Page 38 of Crowning His Innocent Assistant

Whatever the reason, he felt they had to speak like this now, or they never would.

It mattered, just then.

“Because of decisions your mother made. Because you were put out on the streets. Violet King has had a comparably easy life, at least as far as I’m aware. She has money, and influence. And now... Her father has made a decision that is impacting her. How is she any different from us? Except I will not be cruel to her.”

“What if she wished to fall in love? To have her husband love her back?”

Those words made it feel like an avalanche had gone off inside him.

“Then she will be disappointed. But as disappointments go...” He looked at her, at her elegant profile. She seemed so solitary, his mouse. Right next to him and yet...very far away. “Did you ever expect to be loved, Livia?”

The only sound in the air now was the crickets, chirping from the garden below. She did not move. Did not look at him. “No. I didn’t expect to be loved. Not even for one moment of my life. The greatest thing I could hope for was to live.”

She looked at him then, her eyes brighter than stars.

“And have your expectations been surpassed now?” he asked, his voice that of a stranger’s.

She nodded. “Yes. I must confess they have. For this has been better than any scenario I could have ever imagined for myself. I cannot pretend otherwise.”

He ground his teeth together. “I never imagined I would be loved. I imagined having loyalty given to me by the people of my country. I imagined... Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine love.”

“But perhaps she did.”

The soft rebuke should have wounded him, and yet it wasn’t feelings for Violet he had in this moment. But his soft, strong Livia...

Should she not expect more than mere survival?

“And Violet will overcome the disappointment, for there are many other things in life that are vastly more important.”

“Yes, I suppose that is so.”

“It will not be so bad for her. No doubt her business will increase tenfold, and from everything I’ve seen about her, her business is her life. As far as I’m aware she’s never had a relationship. All my surveillance points to the fact that the growth of her company is her one true love. And I believe that her goals will mesh nicely with mine.”

The silence between them filled with night air and crickets as they stood, saying nothing for a long while.

Then Livia spoke. Her voice puncturing his chest like a knife in the dark.

“What do you think it would be like?”

“What?”

“To be in love.”

Such a simple question, and one everything in him turned away from.

“That sort of thing is the opiate of the masses, I fear. Nothing real about it. Nothing substantial.”

“You don’t think?”

He looked at her. “Have you ever seen it?”

She shook her head. “No. Sadly. My father was never around. I’m not even entirely certain who he was. But he did not love my mother. I do not even know where he was from or what he did. But there was no love there, clearly, or she would have spoken of him. And I thought she loved me, but it turned out not to be. And you...”

“My father saw me as a plaything.” The words were hard and harsh. “Whether or not it was as an exorcism for his psychopathy, or a true belief inside of himself that he was training me to be a hardened leader, I don’t know. But he seemed to enjoy hurting me. Javier and I have a loyalty between ourselves.”

“And that’s all?”

A muscle in his face ticked. “I would wish better for him,” Matteo said. “Better for him than to be me.”

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