Page 18 of Shattered Choices

Salvatore

Of course, I didn’t leave for New York.

If she expects me to just leave and not take her with me, she can think again. If she doesn’t want to listen to me, I will need to show her how I’ve changed.

If she doesn’t want my words, then she will get my actions.

I have a plan.

One I didn’t have when I first came here because I didn’t know what I would find. And that was a big mistake. It was a mistake to barge into that club expecting… what? To be left alone with her without interruption? That she would say yes to my request?

But now, it’s different. Now I know I will be met with resistance, stubbornness, and hurt, I need a plan.

The goal is to take my wife back with me, but what I need to do to get to that point is a much bigger issue.

First step, be a stalker.

It has been a week since I last saw her; I studied her movements and Pino’s.

From Thursday until Saturday, she is out in the city near her home. She stays in the apartment above the club I saw her in. On these days, the men I saw with her that day also join her. Some leave early, some don’t. She is never alone. Pino is always by her side. Strangely, I’m relieved to know that. At least he is good for something.

Keeping her safe.

Which is also making me fill with fury and hatred toward him because it’s not me. I should keep her safe. I should be by her side.

But I’m not because I’m paying the price for my choices.

She spends Sundays with her father, and other days, she just shops or drinks coffee with different women. I find that strange, and I let Rocco look into the women. They are all business owners.

It’s Monday, and since I can’t enter the club because of what happened last time, I’m banking on her being in the restaurant having dinner with one of the women she’s always with.

I’m sitting in the corner near the bathroom because I know she will go to the bathroom as soon as she is done with her food to fix herself. It’s the only place I can corner her where none of her guard dogs will be nearby.

As soon as I see she has finished her food and is reaching for her purse, I know it’s time. I stand and sneak into the women’s bathroom that I know will be empty because I bribed a waitress into closing it so I could get Isabella all alone inside. I take offthe paper attached to the door that saysclosedand enter, hiding myself in the stall. I hear her come in, and I peek through the door to make sure that it’s the person I’m waiting for.

I smirk to myself and exit the stall.

Her hands are under the water, and she doesn’t flinch when I appear behind her. She narrows her eyes at me in the mirror. “I thought you left.”

“Now, why would you think that?” In two big steps, I walk toward the door and flick the lock closed. “I promised you something, didn’t I?”

She doesn’t answer as she takes the towel and dries her hands. She turns toward me. “I’m not interested.”

“Look, Isabella, we need to talk. I wasn’t in the right head space when you left. I shouldn’t have let you leave in the first place.”

She scoffs. “You’re too late. I already told you that. I have a new life here. One you are not a part of.”

“I could be part of it if you would let me.”

She exhales and shifts her angry glare toward me. “You need to let it go. I can’t go back. I can’t talk about the past anymore. I’ve dealt with it, and so should you.”

“I can only do that if you’re ready to listen to me.” I narrow my eyes, challenging her.

She snorts, frustration showing on her face. “No. I have nothing to say to you until I get those papers signed. There is no going back, Salvatore.”

Heat burns in my chest. “I’m not signing anything. If you want to get rid of me, you will have to kill me. Because death is the only thing that will keep me away from you,” I growl.

“You want to talk? Fine.” She closes her purse and places it with a thud on the counter. “You want to tell me where were you when I almost died? When I lost the one thing that gave me hope in our life together? You want to tell me where you were when Icried myself to sleep because I felt empty, and you weren’t there to hold me and tell me everything would be all right?” With every accusing word, her voice rises and her words cut deep into my heart. For a second, hurt flashes in her eyes before they darken. “Or when I saw my bruised and empty body in the mirror and cried myself into oblivion? You weren’t there for any of those moments, the most difficult times in my life. How can I expect anything different from you now?”

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