“Do you even know her? Do you even know what you made her? She doesn’t hear the word ‘no.’ I told her to stay in the hall, but she was in the room before I could close the door.”
He jerked his finger at a wood panel on the wall. I hadn’t given it a second look until that moment, but when I trained my eye directly on it, I saw the translucence. Theresa had seen the whole thing. I tried to piece together my reaction to Valentina. Had I kissed her? Held her? Spoken a tender word in English?
“The safest thing to do would be to keep you here,” he said. “But I can’t. I don’t have enough on you.” He stood. “And you need to protect Theresa, because I can’t do that either. I’ve tried, and I have no resources. Not like I did before the wedding.”
The facts were damning. If I hadn’t made that last unnecessary volley against him, he’d have the power to protect the woman we both loved. The result of my vengeance was vulnerability.
Daniel opened the door. “I’m sorry to say, you’re free to go.”
“And Valentina?”
“She’ll be in touch.”
twelve.
theresa
finally left Daniel’s office drained, wrung out, a shell of hard skin around an empty core. I’d have to get to the hospital in a cab. That was all I had to do. That was what I’d come back for. After seeing Jonathan, I could let my world crumble. I could make decisions, run, stay, thrive, die. But this thing with my brother had to be done first.
I felt pressure on my elbow, then at the base of my spine, and lost control of my direction and will just as I caught the scent of burned pine. I couldn’t spin around to face him until the door was shut and he was pushing me against the wall of an empty room.
“Antonio,” I said firmly, “stop it.”
“Stop what?” A lock of his hair dropped in front of his eye, and his lips parted with the tick of the last T. “You can’t leave without me.”
I pressed my hands to his chest and pushed him away, but I couldn’t move him. “I know.” I paused to see if he could tell what I meant. “About Valentina.” I watched the flick in his eyes as they moved across my face, looking for my feelings on the subject. Feelings I was desperate to hide. “I’m happy for you.”
“Are you?” He took my wrists and snapped them over my head before I could resist. He pressed his body into me and spoke so close to me that his lips brushed my cheek. “Why?”
“Don’t be stupid.” I tried to wrench away, but he held my hands fast and immobilized my hips with his. My body didn’t care about wedding vows or another woman. My body wasn’t worried about moral complexities. My body surged with lust at the feel of his dick against me.
“Men are dead because of her,” he said through his teeth.
“She’s alive, Antonio. And you have a child. This is your chance at life. It’s staring you in the face. Don’t you see? You go back to her. Tell Donna Maria that was why you couldn’t marry Irene, that you knew. She’ll forgive you, and you can go home.”
He bent his knees until our eyes were level. “And you?”
I looked him in the eye. If I obfuscated even a little, he’d think I didn’t mean it. “I cop to shooting Paulie. I tell the police, not the DA. I convince them. I can do it. You walk back into the life you lost. It’s perfect.”
He let my hands go but left his hips against me. “Perfect?”
“It’s like a puzzle clicking into place. This is your only chance. It’s a gift that she’s back. Just make your life what you want.”