Chapter Twelve #3
Tell her? He snorted. This information was likely just another weapon to be wielded against him. A weakness, a chink in his armour. And yet he couldn’t hold it in any longer. It exploded from him.
‘For years I thought my family a simple one. And for years my family have been lying to me. A man I thought was our greatest business rival and enemy is in fact my half-brother.’
Lily frowned. ‘Half-brother? You told me you didn’t have any siblings.’
Now she would see who he was, what he’d been keeping from her. ‘I lied.’
She stumbled back, stilled, regained her composure. Her mouth a little open, eyes wide.
‘I’d asked for truth between us.’
‘And you’ll have it. I can’t love you. This marriage is about our child, nothing more.’
Lily seemed to wilt like a flower without water. Took a deep breath and then straightened as if she’d found her resolve. Her eyes narrowed.
Good. Looking at his father today had been like looking in a mirror and he didn’t like what he saw.
His father had refused to take accountability for his actions, and wasn’t Rocco doing the same?
He hadn’t listened when his father had warned about Tessitore and now the company was at risk.
He could have pushed his father. Taken over trying to ink a deal sooner.
Then with Lily, railroading her into staying with him.
Taking away her freedom with seduction because whilst she hadn’t been innocent, she was inexperienced.
He’d had all of the advantages and used her own body and desire against her.
He could have given her millions for a comfortable life, without the need to marry him.
Yet he’d trapped her instead of freeing her.
All the way along, he hadn’t given a damn. That wasn’t love, that was manipulation and possession. He couldn’t love at all, Carla had seen to that.
‘What about the baby. Can you love them?’
He shook his head. That’s not what he’d meant.
A baby was different. He’d never regret the child Lily carried, would he?
But he wasn’t a man who could love a woman because love required trust, and he had no trust to give.
A child didn’t require anything of him. There was no risk because a baby wouldn’t betray him.
‘I’ll feel for my child as any parent should.’
Lily paled, as white as the few jonquils still blooming in the lawn. Was she going to fall? He almost reached out but took a step back instead. Better to keep his distance.
‘But you’ll never love the mother who carries him or her.’
‘I told you from the beginning how it would be. You agreed that you wanted the same. I can give you money. I can give you a home. I can care for our child. There will be passion. But love is not something I can do.’
‘That sounds like a cop-out, Rocco.’
‘You can’t understand.’
‘I can! I was engaged to a man I thought I loved and then I overheard him telling his father that he felt nothing for me. That I was dull. His father’s solution? Have affairs with other people. I didn’t think I could love again either and yet here I am. It’s called personal growth.’
Rocco snorted. ‘You think it’s so easy. This has nothing to do with growth and everything to do with how I want to live my life.’
‘That’s the problem. You’re talking about your life.
I know what it’s like to grow up in a home where love was based on whether you toed the family line.
The minute I realised I was pregnant I knew I wanted more for this baby.
I wanted them to always grow up surrounded by love, to feel certain of it.
You seemed to offer me that, luring me in with dreams of caring, of a village. But you don’t really care, do you?’
Lily stalked towards him, tugging at her ring finger. She wrenched off her engagement ring and held it out to him.
‘You can have this back.’
He should reach out, take the ring from her. Then she’d be free. Yet he stared at the sparkling jewel with a sense of dread. Wanting to push Lily away and cling to her at the same time.
‘What about the baby?’
Lily stood tall, her head held high and proud.
‘I’m thinking about them. Our baby deserves to live in a home where they’ll see a couple modelling a loving relationship. I never want them to think we were trapped in a marriage because of them. It’s not what I deserve and it’s grossly unfair and selfish of you to refuse to even try.’
He understood the sense in it. If he truly was his father’s son, then one day he might act like his father had.
Treat the child as a mistake. Sickening knots tightened in his gut.
What if Vito was right? ‘You are more my son than you know …’ If that was the case, why should Lily stay?
Yet he needed to hear the words from her, hard and clear. A statement, not a question.
‘You’re taking this baby away from its father.’
Lily shook her head. ‘I’m taking our baby from the coward who refuses to open his heart to the love that’s being offered to him.’
She turned and walked away, and Rocco did what he had once before. He simply watched her go.