“I’ll do anything. Anything you want. Just... forgive me.”
Her breathing hitched once.
“If I had died in that room,” she said slowly, her voice quiet but razor-sharp, “who would you have apologized to? My corpse... or our baby’s?”
I felt the words like a knife sliding between my ribs. My breath caught, and for a second I couldn’t speak.
“I don’t know...” I choked out, my voice raw and trembling. “God, Elena... I don’t know how I would have lived with it. I don’t know if I could have.”
Her eyes softened—just slightly.
“When I pulled you out of that cold room,” I continued, my voice dropping low and trembling, “when I saw you... frozen... barely breathing... still clutching our child... I thought I’d killed you both. I thought I’d destroyed the only family I’ll ever have.”
My throat tightened painfully.
I had to force the next words out.
“Because I was too proud. Too blind... too fucking stupid to listen to you. Too arrogant to believe your words mattered. I refused to see that you were never like your father — that you weren’t a Vasquez. I was wrong. So horribly wrong.”
I lifted my head and finally met her gaze directly, my eyes burning with shame.
A bitter, broken breath escaped me.
“Because it was easier,” I whispered, my voice cracking with agony, “so much easier than admitting I’d married a woman I didn’t deserve...”
I paused, the weight of the truth crushing me.
“...and then treated her like she was nothing.”
A single tear slipped down her cheek.
The sight of it broke something deep inside me.
I reached out with shaking hands but stopped short of touching her, terrified she would pull away.
She didn’t wipe it away.
Didn’t flinch.
Her hand drifted again to her stomach.
Instinctive. Protective.
Even though there was nothing left there to hold.
“Your apologies mean nothing, Vincenzo,” she said, her voice steady but exhausted, drained of all fire.
“You are heartless, all the way through. You never gave me even an inch of trust. Not one single chance to defend myself.”
“All because I had no family, no one to stand behind me. You took revenge on me for what my father did to you years ago... and I didn’t even know about it. I was innocent, and you still punished me.”
She let out a tired, bitter breath.
“Your guilt means nothing to me. And if it truly means something to you... then let me go, Vincenzo. Let me go.”
The words stabbed deep.
I stayed on my knees, looking up at her with raw desperation.
