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“I would die for you any day,” he said under his breath. When his thumbs brushed my tears, I realized his eyes looked glossy as well.
Oh god.
Antonio “The Heartless” Mazzoni was teary.
“I failed you day after day, Priscilla,” he said before I could even react to his previous words. “I was broken. I was so broken that I broke you too.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Don’t say that.”
He was not broken. He was just different. He just needed a little help. I never thought he failed me because of who he was. I loved him, and I always knew he loved me back, even when he was too blind to see it.
He never failed me.
Antonio turned his head and kissed the inside of my wrist, right over my pulse that only beat for him since the second I saw him at that party. “I need to say it,” he murmured to my skin. Then he looked back at my face. “It is hard, so please just let me say it. Let me say all of it and after you’ll answer. Okay?”
My answer was probably ready, but I could see how desperate he was to say it. He needed to get it out of his chest, and I wanted to let him.
I kissed his lips so very softly. “I’ll only listen. Promise.”
He nodded. I felt his body slightly shake and put my hands on his shoulders. Not even my kiss was able to take the weight of his words from him. “I always call you my Venus. It was because you are beautiful and lovely and the first moment I saw you I couldn’t think anything but Botticelli’s Venus. You were meant to be my Venus. Yet in reality, you were my Persephone, and I was your Hades.”
My brows came together, but he only kept going, “On our wedding day, Kira told me I was taking a daisy fresh bride to my underworld. I brushed it off, but she was fucking right. I stole you just like Hades stole Persephone. I stole you from your family, from the place that made you happy and trapped you here with me. I told myself I never lied to you, but I still gave you hope. I tricked you with Pomegranate Seeds when you were hungry and stole you from where you were supposed to be. I dimmed your sunshine.”
My tears were rolling down my cheeks as I shook my head. It was not true at all. I fell for him despite anything, and knowing what I knew now, I would still fall for him. He was the only one for me.
When I opened my mouth to tell him his words were bullshit, he pressed his thumb to my lips, his eyes pleading to let him finish. So, I kept silent. “But I cannot keep doing this. I cannot keep hurting you, Priscilla. I want you to be happy more than anything in the world, and if that is going to happen in New York…” he swallowed thickly. “I’ll send you to New York.”
My eyes widened, and I looked at him with an open mouth.
“I mean, yes, we cannot get a divorce, but you can live there. We might find a way. You don’t have to see my face more than a few times a year.”
No.
I wanted to shout no. I wanted to tell him how stupid he was. I wanted to tell him that would be the last thing I would want, but none of it came out. I was stunned by the fact that he was letting me go.
He was willing to let me go for my happiness. Maybe it was a normal thing for other people, but for a Cosa Nostra man, that was something huge. That was his reputation, his pride, and he was putting me above all of it.
My lips trembled, and I couldn’t find any words. I couldn’t believe him, so I only said, “I am pregnant,” with a disbelieving voice. No man would set their pregnant wife free.
His throat moved up and down. His eyes were full of pain, so I could see that he was doing it because he really believed that was the thing that could make me happy. Such a foolish man, my husband.
“It is going to kill me either way, Priscilla,” he whispered. “Letting you go is going to kill me, but if it is going to make you happy, if that is what you want, just like I said before, I would die for you any day.”
“Oh, you fool,” I murmured, sniffing. I was full-on ugly crying at this point. My pregnancy hormones were not helping this conversation at all.
His eyes opened like he remembered something. “There is something else I need to say.” Then he stopped abruptly and became thoughtful. “But I don’t want to manipulate you. First, tell me your decision.”
Something between a sob and a laugh escaped me. This guy was going to kill me. He thought thathemanipulatedme. He taught he was the master of this game.
“Say it,” I encouraged with a teary smile. “I already know my answer. It won’t change.”
He nodded more to himself, gathering his thoughts. Damn, who was this man?
“I just wanted to say I love you,” he said, making my heart stop. I literally couldn’t breathe even though it was the second time he said those words. “I told you in the woods, but I was afraid you might think it was just a heat of the moment thing. It was not. I think I have loved you since the first moment I saw you, but I was too broken to realize it. Every time you smiled at me or just stood there sending your sunshine all over the place, my heart did flips in my chest, and I fucking went to a doctor for it. I fell for you more every day to the point I thought I had a heart attack.”
I laughed hard at his words, not just because it was funny but because I was happy. I was so damn happy.
I couldn’t even believe this was real.
