Page 78 of Angelo

Dr. Eve Davies could resume her career as a surgeon.

Dr. Eve Davies would be blessed with a normal life.

Elyse would be lying to herself if she pretended this gift from her husband wasn’t tempting as fuck. She took a moment to consider it. It called to her like amoth with a flame. Eve Davies was offering freedom, true freedom, encompassing everything she once desired more than anything. That was then, though.

This was now.

Elyse felt like a greedy fool, but she wanted it all. She wanted her cake and eat it, too. She deserved to be defined by something other than her Graviano blood. She deserved to return to a life where her skills could save lives. She deserved answers to all the unanswered questions about Valentina and Father Boselli and enemies shrouded in the dark that continually threatened her safety and sanity.

Most of all, she deserved to remain at her husband's side to guard his heart and love him with every fiber of her being.

Elyse intended to stay and fight for their elusive prize. She was ready to go to war alongside her man. She’d fight and scheme and hustle until their crooked businesses straightened out, until Valentina and Gaspare's marriage worked in their favor, until the Mariposa's and Cara's and Carmen's of their circles were no longer strong-armed into becoming victims and villains of circumstance, until they reshaped reality to their liking.

Elyse made her choice. She wouldn't abandon Alessandro in the heat of battle. Come hell or high water, she wasn't going anywhere, even though, over the past five days, Alessandro had practically become a ghost. He hadn't initiated any contact. He’d avoided her calls. He only replied to her texts. Her husband didn't mention the manila portfolio when she messaged him, and Elyse didn't bring it up, either.

Contrary to Alessandro's distant attitude, however, Elyse knew he was in constant communication with her bodyguards. Elyse often heard Giosue and Georgio talking to him on the phone in Italian, reporting on her whereabouts and well-being without the knowledge that she understood every word of these reports.

Elyse glanced down at her ring again. The steel extracted from that fateful bullet was fused into the gold band. This symbol of their marriage taunted her. Emotions ran wild. When they first met in Queens, Alessandro had placed his life in her hands. When he’d proposed in Paris, he vowed to spend a lifetime learning how to be the husband she deserved. The bastard had literally slipped his own life and death on to her ring finger.

After moving mountains just to see her smile, how could he expect so little from her?

Did he truly believe that she was so heartless?

His erratic behavior before she left Palermo began to make sense. Hindsight was twenty-twenty. Elyse suspected the contents of the portfolio must have been weighing on Alessandro for all the months it had taken him to assemble a new identity for her. Perhaps, this was why the bastard withheld so many secrets from her.

He'd been preparing himself to let her go this entire time.

At last, Elyse saw her husband's fear of losing her, she saw his efforts to hold himself at a distance, she saw his attempts to protect her from his dangerous partnership with Valentina, and she saw how hard he tried to avoid influencing her final decision.

Fuck her for being so blind.

Fuck him for being so good at playing the long game.

If possible, Elyse loved him even more for it. Tears stung her eyes. She wiped them away. He’d truly thought of everything. He always thought of everything. Especially when it came to her happiness.

Suddenly, she wondered if Alessandro had something to do with Isabella's appearance at her father's funeral?

It felt too much like a coincidence for Eve Davies' whole identity to be rooted in the UK where her mother also claimed to reside.

Dios, her mother.

The chaos she’d been holding at bay unfurled instantly. Every thought and emotion veered toward Isabella.Her mother was alive.Elyse was still trying to wrap her head around this startling, jarring turn.

When did her husband find out about Isabella?

If Alessandro knew about Isabella, Benedetto must have known about her, too, which meant, once again, Elyse was the only one left out of the loop.

Frustration rattled through her. Elyse didn't know how to process everything that Alessandro had done.

On one hand, she felt genuinely beholden to him for his efforts to free her. He was being selfless. He loved her enough to let her go. Even though it was the last thing he wanted for them.

On the other hand, she wanted to rail at him for keeping so much crucial information from her. The man needed tostopgoing behind her back—even when his intentions were good—andstartincluding her in each and every single one of their major life decisions!

Anger spurred Elyse to pick up her phone and call him. Three times in arow. They had so much to talk about. When he didn't answer, her exasperation intensified tenfold. It seemed Alessandro was still holding her at a distance.

She texted him.

Three seconds later, her phone started ringing.

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