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Katia looked down at what I’d offered, and her eyes flared.
“I told you I didn’t need your money,” she said through clenched teeth.
“You think I will use your father’s money to pay for the wedding?”
Her lips curled. “I haven’t touched his money in years.” Katia took a deep breath to calm the fire that swirled in her eyes and the tension in her muscles. “I see where you would misinterpret when I said I didn’t need your money.” She placed her folder on the credit card and repeated her words. “But I told you I led a very successful business before leaving Italy. Beforeyou. When I said I didn’t need gifts, jewelry or your money, I meant it.”
I didn’t like it.
It was my duty to provide for what was mine. How could I be the boss of afamigliawhen I couldn’t provide for its queen?
“You are losing before your proposal is even given, Katia,” I warned.
“Why?” she fought. “Because you can’t have me paying for my own needs?”
“Yes.”
“Lucca, this is absurd.”
“Is it?”
“Yes!” Her arms flung while her ass squirmed to the end of the chair.
“If money is your drive to work because your pride won’t allow you to take mine, the answer isno.”
“But it’s not!” Her cheeks colored while her hands expressed her desperation. “Youbrought money into this, not me.”
“And yet, you are unwilling to accept it. You are not paying forourwedding or anything you need.”
“Then you won’t get your date.” She seethed, and this time, I lost my patience.
Katia had no idea of the thin thread of power, change, and questions that threatened her future.
How her own father was ready to toss her to the first bidder as death escalated and money poured out of syndicates.
“Then I’ll pick it myself.”
My tone was harsh with no room to defy, and yet she still did. She stood quickly. Hatred pouring from her eyes.
“Then so be it. It wouldn’t be the first time you lied.”
She’d silenced me.
“I wanted to work to stay busy. To have the drive to get up and push through the idea of having to live with you!” she spat as her body vibrated in anger. “To escape from the games and roller coaster of feelings I’m under in this hell.” Katia looked into her folder. “But you are just like them all. A liar who is afraid to see a woman as an equal.”
My heart beat in an array, wild to her accusations. But I couldn’t speak up to defend myself.
Katia’s eyes looked down on me as I fought to conceal the wild feeling she’d broken free inside, but she only saw what I’d allowed. A relaxed posture and a careless bastard looking back without remorse. Meanwhile, my chest loathed the constricting pressure that grew with each passing minute. Her eyes lowered, and her head shook disheartened. Katia glanced at the folder one last time before her back faced me.
I’d done it.
I had said no, but it didn’t settle well with me. It wasn’t the way I had planned; it was messy, and emotions were high without understanding reasoning.
As her hips swayed further away, I caught a glimpse of the fingerprints that marked her wrist.My fingerprints.
“I never meant to break my promise.”
“Is that an apology?” she said as low as my voice had been, but she never turned. She held onto the doorway with her gaze trained on the wood stain, and when I didn’t reply, Katia uttered, “I didn’t think so.” When she looked back, her hair obscured her features, and I couldn’t see her eyes clearly. “June seventh,” were her last words before she left.
