The muted sound tore at him, making him ache all the more.
He took the hand, brushed a kiss over it, and held it against his chest, just over his racing heart.
The warmth from her scented flesh was a comfort he was utterly unworthy of—but he was a selfish bastard, so he’d take whatever he could get from her.
“Gideon,” Kendra murmured, her voice cracking even as he watched her try to regain her composure. “Why?” she asked simply, “Why did you even bother getting married if all you wanted was an heir? You could have used a surrogate or hooked up with some gold-digger, or even married Isabella Mancini, for Christ’s sake—you didn’t have to trick me, manipulate me, lie to me, and then spend the next three years treating me like an inconvenient convenience, there to fuck and keep up appearances, but barely tolerated.”
At the sound ofthatwoman’s name, he flinched, hating that he’d allowed that woman to get under his skin. If it weren’t for Isabella Mancini’s bullshit, he wouldn’t be sitting beside his heartbroken wife, wishing and hoping for a fucking Christmas miracle.
Yeah, because your wife would still be blissfully ignorant of how you’ve used her over the years.
And that was so much fucking worse.
The truth was out, and now he had to deal with the consequences.
And that meant opening up to her, sharing with her, something he should have done years ago. He never should have kept the truth from her this long.
“Logan would say…I have abandonment issues,” Gideon finally said, his voice steady despite the thick ball of terror in his throat.
“Logan?” she blurted, incredulous, eyebrows quirked. “Loganwould say that?”
Fuck, she was cute.
Gideon nodded, grinning wryly. “Apparently he got bored one Sunday morning and read through an entire onlinecollection of early child development text books.” Sadly, the man liked to diagnose others but couldn’t seem to see his own faults.
Like how he has his own abandonment issues…because he leftherbehind…the one he never talks about but still searches for every day.
Kendra looked at Gideon thoughtfully, her brown eyes intent on his face, concern and disbelief shining in equal measure.
“Gideon, you’re telling me that the big bad Emperor of Manhattan has mommy issues?” she drawled, cocking her head with a deliberate mocking tilt.
She didn’t believe him. But at least she wasn’t crying anymore.
“Showing weakness means you’re weak—and you will always be weak, boy!”
Again, his father’s voice clanged in his head, discordant and vicious, but this time, he knew it for what it was, his mind’s way of protecting himself, of keeping the most vulnerable parts of himself locked away so no one could ever access them again…but what would that get him other than divorce papers and twice-a-month visitation with his child?
Not once in his life had he ever denied himself something he wanted, and right then, more than his next breath, he wanted his marriage.
Chapter Twelve
“Mommy issues,” Gideon repeated, his lips curling as he shook his head, “that’s not even the half of it.”
Kendra furrowed her brows, her hand against his chest turning so her palm was pressed against him, as if to offer him comfort.
Fuck, even when he was an asshole, she was still the most beautiful and compassionate woman.
And you’ve taken her for granted for three years….
Never again!
“My mother met my father when she was just nineteen. Thalia Lykaios was the coddled daughter of a Greek shipping magnate, and when she met older, handsome, charming Nathaniel Maddox, she had hearts in her eyes. To her, he was the man of her dreams, but to him, she was the key to a fortune.”
“But he was a Maddox,” Kendra remarked, far too curious to remain unaffected, “why would he need to marry into a fortune?”
Gideon snarled, “Because my grandfather recognized his son for what he was; a degenerate, unworthy of the helm of the Maddox empire. So, Nathaniel married a rich, young, naïvewoman, eager to get his hands on her money, and she had no idea the hell she married into.”
Kendra’s face drained of color, her hand going limp in his grasp.
