And I unfreeze in an instant to run forward and throw my arms around him.
“Victor, Victor! Thank God!” I dig my face into his chest, incredibly grateful he showed up on time. “He was asking to talk to you. But he had a gun. I was so scared.”
I tell Victor how afraid I was, clinging to him. But he doesn't return my hug.
And when I pull back to see why not, I find his face an enraged mask.
“You knew,” he signs. “You knew this was a bad idea. And you did it anyway, just to test me.”
I abruptly let go of him, taking a step back. “How was I supposed to know one of your enemies would stalk me to the grocery store?”
He shakes his head. “I am done with this game! It is finished. You will come home with me, and you will stay with me from now on. Forget returning to the Ferraros.”
A cold, terrible feeling comes over me.
“There he is,” I say quietly, my voice laced with disappointment. Then I ask, “How did you know I was in danger?”
Victor jerks at my question. Then he immediately signs, “It doesn't matter.”
“I don’t think it was some sixth sense,” I continue, ignoring his dismissal just like he mostly ignored my wants and desires for ten years. “I think you followed me here. Even though I told you I wanted to bike to the grocery store alone.
Victor’s expression goes from defensive to furious.
“It doesn’t matter,” he says again. “If I had let you go to the grocery store alone, you’d be their hostage right now. Or dead!”
“He said he was using me to get to you. This wasn't about me,” I counter. Then I realize something else. “I was just a tool. To get to you.”
Victor tilts his head like he is dealing with a naïve child. “Yes, I have enemies. That's why you must come home with me now. We don't have time to play these games of yours.”
I’d clung to him. I’d clung to him just a few moments ago. But now I stand strong in front of him to declare, “It wasn't a game to me. It was a test. I was honestly trying to figure out if we had any future together. I got those ownership papers and knew…I knew it had to be another trick. But I saw how Amber and Luca had overcome so much, and I thought, what if the version of Victor from the first two dates was the real deal? What if…”
I shake my head, a river of self-recrimination flowing through me. “What if we’re worth saving, just like Amber and Luca? The stakes were so high. I guess I was deluding myself. Because I wanted this. I wanted us to be like we were in Japan so bad. But Operation Good as New 3.0 was a test. And we both failed it.”
Victor regards me, his face as resolute as stone. “If it was a test, I passed it. I protected you. Even when you didn't know you needed it. Now stop being silly. We must leave and let a cleanup crew take care of this mess.”
I don’t move an inch as I point out, “Why did I need protection? Because of you!”
“No, because of you!” Victor answers, his signs so furious it feels like he’s roaring. “That man was sent by the father of someone I was engaged to marry this very month. But I didn't marry her. I chose you. And now we are at war.”
His words hit me like the unnecessary extra bullets he just put into those four men. Shots firing into our already dead relationship.
“So that’s why you fake married me,” I realize out loud. “Because you wanted to be free to marry someone else.”
Victor visibly stiffens. And he doesn’t answer. But he doesn’t have to.
“So, you expect me to what?” I ask him. “Fall to the ground at your feet and thank you for protecting me from the enemy you made because you chose me, even after I told you I didn't want to be with you?”
Victor unfreezes to sign, “It doesn't matter if you want to be with me. That’s where you belong. With me.”
I shake my head as epiphany after epiphany pops off inside of me. “That's just it. It does matter. My feelings matter. I’m a human being with agency, not some prize to be captured—or how did you put it? Chosen. That's what you never got. Even when you were pretending to be my sweet high school boyfriend.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “All those years, you accused me of lying. But you were the liar all along. And you're still the same monster. The fact that you're trying to drag me back to yet another Rhode Island prison against my will proves that.”