Page 53 of Marriage Bargain With Her Brazilian Boss (Billion-Dollar Fairy Tales)

And he had hurt the one woman who’d cared enough to help him see the truth, despite his bullheadedness.

When Caio returned to the house, a tightness in his chest that he couldn’t swallow past, the living room and the kitchen greeted him with silence. He made his way to the bedroom to find Nush methodically packing her new clothes into a bag on the bed. Fear crawled through him like spider legs skittering all over, fisting his chest in a vise grip.

“What are you doing?” he demanded with his usual arrogance.

“Yana’s agent called me. She fainted yesterday during a shoot. Mira, as you know, has just returned to Aristos. I want to spend a few days looking after Yana. You know she’s not that great with managing her type one diabetes.”

“I thought you would at least tell me the truth instead of using what seems to be the perfect excuse.”

Nush whirled to face him. “Perfect excuse for what?”

“To leave me. What else?” Caio didn’t think he had ever felt as hollow and empty as he did then.

“Leave you?” Nush said, her brow tying into that frown that he loved to kiss. Arms folded, she considered from beneath those thick glasses, her hair in a messy knot he wanted to unravel. “You think I’m leaving you?”

“You were right. I set up my stepfather using his own greed to fall. I used all the information I had against Enzo to get him behind bars. For more than fifteen years, all I tried to do was to pay them back for what they took from me.”

Nush stared at him as if she had never seen him before. He wondered if he would see disgust in her expression finally. “Did it feel good?”

It was the last question he had expected and he had no self-preservation left to hide it from himself or her. He sat down on the bed next to the suitcase, leaving enough distance between them so that she didn’t have to step back if she didn’t want him near her. “No.” He thrust his fingers through his hair. “I’ve been struggling with it for weeks, waiting for it to feel good. Then, I was waiting for it to feel less horrible, less dirty. I thought bringing them down, showing them what I had made of myself, how powerful and wealthy I was...” he couldn’t help the laugh that escaped his mouth, “would take away the pain and loss I felt all those years ago. I thought destroying them would help me gain something of myself back. Instead, it felt like it was tainting me too, all the innocent lives I was walking away from, in ruins. It was their fate with Carlos, sooner or later, but still... In the last day, I’ve been wondering if you were right. If I should be saving the company instead. If I should save things instead of ruining them.”

She didn’t say anything for a long time and Caio wondered if there was nothing left to say. She mirrored his pose and sat down on the bed leaving the bag between them. It felt like an ocean between them, taunting him, mocking him for everything he’d failed.

“I know it was sneaky to go behind your back and find Javier but I had to,” she said finally. “The more I dug about your father’s company, your stepbrother’s embezzlement, all the shady deals Carlos has been making...it dawned on me what you meant to do. I could see it in your eyes, Caio, what it was costing you. And then of course my curiosity wouldn’t stop there. I found Javier and called him. I don’t know what I was thinking I’d do if he turned out to be like your stepbrother. But I had to take the chance.”

“A chance on what, Princesa?”

“A chance that you might gain a brother or two back, Caio. A chance for you to have a family again. You brought me to mine when I was struggling. You helped me make right decisions for Mama. You were my strength, my rock when Thaata and Nanamma died. Why wouldn’t I want to do the same for you?”

Caio scoffed. “Are you saving me, Nush? Because I’ve lived with this rage for so long that I don’t know what I would be without it, Princesa.”

She scoffed back. “Save you? You think this is some debt that I’m paying? I told you I love you, Caio. To see you unhappy, to see you miserable and angry, to see you hate yourself...it hurts me. What kind of a life would you and I have if this path of destruction you’ve been on destroyed you too?” She shook her head. “This was purely selfish. I want a future with you. I want to have kids with you. I want my kids to have a father who loves them with his whole heart. I did this all for myself. For my future.”

Throwing the bag between them down on the floor, Caio rolled Nush underneath him on the bed. “Letting go of all that poison, all that hatred after all these years...it’s terrifying. I’m afraid that there will be nothing left in me. That it has eaten away at anything good and whole.”

She pushed his hair off his forehead, her big eyes stinging with gentle strength. “You already know that’s not true. That’s why Thaata wanted to stop you too. You’re your father’s son, Caio. You’re Rao’s protégé. You’re my fairy-tale knight. You’re the big brother Yana’s always wanted. You’re the steadfast friend Mira said she’d always needed. You couldn’t be all these things to all of us if there was nothing good in you. There’s a reason you’ve been fighting yourself the last two weeks. A reason this was eating away at you.”

“Then you’re my saving grace, Princesa.”

Pushing up on her elbows, she leaned her forehead against his, her cheeks damp with tears. “No. You just needed a nudge. You... I love you so much, Caio, that it terrifies me every day. I trust your word that you wouldn’t abandon me but I wanted to do it because you love me, because you need me as much as I—” A sob burst through her words.

“Shh... Princesa. No tears. I’d hate myself if I made you cry.”

“I thought I could stick it out, be happy with what you give me, but I can’t.” Her open eyes held his. “I want it all, Caio. I can’t—”

Pressing his face into her throat, Caio said the words that had been battling to be let out of his chest for quite a while now. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you...but don’t walk away now,Princesa. I want that future you’re promising me. I want to be the husband you deserve. I want our kids to be surrounded by aunts and uncles like I was once. I can’t imagine a single day without you in my life, Nush. I’ll spend the rest my life proving to you how much I love you. How much I need you.”

Her hand in his hair tugged his head up and he saw that his clever wife hadn’t missed anything. “You’ll reconcile with Javier and Jorge?”

He nodded, swallowing the tears that had hardened in his throat. “Yes. Javier made me face some choice truths I was too angry and hurt to see. He told me that Mama was the one who asked Rao to take me away.”

Joy bloomed through Nush’s chest at the thread of hope in Caio’s eyes. “She did?”

“It was the only choice left to her. Carlos would’ve taken Jorge and Javier from her if she even tried to...so she made sure I got out of there. And she...”

Hand in his hair, Nush held him as Caio buried his face in her chest, his big, broad shoulders trembling. Mouth at his temple, she kissed him and calmed him and whispered all the things she could.

“I’m so sorry you never got to see her again, Caio. I can’t...” Her own tears beckoned. “But she loved you. And all the anger and rage and pain...it hasn’t tainted you, Caio. It’s hardened you. It’s...”

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