Chapter Seventeen
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Jasmine was in the most beautiful hotel suite she had ever seen. She had always wanted to visit Venice. Now that she was here, she couldn’t have cared less about any of it.
‘I want answers,’ she said as soon as Emilio closed the door.
‘Can we not take a moment to—?’
‘No.’ She cut him off. She wouldn’t be moved. She wouldn’t be placated with sweet words or gestures. Wouldn’t go to the bedroom or any other place where Emilio could distract her.
Gia’s words had shaken her. They’d made her see sense. She couldn’t put a plaster over their issues in the hope they could have something special. He was still lying to her, still hiding things.
‘Talk, Emilio.’
She watched him run his hands through his hair. His distress was obvious on his face, in the stiffness of his body. He took off his jacket and tossed it over the back of an arm chair then rolled up his shirt sleeves.
‘Who is Gia?’
‘Enzo’s ex-fiancée.’ He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath, then walked over to her and placed his hands on Jasmine’s shoulders, his eyes beseeching. ‘I need you to know what I am about to tell you is not the person I am any more. At least, I have tried to be better.’
‘Just tell me.’ Part of her wanted to comfort him, because the pain on his face was clear for anyone to see, but a greater part, a part that protected herself, needed to know, and to hell with his feelings. So she stood in this awkward embrace, unmoved.
Emilio took the hint and stepped away from her.
‘Eight years ago, before our father died, Enzo met Gia. Their relationship was romantic from the start. When he introduced her to the family, the two of us connected almost immediately. We were close. Became friends. She needed a confidante, and I would listen. Then, after our father died, she and Enzo became engaged. But my brother had always put duty above everything else. He was conte first and everything else second…’
Jasmine could understand that. After all, from what Emilio had said, Enzo had been groomed for the role. ‘Gia was growing increasingly frustrated by that. She felt rejected when he would cancel plans for the company or Perlano, and it just got worse.’
‘Of course; your father just died. Enzo would have had his hands full.’
Emilio shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter. What matters is that he made her feel unimportant. One night when I came home, I found Gia on my balcony. She had been drinking; he’d run out of some wedding planning event and she was upset. We talked. She asked me to drink with her and, stupidly, I did.’
Emilio laughed humourlessly and walked to the window as though he were watching all this unfold in the distance. ‘I never intended it to happen,’ he said softly. ‘I wanted to keep my feelings to myself.’
‘Your feelings?’
‘I was falling in love with her. Or I thought I was. I was twenty-one. Young and foolish. That night I got too drunk, too wrapped up in my feelings. She was upset and we made a mistake. Or at least, I did.’
‘Oh God! Tell me you didn’t…’ Jasmine could feel the bile rise in her throat.
‘We slept together.’
‘Emilio…’ Jasmine breathed, horrified. The trust she had for this man was cracking, then shattering…just like her heart.
‘I regretted it immediately.’
‘And Gia?’ Jasmine was almost too afraid to know the answer.
‘Nowhere near as upset as I was. That should have been my first sign. There were many signs,’ Emilio said to himself.
‘Signs of what?’
‘The person she was. I hated my brother and still I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror. She was supposedly in love with him, but she seemed fine with what happened. Glad for it. I misread that. I thought she might…return my feelings.’
Jasmine was stunned. She didn’t know how to respond. Her throat burned but she didn’t want to cry. Didn’t want to be vulnerable. Not now.
‘I told Enzo what happened the very next day. He was furious and hurt. And…and I knew.’
‘Knew what?’
Emilio looked her in the eye, conviction in every line of his body. ‘The kind of man I was. There was always a reason my father treated me the way he did, after all. He saw how loathsome I was before anyone else.’
Jasmine took a step towards him. ‘Emilio.’ That wasn’t true, Emilio was kind, caring…but what kind of man did something like that? He’d betrayed his family. Jasmine knew exactly how that betrayal hurt. How much worse would it have been, coming from a sibling?
‘Enzo broke up with Gia and offered to pay her to leave.’
‘Why would he need to pay her?’
‘To get rid of her. So none of us would see her again. I was angry, belleza , so angry. The insult of it—as if money could make her feelings disappear. But I was the fool.’
‘What happened?’
‘I offered to leave with her, and she rejected me. She wanted the money and fame. Between Enzo and I, she’d had everything she wanted. The passion and support from me, the power and wealth from him.’
