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Her penetrating green eyes study me, boring a hole into the depths of my tortured soul. I set the envelope on the folding table beside her array of paints.
“My oh my, Roman De Luca fell in love, didn’t he?” She sets down her palette and brush, giving me her full attention. “It’s the only reason you’d deliver these papers yourself. Tell me about her.”
“I’d rather not.”
She sighs. “Roman, listen to me, these past seven years all I’ve wished for is your happiness. I’m glad you’ve met someone.”
She must be lying. I locked her away in here and expected her to rot. Instead, she seems to have flourished.
“You don’t hate me?” I warily ask.
“No. I don’t hate you. But you hate me.” She twirls a long strand of black hair around her finger. “But if you’re willing to give me a divorce and set me free, then that means you must love her more than you hate me.”
“Yes. I do.”
“Good. Does she love you too?”
I inwardly cringe. “I don’t know. She used to, but I fucked up.”
“If it’s you that messed up and not her losing interest, then I’m sure you can salvage the relationship.”
“Perhaps.” I nod toward the envelope. “Are you going to sign the papers?”
“Yes, but I have a couple of conditions, or rather, questions to ask first.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “What do you want?”
She dives right in. “Have you seen Nikolai? How is he?”
“Dead. I shot him for attempting to rape my w—the woman I love.” I deliver the news in a flat tone.
She closes her eyes and exhales a long, steady breath. “Then it’s finally over. The man I’ve loved my whole life is dead, and now I’m free of him. I can be at peace.”
“You don’t hate me for killing him?” I ask, curious. This is not the reaction I expected when I told her what happened.
“Not at all.” She opens her eyes, they appear brighter, clearer. “Loving a man like Nikolai Kozlov is a curse, not a blessing. I tried to love you, Roman, I really did. You were always the better man. But the heart wants what it wants, and oftentimes what it can’t have. I know Nikolai never loved me in return, but it didn’t matter, I was always his. Now that he’s dead, I can move on.”
“If I’d known, I would have killed him years ago.” I mean it. Too much of my guilt comes from having watched her suffer because of her unrequited love for him, and knowing I couldn’t do anything about it.
“How could you have known? We never talk about such things. We never speak at all.” She gives me a sad smile.
“What else do you want before you’ll sign?”
“I want to stay here. I don’t know the world outside of this place, and I don’t want to know it.” Olivia motions around us to the maples, the sprawling lawn, and the lake in the distance. “You thought locking me away here was a punishment, but it wasn’t. I love it here. I’m happy here. Truly happy.”
I nod. “The figure I’ve written down is enough to pay for your care here until you’re one-hundred and fifty years old. It’ll suffice.”
“Thank you, Roman. There’s one last thing.”
“Name it.” I demand.
“Will you forgive me? For everything I put you through?”
I hesitate. For everything? That’s asking a lot of me. But I’m determined to move on and truly lay my past to rest.
Can I forgive her for cheating on me, for breaking my heart? For shattering it further when I wasn’t enough, for preferring being dead than with me? All I wanted was for us to be happy together, but it was never meant to be.
“Yes. I forgive you.” I can forgive her now because she no longer holds my heart, it belongs wholly to Sophia.
