"Like your mother?" she asked. Was the problem Annette earning an income?
"Perhaps not with the same level of time commitment."
Things started to become clearer in Annette's mind. She might be five years younger than him, but she was not ignorant. "You mean projects I can throw your money at, but not my time?" she asked with more anger than she'd realized she was holding.
His gorgeous grey eyes widened, like the anger in her tone surprised him too. "I am not being unreasonable."
"Telling me two days before the wedding that you want me to take practically the entire summer off from my position at a critical time for the program is more than unreasonable, it's selfish and manipulative. You don't want me to work and you're hoping that this will be the catalyst to force me into giving up my job."
She wanted him to deny the words so badly, her body ached with the tension it was holding.
"What if I am?" he demanded, slashing through the bubble of her dreams so they deflated too fast for even a pop of sound inside her heart. "I am a wealthy man, from an old family. Your job is an embarrassment to me."
She couldn't breathe for the pain in her chest.
His words were so like her father's they'd already been sharpened to such a fine point, they lacerated her heart with ease.
When she said nothing, he added. "We will be living in Sicily after the honeymoon, so you couldn't keep that job anyway."
And just like that, he dismissed her job as of no importance, telling Annette that the things closest to her heart didn't even register with the man she'd fallen in love with.
As a program coordinator for a social service organization, she could not be his perfect wife. But if she did not help others as she had always dreamed of doing, Annette could not, would not be herself.
So, that meant what? That he wanted to marry a different version of her, one that did not in fact exist. Annette had learned early and young that being something other than what was wanted, or expected, led to rejection and abandonment.
"When were you going to tell me that?" she asked painfully.
"I just did."
"But your office is in New York."
"My younger brother will be taking over the New York office. My father wants to retire and that means me taking over Messina Shipping & Exports."
"Your father wants to retire?" she asked, dumbfounded. Alceu Messina was an even bigger workaholic than his son.
"His doctor has told him he needs to minimize the stress in his life."
"Your father isn't well? Why didn't you tell me?" The feeling of being shielded from the truth did not wrap around her like a protective blanket, but upbraided her every exposed nerve ending.
She'd been left out of the loop with her own family too often to ever take it in stride from the man she intended to marry.
"He is not unwell, but he is ready to make a change in his life. He is sixty-seven after all, he has earned it."
"Yes, of course." Alceu and Valentina had their children later in life.
Annette didn't know if that had been on purpose or because there had been complications. It wasn't something she and Carlo had ever talked about. Like too many things, it looked like.
"I still don't understand why you didn't tell me he wanted to retire."
"Papa doesn't want it getting out before I take over."
"But I'm not the media."
Carlo shrugged.
And so many things were becoming awfully, painfully clear she couldn't deal with the emotional fallout. "How long have you known?"
"Does it matter?"