Fourteen

GIANCARLO AND HIS GRANDMOTHER arrived at the airport just in time to see Ezio's estranged mother taken away in handcuffs.

And standing behind her, rigid and pale-faced, was Ezio himself.

"I'm so sorry, bambino ." Potenziana placed a trembling hand against his cheek. "It is not right that you experience this."

Ezio knew his grandmother thought him brokenhearted over his mother's betrayal.

But he wasn't.

Because a part of him had always sensed she was capable of doing this.

And so if anything, it just made him feel he had been so fucking blind, not to have guessed that she could be the snake they had been doing their best to hunt down.

He had spent all of his holidays in New York because of her. How could he have not made the fucking connection?

"There's something else you have to know," Giancarlo said quietly. "Your wife—-"

Ezio's lips tightened. "Don't think this lets her off the hook. She still lied—-"

"Oh, child, you have it all wrong."

And Potenziana couldn't help but feel she was to blame for all of this.

Everything was so, so terribly wrong, and all because they had kept secrets from each other.

"Your brother filled me in, Ezio. And how I wished you two had told me of your plans—-"

"She can still be a traitor—-"

"She's not, bambino ."

"She lied about meeting Anghileri—-"

"Because I asked her to," Potenziana confessed in despair. "It was the last task I asked of her as my assistant. That's why she had to keep it a secret from you. From all of you ."

She was hoping this would be enough to make him see reason. But when her grandson's expression remained stoic, it was then she realized how much damage his mother's arrest had made, and her heart broke all over again.

So many times Ezio had made excuses for his mother, and yet that woman couldn't grasp just how lucky she truly was, with the way she kept hurting her son for the most despicable of reasons.

"Will you listen to me, bambino ? Per favore? Because I want to tell you about the night that Cat came to me. She told me she wanted to marry you—-"

"Enough, nonna. We already know the story—-"

"Because she was in love with you."

Ezio whitened.

"I know she made you think she hated you all those years ago, but what do you expect? You are the first boy she's fallen in love with. She didn't know what to do. Didn't know how to show it. By the time she wanted to try again, you had already flown back to New York. And so when it took you five long years to return, she made a decision not to wait any longer."

Ezio could only stare at his grandmother.

It couldn't be true.

Cattleya couldn't have been in love with him all these years.

Because if that were true...

"Now, I know how Cattleya has the tendency to overthink and hesitate. And so I pretended not to be convinced that she was right for you. I gave her two months to make you fall for her. I knew having this...this deadline looming over her head would force her to take action. But more than that, I also knew that if you were still not in love with her after two months, then you would never be in love with her. And if that were indeed the case, then I wanted to leave her no choice but to cut her losses...and leave you."

A THREE-HOUR LAYOVER , followed by one connecting flight, and then it was over , Cat thought tiredly as she sat down. She would be in her new home. She could start fresh. And in time, God would help her heal and forget him.

Cat pulled her baseball cap down until it had completely covered her face, and exhaustion had her asleep in moments.

Her alarm woke her up two hours later, and she straightened up in a flash.

Cat pushed her baseball cap back up, and the first thing she saw was him.

Another hallucination.

She rubbed her eyes.

Okay, still there.

She rubbed her eyes again.

"You're not dreaming. I'm real."

And the moment she heard it, Cat kept rubbing her eyes all the more, knowing that if she stopped—-

Fingers wrapped around her wrists.

Her hands were lowered to her lap.

And it was exactly as she feared.

The tears started to fall, and they were endless.

"I'm sorry," Ezio said hoarsely. "Will you let me explain?"

She shook her head, unable to say a word because crying had taken everything out of her.

"Last month, Giancarlo and I found out we had a traitor in our midst."

She wished she could tell him to stop.

But she was still crying.

Oh, why couldn't she stop crying?

"All we had going for us were a couple of clues. That the traitor was a woman. That she was a part of our inner circle. And that she had ties in New York."

She knew where this was going.

She even understood why everyone, herself included, had to be considered a potential suspect.

That was just how it was in their world.

But...

"I don't have ties—-"

Cat saw his lips tighten, and she realized right away what could have convinced him otherwise.

