Chapter 16 #2
My mouth quirked, letting the silence stretch before delivering the final blow.
‘Can’t, I’m already married.’
She gasped, her breath hitching hard.
‘To fuckin’ whom?’
‘Your sister, Roxy. Courtesy of Reese’s insistence.’
Dead air hung on the line, then Evangeline exploded, breaking into an outraged, blood-curdling howl.
‘Are you out of your fucking mind?! Roxy?! My own sister?! How could anyone do this to me and not say a single freakin’ word?! Why did nobody tell me?!’
‘Maybe because you packed up, skipped town, and vanished on your own damn recognizance,’ I shot back, my timbre dropping to a lethal, icy calm. ‘You pulled a disappearing act, Evangeline. You now don’t get to demand status updates.’
She let out a ragged, hysterical sob, her breathing strained with blind rage.
‘I hate you for this, Angel. I loathe that you married Roxy instead of me!’
‘Like I said, woman, you’ve no say in the matter.’
I was starting to enjoy this.
She sobbed a beat before her tone turned syrupy sweet.
‘Can’t we just catch up to talk it through, my angel? Please?’
I uttered a harsh, mocking laugh.
‘I’m not interested in catching up with someone who treated me like shit on our wedding day. I have to go.’
I severed the connection and, growling in disdain, tossed the device onto a deck chair.
Squeezing my temples, I let out a frustrated growl.
‘Fucckk.’
That’s when I caught the whisper of feet and spun around on the tiles.
I found Roxy standing at the open glass door with a short silk robe on and nothing else.
She arched a brow and pursed her lips.
‘Evangeline?’
I took note of her wary voice, her guarded face.
With a twist of my mouth, I gave her a curt nod.
‘I figured,’ she murmured, crossing her arms against the morning chill.
I huffed, my jaw tightening.
‘She wants me back. Says she regrets it all.’
‘She took you for granted once, Angel,’ Roxy stated, the light in her eyes dimming. ‘So you gotta know it’s within her to do it again.’
I chose silence, mulling her words.
‘You’re your own man and can make your own decisions,’ she continued. ‘But it seems like she’d just end up using you. She walked out on you many times. She’ll probably do it again. Let her live with the biggest regret in her life. That’s how she’ll realizes how much she messed up.’
She stepped closer, her expression shifting to one of deep empathy.
‘Forget her. If you’ve found your inner peace, hold onto it; that’s gold.’
‘Have I, Roxy?’ I growled, the internal doubt gnawing at my ribs. ‘Have I? Secured peace?’
She shrugged, refusing to hand me an easy out.
‘Only you can answer that question.’
‘I don’t think I could ever count on a person who betrayed me in such a nasty way,’ I muttered, staring out at the grey horizon. ‘I don’t rejoice in her misery, but she’s grasping a painful lesson. I’m learning one too, on who to lean on. Can’t trust anyone these days.’
Roxy jolted.
‘Are you saying you don’t trust me?’
‘Rox, it’s not that,’ I growled, wincing at a headache coming on. ‘Can we not discuss this now? After everything I’ve been through, I don’t want to talk about it.’
She pursed her lips, then blurted. ‘Just like we’re not going to talk about the fact that I told you how I feel about you?’
‘Rox,’ I groaned, ‘Please -.’
I caught the flash of hurt in her eyes, but I’d only so much bandwidth to give her.
‘Forget I ever said it,’ she muttered with a rare bitter twist of her mouth.
‘Roxy, I just don’t have the capacity right now -.’
My rasped timbre trailed off.
We stared at each other for a long beat until she spoke up, her jaw set like flint, eyes ablaze.
‘I adore you, Angel, but in this moment, fuck you,’ she snapped.
I flinched.
The hell?
‘Fuck you for making your pain the center of the universe,’ she spat, the words cutting right through the morning quiet.
‘Since we got here, it’s been about you, your past, your broken heart, and how Evangeline left you at the altar.
