Page 154 of Corrado

Corrado shook his head, saying softly, “So, when you ask why I can’t choose who I want … it’s because I don’t deserve what I already have, and I’m sorry that you seem to think you’re the person who doesn’t deserve me. You’re wrong, and I’m so fucking sorry for that. I’m sorry for this, and nothing I do or say is ever going to make this better, but you should know that before anything else. I’m sorry. I’ll say it every single day. Every hour on the fucking hour. It won’t change a thing, though. It won’t change it because I won’t give you what you want. I can’t … not the way you want me to.”

“But …”

“Hmm?”

Ginevra stared hard at him, trying to find that lie. Anything to tell her that he was saying things he thought she wanted to hear, and not the truth. Instead, all she found was a stark, harsh reality staring back at her.

He wasn’t lying.

It broke her heart more.

“I think the choice should be easy for you,” she said softly.

Corrado laughed dryly, tipping his head away from hers as he asked, “And why is that?”

Wasn’t it obvious?

“You don’t love me—you love him.”

She could see it in Corrado’s eyes before the words even left his mouth that he wouldn’t deny what she said—because it was the truth. And like her, this man seemed to make every effort not to lie when he could.

“But I could,” he murmured.

Her heart stopped.

She swore it did.

“Pardon?”

“Love you,” he clarified, “I could, and the longer you’re near, the stronger it’s going to be for me. This happened to me already—I did this once, I know how it ends, Ginevra.”

Ginevra laughed, but it was far too faint. Hidden in her chest, that traitorous heart of hers pounded like it was going to explode. She liked what he said too much. And the way he was looking at her again?

Intense, and knowing.

Like he was so sure.

And daring her to challenge him.

She’d felt that, too. From the second she stepped into his vehicle in front of that church, she thought … everything was going to be different. Maybe then, she’d assumed it was because of her sisters, and everything that was happening around her. The chaos, and the unknown waiting for her.

But was it?

Or was it him?

“You can’t know that about love,” she said, her words slipping out on a breath. “You can’t, Corrado.”

“Why not? I knew it about him, so why would you be any different? My life wasn’t right before him, and then it was … but now it’s tilted again, confusing—wrong again. I keep thinking it’s because of you, because nothing else changed except here you are, and I don’t know what to do.”

“I’m sorry.”

Corrado gave her a look, a sad smile curving his lips up at the edges. “Why on earth are you apologizing to me?”

“Because love shouldn’t be that complicated or painful. It should be everything but those things.”

“It could be,” he agrees. “I want it to be.”

“And you want him,” she whispered.