Chapter Eighteen #3
‘What the hell? It’s not like this day could get worse.’
‘That’s the spirit,’ Enzo muttered, and Emilio smiled despite himself.
He opened the book to a page marked with a sticky note. He resumed his pacing as he read.
I signed my will today. Bennedetto made me create the first one all those years ago.
Stood over my shoulder as I signed it. But I always knew I would leave the vineyards to Emilio.
He never had his father’s favour. And now there will always be something to tie Enzo and Emilio together.
Especially when I’m gone. If Enzo takes the vineyards, there will be nothing to tie Emilio to the company; he’ll leave and that will be the end for my sons.
My death might bring them together…but that is probably wishful thinking.
Maybe if they are forced to work together, they will talk.
I’ll talk to the lawyers, try to give them that time.
They need to learn to be brothers again.
Emilio had been thinking of leaving; his mother had foreseen it.
But this explained why there were two wills.
Why she had instructed the lawyers to wait.
The memory of those family dinners flashed across his mind.
Perhaps she’d been doing the same back then.
Perhaps those had been for the benefit of Enzo and him, not their father.
Their father…
He read the words again, anger curling in the pit of his stomach. ‘Why would he do that? Why force Mamma to create a will for something he knew wasn’t hers?’
‘I don’t know,’ Enzo admitted. ‘To keep up the appearance that he had given them to her? Perhaps it was a test. He was fond of tests.’
‘Did he test you?’
‘Constantly.’
Enzo seems more like an investment than a son.
Jasmine had been right yet again. Emilio felt a pang of sympathy for his brother.
He thought of his own child who he loved so completely even though they were not yet born.
Thought of how he wanted to give them the world, protect them from everything.
He would never force his child to endure tests to prove their worthiness. The thought was horrifying.
‘I didn’t see anything wrong with it at the time,’ Enzo continued. ‘He was just training me to take over.’
‘But now?’
‘Now it’s something else I was wrong about. I’ve been wrong a lot.’ He smiled sadly.
That admission meant so much more than an apology.
But maybe Emilio had been wrong too. He’d been angry at his brother all this time, but it was their father who’d put them both in that situation.
As a soon-to-be father, Emilio wanted his child to love any future sibling.
Would want them to support each other. His father hadn’t cared.
From the moment Emilio had got the paternity test, he’d known he wanted to be a different type of father from the one he’d had.
Now he realised that Enzo hadn’t had a good father, a loving father, either.
What power would Enzo have had over him anyway?
Children weren’t meant to fix their parents’ mistakes.
Emilio moved to sit with his brother. For the first time, Enzo felt like one.
‘Mamma thought she owned those vineyards. Do you realise how elaborate this lie must have been to fool her? Did she just trust him?’
‘We all trusted him, Emilio,’ Enzo said softly. ‘Turns out he only cared about duty—to the vineyards and the company and the family name. Not to us, or Mamma.’
‘I wanted him to feel something for me, Enzo,’ Emilio confessed at the obvious pain in Enzo’s voice. ‘Hate me or love me, I didn’t care. Either would have been better than nothing.’
‘You should have had more memories with him, but I’m glad you don’t, because those memories cost me time with Mamma. I’m happy you have those instead. Those can’t be tarnished.’
That was true. Enzo’s time with their mother had been limited, but he’d always revelled in their father’s attention.
These revelations were easier for Emilio to handle because he had always seen their father for the monster he was.
Enzo, on the other hand… He would be questioning their whole lives.
For the first time, Emilio’s heart broke for his brother.
There’d been obvious affection in his voice when he’d spoken of their mother.
Emilio thought of the vase of pink oleander beside her bed, the flowers that had never seemed to wilt, and felt guilty for years of uncharitable thoughts.
That never-ending supply of bouquets had been proof of Enzo’s love.
‘I’m sorry too, Enzo.’
His brother’s bright-green gaze snapped to him. ‘What for?’
‘You’re a victim in this too. And I made things worse.’
Enzo shook his head. ‘Emilio, Gia wasn’t right for either of us. She cared for only herself and what we could provide her.’
‘That changes nothing,’ Emilio said through gritted teeth.
Enzo frowned and leaned forward in his seat. ‘I forgive you. When will you forgive yourself?’
‘I don’t deserve forgiveness.’
‘Of course you do. Why would you think otherwise?’
Emilio couldn’t answer. Couldn’t tell his brother how ashamed he was, how much he’d changed his life after the affair.
