Total pages in book: 19
Estimated words: 18755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 94(@200wpm)___ 75(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 94(@200wpm)___ 75(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
Because he would never let her go.
Never.
"I'm so sorry," he said hoarsely. "I had it all wrong. I thought you believed him. And I thought you were coming back to leave me."
But his wife only cried harder and kept beating his chest with her fists, and every blow landed like something he deserved, and he held on.
"I couldn't bear hearing you tell me you believed all the things he said." His arms tightened around her shaking body. "So I decided to hurt you before you could hurt me."
And still she didn't say a word.
"Per favore, cara."
Which caused him such desperation and terror that he found himself forgetting his English entirely—
"Perdonami." Forgive me. "Per favo—"
"Just let me go."
Agonizing regret ravaged him at the way his wife said the words so brokenly. Like something inside her had been snapped in half and she was holding the two pieces and didn't know what to do with them.
"P-Please."
The way he had her begging.
It broke him, too, but the moment he loosened his hold on her, it was as if she couldn't move fast enough, couldn't get far enough away from him. She scrambled across the backseat to the opposite row, pressing herself against the far door, her arms wrapped around her body as if that was all that was keeping her together.
He turned around to see his wife huddled against the window, making herself as small as possible, and the sight of it nearly killed him, because Kendra had spent her entire life making herself small for men who didn't deserve her, and now he had made her do it again.
"Please just let me go,” she said brokenly. “I c-can't bear it if you throw me away again—"
"I was lying, cara."
"Just please—"
Her words stuttered to a stop.
W-What was he doing?
“Dario, no—”
This wasn't what she wanted.
She just needed him to let her go so she would stop hurting.
So why—
"Forgive me. Please give me another chance."
Why was her powerful husband on his knees before her?
On the floor of the car, in his suit, his hands gripping the edge of the seat she was pressed against, looking up at her with eyes that were red and desperate and terrified in a way she had never seen on any human being, let alone a man whose name made people cross streets—
"Please."
"Dario—"
Terror seized him when he heard her say his name as if she was about to say goodbye.
Dio Mio.
He had never prayed.
Not even when he had faced death countless times in the world his father had left him.
Not even when Marjorie had made him feel like a sick bastard who didn't deserve to touch another person for the rest of his life.
But now—
Aiutami. Help me. Ho bisogno di lei. I need her. Per favore.
And after that, Dario somehow found himself telling the truth.
"Six months ago, I saw you running in the rain." His voice was wrecked. Stripped down to something he had never let anyone hear. "And that was it. I fell in love with you."
Kendra's hand flew to her chest. Her heart was hurting so, so badly at the way he seemed to be grasping for words when he had always been so eloquent in whichever language he spoke. This man who commanded rooms and dismantled companies and made people flinch with a glance was kneeling on the floor of a car, struggling to form a sentence.
"But I knew you might think I was...pazzo."
She pressed her fist harder against her chest, as if she could hold her heart together by force.
"So I thought I would take it slow. But the next day, you married him."
His jaw clenched, and she watched the muscles in his throat work as he swallowed.
"And I could not forgive myself for it when I found out he was cheating on you. That both of them were hurting you."
Dario forced himself to continue even though the way Kendra was looking at him with wide, frightened eyes reminded him of how another girl used to look at him—
No. Stop thinking that, La Rocca.
"The next six months, I stalked you."
Kendra's heart kept hurting. She was so, so tempted to cover her ears just to stop herself from hurting more.
"I had my security tail you. Him. Everyone."
She just couldn't stop thinking this was all a lie. That maybe he found her amusing again, and that was why he wanted her back—
"Because of you, I realized that I was never even in love with Marjorie. And what happened between us was my fault."
His hands were gripping the seat so hard his knuckles had gone white.
"I know that now, too, because you...you're the opposite."
Dark eyes caught hers, and even his gaze was saying the same thing his broken words were trying to say.
"You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, Kendra."
Because I love you.
"You make me believe in the goodness of people."