“I know that you are Luciano Ascione,” she said, very firmly. “And I would never call you perfect, but I would certainly call you a good man. One whom I love.”
Disgusted, he turned away from her. He wished he could turn away from himself. He did not know how this terrible swath of loathing that he had kept at bay for so many years had somehow grown instead of dying away. “You are the only one.”
“Then so be it. I will gladly be the only one.” There was fire in her now, blazing from within. “Do you think that matters to me?” she demanded, grabbing his arm and jerking him back to face her. “Me of all people? What anyone else thinks? When I know you? No one else matters.”
“How could you know me, Serena?” he demanded, finding his own anger in this whole mess that she would not let him handle appropriately. “I am not certain, after all this, that I know myself.”
“Then let me save you this time, Luciano,” she said, softer this time. “Let me stand between you and the things others have said about you. You are clever and kind. You are an arrogant bastard when you want to be, but it is not mean. And I think, perhaps, what you are most afraid of is not your own shortcomings so much as the fact you do not know what to do with this.”
“With what?”
“You love me, Luciano. This scares you, but it doesn’t make you less.”
There was an anvil on his chest. Something lodged in his throat. Love.Love. This useless emotion that was never, ever reciprocated.
Except she’d already said she loved him. How she could, he did not know, but Serena did not lie. She did not exaggerate. And still…
“Loving me doesn’t scare you?” he demanded in a rasp.
“Of course it does,” she said, in that same confident and unbothered way she confessed any of her odd little idiosyncrasies. “But being scared is no reason to run away in business, so why should it be in life?”
“You cannot run life like a business.” He thought he sounded very sure and worldly then, but she only rolled her eyes. There in herwedding dress. Arguing with him about love instead of taking this deal and running.
Like she should.
Like he’d expected her to.
Like he’dneededher to in order to survive this rising tide of hope that he knew would end in pain.
Pain.
“I do not see why not,” she replied haughtily. “It’s all the same. Keep something alive and thriving for as long as you can. Show up every day, work through problems without giving up. Itisthe same. Except for one thing. One matters, Luciano. I…” She inhaled deeply, took a moment, and her eyes were shining now. Which always undid him. It was unfair. To be undone by this woman.
“I had my grandfather when he was alive,” she said, her voice quiet now. “And he was also not perfect, but I know he cared for me in his way. And that has meant more than all the successes I ever found at Valli. Because love and care are more important than profits and clients. I have no one now. No one to love and care for—except my animals. And you.”
She said it softly, but it landed like a vise around his lungs.
“I could run a Valli-Ascione merger without you. It would be hard, meticulous work. I could do it. Iwilldo it if you insist on ruining everything, but you will not walk out of this room under the very wrong conclusion that you have saved us from anything. If you walk, you ruin it. What could be. The future we’ve both been a little too afraid to admit is possible, but I won’t be afraid any longer. What about you?”
She did not understand. Could not. Except every word she said made it feel like she did. But how could he sentence them to this…this…certain disappointment? “Serena.”
“You have two choices. You may stay. Get dressed for the wedding and marry me, knowing that we have work ahead of us. A business merger and a life merger. That includes a wide variety of animals, now and in the future. That includes love and difficulties and joy. And children. I think I would like to have children with you.”
Children. Just the idea of it sent opposing feelings through him. An icy, paralyzing fear. And a warmth of hope and joy that threatened to melt it.
Children with her brains, her eyes. Children. Theirs. A family. One that would not look like theirs had growing up.
It was impossible. She was saying it was possible, but how could it be? How could it be with him?
“Or you may walk out that door,” she continued, when he stood there paralyzed by her words. “But you will not walk back in it.” She said this fiercely, and he could see she meant it. She needed to mean it. “Ascione will be gone from you forever.” She clutched the papers. “And so will I be. I suggest you make that decision wisely.”
Gone forever. Even though that’s what he’d planned, the idea of it—with her standing there in white, looking like a beautiful angel, looking like everything that had filled his life with warmth and worth for the past few weeks—cleaved through him like a blade.
She represented everything that had changed him. Brought him back to life after lying dormant under that caricature. Or perhaps she’d simply taken a moment to see behind the mask, because she held up one of her own.
And because it was her, and because she was annoyingly always so right, he realized that it was more than what she’d done forhim. He wasn’t saving her fromhim, because… This was not one-sided. It was not parent to child.
It was partners.