‘Emilio, I want you to listen very carefully to me. I was hurt and so I hurt you. That was wrong of me. I wish I’d handled things differently.
I could have. We’re both to blame for how the last eight years have gone.
It’s not all on you. You deserve forgiveness.
So, ask me.’ Suddenly, his bossy brother was back and the look in Enzo’s eye said he wouldn’t be dissuaded.
‘Ask you what?’
‘Ask for my forgiveness.’
‘Enzo,’ Emilio said brokenly. ‘I can’t’
‘Yes, you can. You have to learn to ask for the things you need. So, do it.’
Could he do that? Could he ask his brother for his forgiveness after hurting him so profoundly?
What harm could come of it?
Nothing, Emilio realised. Things were already the worst they could be. He had nothing to lose.
‘Enzo, will you forgive me for what I did to you? It’s the very worst thing I have done in my life and I regret it to this day. I was stupid and selfish, and I can’t fully express how sorry I am.’
‘I forgive you, Emilio.’ Enzo smiled.
Emilio hadn’t been prepared for what he’d feel at those words. It was as if they stemmed the flow of a gushing wound.
‘I have to atone.’
‘You already have. Emilio, you need to know that you don’t have to earn affection. You deserve to be with someone who deserves you . And, as I hear it, you have found someone.’
‘Not any more.’
‘What happened?’ Enzo sounded genuinely concerned, and it occurred to Emilio that this was what he had craved from his brother growing up: this ability to talk, to share. And, when he hadn’t got that, when he’d been jealous and angry, it had been so much easier to hate Enzo instead.
Have you considered…that perhaps you want the vineyards, not just for our child or what they meant to your mother, but also to have Enzo back in your life in some way?
Emilio should have listened to Jasmine from the start. His mother, in her infinite wisdom, was trying to bring them together from beyond the grave. Maybe he needed to stop being so stubborn.
He told Enzo everything.
‘So you forced her to marry you?’ Enzo asked with raised brows.
‘Don’t you dare judge me. I was doing the right thing.’
‘The right thing for whom? That’s your child, Emilio. They would have been family regardless of whether you were married or not. I wouldn’t have judged you.
Emilio scoffed. ‘You wouldn’t?’
‘I have had time to reflect on a lot,’ Enzo admitted. ‘Jasmine needed a choice, a real choice. I have seen the damage forcing someone into marriage can do. I have destroyed someone for being guilty of it.’
‘Destroyed…?’ That was a strong reaction for someone as controlled as Enzo.
It must have something to do with the person Enzo had said he’d met, and Emilio found himself wanting to know what had happened—not out of curiosity, but because he wanted to know what was going on his brother’s life.
‘I think you have a lot to tell me too.’
Enzo laughed. ‘You have no idea.’
Emilio looked down at his wedding band, all that was left of Jasmine in his life. ‘She said I don’t trust myself.’
‘Do you?’
Emilio only had to think of the things Jasmine had said when she was leaving to answer that question. ‘No.’
‘Then you have to work on that. It sounds to me like you both need each other. You allow her to be all of who she is, and she makes you want to be better. You just need to believe that better man is who you are. One bad action doesn’t make you a bad person, Emilio.’
‘How can you say that? If it weren’t for me, you would have been married.’
‘I would have, and I would have been miserable, but more importantly I would have missed out on Charlotte—and she is the love of my life. But, Emilio, that love was hard fought for. Do you truly love Jasmine?’
‘With my soul.’
‘Then fight for her. Has she sent you a separation agreement yet?’
‘No,’ Emilio realised. A small spark of hope bloomed in the darkness.
Enzo smiled. ‘So all isn’t lost. Get her back.’
Emilio had spent the last three weeks in a spiral of regret and heartache.
He’d been so consumed with his angst that he hadn’t considered the very thing that his brother had noticed in mere minutes: Jasmine hadn’t started divorce proceedings.
She hadn’t returned the ring either. And she was always so on top of things that it couldn’t mean nothing. Why hadn’t he seen it weeks ago?
‘I have to go.’
‘Yes, you do.’ Enzo grinned.
Emilio grabbed his keys off his desk and rushed for the door, leaving his brother in his office.
He stopped in the doorway, remembering things Gia had told him. Things Enzo had confided in her. The insecurities that Emilio was now certain no one had ever put to rest. ‘Enzo.’
His brother looked up at him.
‘You leave your mark on the people around you.’