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him, his shudder transmitting to her trembling body. “Whatever you heard, whatever you understood, whatever you think I did, you’re wrong, mi amore, I swear.”
Tears oozed out of her very soul. “I...loved...you...”
“And I worship you. You’re everything to me. Everything.”
All light faded, taking his image with it as blackness sucked her under. “I—I think...it’s better...this way...”
As she slipped away, she wished it would be forever. So she wouldn’t live knowing she’d never had him, or with the agony that would never go away.
* * *
Antonio watched Liliana’s eyes flutter closed, felt her bloodied body going limp and still, and went mad.
His roar almost tore out the heart that had been exploding with every beat since he’d watched her plunge into that jagged maw of concrete and steel.
He’d done this to her. This was his fault. All of it.
She was lying here, torn and broken, because he’d lied to her. Because he’d overridden her disinclination and accepted his mother’s invitation. Because she must have picked up on his weirdness, because he’d left her behind without explanation, making her follow him, hear what had made her escape him so desperately through the house they shouldn’t have been in.
If he lost her...
No. He’d never lose her. He would save her. He’d pay his very life and far more to restore her, body and heart.
But before he could do anything, he had to suppress the insanity of terror and the violence of self-hatred. He had to go through his perfected motions. Everything he’d ever learned, every skill he’d acquired, every bit of experience he’d accumulated through the long years of slavery and struggle and success, had all been for this moment.
Everything he was had been made for her. Everything he could do, he’d learned to save her.
From the injuries he’d caused her.
* * *
Antonio raced against time in a crazed fast-forward, spiraling through all levels of hell.
In what seemed like minutes, he’d flown Liliana to his nearest medical center where he’d had to cut her open, literally this time, so he could mend her. He’d poured all his expertise, all his being, into saving her. It had driven him insane, not only the extent of her injuries and the reason she’d sustained them, but the feeling that she was resisting his efforts. He might have been unhinged with terror and guilt, but he did feel as if she wanted him to fail.
It had been when she’d flatlined, when there’d been no medical reason anymore that she should, that he’d become sure.
She’d wanted to die.
In the horrific lifetime until he’d managed to restart her heart, he’d known. If he’d failed, his heart would have stopped seconds after hers.
Now she lay in the ICU, just like Ivan’s mystery woman had three weeks ago. But the latter had fought to survive. He could feel Liliana still fighting to escape. He’d hurt her so much, it was as if she didn’t want to wake up to face the agony.
Some of her last words revolved in his mind again, hacking it to pieces. You shouldn’t have done this to me. I loved you.
He’d been a coward, avoiding a confession that could have caused a passing crisis, a pain he could have healed. He’d been self-deluding, thinking she wouldn’t pick up on the turmoil that racked him every time he saw his mother. Liliana had always felt he’d been hiding something, but because of his evasions, when she’d overheard him, she’d concluded the worst. What had once been the truth.
And it had destroyed her.
Sagging to his knees beside her bed, he let the tears he’d never shed before pour out of his very soul.
“You’re my life, mi amore. I can’t and won’t live without you. I beg you, don’t punish me by harming yourself.”
In response, her vitals only grew more erratic.
Exploding to his feet, he rummaged for medications, roaring for his assistants to prepare emergency resuscitation.
Just as he was about to inject the cocktail into her drip, a deep voice broke over him.
