Chapter 22 #2
"You're alive. You're really alive." He buried his face in my hair, voice shaking, every word trembling. "I knelt by that pool of blood, thinking you were dead. I thought I'd never see you again."
Enzo's voice broke with tears, like a drowning man clinging to his last piece of driftwood. His heartbeat pressed against my ear, terrifyingly fast, his whole body hanging on me like he'd been drained of strength.
I froze briefly, almost softened, but in the end, I shoved him away hard.
Enzo stumbled back half a step. He looked at me, eyes rimmed red.
"Don't touch me." My voice shook, but I forced it steady. "Why did you come find me? Why couldn't you just pretend I was dead? I wish I'd never met you, Enzo."
Every word was sincere. I hated him. I wished I'd never seen him, never gone to that damned company, never given him my heart, then I wouldn't have been hurt this deeply.
Enzo's hand—reaching for me—froze mid-air, finally dropping helplessly, even wretchedly.
"You can hate me, Chloe. You can even shoot me right now..." He swallowed hard. "But please... don't say that. Don't casually erase everything that happened between us."
He moved closer half a step, chest heaving violently, eyes churning with heartbreaking desperation and fear.
"How can you be so cruel? Disappearing like that?
Do you know that pool of blood and news of your death nearly drove me insane?
!" Enzo's voice was low, hoarse, broken, almost like a sob.
"After you disappeared, I nearly went mad.
I'm sorry, Chloe. I'm an idiot. Only now do I understand what you mean to me.
You're my only one. You're the true love I'd give up everything to keep. "
My tears fell.
He said that now? After he was already married? After I'd completely given up? Only now did he suddenly discover I was his only one? The thing he'd protect even if he lost everything?
"Too late." I wiped my face, but new tears immediately welled up.
"You apologize now? You say this now? You know it's too late?
I can't trust you anymore, Enzo. I'm afraid of your feelings because you don't understand what love is.
You only understand imprisonment, lies, and control.
You never truly cared about my feelings.
Never. You just treated me like a pet you kept, only allowed to live in the cage you built, breathe by your rules. "
My voice got louder, shakier. All those nights alone in this town, wrapped in blankets crying until dawn. That scene in the church where he bent down to kiss another woman. Those days locked in the villa, unable to take a single step outside. Everything came flooding back.
"Did you ever ask me? Even once?" I stared into his eyes, tears blurring my vision, but I wouldn't wipe them.
"Did you ever once ask, 'Chloe, what do you want?
Are you willing? Are you happy?' No. Not once.
You made all the decisions for me, then told me it was to protect me.
But Enzo, you weren't protecting me. You were protecting your own need for control. "
"It's all too late. You and I—impossible."
When those last words came out, my voice was already hoarse.
My throat burned, my nose ached. But I didn't regret saying them.
Every word was something I'd carried alone through these lonely nights, chewed up, swallowed, vomited back up, and wrestled with countless times.
Today I finally said them. Said them to him.
Enzo listened carefully to every word. He watched me silently, didn't argue or defend. He just stood there, enduring it.
Then he did something I never imagined Enzo Falcone would do.
He knelt down.
His knees hit the wooden porch floor with a dull thud. He looked up at me, liquid sliding from those dark eyes, down his cheekbones, dripping onto his sweater collar.
Enzo Falcone was crying.
I'd never seen him cry. From day one, this man had seemed like an iron tower that couldn't bleed. But now he knelt on the old boards of my porch, tears streaming down his face, no different from any ordinary person.
"My engagement to Valentina is over." He knelt on the ground, voice hoarse like sandpaper. "I handed the family to Julian. Power, territory, business—none of it's mine anymore. I gave up everything, Chloe. Just for one chance to see you."
He drew a breath, deep and heavy.
"I know what I did. Every bit unforgivable.
I lied to you, I locked you up, I said those inhuman things at the church door.
I don't deserve your forgiveness." He paused, Adam's apple bobbing, looked up, eyes pleading as they fixed on me.
"I can give you money, a house, security for life.
If you won't come back, I can buy you the best house in this town, provide everything for you and the baby.
I'm not asking to get back together. I just want a chance—even just to visit the baby sometimes. "
I looked down at this man kneeling before me. Watching him discard his old pride, begging me in a low voice, that wall in my heart cracked again. The pain nearly made me bend over.
But I couldn't trust him. I didn't want to trust anyone anymore.
"I don't want your money," I heard my own voice say. "Don't want your house. I just need you to stay out of my and this baby's life. I spent a long time learning not to need anyone's rescue. I won't go back to any kind of cage."
My heart still ached, but during this time, I'd learned how to heal myself.
"If you keep staying here, I'll just have to move again," I looked into his eyes, word by word. "If you try to lock me up like before, I'll die with the baby."
All color drained from Enzo's face in that instant. He knelt there, body swaying slightly, lips opening and closing, unable to say a word.
Silence spread between us. Leaves from the old oak in the yard rustled in the wind. The sound of waves came from the distance, over and over.
Finally, Enzo nodded.
"Alright. I'll set you free... if that makes you happy." His voice trembled, hoarse to the point of inaudibility.
He braced his hands on his knees and stood up, legs shaking as he rose. He stepped back once, then again, and walked down from the porch steps.
Enzo looked back at me one last time, then turned and walked along the gravel path toward the gate. His silhouette stretched long in the slanting sun.
I stood on the porch, legs so weak I could barely stand. I held onto a post and slowly sank down, burying my face in my knees.
On the kitchen windowsill, that bunch of white daisies sat behind the glass window, soaked in the last rays of light. I held my belly, crouched on the porch, waiting for my heartbeat to return to normal.
You made the right choice, Chloe. You protected yourself. You protected the baby.
So why, after he left, did you feel so heartbroken?