Chapter 53 Enzo
FIFTY-THREE
ENZO
Ididn’t sleep.
Instead, I sat in my chair in the living room all night, waiting for Rosalie to come home.
The worry about where she was ate at me. Killing me.
I kept praying Everett hadn’t gotten her.
I’d tried to play it cool earlier in the night because I didn’t want Cole losing it, but fuck.
I dozed off for a moment but jolted upright when I heard the front door open.
Rosalie walked into the living room looking like hell. Her hair was a mess. Her makeup was smeared. Her dress was rumpled.
I stood as she froze, her green eyes bloodshot.
Slowly, I went to her and stared down.
“Where were you?” I asked in a soft, dangerous voice.
“I-I was out.”
“With who?” I inhaled deeply, smelling cologne on her. I tightened my hands into tight fists.
“I… A friend.”
“Anson?”
She shook her head, her mess of curls bouncing with the motion.
“No. Just someone I know.”
“I want his name.” I reached out and tilted her chin up so she was staring up at me. “Tell me his name.”
“Tell me her name,” she whispered, her voice shaking.
I swallowed. It fucking hurt, but it was a necessary evil. “It was Celeste.”
A tear snaked down her cheek. “I’m not surprised. Guess you’ve always had a thing for her.” She made to walk past me, but I grabbed her arm and tugged her back.
“What’s his name?” I snarled as Cole came into the room. He wasted no time in joining me in a stare-down at our girl.
“Why do you think it was a guy?”
“I can fucking smell him on you,” I snapped, giving her a firm shake. “Give me his fucking name.”
“So you can take away another person from my life? I’d rather fucking die than give you a name.” She glared up at me with so much anger and hatred that it made my breath catch. I’d never seen that look on her pretty face before.
It fucking gutted me.
“What’s going on?” Cole asked.
“Our perfect girl is home. Unscathed. Just as I promised,” I said tightly.
“Rosebud, where were you? We were worried sick,” Cole said, reaching for her.
“I-I can’t do this. I need to be alone.” She tried to move past us, but Cole blocked her.
“Rosalie, you’re scaring me,” he said, way calmer than I expected him to be, but Cole was hurting. He was terrified we were losing her.
He wasn’t wrong.
I knew I needed to let her go, but I couldn’t help myself. I fucking wanted her more than I wanted my next breath.
I wanted her to be my wife. To marry me. To have kids with me. To lie in bed with me and laugh about silly things and tell one another our secrets.
Me. Fuck. Us. I wanted us.
But I didn’t say that because I had to finish what I started. I had to fulfill my promise.
Instead, I watched my best friend fall to his knees in front of her, tears soaking his cheeks.
“Rosebud. I’m fucking scared, baby. I’m so scared. Please. Talk to me. I’m begging you.”
“I’ve spent the last few weeks alone,” she whispered.
“So scared. So confused. So worried. I know things were hard. I fucking know they were because I lived through them too. The people I needed most left me to fight alone. It hurt me. It still hurts me. I-I need to think. I have to think. This isn’t right.
You need to think about what you want, too, because this is killing me.
I-I can’t live like this. I don’t want to. ”
And that was it. She stepped around Cole without another word and went upstairs, her soft cries echoing around us.
Cole stood and stared at me while wiping his eyes.
“What do we do?” he asked. “Enzo…”
“Let her decide,” I said. “She had a bad night. She needs to think about things.”
“What if she leaves?” His eyes widened.
“What if she stays?” I countered. “Her dreams, Cole. She needs to go.”
“No,” he whimpered. “No.”
I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I was sure she spent the night with another guy. I had no fucking idea who it was either, but I knew it wasn’t Anson because I had men watching his place, and he’d been there all night, and Rosalie was never seen.
I’d given it the old college effort, though, and asked anyway in the hopes she’d tell me anything to make this pain go away.
“Was…” his voice trailed off. “Enzo?”
“What?” I walked back to the couch and sank onto it, my head a fucked up mess.
He followed and sat beside me.
“Was she with another guy?”
I swallowed and looked to see the turmoil on his face.
“Tell me,” he insisted.
“I don’t know. I think so.” I watched his hands clench and unclench into fists repeatedly. “It wasn’t Anson, but that’s all I know.”
“Do you think she’s cheating on us?” his voice cracked.
Fuck, I didn’t want him to hurt. He loved Rosalie so much. He had all these damn plans for kids, for a future. Cole Scott was a fucking terrible monster, but for Rosalie, he was a saint. He loved her endlessly. Without question, he was a man who would do anything for her when it came down to it.
