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“Never be with anyone else?” She demanded indignantly, even though in her heart, she suspected he might be right.
Heat slashed his cheeks.
“Isn’t that a little like the pot calling the kettle black?”
He frowned. “I don’t…”
“It’s hypocritical,” she added. “I have no doubt you wasted no time getting back on the horse, so to speak, finding a willing body to push me right out of your mind. But if I decide to date a really nice guy, who I’ve known for years, who is a good friend, who cares for me and adores Jack, you think you have any place to object?”
His frown did something funny to her tummy, little bubbles popped through her veins as she stared at him, distracted as always by his physical beauty, even when she wished she could not notice that, even as she wished she could feel rage towards him.
“I haven’t been with anyone else,” he said matter-of-factly. “It’s only been a month, Elodie. Do you think you’re so easily replaced?”
It floored her. She gripped the door tighter, to stop her body’s instinct to push it wider.
“I came here yesterday to prove to myself that I’m over you and instead, I feel like I’ve had the exact opposite experience.”
Her heart began to stammer; she struggled for breath. Words felt like an impossible ask, so she stayed quiet, staring at him in utter confusion.
“Do you remember I told you about my grandfather, and how he exiled my aunt?”
The change in conversation was a little confusing but she nodded.
“Until this morning, I never realised exactly how like Gianfelice I am. How I was about to make the same mistake he did, a mistake I know he spent his whole life regretting, and not knowing how to remedy.”
Still, she couldn’t speak, so she stared at him, waiting, her brain hurting almost as much as her heart.
“He was so angry with her, he chose to act in anger rather than love. He sacrificed everything for that anger and darkness, including his relationship with her. He refused to see her, even at the end when she was dying, because he would not let himself forgive and move on. He ruined his own life, Elodie, as I think I might be ruining mine.”
Now, she made a sound, a strangling noise. Hope was starting to dance with confusion, so she wondered if he was saying that he wanted to move past the fact she’d kept Jack a secret, but there was confusion too, because it was all so messy, so difficult to see how they could do that.
“I miss you.”
The words punched holes in her heart. She stood completely still, staring at him.
“I miss you so much I feel like I’ve cut a part of me out. I miss you in a way that is impossible to endure.”
It was too much. She shook her head. “I don’t believe you, Fiero.” She swallowed, and now, she took a step inside her flat, the prospect of keeping him on the landing seeming somewhat childish given the tenor of their conversation. She noticed the way he looked around when he entered, as though he might be expecting Axel to be in evidence.
“You can’t care for someone and push them away like you did me.”
“I panicked when you told me you loved me. I was so angry about missing out on Jack’s first two years that I focussed on that instead of what a gift you and he were, on the fact I’d been given a second chance. God, Elodie, you were a second chance, it was a gift to think I could have another go at making things work with you. That night – three years ago – you smiled your way right into my heart and I can see now that you never left. I have never forgotten you, I’ve never stopped thinking about you.”
“Don’t.” She shook her head, moving away from him, into the kitchen. She needed space. “You can’t stand there and claim that you were in love with me all along…”
“I don’t think there’s a definition for what I feel for you, what I have felt for you since then. You are, quite simply, an indistinguishable part of me. I came here yesterday so self-righteous, so certain I could see you and be civil and then go back to my own life, compartmentalised from yours, that our separation would be normal and easy. Instead I felt as though a bomb had been put under my skin.”
“You were jealous of Ax,” she said quietly, striving to stay calm, to sound measured. “That’s proof of an over-sized ego, not a broken heart. It’s proof that you’re territorial and possessive, but that’s not enough for me.”
“It’s proof that I’m a slow learner,” he corrected, “and nothing more. Yes, it took Axel’s presence in your flat for me to see how vulnerable I was, how likely it was that at any point you could meet someone who would treat you as you deserved, and you would say the things to them that you said to me a month ago, and they’d be smarter than I was. They’d see what a gift you are, what a rare and beautiful person, and they’d wrap their arms around you and say, ti amo, over and over and over until they were breathless with the importance of those words.”
She drew in a sharp breath.
“That is what I should have done, Elodie, because it’s true. I am in love with you and all I’ve done this past month, no, longer, since the accident at least, is grab hold of the one reason I can think of for not loving you. I can’t do that anymore. I will not let darkness take away the brightest light in my life.”
Elodie stared at him, swallowing past her doubts and uncertainties, trying to understand what was happening and why. It seemed vitally important to her to strip away the idea of Axel as a threat. If Fiero was saying these things because he was jealous or threatened, she needed to know. “I’m not seeing Axel. He’s just a friend.”
Fiero studied her for several seconds and then a long, slow breath whooshed from his lips, his relief obvious.
