Matteo
“Valentina!!” I shouted again, my voice rough as I pushed through the thick underbrush of the woods.
How on earth had a woman with such dainty legs run this far?
My heart pounded in my chest, the fury mixed with a growing sense of dread. She just had to pull an “Isabella” and ran away when something didn’t work her way.
Reckless.
Foolish.
And someone just walked away from her the moment my eyes landed on her frame.
She stood at the edge of a small clearing. The moonlight casted a pale glow over her face. Her arms are crossed, her back turned to me, as if she was purposely trying to distance herself from everything.
And that included me.
But I wasn’t going to have that.
“Valentina!!”
I stomped forward, the crunching sound of the fallen leaves and twigs as my boots made contact was satisfying. She didn’t even flinch when I came to a stop behind her, my hands clenched into fists at my sides.
“You do not run off like that!!” I snapped, the anger spilling over before I could even think to rein it in. “Do you even realize how dangerous it is?”
Valentina whirled around to face me, her grey eyes blazing with fury. “And you can’t keep controlling everything, Matteo. Plus, I’m not your prisoner!!”
I took a step closer, towering over her. My rage grew even more when I caught sight of her trembling lips and the stubborn tilt of her chin.
The fear I had tried to keep hidden joining it.
Who had been with her?
“I’m trying to protect you!” From me, from my family, from anyone who would hurt you. “But you make it impossible when you pull a stunt like this.”
“What a nice way to keep me protected,” Valentina scoffed, throwing her hands in the air. “By treating me like a child? Hiding things from me? That’s not protection, Matteo.”
I ran a hand through my hair, trying to keep my frustration in check, but it was a losing battle. “You were protected by your parents all your life, Valentina. You are not equipped for this world.”
The death. The struggle. I wanted neither to affect her.
Those beautiful eyes narrowed, and for a moment, she looked like she was going to lunge at me. “I’m not some fragile thing, Matteo. Pretending I am isn’t going to help you not lose your title. You brought me into this mess, so let me help instead of shutting me out at every turn.”
She was right.
I stared at her, chest heaving, the words on the tip of my tongue, but something held me back.
I had kept her at arm’s length since day one. Made decisions for her, never with her. And most of those decisions, I couldn’t even keep.
But what she didn’t understand is that it wasn’t done out of malice.
Fear clawed at my throat.
I did everything out of fear.
“If you’d just listen…”
“No!” She interrupted, stepping closer, her chest heaving with the force of her anger. “You listen to me for once. I know something isn’t right with this Isabella’s solution, I know you did not want me to know about the situation with your title. I’m not some dumb bitch.”
The accusation hung in the air, as sharp as a sparing knife. My blood ran cold.
So I did what I was known for.
“Who was here?”
I deviated.
She hesitated, and that was all it took for my rage to flare up again. I grabbed onto her arm, not hard enough to hurt, but enough to make her pay attention.
“Tell me who the hell was here, Valentina.”
She yanked her arm away, her eyes flashing with defiance. “It doesn’t matter. He’s gone.”
He.
The word sent a violent wave of possessiveness through me. “Who the fuck was it?” My voice was cold now, the barely restrained fury seeped into every syllable. “If someone’s…”
“He’s gone, Matteo! Just like you’ll be if you keep acting like this!”
Her words slammed into me like a slap.
My hands fell to my sides, and for a moment, I’m stunned into silence.
Gone?
Was she threatening to leave me?
“Is that what you want?” I asked, my voice quieter now, the anger drained out until only the bitter sense of betrayal remained. “To be rid of me?”
She didn’t answer right away, but the silence spoke volumes.
I saw it in the way her jaw tightened, the way her gaze flickers away from mine. She was thinking about it. She’d thought about it before.
“Maybe I do,” she said softly, but the weight of those words is like a sledgehammer to my chest. “Maybe I need space from you. From all of this.”
I took a step back, the ground beneath me feeling less steady than it should. “Space? What does that even mean?”
“It means…” she hesisteted, her breath catching, and I could see the cracks forming. The cracks in her resolve. “It means I’m tired, Matteo. Tired of feeling like I don’t matter.”
I could feel the temper rising again. But this time, it wasn’t aimed at her.
It was aimed at myself.
She was right.
I had used her, manipulated her into marrying me. Manipulated her into thinking her sister wasn’t kidnapped. Manipulated her into being a trophy wife.
“You matter,” I managed to say, my voice rough, barely controlled. “You’ve always mattered.”
She shook her head, tears shimmering in her eyes. “No, I don’t. Not to you, not really. I’m just another piece on your board, and I don’t think I can live like that anymore.”
“Valentina…” I took a step forward, my hand reaching out for hers, but she pulled back.
The rejection stung more than I would care to admit.
“I don’t know how to fix this,” she whispered, and there was so much pain in her voice that it almost broke me. “But I can’t keep pretending like everything’s okay when it’s not.”
Speechless.
She rendered me speechless.
For the first time in a long time, I did not know what to say. I had no idea how to make it right.
“Is that what you want then?” I asked, my voice hollow. “To be free of me?”
She didn’t answer immediately, and the silence stretched between us like a chasm. Finally, she shook her head. “I don’t know what I want anymore, Matteo. I just know that I need more than this.”
More than this.
The words sliced through me like one of Jackson’s blade.
I turned away from her, unable to stand the sight of her tears, the sound of her voice trembling with emotions I wasn’t fit to handle.
Every instinct screamed at me to fix this, to pull her into my arms and make it better.
But how did one fix something that was broken from the start?
How would I fix us?
I turned back toward the path that led me here, fists clenched and jaw tight. “Fine,” I spat out, the anger barely masking the ache in my chest. “You want space. Take it.”
Before she could say anything, I stormed off into the darkness, leaving her standing there in the moonlight, looking as lost as I felt.
The wind whipped through the trees, the only sound breaking the silence as I pushed further into the woods. My mind raced, my body vibrated with anger, but beneath it all, there was something else.
Fear.
Fear that I was losing her.
Feat that I had lost her already.
But I couldn’t turn back. Not now. Not after everything that had been said.
So I kept walking, the shadows swallowing me whole, even as a voice in the back of my mind whispered that I might have just made the biggest mistake of my life.