Page 305 of Valentino

I’m glad he has him…. I pray he never needs him in that way.

VALENTINO

I pull the car into the parking lot, I turn the car off and sit in the silence for a long time. The only thing I can hear is my heart hammering in my chest.

I had to sneak out today, nobody knows I’m here.

But I had to come.

I can’t live like this. It can’t go on. I want to start my new life with Anna unencumbered.

Eventually I drag myself out of the car and go through security, I fill out the relevant paperwork.

“This way.” The woman ushers me into the private room. “Take a seat, it won’t be long.”

I clasp my hands in front of me, perspiration beads on my forehead and I glance at the door.

I should leave.

I hear the dead bolt unlock, the door slowly opens and the familiar face appears.

Carlo, dressed in a fawn uniform, his hands and feet are in cuffs.

He is led toward the seat by the prison warden and his eyes rise to meet mine, I see the shock, then the horror, and he stops still on the spot.

“What the fuck do you want?” he whispers.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Seeing him like this….

There’s a deep cut over his blackened eye, he’s thin and gaunt, in chains.

Broken.

Emotion overwhelms me, I drop my head and rest my elbows onto my knees.

Fuck.

In…out…in…out.

I concentrate on my breathing as I try to regulate my nervous system.

In…out…in…out.

My heart is racing, I’m perspiring and I can hardly hold in screaming at them to take the chains off him.

Fuck.

From the corner of my eye I see the warden sit him in the chair behind the glass wall, there’s a large hole in it to talk through, though not large enough that he could get through it.

I stare at the leg on the chair, it blurs and comes in and out of focus.

I didn’t realize seeing him like this would….

“What do you want?” he murmurs.

I drag my eyes to meet his, and my heart breaks all over again.