stood there.

And each second that ticked by turned my hurt more and more to anger.

“Go to hell,” I finally said. “I’m no one’s mistake.”

Chapter 37

Allegra

DAYS LATER, I finally left the house.

After almost a week of sulking and self-pity, wondering how the hell I’d let myself trust yet another man who couldn’t be trusted, I decided to go to the fair as planned with my sister. I’d flip-flopped back and forth all week, debating whether to cancel. But I wanted to spend time with Camilla. So I put on a dress, styled my hair in a loose braid, and drove hours to the village where the festival was being held. The town wasn’t big, but it was charming, and walking through the piazza to meet my sister felt like a scene from a movie. Strings of lights crisscrossed above, glowing softly as the sun slipped behind the hills. A folk band played near the fountain, and the smell of grilled meat and baked goods floated through the air.

I spotted my sister—still surreal to call her that—just as I got to the pit with a roasting pig. Camilla was talking to two men, both handsome, and I thought one could have been the other’s father, or at least his much-older brother.

“Ah!” she exclaimed, holding out her arms. “There you are.”

She kissed both my cheeks before gesturing to the two men. “Allegra, this is Emilio and Niccolo. I recently—come si dice—uh, spanked Emilio in court.”

The older of the two winked and leaned in. “She was getting even for when I used to spank her.”

Camilla laughed. “Emilio and I used to…have a thing.”