Page 181 of Sinful Lies

“Then listen to me, Jade. I need to say this. Something I’ve been keeping for too damn long.”

“No, Angelo. Please?—”

“I love you,” I forced out, the words breaking past all the walls I’d put up around my heart. “I’ve loved you since the moment you burst into my life—riding your high horse, throwing your big ego around, pouting like you owned the damn world. And maybe you did, because you’ve ownedmefrom the start. I’ve never been able to look away from you ever since.”

She went still, like my words had paralyzed her.

“I’ve loved you every day, more and more,” I continued. “Working with you, arguing with you, justhavingyou in my life… It became my routine. My anchor. You changed everything—how I saw the world, how I saw myself. And I know—” my voice cracked, barely audible now. “I know I’ve hurt you with my words over the years. God, I hurt you, and I hate myself for it. But, Jade… I never meant a single one of them. Not one.”

Her lips parted, but no sound came.

“I said those things because I didn’t know how to say the truth. Because the truth—thistruth—terrified me. I was scared that the second I let it slip, the second my hands let go of this, you’d fly away. And I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you.”

Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears.

“So, please. Let me be yours, Jade. Let me be the one for you.”

Everything I’d kept buried for years came rushing out, raw and untamed. My mask cracked, but it didn’t feel like relief—it felt like everything was slipping through my fingers.

“I can’t—We can’t—” A sob broke from her.

I took a step forward, but she stopped me.

“You can’t love me, Angelo. Not after what I’ve done.”

She turned, walking to the window, the lights of New York glowing brighter, everyone gearing up for the countdown to New Year’s Eve.

I glanced at the time.

11:58 p.m.

I moved towards her, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her back into me. She cried silently, her hands resting on my arms, my head pressing into her neck.

For a moment, I just held her—letting her break.

I pressed a kiss to the crook of her neck.

“There’s nothing you could do that would ever make me stop loving you, Jade.”

Another sob left her lips. “Don’t say that…”

“I mean it.”

She sniffled, her head dropping back onto my shoulder, her eyes fluttering shut.

“I love you too, Angelo,” she whispered. “So much. Too much, and I shouldn’t. But for some reason, my heart betrayed me and chose you.”

Relief washed over me, settling deep in my chest.

I had seen it in her eyes, felt it in the way she’d kissed me, but hearing her say it… that made it real. It erased all the fucking doubts away.

I nuzzled her neck, inhaling the scent of her—sointoxicating,sofucking addictive, that I couldn’t stop myself. I kissed her neck again, feeling her shiver under my lips.

“What do you mean?”

She stayed silent, her body trembling in my arms, eyes closed as if she couldn’t find the strength to speak.

But just as I thought she might, the sound of fireworks exploded outside, bursting in the sky in a dazzling array of shimmering colors. The flashes lit up the windows, casting fleeting shadows over her face.

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