Page 37 of Bride of Betrayal
‘You want me to come?’
‘I’d like you to meet them.’
‘But you haven’t seen them in years.’
‘I know…it’s OK.’ She felt exposed now. ‘That is unless you have something else to do, it’s—’
But he was grabbing his jacket and saying, ‘No, let’s go.’
The journey to the suburbs seemed both endless and quicker than a nanosecond. They pulled into a quiet street with very ordinary apartment blocks. Leo could feel Angelica almost vibrating beside him. He had to to curb the urge to take her hand in his.
Everything had changed with this revelation. But they would discuss that. He could see a woman and a tall young man under a streetlight. Waiting outside a building. Angelica let out a sound and he looked over to see her hand over her mouth and tears falling freely from her eyes.
He instructed the driver to stop. The car had barely pulled in before she was out of the car and running straight into the arms of the woman and young man.
For a second, Leo stayed in the car, feeling a tightness in his chest, and expanding outwards. For years after his family had been killed in front of him, whenever he’d seen any kind of family unit, he’d experienced panic attacks. He hadn’t had to see a psychologist to understand that he most likely had PTSD and saw danger and horror in a scenario that anyone else would see as totally benign.
But over time he’d learned to control his reaction. Except now, with Angelica lost in a tangle of arms and heads, he felt close to one again, for the first time in a long time.
He forced himself out of the car and the young man looked at him over Angelica’s shoulder. He said something to her and she extricated herself from the tangle of arms. Leo saw the tears on her mother’s face.
Angelica beckoned him to come over and he forced himself forward even though an instinct was telling him to run. She introduced them to him and he shook hands, aware of their curious looks, especially Angelica’s younger brother, who stood beside her protectively.
‘Can I have a word?’ Leo asked pointedly.
She nodded and moved away from her mother and brother. Leo said, ‘You need some time with them. Take as long as you need. I’ll be in Madrid for two more days. We should talk before I leave.’
She looked at him, eyes wide, glistening, full of emotion. ‘I… OK, yes, I’ll be in touch. Thank you, Leo, for letting me come to them.’
He shook his head. He owed her. So much. This was the start. They’d both been victims of Aldo’s perverse toxic jealousy. Perhaps her, even more so.
Leo gave a little salute to her mother and brother and then went back to the car, instructing the driver to take him back to the hotel. He didn’t look behind him to see the family unit again. He didn’t need to. It was ingrained on his brain, and it tugged far too dangerously on the tiny little seed of hope he’d felt when Angelica had told him she loved him, before he’d crushed it three years ago.
If anything, this only reinforced his determination to never put himself in that danger again. It was time to let Angelica go. For good this time.
Two days later
Angelica returned to the hotel in the centre of Madrid. For the first time in years, she finally felt at peace. Whole again. The past forty-eight hours with her mother and brother had healed her. And the fact that she could see them any time…still felt like a dream.
Her brother was doing so well, getting an internship with a big legal firm and moving in with a girlfriend. Her mother was embarking on a very slow and tentative relationship with a retired widowed man who she’d met at a local bookclub.
They were happy. Thriving. And so now it was just Angelica who needed to get on withherlife. But she couldn’t see past Leo. As she ascended in the elevator to the suite, she truly had no idea what to expect.
She stepped into the suite and heard Leo’s deep voice before she saw him. Her skin prickled with awareness. The cacophony of voices and questions in her head stopped when she saw him standing at the open French doors with a phone lifted to his ear. Wearing a white shirt tucked into dark trousers. The plain clothes did nothing to disguise his powerful body. She could imagine him in a boxing ring. Maybe that was what he’d done in prison. Imagining her and Aldo as he’d taken lumps out of someone.
He’d told her he didn’t hate her but she had a feeling that whatever he did feel for her most likely wasn’t enough to sustain a marriage built on a need for revenge and rehabilitation. The need for revenge was gone and Angelica hadn’t really done much to help Leo’s image in public, apart from, as he’d said, diverting attention away from his rebuilding and rebranding of his business.
And then he turned around and saw her and her heart palpitated.She still loved him.No.No!She couldn’t still love him. He’d crushed her love for him three years ago, ground it into dust. All she felt now was desire but that assertion stuck in her chest like a boulder, constricting and tight.
After he terminated his phone conversation he said, ‘I wasn’t sure if I would see you again.’
And he didn’t seem to be too devastated by that prospect. Angelica pushed the vulnerability down. She lifted a hand where her rings sat. ‘We’re still married, in case you forgot.’
‘We don’t have to be. We can initiate divorce proceedings as soon as you like.’
Angelica spoke slowly. ‘As soon asIlike.’
He nodded. ‘I forced you into this marriage, Angelica, seeking revenge. I did you a great disservice.’