So was I. I just operated differently.
“Let’s not think about it,” I said.
“Enzo, I can’t fucking do this, man. I can’t lose her.
We’ve lost so much already. Everything is fucking breaking apart.
I can’t do it. What would my life be without her?
Please. Talk to her. Tell her you love her.
Set the date for the wedding. Elope. We can all go to Vegas.
You can marry her. We can be happy. I-I could marry her if you won’t.
I have a ring.” He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a sparkling diamond in a delicate flower setting.
“I-I bought it a few weeks ago in-in case…”
I wrapped my hand around his, closing the pretty ring in his hand.
“Cole, stop,” I said gently. “You said you were in. Are you or not?”
“Does in mean I lose the only woman I’ve ever loved? Or will ever love?”
“I think it does, but it won’t be forever,” I said in a soft voice.
“We need to end this. For E. For Fox. For us, if we ever want a future with her. If we don’t, things may happen from which we can’t recover, and then we won’t be able to salvage anything.
So I’ll ask you again, brother, are you in? ”
He let out a choked sob but nodded for me.
“I-I’m in.”
I pulled him to me before hugging him tightly. He clung to me, his hand balled into a tight fist as he held on to the ring in his palm.
“When?” he whispered.
“Soon,” I answered in a hoarse voice, knowing it would change everything. It was the beginning of the end.
Or maybe it was the end of the beginning.
It was open for debate.
Several days after Rosalie came home, I was sitting in a restaurant across from Celeste Vander Veer, my guts in a painful knot as I played a part that was taking all my willpower not to go dark on.
All I wanted to do was strangle the life from this bitch until her body lay twitching on the floor.
She was a demon—a monster.
But so was I, and I wanted revenge while she wanted a fucking ring.
She’d raped E. Likely had a hand in Fox’s death. She was thrilled when I called to ask her to meet up. It took every ounce of sanity I had to force myself out the door to meet with her.
The idea of pulling my gun out and putting a bullet between her eyes weighed heavily on me as I sipped my wine, not giving a fuck what the crazy bitch had to say.
“I’m so glad you wanted to meet up. There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about,” she said, licking her lips.
I took another drink to stop myself from snapping at her.
“Ethan—”
“You don’t say his fucking name,” I said, glaring at her.
She snapped her mouth closed, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink.
“We’re having a baby. Did he tell you?”
“He did,” I said, drinking more. I envisioned breaking the glass and jamming the shards into her throat while watching her bleed out.
“I was wondering if he and I could—”
“No.” I held up my hand to stop her. “You and Ethan are never going to happen. Got it?”
“But our child—”
“Our child,” I said, the nausea swirling in my guts like an angry snake.
She blinked at me. “What?”
“I will be going to speak to your father this week about marriage. If he agrees, you and I will marry. I will raise the child as mine. He or she will carry my last name. For all intents and purposes, the child will be mine. Ours.” My chest clenched as I reached across the table and took her hand in mine. “If you’ll have me.”
Her eyes lit up like it was fucking Christmas day as she nodded, her auburn hair bouncing.
“I can be your wife? I’ll be Celeste De Luca?”
“Yes,” I said tightly, my voice holding a slight tremor to it. “My wife. The mother of my child.”
“Children,” she corrected, her eyes shining brightly. “We’ll have more, right?”
“Of course,” I said, forcing a smile onto my lips. I had to play this part even though it sickened me deeply. “As many as you want.”
“Oh my god, Lorenzo!” She squealed and got to her feet. I stood too. She threw her arms around my shoulders and planted her lips on mine.
My gag reflex was strong, but I forced it away. I forced everything that screamed at me to kill her now down and wrapped my arms around her, parting my lips to kiss her back to make it as real as I could.
I hadn’t kissed another woman since I’d fallen in love with my sunshine.
I was going to be sick. The nausea unfurled in my guts as her tongue slid against mine.
Get through this. Get through this. Get fucking through this. For E. For Fox. For the top. So I fulfill my promise.
She broke the kiss off and cradled my face with both hands. “I knew you’d come around. I knew it.” She kissed me again before I broke it off.
“Easy. I need to speak to your father and get his blessing first,” I said.
“Daddy will say yes,” she said, her grin wide. “Oh my god! I’m so happy. I just knew it would work.”
I gave her a stiff smile. “Let’s finish our dinner. We can get to know one another.”
She nodded eagerly and retook her seat. I waved a waiter over and asked for more wine.
I’d need it if I were going to get through this shit.