"You know about Lorenzo," she realized tremulously.

"Sì. "

"And t-that's why you cheated on me."

"That's why I made you think I cheated on you."

She wished she could believe him. But could she, really?

"Do you remember when Giancarlo and I flew to Miami for business?"

"You...you lied about that, too?"

Ezio's chest tightened at the catch in her voice.

" Perdono," he apologized quietly. "At that time, Giancarlo and I were determined to handle things on our own. And so I couldn't tell you either that we were meeting with the FBI."

"Drake Morrison." He was the only person in the FBI that the famiglie trusted, since Drake's own wife was famiglia as well.

"We needed his advice on how to flush our traitor out. And one of the things he told us to do was to make them think that they no longer wielded any influence over our famiglia ."

Understanding dawned.

"You pretended to cheat on me...because then I'd think, if I were the traitor, that I had no power over you."

" Perdonami. " Forgive me.

Cat slowly shook her head. "You don't have to apologize. Because I get it. Everything you did was—-"

"Unforgivable."

"Plausible."

"Maybe for others, but not you. Because if our roles were reversed, you would have never doubted me."

That was true, she thought painfully.

"Because you love me."

That was true, too—-wait.

Her gaze flew up to his, and oh, his dark eyes were windows to his soul again.

No.

No.

No.

She didn't want to see this. She didn't want this. She was glad to know he wasn't the bastard she thought he was, but it was over between them.

Ezio was ready the moment she jerked to her feet and tried to leave.

He had already captured her hand and held on to her before she could even take a single step.

"Please let go."

But his grip only tightened around her hand.

"Forgive me, piccolina. "

"Don't call me that."

And now, he was wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Forgive me, Cat."

Why was he being so unfair?

"Please just let go—-"

"I can't."

The hoarseness of his voice was killing her.

" Please. " She didn't hesitate to beg. "Just please let me go—-"

"I know we've only been married for days, but you've already become my life."

His words were those of a poet.

He really was a romantic.

But that didn't mean he loved her.

"I can't stay, Ezio," she choked out. "I just can't."

He knew a less selfish man would have let her go at this point.

But he just fucking couldn't.

Because he meant what he said.

She was his life.

"I'm sorry," he said rawly. "I'm sorry, Cat. I promise I'll never hurt you again. Ask anything of me. Make me pay a thousand times for hurting you. I don't care."

He could feel even without looking that there were people all around them, and that they could hear his every word as he groveled for his wife's forgiveness.

But he didn't give a damn about that either.

"Just don't leave me."

Because his wife was all that mattered.

"I love you—-"

The moment he said the words, he felt her body jerk, and Ezio slowly lifted his head.

"You...love me?"

Had he somehow forgotten to say the words in his desperation?

"Si, mia moglie. Ti amo. What do you think this is all about?"

"I don't know," Cat said shakily. "I just don't know anything anymore. I'm scared to think of anything after what happened."

Her words revealed just how much he had hurt her with his distrust, and Ezio rose to his feet so he could cup her face and have her see in his eyes just how much he loved her.

"You are my life, Cattleya. You're the only girl I've lost my heart to, and even if there comes a time that you would no longer want me, my heart would still be yours. I love you, and I always will."

His words made her feel dizzy with happiness, and all she could do was cry as the world started to spin.

"I love you."

She finally managed to get the words out.

And she wanted to say so much more, but she couldn't.

Because what she had always dreamt of had finally come true.

She swooned.

Which was a good thing as far as Cat was concerned, but for her husband, it was the opposite.

To see his wife lose consciousness was the worst thing Ezio had ever seen, and that said a lot, coming from him.

First-aid responders from the airport clinic were quick to offer assistance, and as Ezio braced himself for the best (his wife was pregnant) and worst (his wife was terminally ill) possible news, the truth was nothing he had expected.

The EMTs spoke to his wife when she started to regain consciousness, and after a round of questioning, and a still-groggy Cat also inadvertently letting slip that she was hoping she had swooned because her husband was such a gorgeous romantic —-

That wasn't the case either.

Because apparently, his wife had been so lost in her heartbreak that she had forgotten to eat in the past twenty-four hours, and that was it.

Swoon.