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“How are you such a good actor?” I whisper, “Is any of it real? The kindness you show me, is that just how you think you should treat your wife? Are you fooling me too?”
He presses a kiss to my cheek, close to my ear. “You tell me, Valentina.Is itreal?”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Luca
“Explain,” my grandmother says, her hands clasped in her lap. She looks every inch the sophisticated matriarch, right down to the tense expression on her face.
I wrap my arm around my wife’s shoulder in a silent effort to reassure her. The two of us are seated in my grandmother’s sitting room, neither one of us sure what to expect of the interrogation that’s about to ensue. Normally, Valentina performs extremely well under pressure, but not today. I underestimated how much my grandmother means to her.
“What can I say?” I murmur, tightening my grip on my wife. “I fell in love, and it only seemed right to follow my heart. I was scared that I’d regret it for the rest of my life if I let Valentina walk away, when it was clear that there’s no one else I could imagine myself growing old with.”
Grandma looks between the two of us, her gaze suspicious. “You said you got married?” she asks, her voice soft. I thought I knew my grandmother well, but in this moment, I’m finding it impossible to read her.
I reach for the documents I put in my suit jacket’s inner pocket and hand them to her. “This is a copy of our marriagecertificate,” I tell her. “But you’re welcome to call Mayor Kingston to verify that he did, in fact, marry us.”
She stares at the papers in disbelief before glancing back at us, anger making its way onto her face when she realizes it isn’t a ruse. “What were you thinking?” she asks, exasperated. “And you, Val? How could you do this without even speaking to me?”
She slaps the papers onto the coffee table and looks away for a moment, her disappointment apparent. It’s near unnoticeable, but my wife starts to tremble and clasps her hands together, her gaze downcast. I pull her closer protectively and pin my grandmother down with a stare.
“We weren’t thinking,” I admit. “We’re in love, Grandma. Can you really blame us? Valentina and I were years in the making, and you above everyone else, should be aware of that.”
She glares at me and shakes her head. “I’m supposed to believe that you’re suddenly in love with Val after tormenting her foryears? You’re forced to get engaged to Natalia Ivanov, and all of a sudden you decide you’re in love with the woman you couldn’t stand for years?”
My wife flinches, and I grit my teeth, guilt rendering me speechless. She’s right, of course. For years, I did resent Valentina, and I hear the implication loud and clear. She thinks I’m using Valentina, and she isn’t wrong.
“I don’t believe for a second that you two are in love with each other. Val,” she says, her tone harsh, “tell me honestly. Is he threatening you?”
My wife shakes her head and looks up remorsefully. “I’m sorry, Grandma Anne,” she says, her voice trembling. “It’s true. I… we’re in love with each other. I know that our decision to get married was rash, but Luca is right. We were years in the making.”
Grandma crosses her arms and raises her brows. “Pray tell,” she says. “What was it that made you suddenly realize you’re in love, after years of barely tolerating each other?”
Valentina blushes and looks down for a moment. “It was on Ares and Raven’s wedding day,” she murmurs. “Um… Luca… I… well, something happened that made us realize that… I mean…”
“I kissed her,” I admit. “I kissed her that day, and things haven’t been the same since.”
Grandma frowns, the gears in her mind clearly turning. “That was months ago, and I vividly remember that the two of you barely spoke to each other after that day. Val even stopped coming home for dinner.”
My wife looks down at her lap, and I grab her hand, holding it in mine. “Neither of us was sure how to handle the change in our relationship, but then you announced my engagement to Natalia.”
Grandma frowns and glances at my wife. “Is that when you realized you were in love with Luca?” she asks, her tone gentler now.
Valentina shakes her head. “That’s when I quit my job. I realized then that I couldn’t stand being around him if he was to marry someone else. The thought of him falling for Natalia tormented me, and I knew that witnessing him with her would tear me apart.”
Grandma’s eyes widen. “You quit your job? How come I never heard of that happening?”
“I didn’t report it to you because I had no intention of letting her go.”
Grandma smiles then. It’s only for a split-second, but it’s a real smile, nonetheless. “So I am to believe that you two fell in love that way and rushed into marriage?”
“Valentina has been by my side for eight years, Grandma. Why would I want to wait even one more second, when notmaking her mine could result in me losing her forever? With the engagement, there was only one way for me to prove my commitment to her.”
“Marriage,” Grandma says, nodding. She falls silent for a moment, her gaze drifting between the two of us. She wags her finger at us and shakes her head. “I don’t believe the two of you for a second, but the fact that you got married is undeniable.”
She leans forward and sighs, her eyes falling closed for a moment. “I’m freezing all of your family assets, Luca,” she says. “Not only did you get married behind my back, you also put us at risk of making an enemy out of what would have been a strong ally. It’s going to be hard to break off your engagement.”
Valentina glances at me, concerned, but I merely smile. I haven’t used the family assets in years. I make more than enough money of my own, and Grandma should be well aware of that.
