“You didn’t kill Jessabelle,” she said firmly. “Those evil men did.”
“I shouldn’t have left her. Shouldn’t havemarriedher.” Pain and guilt creased his features. “At that time in my life, I wanted power more than anything…even her. I let my infatuation fool me into thinking that I could have both, and she died because of it.”
“You don’t bear all the blame. She knew who you were. She made the choice to marry you, to go out that night despite the dangers,” Gabby whispered.
His hands covered hers, gripping them and bringing them to his chest. She felt the fierce pounding of his heart, knew what it had cost him to tell her all this. Even as she grappled with the knowledge of how much Adam had kept from her, she couldn’t stem her flooding relief. In spite of his many omissions, he hadn’t lied to her.
He’d been faithful. Since their marriage, he’d wanted only her.
“Why didn’t you tell me about your past?” she asked softly.
“I didn’t want to taint our marriage. You were a new beginning for me, Gabriella. Everything I wanted.” His burning gaze told her this was the truth. “You were so innocent and trusting, so willing to give me everything I needed. Your love is, and has always been, the sweetest thing I’ve ever known. I didn’t want my past failures to change the way you saw me.”
Comprehending his unspoken fear, she said, “I could never stop loving you.”
Even as she saw the lines around his mouth ease, she had an uneasy flash of intuition. She pulled herself from his grip, and he let her go with obvious reluctance.
She took a step back, wrapping her arms around herself. “Is what happened with Jessabelle why you kept a distance from me all those years? Why things were so different before and after the amnesia?”
“Yes.” His admission was gruff, but his eyes never left her face. “As stupid as this sounds now, I was afraid of allowing our marriage to go down the same path. I blamed myself for not curbing Jessabelle’s recklessness. I told myself that if I’d done my duty as a husband, if I’d kept her and her excesses in check, she’d still be alive. I convinced myself that the only way to protect you was to always be in control. To keep my head clear and not let you get too deep under my skin.”
The breath that Gabby drew in felt jagged, like splintered glass.
“The reason you only came to me once a week, that you kept your distance, that you never told me you loved me…was because you thought I would betray you like Jessabelle did?”
Did he think her so faithless?
“No.” In a heartbeat, he reached for her. Hauled her against him and held her there despite her struggling. “Listen to me, Gabriella. Not for one moment did I think you were anything like Jessabelle. It wasn’t you I didn’t trust butmyself. Because love had always led to pain in my past, I was afraid to love you. Or, more accurately, afraid toadmitthat you captured my heart since the first moment we met.”
She stilled. “You don’t have to say that. You didn’t love me when you proposed.”
“Maybe it wasn’t love at first sight,” he allowed, “but it was certainly lust. The moment I laid eyes on you, I remembered a painting my mama took me to see as a child. Titian’s portrait of Venus. The goddess of love was so pure and sensual that she stole my breath, even as a boy. Every time I look at you, Gabriella, I see that beauty.”
He thought of her as agoddess?
“Truly?” she asked, her breath hitching.
“Truly. From our first meeting, I knew that I wanted you all for myself. That I’d stop at nothing to make you mine.” He paused, and when he spoke again, his voice was rough with emotion. “You are still, aren’t you? Tell me that despite everything you now know, you are mine. My wife, my true partner, the only woman who has ever held all of my heart.”
How could she deny him when his every word spoke to her own heart?
Yet there was something she still had to know.
“A few months ago, there was that fire at The Gilded Pearl.” As she spoke, she felt his arms bulge, hardening around her, but she forged on. “Someone important to you died that night. If it wasn’t Jessabelle, who was it?”
When he said nothing, she began to push away.
He held her fast.
“It was a woman by the name of Drusilla Wiley,” he said in flat tones. “Before I met Garrity, she and her husband Roger, a sweep, kept me and other children as ‘apprentices,’ although ‘slaves’ would be a more apt term for how they abused us. We were forced to clean chimneys and commit countless crimes for them. We were beaten within an inch of our lives for any infractions…or merely for the Wileys’ sadistic pleasure. I swore to myself that when I had the opportunity, I would see justice done. Roger died in a knife fight, robbing me of my revenge. But there was still Drusilla.”
Even as his cold detachment sent a shiver down Gabby’s spine, the knowledge that her husband had suffered further atrocities tore at her heart.
“What did you do to her?” She wasn’t certain that she wanted to know.
“She did it to herself. She got into debt with me—not knowing who I was, of course. When she couldn’t pay me back, I had her work off her debt. At The Gilded Pearl.”
“Doing…what?”