I’m trapped in this forced marriage too, and after the intimacy we’ve shared, I deserve respect, not your hot and cold routine.
Grow the fuck up and take care of your issues.
It’s not anybody else’s responsibility to heal you besides you.
I’m done being empathetic about it; I’m not a therapist, and it’s not my job to rehabilitate you. ’
I stared at her, stunned into silence, then I cleared my throat with a rough huff.
‘Respect,’ I rasped, rubbing the back of my neck. ‘I probably deserved that.’
We stared at each other as any lingering tendrils of warmth between us cooled into ice.
‘We need to start packing,’ she murmured, her voice flat and drained of all affection. ‘Our flight out is in a few hours.’
With that, she strode back inside the bedroom, as the stone walls closed in on my heart once more.
ROXY
The rest of the day was a killer, packed with a suffocating tension.
Angel and I lurched from unimaginable bliss back to stifling strain.
Evangeline had succeeded once again in spoiling the little joy I had with her venomous presence, even from all the way in the States.
I’d also contributed to the current shitshow with my unfiltered utterance about loving him, followed by losing my shit at him after my sister’s call.
Why the hell had I done it?
While I castigated myself, Angel folded into himself, falling silent and brooding, his mind probably tripping over whatever garbage my sister spewed into his ears.
I felt so lost and frustrated.
After connecting with such wild, uninhibited passion over the last few days, the cold tundra routine he was pulling now was a massive slap in the face.
Part of me wanted to scream, to demand why he was letting his toxic ex rent space in his head after the magic we just shared.
However, I locked my feelings down, refusing to give in to the angst or let him see me spiral over his moodiness.
Later, after we got packed, we sat down for a final lunch of lemon risotto and grilled shrimp, though neither of us managed to swallow more than three bites.
The silence at the table was dense enough to cut with a steak knife.
After the agonizing meal, we gathered our luggage and said goodbye to Mrs. Campanelli and Carlo.
Angel handed Carlo a fat envelope of Euros, a generous tip that made the driver’s eyes widen as he muttered his thanks.
He did the same for Mrs C., who almost teared up at the unexpected boon.
‘I have a parting gift for you,’ I said, sliding a canvas portrait of the housekeeper toward her.
She studied it and let out a gasp, pressing her hands to her cheeks.
Setting it aside, she pulled me into a fierce embrace and planted a kiss on my cheek.
‘I see the sadness is back, bella,’ she murmured into my hair, in a whisper meant just for me. ‘Non preoccuparti, there are always highs and lows on the journey to true love.’
‘Grazie,’ I whispered back, my throat tightening with a sudden swell of emotion. ‘For everything. For being an amazing hostess with the mostess, for the food, for the care, and for the blatant matchmaking scheming.’
Mrs. Campanelli widened her eyes in magnificent, faux innocence. ‘Me? Plotting? Never!’
I let out a genuine laugh, the first one in hours, and, forgetting our tension for a second, I glanced at my husband.
‘If this place were mine, it’d be a dream come true. We’ll return, won’t we, Angel?’
He managed a wry, tight smile from the doorway.
‘Maybe.’
‘That’s a yes, a good enough answer for me!’ Mrs. Campanelli said.
She marched over and boldly kissed his sculpted cheek, which lifted some of the gruffness from his expression.
We departed the estate, Carlo driving us down to the bustling marina where our private boat waited to ferry us back to the Italian mainland.
I stared out at the receding cliffs, wistful as my brain replayed our honeymoon.
It had been, as Charles Dickens said, the best of times and the worst of times.
We boarded our flight back home a few hours later.
Angel remained distant the entire trip, staring out the airplane window.
I chose to ignore his brooding and pulled out my tablet to scroll through my treasure trove of photos and charcoal sketches.
I started planning my next art series, one I intended to base on our sacred time at Isola Dell’Amore.
A collection that would capture the agony, the bliss, the torture, and the beauty of our time together.