Dad cleared his throat. Both he and Frederica watched us in embarrassment. “We’ll give you some time to talk.”
Dad stepped back, exchanging a look with Frederica before the two of them left the room and closed the door.
I ran my hand over Anna’s hair. She must have had it in an updo for the wedding but most of the pins had fallen out by now. “I’m sorry it took me so long to cancel the wedding. I should have done it much sooner.”
“You should have. Of course you picked the worst possible moment. I’m sure your father is already planning my beheading.”
Not that I cared. Knowing that Anna could finally be mine was worth an early grave.
She lifted her head, her eyes soft and actually glassy. “I thought I’d lose you. I was terrified. The idea that you might not be there anymore… I couldn’t bear it.”
“I’m alive, and I have no intention of dying anytime soon.”
“Ever,” she said firmly.
“I definitely intend to die before you, because I sure as fuck don’t want to live without you.”
Anna shook her head with a small smile. “This is macabre.”
I cupped her cheek and pulled her in for a kiss, wanting to taste her without the fear of getting caught, without the knowledge that our togetherness was doomed to be temporary. There was no expiration date for our love anymore. No wedding that hung over our heads like a Damocles sword.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, not nearly enough when a knock rang out.
“I fear this might be my mother,” Anna said with an apologetic smile.
Valentina came in as if on cue. She was still dressed in a dark green evening gown, with an elegant updo and high heels. She was dressed to celebrate her daughter’s wedding, but instead, she visited me in the hospital for what I knew would be a very unpleasant conversation.
Valentina’s face made her displeasure very clear. I couldn’t believe that she’d stopped the wedding alongside Anna. One thing was sure, she hadn’t done it because she wanted Anna and me together.
“Let me have a word with Santino,” she said, and her voice was pure steel, not brooking an argument.
“Mom.”
“Anna,” Valentina said sharply. “You and Santino have been playing your father and me for a long time, and I think it’s my right to talk to Santino now. I want to hear his take on things.”
I gave Anna an encouraging smile. I was a big boy. I could handle her mom.
Anna slinked out but not before giving her mother a pleading look. I doubted it made much of an impression.
I had to admit, I would have preferred a confrontation with Dante at this point. Valentina looked like a lioness determined to protect her cubs and she had every intention of ripping me apart.
“Did you lie?”
I raised my eyebrows, trying to figure out which instance she was referring to.
“When I talked to you shortly before we flew to Paris, you said you had absolutely no interest in my daughter and only saw her as a job. Were you lying? Did you already have an affair with my daughter at that point? Maybe even before she was of age?”
“There was nothing between me and Anna before she turned eighteen,” I said immediately, which was mostly true. “And it was my determination to keep a professional relationship with her, so I didn’t lie that day.”
“But you knew she was interested in you, and you weren’t completely disinterested.”
My first instinct was to lie, and I probably would have done it if the thought that Valentina might become my mother-in-law one day hadn’t crossed my mind.
If Dante didn’t kill me for sleeping with his daughter and ruin the bond with the Clarks. I didn’t want to start a possible family bond with a lie. “Yes, I did. But I was sure I was strong enough to stay professional.”
“You weren’t,” Valentina said in a clipped voice.
“Anna is a very strong-willed woman. She knows what she wants and how to get it.”
“So you’re saying you couldn’t possibly have resisted her advances and you’re not at fault?”
“Oh it’s my fault. I fell in love with Anna, and I pursued her once I realized it. I enjoyed the time we got to spend together in Paris and I hated the idea of her marrying Clifford.”
“You love my daughter?”
“I love her more than anything. If I’d woken in time, I would have stopped the wedding myself. Hell, I would have pushed Clifford aside and married her myself.”
Valentina regarded me in silence for a moment before she gave a satisfied nod. Then a small smile spread on her face. “If my husband doesn’t kill you, I’m sure I can eventually make peace with you.”
“Thanks?”
The door opened again but this time it was Dad. The tension in his body told me he wasn’t alone. He gave Valentina a quick nod in greeting before he moved to my side and sank down in the chair that he’d occupied for countless hours in the last few weeks. Dante stepped in after him. I stifled a groan.