Page 99 of The Deal

“I’m always right” is what I want to retort, but I hold my tongue.

Instead, I pull her into my arms, holding her tight, praying that this is a step forward for us. My father will be laid to rest in a matter of days, and I could use her comfort right now.

Chapter 31

Chloe

Alexander’s words hung over me like a dark cloud all night, heavy and impossible to shake. Have I been so consumed by hurt and hate that I failed to see the truth?I think that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.It’s a sobering thought.

I gently wrap my fingers around his hand, carefully lifting his arm that’s draped around my waist, trying my best not to wake him.

Once I’m free from his hold, I slide to the edge of the bed, preparing to slip away. But as I go to sit up, his arm shoots out, capturing me.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asks in that gravelly voice I’m still trying hard not to like.

My body is half-elevated as I glance at him over my shoulder. His eyes are still closed, and goddamn it, I despise how much his good looks affect me.

“Relax, I was only going downstairs to see if my mother needed some help with breakfast.”

This has one of his eyes springing open. “You were?”

“Yes. Your words yesterday hit home. I’m trying to extend the olive branch, you could say.”

“I’m pleased to hear that. Do I get an olive branch as well?”

“Don’t push it, Mancini. I’m still mad at you,” I reply, but when he smiles in return, I feel myself doing the same.

Before I even realise it, he somehow manages to tug me back down onto the mattress, where his body proceeds to move over mine, trapping me beneath him. “I know deep down you still love me,bella.”

He’s right, I do, but the pain from his betrayal still lingers, and I’m not ready to forgive him for that—not just yet.

“I’m sorry that I hurt you,” he says quietly. “But please know my intentions were pure. I had an endgame, I just hadn’t figured out how to pull it off. As it turns out, it worked itself out in the end.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Don’t get me wrong, it always began and ended with me keeping you. You were the easy part of the equation … your parents, though, that was a whole other story.”

“I still don’t quite get what you are trying to say.”

“The first day I came to your house, I was only trying to figure you out and see if there was a way I could insert myself into your life. But when I saw your dad and realised you were the daughter of Theodore and Angelina, my whole plan shifted.”

“How did it shift?” I ask, perplexed.

“Papa was a proud man, and no amount of pleading would make him undo the deal he’d struck. But I had every intention of reuniting your family one day … somehow.”

“You planned to get my family back together?”

“Yes, and if you have any doubts about what I just told you, I swear on my son’s life that every word is true.”

My eyes search his face, looking for any sign of hesitation as I let his words sink in. But I don’t need to. I know hewouldn’t swear on his son’s life lightly. That little boy means the world to him.

“Now that I’ve finally gotten that off my chest,” he adds, “here’s what’s going to happen. I’m giving you forty-eight hours—and not a second more—to digest everything I just told you.”

My eyes narrow. “And what happens once we hit the forty-eight-hour mark?”

“You forgive me and start openly loving me again, warts and all—none of this internal loving bullshit—because I fucking miss you,bella.”

Oh, my heart.

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