You’ll never be good enough for her. You know it. I know it. And soon, Hana will know it, too.
How long would it be before she realized Antonio was utterly unworthy of her? How long before she saw the deep, mysterious flaw that had caused everyone, starting with his own parents, to steer clear of him?
Kintsugi, indeed. Nothing broken was ever better than something unused and whole, he thought bitterly. No philosophy would ever make him believe otherwise. Not against the experience of his life.
Antonio tried to fight the panic rising inside him. He repeated to himself, over and over, that he could trust Hana. Hadn’t she proved that, time and time again?
He trusted her. He trusted her. He repeated the words like a spell of protection. Hana alone had never lied to him, never betrayed him. He could trust her, he told himself. He could trust her. He had no choice.
But what if he couldn’t? What if she left—and took everything, leaving him utterly destroyed? How could he just stand by an
d wait for it to happen?
CHAPTER NINE
HANA WASN’T SURE how it started, or why.
The week they were married was the happiest of her life. But every day after that, there was a little less happiness, like air let out of a leaky tire.
For the last six months, they’d lived as husband and wife in Madrid, working each day in the CrossWorld Airways headquarters, a glass and steel skyscraper in the financial center of the city, then sleeping together each night in the gorgeous bedroom of their nineteenth-century palacio, with its wrought-iron veranda covered with bright pink bougainvillea.
Their lives should have been perfect. And they were—on the outside.
But on the inside...
She still didn’t understand what had happened. All summer, from the moment she’d married him in Tokyo last April, she should have felt like the luckiest woman on earth. So, except for the happy day in June when they’d found out they were having a daughter, why did it feel like each day, she had less than the day before?
Like now. Coming to tell her husband it was time to leave for the party, Hana froze in the hallway as she heard the COO’s voice carry through the partially open door of Antonio’s office.
“I understand Señora Delacruz isn’t getting paid. She doesn’t even have a title. Why?”
“I haven’t decided yet what my wife’s place should be.” Antonio’s voice was cold.
“You could add her to the board. Even as chairman.” The man gave a low laugh. “You must know CrossWorld couldn’t do without her.”
“I know.” Her husband’s voice became colder still. “She is very popular with the staff.”
“Popular with everyone... But it’s awkward, since no one is quite sure what her official position is. It makes it confusing. Does she have a position here, or not?”
Hana strained to listen. She’d asked Antonio so many times over the summer when he would be making her new position in the company official, and giving her some title beyond just being his wife. But every time she asked, his expression closed up. “Later,” he always said. And that was exactly what he said now.
“Later. We have more important things to discuss.” Antonio paused. “Like how we can gain control of Lund Avionics...”
With an intake of breath, Hana abruptly pushed inside his door. “No. You can’t take the poor man’s company! It would be unthinkably cruel.”
Her husband glowered at her. Looking around his sleek office with its beautiful view of Madrid, she saw not just the COO, but also his secretary and the head of acquisitions, all of whom were gaping at Hana now.
Antonio didn’t like employees arguing with him, so they rarely did. Maybe that was why the COO, and everyone else at the Madrid headquarters, appreciated Hana. As his secretary, she’d been the only one to push back against Antonio, even gently. Now, as his wife and partner, she did it full bore.
She didn’t hold back. She couldn’t be afraid to argue for what she thought was right for the company. It was their family’s airline, after all, that would someday be run by their daughter.
So now, in response to Antonio’s furious glare, Hana coolly lifted her chin.
Let others be yes-men and toadies. She was his wife. This company was half hers, even if she didn’t yet officially have the title or shares to prove it.
Once, her job had been to make him look good. Now, it was to be fearless enough to point out when he was wrong.
As he was now.