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“Tiero and I talked last night and cleared the air,” she confesses, her words hitting me like a punch to the gut. “He asked me to give him another chance.”
The words echo in my mind, and it takes me a moment to process them.
No! That criminal will not destroy the best thing in my life.
I search her eyes, desperately hoping to find a sign that she turned him down. But all I see is a mix of apprehension and sorrow. It hits me like a venomous arrow, injecting toxin into my every thought and action.
“You didn’t say no, did you?”
She averts her gaze, shaking her head.
This makes no sense. I stare at Ella blankly.
Fuck, what does that mean? I can’t think.
What is she trying to tell me?
I’m still asleep. That has to be it.
This is a nightmare, my subconscious dealing with my fear of losing her. There’s no way in hell Ella just told me she got back together with De Marco.
I hold out my arm. “Pinch me,” I order gruffly.
“What?” Her gaze rises back to mine. She looks utterly confused.
“Pinch me,” I repeat. “This isn’t real. It’s a nightmare, I’m going to wake up from any minute.”
“Aiden, you’re not sleeping.”
“Prove it. Pinch me.” She does as I ask. The pain is immediate.
Fuck. Disbelief and devastation wash over me in waves. There has to be a rational explanation for this.
“Right. If I’m not sleeping, then he must have drugged you,” I declare, grasping at straws.
“What? Tiero would not drug me,” she exclaims in outrage.
Seriously?
I raise an eyebrow at her.
“He drugged you three times in the past. It’s not a long stretch of the imagination. He must have given you a hallucinogenic, something that doesn’t let you think straight, because the Ella I know wouldn’t have said what you just did.” I rub my hand over my face, trying to lift the fog still clouding my mind.
“Ade, I get this comes as a shock–”
“A shock?” I interrupt her, jumping to my feet. “A shock?” I repeat, louder this time. “That’s the understatement of the century.”
I’m getting worked up now, pacing the cabin like a caged animal.
“Ella, you have risked your life multiple times to get away from that man–” I point at the door and into the direction of the other cabin where I presume Gualtiero De Marco is waiting.
“We had to enact an elaborate plan to get you off the ship and away from him. We’ve been spending weeks hiding, keeping a low profile, and trying to deceive him about your whereabouts. And then you turn around, spend a few hours with him, and you’re telling me you’re back together?” I shout, not able to hold back my anger.
Everything I’ve always wanted and have been so close to getting is slipping through my fingers, and I can’t do a damn thing about it.
Ella takes a deep breath and looks away, a mixture of annoyance, guilt, and something I can’t quite decipher clouding her expression.
“Seriously, Ella, what are you thinking? You told me over and over again that you want to keep this child away from De Marco, that you refuse to bring her up in the mafia world–”
