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He ground his teeth together, not responding.
“I just don’t understand why you did this.”
“This marriage? Yes, you do. Our baby –,”
“Oh, I get that,” she interrupted impatiently. “You were very rational and clear about why our marriage would be good for this child. But then we got married and everything changed. It wasn’t enough for me to be your wife; you had to possess me in every way. You had to own me, right down to the centre of my soul.”
He stared at her, clearly not understanding.
“We could have been married and lived together as two acquaintances, but that wasn’t enough for you. You couldn’t leave me alone, you couldn’t give me space. Your ego demanded that I submit to you fully –,”
“Submit?” His voice showed disgust. “What kind of Victorian melodrama are you writing here?”
She glared at him without interrupting. “Sharing a bedroom, sharing your bed, sleeping with you – you took over everything –,”
“No,” he lifted his hand, slicing it through the air with fierce determination. “I left everything in your hands. Believe me, Alessia, if I had taken over everything as I sorely wanted to do you would not have had a night in this bed since returning to Rome.”
Her heart skipped a beat.
“I have subjugated my own desires at almost every turn out of respect for your needs so do not stand there and say I have made you submit to me.”
She could see that she’d hurt him. If she were less angry, she would apologise for that but emotions fired inside of her and instead of being regretful she felt a flash of gladness. It was right that she’d hurt him after how he’d made her feel.
“This whole marriage was an exercise in submission,” she snapped. “I don’t mean sexually. I mean in every way, you have infiltrated my life. Instead of us keeping to our own corners and living as two people who will have a child in common, you have wanted me to give all of myself to you. Why?”
“I don’t agree.”
“Oh, come on, Max. What the hell has been happening here?”
He didn’t respond.
“It was never enough for you that I agree to be your wife. You want me to treat you as I did before. You want me to worship you and adore you. You want me to love you, right?”
His temple throbbed, but he didn’t deny it.
“You are such a selfish bastard. That’s what I mean by my total submission, not sexually, but all of me. You want me to love you and yet you have no intention of ever loving me back, do you?”
He looked at her as though she’d started speaking a foreign language.
“I can’t believe I fell for this.” She shook her head angrily and moved towards the door, trying to think of anything else she might have forgotten. But as she approached the door, she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror and remembered the necklace. Awkwardly, because of the over-sized, over-filled bag she was holding, she reached up and unclasped the stunning jewel.
“You have more money than sense. To pay Sam a million dollars, to give me what you have, without realising that it means nothing to me…”
She placed the necklace on the foot of her bed then returned to the door.
“Don’t go,” he said with a quick movement, coming to stand behind her. But she shook her head urgently.
“I can’t stay here. I can’t believe I trusted you again. I can’t believe any of this. After our first marriage, why didn’t I learn my lesson?”
“This isn’t what you think.”
“You know what the worst part of all is?” She ignored his interruption. “You’re so good at this. It worked. I fell right back in love with you, like a stupid little fool. I thought I was different to the girl you first married but apparently old habits die really hard.”
His eyes showed surprise but he regrouped quickly.
“If you love me, then stay.”
She squared her shoulders, tilting her chin defiantly. “With a man who doesn’t love me? Who doesn’t love anyone or anything except his ability to exercise power to get his way? No. Not in a million years and not for ten million euros.” She moved to the stairs, grabbing the railing. “I fell in love with you, Max, but God knows you don’t deserve it.”
