You’ll never be good enough for her. You know it. I know it. And soon, Hana will know it, too.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he tried to push away Tanaka’s words and return to that drowsy, contented feeling of a moment before. But it was impossible.
Hana was looking at him with her brown eyes full of tortured hope. She’d just told him she loved him. She was waiting for his answer.
But even if she believed she loved him now, it wouldn’t last. Soon she would open her beautiful brown eyes and see that he was unworthy of her. She’d turn away. She’d scorn him.
She’d leave.
At the thought, ice spread across Antonio’s body, from the tips of his fingers and toes toward his center, flash-freezing every cell and nerve, racing up his spine. Ice reached his heart, cracking into shards.
Hana sat up in bed, her lovely face worried. “Antonio?”
“I—” Was he having a heart attack? Was he dying? His breathing was hoarse. His heart felt like it had stopped beating. He had to control the situation. He couldn’t let her realize the truth—
“What’s wrong?” she said anxiously, putting her hand on his bare shoulder.
Jerking away, he nearly fell out of the bed. “Where is the post-nup?”
With bewildered eyes, she pointed to the end table by the fireplace. Stumbling over, he found the pages, saw her signature at the bottom. Hana Delacruz. The postnuptial agreement had been more generous than his lawyers had liked, but they’d mostly been relieved that one now existed. “You have to get her to sign this immediately, señor. Your whole life is at risk.”
But Antonio didn’t feel better now that he held the financial document in his hands. Because it wasn’t just his business empire that was at stake.
He couldn’t look at her, at those brown eyes that had started to lose hope. Grabbing clothes from the enormous walk-in closet, he pulled on jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. He grabbed a Louis Vuitton duffel bag.
“Where are you going?” Hana exclaimed.
He kept his voice expressionless. “New York.”
“So early? Surely you don’t have to leave in the middle of the night!”
“My competitors don’t rest. Neither can I.”
She seemed to shrink a little on the bed, pulling the blanket up higher, over her belly, all the way to her neck.
“How can you leave me like this?” she whispered. “I just told you I love you!”
Antonio didn’t look at her as he roughly put clothes in the duffel bag. “I never asked for your love.”
“I know.” She took a deep breath. “When we married, I didn’t want your love, either. I was afraid if we fell in love, our child might feel excluded, as I once did, from parents focused only on each other. But now I know it doesn’t have to be that way. I can love you both. So much.”
He paused. “You can love me if you want. But I’m not like you. I don’t have...”
“Feelings?” she choked out.
“The ability to love you in such a sentimental fashion. I’ll never be like Tanaka, mooning over you all the time. I care for you and our child. Caring is an action, not an emotion. I will always provide for you and the children. But CrossWorld Airways is what I love. It’s the only thing I can control. The only thing that lasts.”
“Family doesn’t last? Love?”
He gave a low, bitter laugh. “No. Love doesn’t last.”
Hana’s expression suddenly changed. “Why don’t you admit the truth?”
“And what’s that, Hana?”
“You’re afraid to love me. Just as you’re afraid to find out the truth about your parents. But the worst thing is, you like being afraid. Because it’s safe.” She lifted her chin. “You’re a coward, Antonio.”
His body recoiled.