Page 71 of The Scandal Behind The Italian’s Wedding

“I can’t,” he said.

“Can’t or won’t?”

“It amounts to the same thing in this instance.”

“No. It doesn’t. Dante, I know that your childhood was difficult. I know that your mother hurt you. But this is different. We are a family. We can be different.”

“No,” he said, turning away from her. “That’s enough, Minerva. I will care for you, I will take care of you and I will be faithful to you, but asking anything more of me is unnecessary.”

“No,” Minerva said. “It is not unnecessary. It is absolutely and utterly necessary. Because I have spent my entire life asking nothing. Nothing of myself. Nothing of anyone else. I have never demanded that I get everything because I thought for some reason I didn’t deserve it. I always felt like the small sparrow in a family filled with glorious peacocks. And I sank down into that role because I was afraid that if I wanted anything more I would be in pain for all of my life. I was afraid that if I asked for something more it would confirm what I believe secretly. That I couldn’t have it. That for some reason I wasn’t put together in such a way that I deserved it. But I know better now. I want this life, not just for Isabella, but for me. I want love because I deserve it. And so do you. We don’t deserve anything less than everything, Dante, and there’s no reason we shouldn’t have it.”

“There is every reason,” he said. “Love is a lie. Love is just waiting for other things to come in and prove themselves more powerful. You know what is more powerful than love? Fear. Addiction. Poverty. These things can destroy love. They can defeat it. Trust me, I’ve seen it. I have no desire to have it again.”

“You see examples of love all around you. All around you. There’s no reason you shouldn’t accept it for yourself. You know that what you’re saying is a lie. If all these things exist in the world, why wouldn’t you cling to love?”

“I don’t want it,” he said, turning back around again, grabbing hold of her arms and staring down at her with his fierce dark eyes. “I don’t want you. Don’t you understand that?”

“You don’t... You don’t want me?”

“I tried to pull away from you politely over the last few days. But it’s become very clear to me that you don’t actually understand what’s happening between us. I thought that we needed this marriage, but we don’t. There is no reason for the two of us to stay together. No reason at all. I don’t need your father’s money and Carlo is dead.”

“It wasn’t about me...”

“No. This is over. I will allow the adoption to continue with you and Isabella. I will withdraw my name.”

“You’re going to abandon Isabella?”

“It is for the best,” he said. “I am no kind of father, and she no longer needs my protection.”

“What about you? Don’t you think she could possibly need you?”

“No. Nobody needs me. I have money, and I have power, and I wield it well. I wielded it to save you, but now that is over. This is done. We are done.”

She sat there, utterly and completely devastated. And he began to collect his clothes. “I’m going back to the office,” he said.

“No... Dante...”

“I will arrange for you to go back to San Diego tomorrow.”

“I don’t want to go back. This is my home.”

“No,” he said, his voice ragged. “Your home is with your family. And I am not your family.”

And with that, he turned and walked out of the room, leaving her there with her heart broken in pieces around her feet.

She had asked for everything. In return, she had lost the biggest, brightest thing she’d ever dared reach for.

And all she could do was curl up in the center of his bed and cry.

---