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‘I had to go,’ he went on, his voice getting rough. ‘With Domingo it would never have ended—only with one of us dead.’ He took a breath. ‘That phone call... I am sorry for that too. I still had issues to work out as well.’
‘So what changed?’ I asked. ‘Between now and three days ago?’
His mouth curved, his face softening, his eyes lighting up. ‘Let’s just say that being with Olivia changed me. Made me think about the past and realise a few things.’ His gaze focused on me. ‘You’re right to be angry with me, Con.’
‘No,’ I said, straightening. ‘No, I’m not. You were a victim as much as I was.’ I looked down at my hands, at the blood on them, remembering another occasion where my hands had been bloody. ‘I need to escape him somehow. But I... I don’t know how to move past this.’
‘I think you do. I think the way to move past this is in London, pregnant with your child.’
The words cut through me like a knife.
Valentin didn’t look away. ‘I know you,’ he said quietly. ‘We’re twins, remember? Once something is ours, we never let it go and I don’t think you want to let her go.’
I looked away, the beast in my heart desperate. ‘How can I? There are things I haven’t told you. Reasons she needs to be protected. No one can know that I—’
‘No,’ Val interrupted quietly. ‘What she needs is to be loved.’
The words fell into the stillness like a stone in a quiet lake, creating ripples.
Shedidneed to be loved. And I had loved her. No, I stillloved her—deeply, madly, without reservation.
Except that wasn’t right either. Because itwasn’twithout reservation. I was holding a piece of myself back.
The piece of myself I’d always thought was my father.
‘Do you know what I see when I look at you, Constantine Silvera? I see the man I’ve loved for as long as I can remember.’
I’d told her what I’d done, what Domingo had said to me all those years ago, yet nothing had changed for her. She still loved me. She still saw the man I wanted to be for her. So why did I still believe him?
But I knew why. She had been right about that, too.
I was protecting myself. Distancing myself so I didn’t have to face up to the fact I had no idea how to manage the emotions inside me. The deep, hot, possessive yearning for her. The beast I couldn’t control.
I’d told myself I hadn’t wanted to expose her to that, but the truth was I hadn’t wanted to expose myself.
Vulnerable Jenny. Fragile Jenny. Soft Jenny.
Yet she was none of those things. Soft on the outside, but steel and strength down to her core.
It was me who was the fragile one.
Me who could break.
‘I don’t know if I can.’ My voice was as cracked and jagged as shattered glass.
Valentin let out a soft breath. ‘You can. Our father broke us, but that doesn’t mean we have to stay broken. We can choose to heal.’
And suddenly all I could see was Jenny’s lovely face. Jenny standing in front of me, her brown eyes full of warmth and compassion. Full of love. A complicated mixture of strength and vulnerability I hadn’t thought possible.
She was vulnerable, yes, but strong. Fearful, yet full of courage.
Love had given her that. Love had made her vulnerable, but love had also given her bravery. Love had made her powerful.
I’d told her I could never give her love and yet she loved me, and she’d told me she always would. I might have sent her away, but she hadn’t left. I could feel her still in my heart, a warm, glowing light that refused all my efforts to freeze it. That was starting to melt the icy edges of my soul.
Was it really that simple? Could I really make a choice? The choice to stay broken, as Val had said, because I was broken. Or choose Jenny. Choose our child. Choose love.
She was so strong, my Jenny. How could I be any less? And Val was right. Sheshouldbe loved. Sheneededto be loved. She was always so concerned about everyone else’s feelings. She never put herself first.
