Page 61 of The Forbidden Bride He Stole

She looked shocked. Confused. He reached into his pocket and pulled out two velvet boxes.

“One is for me. And this,” he said, opening the next, and revealing a large, yellow diamond. “Is for you. I want you to wear a ring that I have chosen for you. Not one you chose to have a fake marriage to an Italian criminal.”

“In all technicality, Apollo,” she said softly. “Aren’t you a half Italian criminal?”

“Yes,” he said. “And my offer comes heavily connected to that reality. Believe me, I understand. Because as far as all that goes, nothing is changed. I am broken inside. I know that. I can’t change that. But I do think that we would be better together than apart.”

“You mean you would be,” she said, as she reached out, her hand hovering over the ring. His heart stopped. And then she lowered her finger, moving away. “What does this offer me? I have lived life already with people who don’t really love me. Or at least, can’t do it the way that I want them to. My parents... They didn’t give me what I wanted. Not ever. And you... You were my guardian, but you were never there for me. You were there for me financially, but never emotionally.”

“Have I not been there for you these past weeks?”

“We had sex,” she said.

“No,” he said. “Believe me when I tell you, it is not just sex, and it is very different. Very different.”

“I do understand that. And I’m not trying to minimize that. But I don’t think it’s a reasonable reason for the two of us to stay married. I have to choose. A life, freedom, or you. The same sort of thing that I have lived with always.”

“I’m not enough for you,” he said.

“No,” she said, her voice jagged. “It’s...it’s the feelings that aren’t enough. I can’t just be a symbol to you. I already know that, because you have been my guardian for all this time, and it wasn’t enough.”

“Woman, I have given you everything. I married you so that you can have your trust fund, I helped you ease into the company—”

“I didn’t need you. I didn’t need you for that. I don’t need you for this part of my life. I just don’t. I finally have some sense of who I am. Some sense of what I can be. Disentangled from the past, and you are asking me to keep myself tethered to you, for what? Why does it need to be me?”

“Because I need you,” he said. “Because you have unmade me. Because you have sent me to wander the streets without my defenses, and now you don’t want to be with me? You were responsible for this. You have turned me into something that I don’t recognize, Hannah. And you must do something about it.”

“And what will you do for me?” she asked, her words fractured. “Will you heal? Will you do the work of putting all the pieces inside of yourself back together so that I can be loved. So that I can have what I need. Or will it be nothing more than torrid encounters in the afternoon and beautiful visits to the opera, and then I will sit in our house as lonely as I have ever been. Why would it be any different than all these years past have been?”

He stood, rage pouring through him. “It would be. It would be because I’m promising myself to you. And I am not a man who lies.”

“I know you’re not a man who lies on purpose. But what do you know about any of this?”

“I know that I spent years wishing that I could connect with someone. I don’t understand what is happening inside of me. And you’re the only person that can help me make sense of it.”

“I’m not your emotional pack mule, Apollo. I have my own feelings. I have my own trauma. I have things that I need.”

“And I am too broken for you.”

She put her head in her hands, and the sound she made was pained. “I’m afraid you are. Because how will I ever know if you care about me, or your redemption? Am I a person to you? Or am I a symbol? I deserve... I deserve to be loved. I do.”

She might as well have shot him. Straight through the heart. That heart that no longer had any protection. That was already so riddled with holes that it felt beyond help now. That it felt beyond healing.

“You are like everything else. Everyone else. You couldn’t actually handle the truth of my past...”

“It isn’t your past. It’s your future. You have told me exactly what your future is. To be a man who cannot love. And I cannot accept that. Why don’t you get it. It isn’t...”

“You said you didn’t need my love.”

“I did,” she said. “I did. Because I don’t see a future with you. So no, I don’t need to love. But that’s assuming that the marriage ends in a year. Just as we planned.”

“If I divorce you your money reverts back to the trust.”

The color drained from her face. “Would you really do that?”

He thought about it. It would be ruthless. Decisive. It forced her to change her mind, and it would give him the entire year to figure out how to manipulate her into staying.

He could buy her.

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