A chill went through him. He rose to his feet, pacing to the window. He looked down at the gleaming steel and glass buildings beneath the lowering November sky. He finally said, “Are you trying to imply you care for me? Because we both know that’s a lie.”
“I care about success. And so do you.” She rose to her feet. “We come from the same world, Stefano. Our families go back generations. We both know how to win—at any price.”
A ray of sunlight burst through the gray clouds, illuminating the faint web of lines around her hard blue eyes.
“Forget love.” She shook her head. “Love is for losers. You and I—we were born to rule. If we join our companies together, we’ll be more successful than you can imagine. We have no limits. We can work twenty hours a day, every day, until we achieve it. We’ll be so powerful, no one will ever be able to touch us.” She took a step forward. “The world is ours to take.”
Stefano stared at her.
Fenella Montfort was offering everything he’d once thought he wanted. Thought he needed. The pure control of single-minded focus that led to absolute power.
Wasn’t that what he wanted—to never feel vulnerable again?
Tess had been right, he suddenly realized. He had been afraid. Of being powerless. Of feeling the pain of loss. So he’d pushed her away. Refused to love her.
Then why was it, that from the moment Tess had left, all he’d felt was the abyss of howling, terrifying loss?
His eyes went wide.
Loss happens anyway. He heard the echo of Tess’s voice. Whether you’re brave enough to love or not. The answer isn’t to feel nothing until we die. The answer is to seize our joy and live. To love as hard and long as we can.
“Well?” Fenella purred as she came closer. “What do you say? Do we have a deal?”
With an intake of breath, Stefano looked up at the woman’s cold, calculating gaze. If not for Tess, he might have accepted her offer. He might have given away his only chance of real happiness for the sake of power and fortune.
But power was an illusion. Fortune was empty. He knew that now. Because for the last month, without his wife and child, he’d felt nothing. Everything he’d once cared about was worthless. A booming stock price. Unimaginable wealth. Why did he need more of those things when they didn’t make him happy?
Love was the only real legacy.
He closed his eyes, remembering Tess’s quiet voice. Start a new legacy, she’d said.
He hadn’t understood it then. Now he remembered days of warmth and joy, of red wine and sunshine and blue skies. Nothing to do with money or power. A different kind of legacy.
He opened his eyes slowly.
Love.
Suddenly he had to see Tess. Now. Immediately. He felt dizzy with need. He needed her like sunlight. Like rain. Not because she loved him, but because he loved her.
He loved her.
Stefano looked at Fenella. “Not interested.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t be a fool.”
A beam of sunlight fell against his cheek, warming Stefano like the touch of Tess’s hand, and he suddenly knew he was throwing away everything he’d once wanted for everything that truly mattered. He understood now.
Tess.
A smile rose straight from his heart. “Keep Zacco. I don’t need it. I already have everything any man could dream of.”
Stefano felt free. Joy thrummed through him like a song. Like a whirl of color. Red like Tess’s hair, green like her eyes, their baby’s laughter calling to him across the sea. “Goodbye, Ms. Montfort.”
Grabbing his coat and briefcase, he strode out of his office, glancing back one last time at the Zacco headquarters. He knew he’d never see it again.
For all his adult life he’d thought winning the company was the only way to save the family legacy. To save himself.
Tess had shown him otherwise.