Emilio’s shoulders sagged and he moved to sit in the arm chair furthest from Jasmine.
She hated that she was relieved by the distance.
Her heart broke for him, but it didn’t change the despicable thing he’d done.
‘I was angry at Enzo for making her leave and angry at Gia for choosing the money. Angry at myself for what I did.’
‘That’s why Enzo hates you. Why you didn’t want him to know we were in Perlano. We were in his home.’
‘That was my home too, Jasmine.’
‘ Was , Emilio.’ Rooted to the spot, Jasmine searched the room, as though the beautifully decorated walls could offer her some answers. She shook her head. ‘What kind of man sleeps with his brother’s fiancée?’
What kind of man sat in New York for years and never apologised to his brother? Was that the kind of man she wanted raising their child?
‘Don’t you think I’ve asked myself that same question?’ Emilio snapped. ‘Do you think it’s easy to live with what I’ve done? I think about it every day, Jasmine. Every day! I work so hard to be better. Less impulsive. After that night, I never drank more than single drink at any time.’
‘You ordered a second drink at the club.’
‘Did I drink it?’ he fired back at her.
No; no he hadn’t. He’d played with it. He’d flirted with her. But he hadn’t drunk it.
‘I removed every temptation to be impulsive. I own no fast cars. I’m driven almost everywhere so I’m not tempted to speed.
It’s responsible if I choose to have a drink.
I removed myself from the possibility of a partner and a family.
I leaned into a different lifestyle. One that I had initially chosen to act out against my father, but then I realised fleeting partners were a calculated risk that kept everyone safe.
No relationships meant no one could be hurt by my actions, and I wouldn’t have to deal with yet another person rejecting me. ’
‘So you were at the club on the prowl.’
‘Not that night. That night I was there just for an escape. Then I saw you, belleza , and I couldn’t look away.’
The day when Richard had left her for Zara: her fiancé and the woman who’d been as close as a sister to her. Closer, even. Two people she’d loved and trusted. It was amazing to Jasmine that she could have learned a lesson so thoroughly and yet still needed to relearn it.
‘I should never have trusted you,’ she said softly.
‘You don’t trust yourself! Why did you ever ask me to?
’ This time she couldn’t stop her eyes from welling up.
Especially when she thought back to how attentive Emilio had been.
How he had stepped up for their child. Thought of the passion he ignited in her.
But she couldn’t forgive the lies. She couldn’t forgive this lie.
‘ Belleza , please.’ He tried to stand up from his chair, but she stopped him.
‘Don’t call me that. Don’t touch me. I regret everything , Emilio.
I regret walking into that club. I regret telling you about our baby because you…
’ Her breath caught in her throat, making her choke on the words.
‘You made me think I could be wrong. You made think maybe giving you a chance wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
Never again! I will never . Trust. Again. And you did that.’
‘Jasmine.’
‘You knew about my father. You knew about Richard and Zara, and so you wilfully kept a secret for your own sake!’
Jasmine tried to steady her breath but she couldn’t.
What Emilio had done was horrible. He’d betrayed his brother and had never atoned.
Maybe, if he had been honest from the start, things would have been different.
Maybe she wouldn’t have allowed herself to get so close.
Or maybe she would have found it in her to work past it.
But that wasn’t what had happened. He’d lied to her every day that they’d been together. He’d made that choice, knowing how important honesty was to her. He’d lied for his own selfish wants.
How could she be with someone like that? How could she trust him again?
‘I’m done.’
***
Every word Jasmine said was a well-aimed blade into Emilio’s chest. He deserved it. Emilio knew that. He’d never been worthy of her, having intentionally kept the affair from her. But he couldn’t bear to hear the words leaving her lips now.
Jasmine was heading for the door. He flew out of his chair and caught her by the wrist, spinning her round and cradling her face. Her tears were a bludgeon to his soul. Everything he did to hold on to her and their child was backfiring.
‘Please, Jasmine. We have something here. Something between us. I’ve never been in love, not truly. Not until—’
‘Don’t you dare say it.’ The hurt in her eyes morphed and solidified into a burning anger. She pulled away from him and made for the bedroom.
‘Where are my clothes?’
Emilio didn’t want to show her. His heart was breaking. If she got her clothes, she would leave, and he needed her to stay.
‘Jasmine, don’t—stay. We can work this out. Just stay. Fight with me.’