‘I’m not like your father, cara. I don’t bully or blackmail people into doing what I want. I paid him what he asked—twice what he paid my father—so that you and I can start with a clean sheet.’
Her heart was in her mouth. ‘I don’t understand...’
‘You asked me why I was here.’ His eyes found hers. ‘You’re why. I’ve bought the business back. For us.’
She shook her head. ‘There is no us.’
‘There is. Only it took you leaving for me to see it.’ He took another step closer. ‘I love you, Imma. And I want to be with you. Not for the cameras, or for the business, but because you’re in my heart.’
His voice was shaking now, and she could see tears in his eyes.
‘You helped me find out what and who I want to be. And I want to be your husband. For real. Forever.’
Reaching out, he took her hands.
‘I’m sorry I didn’t stop you leaving, but when you said you wanted us to run the business together I panicked. I mess up all the time, cara—with family, with work, with you. And I’ve hurt people, you especially, and I didn’t want to hurt you any more. I don’t ever want to hurt you.’
He shook his head.
‘I should never have let you go. But I thought that making you stay would have just been me being selfish—that it was what the old Vicè would have done. And I wanted to be a better man. So I let you go and I pretended everything was cool.’
His mouth twisted.
‘Only it wasn’t. I missed you like crazy. So I went and saw Mamma and I told her everything.’
‘Everything?’ Her eyes widened with shock.
‘Everything. I was sick and tired of lying to everyone. To her...to you. To myself.’
Screwing up his face, he shook his head.
‘I think it’s the first time she’s ever lost her temper with me. Cavolo, she was mad at me. Like, furious. Every time I thought she’d finished she’d start up again. She told me she was ashamed of me, that my father would be ashamed of me, and then she told me I had to put it right.’
Imma bit her lip and, reaching out, placed her hands against his chest, feeling his heart beating into her fingertips. ‘Did you tell her about what my father did?’
He pulled her closer. ‘A bit.’
‘Is that why you threatened him? For your mamma?’
‘No. I wanted him to know what it felt like to be cornered and helpless.’ He gave her a small crooked smile. ‘And then I made him donate a lot of money to my mother’s favourite charity. Weirdly, it was the difference between what he paid my father and what I paid him.’
She smiled. ‘That won’t have helped his heart.’
‘What heart?’
He gazed down into her eyes and she felt her own heart flutter inside her chest.
‘I thought I wasn’t worthy of your love, cara. Probably I’m not. But I’m going to do whatever it takes to be worthy.’
‘So you don’t want a divorce?’ she asked softly.
‘No.’ He stared down at her, his arms tensing around her. ‘Do you?’
She shook her head and, breathing out unsteadily, he buried his face in her hair.
‘In that case, I have something for you.’ Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out a small square box. ‘You never had an engagement ring, so I thought I’d get you an eternity ring instead.’ His eyes were bright. ‘That’s how long I want to be with you. For eternity.’
Tears slid down her cheeks as he opened the box and slipped a beautiful emerald ring onto her finger. ‘Oh, Vicè...’