A knock sounds, startling me from my thoughts. “Yes?”
The door opens and Ginevra pokes her head inside. “It’s me. How are you feeling?”
“I’m not sure. Okay, and not okay at the same time. Confused.”
She steps into the room and closes the door behind her. “I bet. Hopefully, this will help you sort things out. Here.” She hands me a brand new cell phone. “Blake managed to get your number transferred to this one last night. A lot of your contacts and stuff as well. You’ll still need to download and login to any apps.”
Guilt fills my chest. “Sorry for ruining his birthday party. I didn’t mean to crash in here like that. That was sweet of him to do this for me, but I wish he’d put it off and enjoyed his party instead.”
Gin giggles. “Are you kidding? An urgent tech problem, especially in order to get out of a social situation, is Blake’s dream come true. I’ve never seen him so happy. I think recovering your stolen cell phone data was a better birthday gift than anything else he was given.”
“That man’s a strange one.” I see the humor, but can’t bring myself to smile.
She shrugs. “He’s just antisocial.”
Her obvious happiness with her husband makes me glad for her. At the same time, my chest squeezes with longing for Cian.
“Tell Blakethank youfor me. From the bottom of my heart.” I take the phone and pull up Cian’s number, then frown. “What do I do if he doesn’t answer?” I speak more to myself than to Gin.
She answers anyway. “You could always confront him in person. Though… that might be dangerous.”
“He needs to cool down. If I give him some time, he’ll come around. That’s what happened before, when I lied to him about my name.” When my father beat me, then tried to sell me to a stranger.
He’s dead, I remind myself. That’s all in the past. I’m safe this time.
Now that I think about it, would Cian have come for me if I hadn’t been put up for auction? I shudder at the memory. Do I have to be in danger for him to forgive me? Is that the only thing that gets through to him? I hope not.
Gin reassuringly rubs my arm. “In that case, I’d call him, text him, and send him an email. If those don’t work, after a week I’d show up at his door and not leave until he agreed to see me.”
“Oh really? Is that what you’d do if a man ignored you?” I can’t help but tease, even in my solemn mood.
She laughs. “Well, no, not exactly. If you want to do what I did, then you should hop on your private jet and spend millions of his money in Italy until he finally decides to track you down and bring you home.”
I huff a laugh. “I guess that’s not my style.”
She sobers. “It’s not. You’re much more practical. Cian’s in the wrong here, just so you know that. You didn’t do anything bad. He’ll either get it through his head, or you’re better off without him.”
“I know. Thanks.” I tap the phone. As it rings, Gin leaves the room, giving me privacy.
He doesn’t answer. Surprise—not really.
I call again, this time it goes straight to voicemail which tells me he declined my call.Stronzo. I swear that man infuriates me at times. Times like this, when he’s abastardo testardo.
I leave a voice message. “It’s me. I know you’re upset, but we need to talk. None of what happened last night made any sense. Devlin made all of that up, but why? What did he accomplish? You know I’m faithful to you. You’re the only man I’ll ever want. I love you. Call me back. Please.”
I’m too inpatient to wait around for him to call, so I also send him a text message. A few actually, as I think more about the Devlin situation.
As I go over it again and again, each time I feel like I’m missing a significant piece of information. I know Cian. I really do. He should have come into that office, shot Devlin, and rescued me from that creep.
But something went very wrong. I just can’t figure out what.
CHAPTER 56
Cian
The truth is I love my wife, otherwise I would have killed her too. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Gun pressed to her head, finger on the trigger, I couldn’t go through with it.
I love her too much to harm her, even though she betrayed me in the end. I knew she would—eventually. Why would she choose me when she could have a whole man? One who’s not scarred and ugly. One who can give her a family.
