Page 262 of Modern Romance November 2024 5-8

It killed him to see the misery contained in them. The redness ringing them. The dullness of her complexion.

He took hold of her hand. It was cold.

‘I love you,bella,’ he said quietly. ‘That is why I want you to stay. I want you to come back tomebecause I cannot live without you.’

Her chin was wobbling. Her beautiful little chin with the faint little cleft.

He tightened his hold on her hand. ‘I never forgot you because you caught me spellbound the moment I saw the look on your face at the final piece of sabotage your old colleagues did for that pitch. I carried that look with me for months. I carried your name. I gave Denise a maternity package my finance team told me I was mad to give but I did not care, and do you know why?’

She gave the smallest shake of her head.

‘I did not care because deep down I knew it meant she would never come back and that I could bring you in as her replacement.’

She sucked in a small breath.

He smiled wanly and kissed her fingers. ‘All this time, Victoria. I have loved you all this time and I was too damned blind and too damned scared to see it. I let you go and sabotaged my own happiness because I thought there was no room left in my heart, but you are in there with him, and I swear to you, there is room in there for all the children you want to have with me. I want them too.’ Tears filled his eyes, and he shook his head, still hardly able to believe the truth and the depth of his feelings. ‘It has taken me eleven years to learn that although the past cannot be changed, the future does not have to be stuck there. You...’ He sighed and kissed her fingers again. Was he imagining that they were warming...?

Keeping hold of her hand, he spread her fingers out and slid the ring on her wedding finger. ‘This belonged to my grandmother. My grandfather gave it to me over Christmas. He knew—my whole damn family knew—that my heart had opened for someone...you...but that I needed the push to open my eyes.’

He smiled again at the widening ofhereyes. ‘I needed the push. All the pushes. My heart knew but the rest of me refused to see, and now it is all I can see and all I can feel. I have run from pain before but I cannot run from this...there is nowhere for me to run to. I do not know what the spell is you have cast on me but you have brought me back to life. I can get through anything if I have you with me. You are in my heart and my soul—youaremy soul. My soul mate. You make each day a joy to live. Stay with me, please. Forgive me for being so blind, and stay with me for ever and let me love you the way you deserve to be loved, which is entirely for yourself because you are the best person in the world and just to see your face is enough to make my heart sing. Please, Victoria, stay with me. Marry me.’

Warm fingers tentatively touched his head and then slid down his cheek as she sank to her knees. ‘Say it again,’ she whispered.

‘Which part?’

‘The part about loving me.’

He gazed deep into the hazel eyes he would love for ever. ‘I love you.’

A tentative smile. ‘Again.’

‘I love you.’

A wider smile. ‘One for luck.’

Laughter broke free and he kissed her. ‘I love you.’

Victoria wound her arms around Marcello’s neck and stared in wonder at the face that had become the most beloved face in the whole of her world. ‘I thought I would never see you again.’

‘Forgive me. I never wanted to cause you pain.’

‘I know,’ she said softly. She’d always known what she meant to him but had never dared believe he would allow his heart to open enough to embrace it.

To feel the embrace of his love... She expelled the happiest sigh of her life. ‘I love you, Marcello.’

‘And I love you.’

‘Say it again.’

‘I love you.’ He cupped her cheek and kissed her deeply. ‘Marry me and I will show it and say it every day for the rest of my life. Marry me and let us spend every day of the rest of our lives together.’

‘I like the sound of that.’

‘Then you will marry me?’

‘As soon as we can.’

She didn’t just see his smile but felt it right in her heart.

---