Chapter 22
Elowen
“And there will be the grand stage on which the grand piano will be placed,” Luciana effuses, I can feel every bit of her enthusiasm in my veins.
Just the idea of playing again in front of a huge audience is enough to send me soaring.
Luciana is showing me the site where the piano concert hall will be built. According to her, it’ll be the world’s biggest and grandest of its kind. Well, she wouldn’t be Luciana if it weren’t the grandest.
I don’t understand her whole design plan, I don’t have her eye, but I grasp the idea well enough. I’m already very excited for it to be finished so I can play here.
I want to start playing again, but since I’m staying in Naples, I can’t perform yet.
There isn’t a proper concert hall, and the city isn’t developed enough to host international guests.
There are only a handful of hotels, and even those aren’t large enough.
I’ll just wait until the city is ready and the concert hall is built.
The first show here will be Ella’s. I even told Luciana I could arrange Ella’s show for the opening, and she was absolutely thrilled.
“So, how’s the plan?” she asks, turning toward me.
"Perfect."
We turn and walk toward the burnt entrance of the half-collapsed building.
“I’ll build the concert hall over the burned section while leaving its scars untouched.”
I look around. “I don’t know how it’ll look. Right now, it’s haunting.”
“It’ll look hauntingly beautiful.”
We exit the building and walk toward our respective cars.
“Okay, sweetie, see you tomorrow.” She presses a kiss to my cheek.
I do the same. “See you tomorrow.”
Remi opens the back door for me, and I settle inside.
He gets in, and we drive away from the burnt, abandoned building.
This is the biggest building in the area, it must have been a mall or something similar before half of it collapsed in the fire.
The whole layout of the area is complete now, with restaurants, hotels, and malls planned for the space.
When I asked Luciana to build a piano concert hall, she decided to transform this building into the grandest one imaginable.
When the city is fully developed, people will say how thoughtfully planned it is. None of them will know that more than half of the amazing things in it were never planned, they were the result of Luciana’s random neurons firing.
We reach home after a half-hour drive. It’s already four in the evening.
My whole day went to Luciana, and I must add, it didn’t feel like more than a few hours.
Only after arriving home do I feel the exhaustion.
Bruno and Rosie recharge some of my energy as soon as I step inside, and to get the rest back, I make my way upstairs.
The study is now my husband’s home office. Almost two months have passed since this man became my husband, two months that went by in the blink of an eye. I can now understand why people say a lifetime feels too short when you’re with the right person.
I open the door. A man’s voice is coming from the thin screen on his desk. His eyes are no longer on the screen, they’re fixed on me, watching me like he’s seeing me after years, not just a few hours.
The man stops talking, and another begins. I gather he’s in a meeting. He’s officially taken his position as director and owner of Texan. Logan is working alone on their startup, actually, he’s working to finish it, since it’s Chris’s startup that he handed to them.
I walk slowly to him. He pushes his chair back and makes space for me to climb onto his lap.
He wraps his arms around me as soon as I settle.
The men on the screen are still speaking.
I know they can’t see us, Salvario never showed his face in public, and he's doing the same with his Hunter Blackwood identity. The board members call him Salvario, though, since they don’t know about any of the drama.
He holds the back of my neck and crashes his mouth to mine in a kiss that blanks my mind instantly. The men’s voices sound like they’re coming from another room entirely. I loop my arms around his neck, my fingers threading through the hair at the nape of his neck.
He starts gathering my skirt with his other hand. This is one of the reasons I’ve been loving skirts lately. He grabs my ass in a claiming grip, and a rush of heat soaks my panties.
I freaking love this caveman. My panties, on the other hand, hate him, for ruining them, then tearing them.
His phone rings, separating us. He gives my ass a final squeeze, brushes his tongue over my lips one last time, and pulls away.
I climb down from his lap, but the phone has gone silent.
He speaks in a completely unaffected, serious voice to hold the meeting for a moment, then mutes himself just as his phone rings again.
He picks it up and presses it to his ear, gesturing for me to come back and sit. I shake my head, biting my lower lip.
His face changes, the heat vanishes in an instant. At the same time, a knock comes at the study door.
I walk to the door and open it. May is outside.
“Someone is at the entry gate and wants to see you.” Only then does it occur to me that I left my bag downstairs; the call on Hunter’s phone must be from the guard.
“Who?”
“No one.” Hunter’s voice comes from inside. “Close the door and come back,” he snaps, getting up from the chair.
I frown at him. “What’s wrong?”
“Um—I think he said his name is Salvario De Fa—” Hunter slams the door shut before May can finish, but what I hear is enough to stop my world.
“I think I heard wrong,” I chuckle, but there’s no humor on his face. It’s become a mask of stone. Apart from the muscle ticking in his jaw, nothing moves.
I blink rapidly, trying to chase away the dark spots at the edges of my vision.
I lick my dry lips, trying to find my voice, but all I manage is to open and close my mouth soundlessly.
My gut twists violently. My chest feels like it’s about to burst from the pressure within, yet at the same time, it’s growing hollow.
Finally, three words force their way out of my clamped throat. “I heard right.”
“You heard wrong,” he says, coldly.
My chin trembles. I blink back the sting in my eyes. It’s not time to cry. I take a long breath and reach for the handle, he’s standing in front of the door and doesn’t move.
“Get out of my way,” I grit out, looking into his eyes.
“No.”
The tears start streaming down. I grab his arm and yank, but I can’t move him an inch.
“Get out of the way, Hunter!” I cry out. His name sounds like a curse to my ears.
“I can’t let you leave,” he whispers, his voice thick.
I close my eyes, my teeth chattering. My whole body is trembling. Every breath burns my lungs.
Hunter
She opens her eyes, and my heart stops mid-beat, then resumes with an intensity that slams it against my ribs. I clench my fists, stopping myself from staggering back under the force of her hatred. I’ve seen it in my nightmares, it was far less horrifying than this.
I take a step toward her. She takes one back, her eyes blazing.
“Why did you do this to me?” she shouts, her face crumpled in pain. Tears stream down her cheeks without stopping.
My chest feels like a mountain is crushing it. Only one question rings in my head: was the lie worth it, when it left her this broken?
Was the time I stole from someone else worth it, when all I’ll have left is her hatred for the rest of my life?
I could have stayed with the truth. Tried to win her heart as Hunter.
Worked to make her fall for me. But I chose the easiest path.
Maybe she would have never loved me. Maybe I would have never succeeded in making her forget him. But she wouldn’t be like this.
“Answer me, Hunter, why did you do this?” she cries out. And then she laughs through her tears. It pierces my heart. “Why am I asking such a dumb question? Why wouldn’t you do it when I threw myself at you?”
A knock comes at the door behind me.
She wipes her face and straightens her posture. “Move.”
She’ll fight me if I don’t.
I can’t keep her locked inside forever. So I step aside. She yanks open the door and runs out.
I follow her. May is standing there, watching me in confusion.