Page 63 of Lie to Me

I could never forget him, no matter how much I tried.

And believe me, I did everything in my power to try and forget that man.

The pain of losing him may have been overshadowed by the loss of my pregnancy, but that piece of my heart that only ever belonged to him still ached every time I opened my eyes without him beside me. That pain still shot through my veins as I recalled our final night every time I closed my eyes.

Marco Romano is a part of me.

He is woven into my damn soul, into my very being.

And I’ll never get him out.

It was fruitless to think I could move on.

“I do,” I whisper.

“You’re not leaving,” Izzy says with finality.

No… I’m not leaving.

I won’t let my father win. No matter what happened in the past, I won’t let it take away from our future.

The past doesn’t have to be forgotten for me to move on. We can honor and cherish our losses by moving on without forgetting them.

I nod my head in agreement and they both smile at me.

I guess now all I’ve got to do is figure out where the hell we go from here.

Chapter Thirty-One

Marco

Present

It’s funny how things work out. Just a few months ago, I was sitting here drinking whiskey with my brothers and Alec, trying to distract my oldest brother from the pain of his suffering marriage. Now here I am, with the same men, because they seem to think I’m the one who needs a distraction this time around.

They wouldn’t be wrong, but I’d rather they didn’t just invite themselves over into my space without warning, and them being here—in a space filled with memories of Sloane—is not a fucking distraction.

“Why are you here again?” I ask dryly as I pour them a drink to match my own.

They just turned up out of the blue five minutes ago and made themselves at home.

Assholes.

Luca and Enzo share a glance, while Alec looks almost as put out as me.

“And what the fuck is your problem?” I ask him.

He glares at my brothers before grumbling something under his breath. Fucking child.

“He’s pissed because he got caught attending girls’ night, so me and Enzo have now declared Friday nights guys’ night andhe,”he scowls at his best friend, “has to attend guys’ night. He’s a guy, he shouldn’t be at girls’ night if we can’t be there.”

Alec snorts. “It’s not my fault the three of them like me better.”

I shake my head. We’re two of the most prominent and powerful families in the city, and they’re arguing like fucking high schoolers. Though it doesn’t surprise me that Izzy and Robyn need a break from their husbands, considering how suffocating my brothers can be and—

Wait.

“What do you mean the three of them?”