Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 78464 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78464 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Her hair was still damp because she hadn’t dried it, just squeezed it with a towel so the drops stopped falling on the floor. She’d put on a pair of jeans she’d left on the floor of the closet and pulled on a hoodie. Despite the warmth from her long bath, her cheeks were pale as if she was freezing cold.
Dante continued to stare at her like she was an angel sent from the heavens. “Thank you for seeing me.”
Her hands were together on her lap, and her back didn’t touch the chair, as if she expected this conversation to be so brief there was no point in getting comfortable. “You can thank Axel because I had no interest in coming down here.” She stared at the coffee table between them, like meeting his gaze was simply too painful.
Dante was quiet for a while, swallowing that rejection like a big pill. “Well, I appreciate it, nonetheless.”
Silence passed. A lot of it.
I looked at Dante then looked at Scarlett.
Dante cleared his throat. “I came here tonight to apologize to you. I’m so sorry for everything. I want you to know that you’re the single most important thing in the world to me, and I’m sorry that I’ve made you feel otherwise.”
She stared at the table like those words meant nothing to her. “Actions speak louder than words. You were going to kill Axel if I hadn’t overheard you. Forgetting my purse is the reason he still breathes.” She lifted her chin and looked at him.
“You said you were divorcing.”
“Again, what does that matter? I told you I loved him.”
Now Dante broke eye contact because her savagery was too much.
“You’re the reason he left me.” Her anger died and slowly turned to sadness, like she was remembering that heartbreak. “You let me believe that he…he left me for someone else. You have no idea how that fucked me up.”
Dante didn’t look at her again.
“You can’t sit there and say you care about me, not after that.”
Dante took a breath before he looked at his daughter again. “He went to prison for assault and rape—”
“I told you he was innocent.”
“I wanted to protect you. I told you from the beginning I didn’t like him, but then you snuck around behind my back. I told Axel to go away, but he didn’t listen to me either. As horrible as it is, I thought you deserved better. The execution was horrible and probably caused more damage than it prevented, but I knew you deserved someone better.”
“Someone better…” She released a painful chuckle. “There is no one better.”
A twinge of warmth moved through my chest.
“You’re right,” Dante said. “Axel is a fine man with admirable qualities. Over time, he’s proven to me how much he adores you. All I ever wanted is for a man to love you more than himself…and he definitely loves you more than anything.”
“Did you realize this before or after you plotted to kill him?” she snapped.
“Before,” he said honestly. “You need to understand that all I’ve wanted is my business, and Axel crossed me when he took it. I’m not the kind of man to accept defeat. My decision had nothing to do with your relationship—”
“Which means my relationship didn’t matter. Which means that I’m not the single most important thing to you. Your business is.” Her ferocity burned like a wildfire. “Always has been and always will be.”
Dante released a barely contained grimace.
“How could you hurt me like that?” Now the ferocity was gone, replaced by raw pain. “You knew he was going to walk into that restaurant with her. You knew I was going to see it and die. You knew…you knew all of it. For months, you watched me suffer and said nothing. You set me up with Theo when I’d already found someone I wanted to be with.”
“I didn’t know you felt so strongly—”
“Bullshit. You knew. And then when Axel took your business right from underneath you, you asked me to marry him to get it back. The very man you’d taken away. Now that it suited you, you suddenly had a change of heart. If Axel hadn’t done everything in his power to get me back, he would have ended up with someone else and I would have ended up with the lesser choice. How can you live with that?”
His head was bowed in shame.
“There is no coming back from this. I want you out of my house—and out of my life.”
Dante lifted his chin to display his face, and that’s when the tears were visible. His eyes were wet and glistened in the glow of the fireplace. “Sweetheart—”
“Don’t sweetheart me.” She kept her voice strong, but her eyes were purposely elsewhere, like she couldn’t see him like this, no matter how angry she was. That meant she cared…she still cared. “Please go.”