Page 130 of Entangled

Gian’s father, on the other hand, had not been so understanding. Coward. Fool. Your fault. You did this. And for what, Gian, for a whore?

Cara would never forget those words.

She suspected that neither would Gian.

“Gian?” Cara asked quietly.

He didn’t look up at her, but his fidgeting stopped. “Hey, mon ange.”

“I didn’t see where you went when you came in the penthouse.”

“I needed a second.”

“For what?”

Gian let out a heavy breath. “To think. Alone, for a while.”

“I can let you—”

“No, don’t go.” He caught her wrist in a snug grip, and tugged her down. She sat opposite to him on the floor as his ring spinning started up again. “Last time to take it off.”

Gian said that with a soft smile and a shrug.

“Then why haven’t you?”

“A part of me thinks it’s not real. As much as I hate this ring, I don’t hate what it means, Cara. I just hated who it tied me to and how it chained me. It felt like it was choking me every time I had to put it on. I’m worried, that’s all.”

“About what, Gian?”

“That maybe the way this one has always felt will taint the way the next one feels.”

Oh.

“We don’t need to be worrying about that right now,” Cara whispered, reaching out to stroke Gian’s tense lines away on his face. “You know that, right?”

“I’m a boss. A boss needs—”

“To be happy. To take some time. To manage a family and his organization. To be a dad. To be my lover. To be a son. Have you ever taken the time just to be, Gian?”

“I don’t have that kind of time, Cara, not in my position.”

“And who the fuck is going to tell you what you should and shouldn’t do for you at the moment, Gian? Who is going to tell you anything? You got one thing right—you’re the boss, not anyone else.”

It took Gian nearly an entire silent minute before he said, “But I do want to marry you. I have wanted to marry you since the moment I knew I loved you, mon ange.”

“And someday, you can ask. Today doesn’t have to be that day and neither does tomorrow.”

He laughed. “That’s quite a way to leave me hanging.”

“You have to ask someday, Gian, that’s all.”

Gian’s gaze dropped. “I found out some things today—coroner’s report came in, and I went down after the funeral to go over it.”

“All right.”

“Elena was pregnant, maybe with Dom’s kid, I’m not sure. I suspect it was. They had some tissue to test against my DNA, if I wanted—they suspect me of being the father. Not possible, but I didn’t correct them. They don’t need it on record that I wasn’t the father of the child because it’ll just give them something to look into, so I didn’t ask for testing to be done. As it was, I deleted the messages, calls, and Dom’s contact off her phone before I left the mansion that day. I took the pill bottles with his name on it. I knew I was going to kill him, and I was still trying to protect him. I did it again today. I realized I wasn’t even mad at Dom for what he did with her, or for falling into her trap. I was him once, too. I’m pissed because of what came of it, because of what he did, but not for her. I miss my brother, but not the thing she turned him into.”

“Anything else in the report?”