Page 49 of Wicked Rivals

“No,” she snapped.

“No what?”

“Enzo is my son, only mine, and you don’t get to change that now. You weren’t there for his first steps or his first words. You didn’t take care of him when he was sick or teach him how to read.”

Her voice rose in volume and pitch as she continued.

“You have never been there for him, not once did you?—”

“Whose fault is that?” I yelled.

I would have been there. Maybe not for everything, but I would have been involved. She’d robbed me of those moments, the first steps, first words, and now she had the fucking balls to blame mefor missing them.

“Yours,” she said. “It’s your fault for lying about your identity. If I’d known the truth, I wouldn’t have talked to you. But no, you had to make up some fictional character to get off on. You obviously have a thing for roleplaying.”

I clenched my teeth, once again forced to keep a tight grip on the rage burning through me.

“Stop it, Valerie.”

“Was that fun for you?” she asked. “I deserve to know the truth now that we’re here. Did you enjoy your game? Did you have a good laugh behind my back? Did you tell all your serial killer friends about the idiot woman who trusted you and fell for the act?”

Her last words faded, and I had to look away for a second.

Even now, she was still heartbroken over the whole thing. Finding out my real name and what it meant had shaken her to the core. Then she’d clearly made up her own story about me and what had happened between us.

She made me the villain.

It couldn't have been further from the truth, not with her.

I pushed out a heavy breath through my nose, feeling the need to explain, though I didn’t know how. I doubted she would believe me anyway.

“That’s not what happened, Val.”

“That's exactly what happened, Stefano. Then you waited ten years to show up again, waltzing back into my life with a small army on your heels, bringing gunfire and literally blowing up my café. This isn’t a fucking John Wick movie. This is my life. An innocent boy’s life.”

I flexed my fists, my self-control waning, and fired back.

“You’re not turning this around on me. This is on you. I can’t protect what I don’t know about. If you’d told me about my boy, I would have kept you both safe. I don't understand why you are so stubborn and pigheaded and insist on doing everything on your own.

“You not wanting to be with me is one thing, Valerie, but this is something entirely different. I would have helped you. Yes, I would have been there. And I would have paid for him to have a safe home, for his clothing, his education…”

She scoffed, but no way would she dismiss me so easily.

“I could have protected you, made your home secure. I would have provided for you both. Provided stable, consistent employees for Con Amore, giving you more time off, so you didn’t have to work as hard day after day, so you could focus more on raising our son.”

I bit my tongue for a second.

“I would have given you everything to make your life easy. But you had to do it on your own without me. And look where that brought you,il mio bellissima diavola. Right back to me.”

She drained her drink in one shot, then threw the glass. It hit the wall behind my head and shattered.

I slammed my glass down on the table.

“I swear to Christ, if you hit me or even so much as think about it one more fucking time…”

She took a step toward me, her shoulders back and her chest pushed out, ready for a fight.

“You'll do what?”

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