Temporarily His Princess (Married by Royal Decree 1)

She spilled off him, staggering up only to take two steps before slumping down on the opposite armchair. She looked at him as if waiting for a blow.

He had to hear her reasons from her own lips. “Why did you put this on my desk today, Glory?”

“Today?” Her eyes rounded. “I—I put it there over a week ago. I thought you’d long seen it, and when you didn’t mention it I thought…”

“What did you think?”

A spasm seized her face. “I didn’t know what to think.”

“What did you want me to think when I saw it? What were you telling me?”

The pained look deepened; her voice sounded strangled. “I was offering you my answer to what I thought you were telling me, when you… When you…”

“When I what?”

“When you stopped taking me to your functions and started canceling our dates.”

“What did you think I was telling you?”

“What you said when you didn’t come ho…here the past three nights. What you just said very clearly. That this time around it took much less than six months for you to get tired of me.”

Her lips, her chin, shook on the last words. The tethers of his heart shook, almost tearing themselves out.

“But then I expected that from the beginning,” she choked out. “And now that I realize what you think happened in the past, I’m even wondering why you wanted me again at all. This is why I brought you the prenup, since I thought you must have been regretting not taking it, must be worried about repercussions with no provisions in place when you ended it with me again. But it’s a good thing I didn’t let my condo go as you told me to. I’ll move back there tonight.”

“Glory…”

She spoke over his plea, as if hearing his voice hurt her. “I will pretend we’re still together so no one will know anything before you’re ready to announce our split when the year is over. Until then, whenever you need me to make appearances with you, y-you have my number. If I’m not traveling, I’ll play the part I agreed to.”

And he was on his feet, then at hers, his hands going around her beloved head, making her raise her wounded gaze to his. “Every single thing you thought has no basis in fact. I didn’t get tired of you. I would sooner get tired of breathing.”

Redness surged in her eyes, her whole face shaking. “D-don’t say that…don’t say what you don’t mean. Not again.”

“The only time I said what I didn’t mean to you was that day I kicked you out of my life. I did… I do love you, I never loved anyone but you, never had anyone since you.”

Her eyes seemed to melt, her cheeks flooding with tears. “Oh, God, Vincenzo…I can’t… I don’t…”

“You have to believe me.” He aborted her headshake, pulling her into a fierce kiss, before drawing away to probe her stunned face. “But you said you now realized what I thought in the past. You mean you now know why I left you?”

Her nod was difficult. “You knew about my family’s crimes—thought me their accomplice?”

“It was much worse than that.”

Her eyes flew wider. “What could be worse?”

And he finally confessed. Everything. Everything but the latest blow Brandon had dealt him.

By the time he’d fallen silent, she was frozen. Even her tears had stopped midway down her cheeks. She wasn’t breathing.

It felt like an hour later when she finally choked out, “Your research was stolen and my…mother told you…told you…”

The rest backlashed in her throat, seeming to go down as if it was broken glass. Anguish so fierce gripped her every feature, radiated from her, buffeting him.

“I now believe that they must have forced you…or something…I just know it wasn’t your fault. Just like I believe this latest security breach can’t be your doing.”

Her wounded eyes widened. “What latest security breach?”

Feeling as if he was spitting razors, he said, “Top secret data in my current negotiations have been leaked. According to this security report I got today, the leak came from your phone and computer.”

She jerked as if he’d shot her.

He grabbed her shoulders, begging. “I can’t think anymore, Glory, and I won’t. I want you to tell me what to think. Trust me, please, tell me everything and I will solve it all. I’m on your side this time, and only on your side, and will always be, no matter what….”

She started shaking her head, her hands gripping it as if to keep it from bursting.

“Amore, per favore, please, believe me, let me help….”

Her incoherent cry cut him off as she exploded to her feet. Before another nerve fired, she’d hurtled out of the bedroom and slammed out of the penthouse.

By the time he ran after her, she was gone.

*

Glory stared at the woman she thought loved her beyond life itself. The woman whose betrayal had wrecked her life.

Her mother’s silent tears poured down her cheeks, her eyes pleading.

For what? Glory’s understanding? Her forgiveness? How could she give either when there was nothing left inside her? Everything had been destroyed. Nothing was left but shock and disillusionment. They expanded from her gut, threatening to burst her arteries, her heart. They crashed through her in torrents of decimating agony.

“You have to know the rest, darling,” her mother choked out.

There was more? She couldn’t hear any more. She had to get out of here, hide, disappear.

She escaped her mother’s imploring hands as she ran again. She never wanted to stop running.

She spilled out into the street, ran and ran.

But there was no outrunning the realizations.

Everything was far worse than her worst projections. But one thing was worse than anything else. One realization.

Vincenzo’s cruelty to her perceived betrayal hadn’t been cruel at all. Cruel would have been to have her arrested. Even that would have only been his right, what he should have done. But he hadn’t. That meant one thing.

He had loved her.

He’d loved her so much that even getting incontrovertible proof of her betrayal hadn’t made him retaliate. He’d only tried to protect himself, cutting her off. Then, when she wouldn’t let him, he’d pushed her away in a way he’d thought wouldn’t harm her, since he’d believed she’d felt nothing for him, had been manipulating him from day one.