Page 56 of Seduced By the Enemy

“I love you,” he said, because he realised then that he hadn’t actually spoken those words. That there might be some doubt inside of her, that they were on the same page.

Her smile was like the sun breaking out from behind the clouds. It was beautiful and perfect. So he spoke quickly, also needing to temper her response with the reality of this situation.

“But this isn’t going to be easy.”

Predictably, her smile slipped. “Why not?”

“Because our families are going to fucking hate the idea of what we’re doing.”

She grimaced. “Yeah…I know. Can’t we just…hide out a while longer?”

“Leandro knows. There’s no going back.”

She lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

“Besides, I don’t want to keep running around, lying to everyone. The thing is, I love you. I really love you. In a way I’ve never known before. In a way that makes me want to take out a full-page ad in every newspaper in the world and shout I LOVE EMILIA VALENTINO! I’m done with hiding.”

Her lips parted in genuine surprise at his admission. But so what? He knew how he felt, and he wanted her to know it, too.

“So, I’ve been thinking,” he said, moving a hand to her hip.

“Yeah?”

“What if we were to go to Italy today.”

Her eyes roamed his face, her expression impossible to read. “Why would we do that?”

“Because it’s where our families live, and it’s time for us to tell them about this. Besides, you wanted to go for your birthday, didn’t you?”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “Do we have to?”

“Yes.” He didn’t want to expand on that. He didn’t want to tell her that this path she was choosing might seem less appealing, when they’d been through the ringer. Partly, because he didn’t want to admit that, even to himself. “Let’s go to Italy, my darling. Maybe our families will surprise us.”

Their families did not surprisethem. Every single fear of Salvatore’s was confirmed, and every hope of Emilia’s dashed. There was no mistaking the genuinely vitriolic response they received. Nor the intractable outcome of both meetings.

Emilia’s parents had told her the same thing Leandro had Salvatore: if you’re in a relationship with a Santoro, you are no longer welcome in the family. He watched the woman he loved sit there and absorb those verbal blows, shrinking into herself with each tongue lashing until he barely recognised her. The moment they were out of the house, he pulled her into his armsand held her close, while she sobbed and cried, and his gut rolled with a sense of absolute devastation.

He was someone who worked to achieve whatever goal he held, but as he’d suspected, this was a lose, lose situation.

He was braced for his parents’ reaction, even when he hoped—because of how loving they were as a rule—for something better, and different. He’d even felt a flare of pride when they’d arrived at his family home—to be bringing Emilia here, like his brothers and cousins had with the women they loved. He understood now what a joy it was to show your partner the place you grew up, to share the memories that were so much a part of you. But that pleasure was short lived. His parents’ reactions were almost identical to the Valentinos. While they didn’t threaten to all but remove Salvatore from the family, they did promise him that Emilia would never be welcomed into their home, their lives, their business. They swore that she would never be mentioned, never be accepted, so Salvatore had had no choice but to stand up, take her hand and tell them that if she wasn’t welcome, he wouldn’t come either.

Even then, he’d thought perhaps that might inspire a change of heart from his mother. His mother, who had wrapped her arms around every stray, loved fiercely and proactively his whole life. Surely his threatened absence would make her wake up and see that Emilia deserved a chance.

It didn’t.

When he reminded them of his father’s favourite saying, ‘famiglia e tutto’—family is everything—Gianni had simply nodded. “Exactly. And you are choosing the opposite of family. We can never forgive this, my son.” It had been one of the worst moments of Salvatore’s life.

They walked away from his family’s house, and yet, in his heart, Salvatore was devastated. Not just for himself, and his parents, but for Emilia. It was impossible to feel anything butshell shocked as they left Italy behind—along with a wake of awful, devastating conversations.

For as long as he could remember, Salvatore’s life had been interwoven with his brothers and cousins. They spoke daily, texted, video called, and worked together. It became evident very quickly that they had sided with his parents—something he would never have expected. But the anger and rage towards the Valentinos was so fierce, particularly given the recent corporate disasters the Santoros had experienced because of Emilia’s family. But how could their families fail to put that aside?

It hit Emilia just as hard. Three days after leaving Italy, she received an email from her company’s legal team—not even one of her brothers—telling her that she’d been removed as a director of her charitable foundation, and that the Moricosian deal had been taken over by another department.

Salvatore was outraged. He wanted to fight on her behalf, to bring his own lawyers into it, but she’d simply shaken her head and stared out of the window as a single tear slid down her cheek. Impotence had grown like a snake in his belly, twisting and spitting so for the first time in a long time, he felt his emotions burst through him in an uncontrollable way that he hated. Because what was the good of anger? They’d known they’d have to go through this. They’d prepared for it, as best they could. And it was worth it.

It had to be.

They left for Singapore the next day, to look at the land Salvatore wanted to buy, and in the back of his mind was the hope that with a change of scenery, the problems with their families would fade. That their original anger would mute in time, as they came to see that Salvatore and Emilia weren’t going to be dissuaded by their disapproval.

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