"Not if it means losingme." She tugged the engagement ring off her finger.
The symbol she'd thought of love he could not express with words. It had been designed for her. Yellow gold with a beautiful floral design accented by diamonds and sapphires. Platinum wasde rigueurin their set, but he'd had her ring made from her preferred precious metal. The floral design reflected her love of flowers and natural beauty.
He'd taken her desires into consideration when he'd had it made, why did they matter so little now?
"What are you doing?" he demanded.
She extended her hand with the ring in it toward him. "The wedding is off."
"Do not be melodramatic,bèdda mia. The wedding is not off. If it is that important to you, find a charity organization to support with your time once we return to Sicily after the wedding," he said, like making a hugely magnanimous gesture. "Parttime of course."
"Your mother easily works fulltime."
"I know."
And once again in a matter of minutes, lightbulbs went on in her brain, illuminating truths Annette had overlooked during their time together.
What she had always seen as a point of concurrence for them, was in fact a wedge that would drive them apart. "How did I never realize you resented your mother's time on her work?"
"I never said I did." But his expression? That closed off, emotionless mask said it all.
Something about Valentina's commitment to her various causes had hurt Carlo, leaving him with the certainty thathiswife should put their family first.
And Annette had never even realized that was an issue. How unseeing had she been? So wrapped up in her own glowing version of their relationship she'd ignored every indicator that their views of the world did not mesh.
"This," Annette indicated him and her with a gesture of her hand. "It says it loud and clear."
"I want our children to have your attention."
"We aren't having children right away," she said with exasperation. They'd discussed it and agreed to wait at least a couple of years. She was leaning more toward five or six.
She was marrying young because she'd fallen in love, that didn't mean she wanted everything else happening at a pace.
"My father wants to meet his grandchildren before he dies."
"His health is that serious?" she asked, her heart squeezing in her chest. ShelikedAlceu, though he was every bit as much of a workaholic as his sons had been raised to be.
"No. As I said, he is not ill, but he is nearing seventy."
And would probably live to see ninety at least.
"Yet another decision you planned to make without me?" she asked, her tone harsh.
She'd spent years working so hard to earn her family's love, being placid when inside she was roiling with anger sometimes, pursuing activities she didn't enjoy in the least to please adopted parents that never seemed to think she measured up.
Annette had promised herself she wouldn't marry a man who expected the same from her. She'd thought she'd found him.
She'd been spectacularly wrong.
"I could hardly do that, could I?" he asked, this time annoyance and impatience loud and clear in his tone.
He referred, of course, to the fact that she had opted to use an IUD for birth control, once they had become physically intimate. It was only coming out on her say so. She was talking about something far more important than the mechanics of birth control. Annette was referring to sharing decisions as equals, to respecting one another's goals and dreams.
She didn't have to run a multinational corporation for the time she spent at work to have value. No, she didn't employ thousands of people, but she made a difference in the lives of the youth she served.
Apparently, he did not see things the same way.
At all.