AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It was not like that.”
“It was just like that! You said so.” She sank back onto the small couch, feeling drained.
Luciano came toward her, but something in her look must have gotten to him because he stopped before reaching her. “At first, I believed you did not know. I intended our marriage to be real and forever. You were innocent.” He swung his hand out in an arc to punctuate the words. “To include you in a vendetta against your grandfather would have been wrong. This is what I told myself.”
His eyes appealed to her, but her heart was bleeding and she couldn’t offer the understanding he sought. “I believed you would make a good wife, an admirable mother,” he said, his tone driven.
Two weeks ago those statements would have been compliments, but now they were testament to how lukewarm his feelings were for her. “You decided to make the best of a bad situation.”
The muscles in his face clenched. “Si.”
“But then you overheard my grandfather and me talking and drew your own conclusions.” She felt sick remembering what had been said and how it could have been interpreted.
Her grandfather had a lot to answer for and she intended to hold him accountable, just as soon as she wasn’t doing her utmost to control her roiling stomach.
“Si.” Luciano did not look too good himself. “Can you not understand how I felt? Your grandfather used my uncle’s weakness against me, against the di Valerio family. I could not let that go unchallenged.”
“So, you decided to get your revenge by dumping me once I got pregnant.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
IT WAS such a cold thing to do, definitely not something he would have contemplated if he loved her.
He shook his head, if anything looking more grim than he had a moment ago. “That was not my plan.”
“What was your plan?” she asked, dreading the answer. Could anything be worse, though?
“I wanted you to believe I had taken a mistress. Zia agreed to help me with this. I intended to shame you into asking for a divorce. The baby did not come into it.”
“But how would that have gotten you control back of the company?” Hadn’t he said if she divorced him, he only got fifty percent of the shares in the settlement?
“I have purchased all outstanding stock, including that for which your grandfather held proxies. Getting back half of the shares would have fulfilled my pride more than my need. It was part of my vendetta.”
“You never intended me to get pregnant.” Her hand went in automatic protective gesture over her womb.
He looked haunted. “I did not think of it.”
At her look of disbelief, he turned away again and spoke with his back to her. “I went pazzesco. Crazy. Santo cielo! I was only thinking of how you had played me for a fool. How stupid I had been to trust you.”
And his pride, which had already been smarting from her grandfather’s behavior would have been decimated by this turn of events.
“Your carrying my bambino did not enter my mind.” His broad shoulders were tense with strain. “I wanted to hurt you. I admit this. I wanted to make Joshua pay.”
“You succeeded. You should be proud of a job well done.” Too well done. So much for bleeding, she felt like her heart was hemorrhaging from the pain.
He turned back, his face set in bleak lines. “I am not proud. I am ashamed and I am sorry.”
Every straining line of his body spoke of sincerity, his brown eyes eloquent with his regret.
“I believe you.” She sighed, trying to ease the tightness in her chest. She believed that he was sorry, but his apology could not undo the hurt. Repentant, or not, he had married her not because he wanted her, but because he’d been forced to do it. The rejection she felt was shattering.
“I thought you cared about me. I knew it wasn’t love, but this thing between you and my grandfather—it’s so demeaning. The knowledge that our marriage was the result of an arrangement between you and my grandfather so you could get your company back…” Words failed her for several seconds as she struggled to keep the tears at bay.
Finally, she swallowed. “I never would have suspected anything like that, but it explains so much.”
He stepped toward her, his hand extended, “Hope, please, we can make this marriage of ours work.”
She reared back, almost falling off the sofa. “Don’t come near me. I don’t want you touching me.” When she remembered how he had blackmailed her into marriage, using his body as the bait, she shuddered.
His expression was that of a jaguar thwarted of its prey.
“I want some time to think. Alone.”
He shook his head in sharp negative. “We have both spent enough time alone.”
