Page 157 of Enzo

The room falls quiets. I look around as I speak, but my gaze always goes to Molly.

“She did not engineer what happened in Venice. The footage was never intended to be made public. She didn't manipulate me. She didn't use me, or pursue me.” My eyes hold hers. “We chose each other.”

Her lips wobble, and I can tell she's overcome with emotion. I force myself to look away.

“Molly is a kindergarten teacher. She loves her job. She loves those children. And she was prepared to walk away from a project we were working on together because she thought it would protect me.”

A ripple moves through the room.

“So I'm going to make this very clear. Molly Dean is not a gold digger. I will not stand by while she's blamed, harassed or punished for something she didn't do. She is kind. She's loyal. And she's an exceptional teacher.”

A murmur cascades around the room. Cameras click.

“There's something else I want to say.”

A hush immediately falls.

“My family has a past. Mistakes were made long before Molly Dean entered my life. Those mistakes were made by people who should have known better. Molly had nothing to do with them.”

I pause, because this is the part I've spent most of my life avoiding.

“For a long time, I believed silence was the safest thing. That if I didn't talk about something, I couldn't make it worse.”

My heart jackhammers in my chest and I glance off stage to Molly. She presses her lips together, like she’s trying to compose herself.

“I don't believe that anymore. Whatever happened in my family belongs to my family. It does not belong to Molly Dean.”

I look out at the sea of faces.

“That's all I have to say.”

A PR person immediately steps forward. “Mr. Knight will not be taking questions.”

The room erupts.

I walk back, avoiding the journalists, to find Molly there, waiting for me. Her face is flushed.

Her eyes shining.

We hug one another.

“I love you,” she says.

Chapter 44

MOLLY

The kitchen fills with the most amazing scents. I have a feeling that Isabella’s kitchen always has these scents: rosemary, thyme, garlic, butter.

I was already hungry when we arrived here, and now I’m positively starving. Enzo told me not to ruin my appetite, and after last night, and the early hours of this morning, oh my days, I’d worked up a huge appetite.

“I’ll take this in,” I offer, grabbing an enormous bubbling dish out of the oven. Lasagne, I think. Isabella didn’t tell me how long she’d spent cooking up this feast, but gazing at the amount of food spread across the kitchen, I think she must have started very early this morning.

Zach moves around refilling everyone’s glasses.

There is wine everywhere.

Brooke is especially animated. I’m getting to know her, but today, she’s especially bubbly. Earlier she was telling me about Mr. Whiskers, her rabbit, and wanted to know what pets we had in our classroom.