Page 166 of Matteo

I interrupt, stepping closer. “But you think it.”

The words hang between us like a machete. There's no misconception that we're over. There's no coming back from this. He's treated me like most people in my life treat me—with suspicion. A ready-made judgment of the person I am.

“Elizabeth…” He sounds careful, like he no longer trusts me. He drags a hand over the back of his neck. “This is bigger than what happened between us.”

“What happened between us?” I let out a short, incredulous laugh, a flash of heat ripping through me. “What happened is that you abandoned me at my friend's wedding, and believed what you were told, without giving me a chance to—”

“Don't,” he warns, his jaw tightening.

“Don’t what? Don’t point out that you accused me unjustly—”

“I told you what Alex told me.”

“You believed him at his word,” I snap. This. This is what I never expected from him. He's not so different, after all.

“He's my right-hand man,” Matteo says, his voice tight. “He keeps a close eye on everything.” He hangs his head, exhales a loud breath, and I see it clearer now. The way his shoulders are slumped. The dark stubble over his jawline. Eyes that look empty. He's running on fumes. There's no sign of the man who swept me away.

He stares blankly at his keyboard, and I'm certain he's checked out of the conversation already. I can feel the exhaustion rolling off him.

“Didn't you even consider that there might be another explanation?”

“It's not like you came clean about anything,” he pushes back.

My mouth opens and I start to protest.

“I discovered things about you from your friends,” he snaps, before I can say a word. “Not from you.”

I clamp my lips together. I should have told him about my past earlier. I should have, but with suspicion falling to me, now is not the right time. I'll have to prove my innocence first.

I wait for him to say something but he sits there quietly. He doesn't look like he's had much sleep.

“You leave me at a wedding,” I say, “Then you disappear to another country and come back looking like hell. And now you’re going to put restrictions on my access like I’m some kind of criminal.”

“Are you?” he asks. There’s a look in his eyes I can’t decipher.

“A criminal?”

Has he heard something? Found something? My heart begins to beat faster.

“You're in the logs,” he says.

I rest my hands on my hips. “I'm framed in the logs.”

He looks away for half a second, then back at me. “I’m trying to handle this properly.”

“Properly?” I repeat.

“What would you rather I do?” he growls, his voice turning cold for the first time. “Pretend there’s nothing there?”

I clench my lips together. Of all the people who’d ever looked at me and seen more than my past, I never thought Matteo would be the one to believe the worst.

“Say it,” he urges, when I stay silent.

“I hoped you knew me well enough not to need convincing.”

I can tell my word landed like punches. But I'm hurting too, and I'm tired of having to prove that I am worthy.

I thought I'd found love, real love, with him, for the first time ever. Everything before Matteo had been fleeting. Nothing serious. Nothing that mattered enough.