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“It is,” he agreed.
He felt unkind that he had given her a false sense of what would happen in their marriage in the future. And now that he recognized she was so pleasing physically, there really was no question of them getting an annulment.
“Minerva, I know what it is to be afraid. I lived my life without security on the streets of Rome.”
“I’ve been to Rome, and I can honestly say that now that statement means a lot more to me,” she said.
“I’m sure it does. It is a terrifying thing to have no control. Whether that be because of a lack of money, or because a person has decided to dismantle that. And when you figure out how to have power, you’ll never go back. Not ever.”
“I don’t suppose.”
“Then you will understand why there is no question of the two of us divorcing.”
“What?”
“I’m solidifying this business deal with your father, the best way that I can. And if I were to divorce you it would cause problems.”
“We talked about this. About... You helping me. And how he surely won’t be angry with you if he knows that what you did you simply did to keep me safe.”
“To a certain point. It is about consolidating power, Minerva. In my life I have always imagined that I’m building a wall between myself now and my past. Whenever I can build it stronger, build it higher, I will. This is such an opportunity, and I will take it.”
He was not asking her for anything untoward, not in his mind.
It wasn’t as if she were an innocent. She had a child.
“I will give Isabella my name,” he said. “She will be my daughter. I can adopt her, legally. All of this can be accomplished once we are certain you’re safe. Everything I own will be hers someday. And I will be her father.”
The words sent a strange surge through his chest. “There are many things about family I don’t understand. And I won’t. I have been in yours for a great many years, and still... The foundation that is built beneath us during our earliest years matters a great deal. And I know that more than most. I can’t promise I’ll be the best father, but I will be better than the one that biology gave her. And I will be better than my own.”
She picked Isabella up, in a move he now absolutely recognized. “And what about as a husband?”
“I will be good to you. Have I ever not been?”
“But will you ever love me?”
“You said yourself, Minerva, you don’t even like me very much. What do you care if I love you? You won’t love me.”
She bit her bottom lip. “Well, that’s a pretty sad start to a marriage, don’t you think?”
“No,” he said. “I don’t. The mutual interest of protecting your daughter, a desire to unite our family names... And you don’t dislike me. Admit it.”
“I will do no such thing,” she sniffed. “You’re old.”
“Yes. I know. When I was a child I had to walk to the soup kitchen, in the snow, uphill both ways.”
“Stop it,” she said.
“I’m offering you security,” he said. “I can offer you nothing that means more to me than that. Security is what I have built my entire new life on. And I will give it to you. You must understand what value that has to me. And with that I give you the greatest thing in my possession. It is better than love. Love is fickle and it breaks. Love destroys the moment that it malfunctions. I have seen it. My mother loved my father, and what did that get her? Years on the streets. Prostitution. She loved many men, and all they did was take from her. And that love that she felt for them gave them that power. It is a folly to love. Did you love Isabella’s father?”
Her face took on a strange pallor. “No,” she said. “I didn’t.”
“Well, then. I suppose there is no comparison for you to be had there. But by God, Minerva, you must know that what I would give you, what I would give her, is better than the potential of someday finding a relationship that could give you what? Will a man claim Isabella so wholly as his own? Or will he always make her feel second? Will he care so much about the interests of your family? As much as I do? Will he be able to keep you safe in the way that I have done?”
“And you’ll do this... All for a business?”
There was something in her look that was beseeching, and he knew that she wanted another answer.
He had one. Much to his surprise.
