Page 57 of Seduced By the Enemy

It didn’t work.

They spent Emilia’s birthday celebrating as though nothing was wrong. Salvatore went into overdrive to compensate for the fact that the only messages Emilia received on the day were from her sisters in law, Andie and Skye. Both wrote lovely things, but neither of her brothers messaged, and her parents didn’t call.

Weeks passed. They missed things. Other birthdays. Successes. Events. Dinners.

Each one, Salvatore felt like a stitch in his soul—not of pain, but of certainty. His fury at his family, for cutting him out like this, because he dared, for the first time in a long time, to reach out with both hands for what would make him happy, just made him love Emilia more, appreciating her for the faith she’d put in him by choosing to blend their lives. For choosing to love him, even when it meant this amount of estrangement from both of their families.

It was a conviction though that faded with time. As weeks turned into a month and then another, and Christmas approached, and Emilia began to make throw away comments about her family’s traditions, her memories, and he saw the absences in their lives with more clarity, more feeling than indignation, he knew he couldn’t leave it as it was. Not without attempting, once more, to resolve this.

For Emilia, he had to try. And that meant starting with Leandro.

After more thana week of leaving messages and making calls to Leandro, Salvatore arrived at the Valentino man’s office, recognizing he had no other choice. While he’d happily go the rest of his life without seeing Leandro again, this wasn’t about him. It was about Emilia, and what he would do to giveher everything she deserved. He needed to know he’d tried everything—even this.

“I’m sorry, sir, but Mr. Valentino is busy.”

Salvatore ground his teeth, reminding himself that the diminutive receptionist wasn’t to blame. “I’m sure he can make time.”

“I’m sorry, sir?—,”

“Let me put it this way,” he interrupted. “I’m going into his office. If that’s a problem, call security.”

He strode across the marbled floor without pausing to see her reaction, and then, at the double timber doors that led to Leandro’s office, he simply barged in.

And bam. Double whammy. Not only was Leandroin situ, but his brother Maximillian as well, the bastard who’d taken Acto from under their noses. He stared at both of them, rage and hatred bubbling beneath his belly. But amazingly, it wasn’t rage about Acto. Nor was it anger about the Moricosia deal. Every single shred of fury he felt towards them was on behalf of Emilia, the love of his life. The only love in his life. The woman he would run through the fires of hell for, if she required it of him. Hell, even if she didn’t.

And so, there he stood, staring down these two men who undeniably hated him, knowing he was just about to go through the most important moments of his life.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Max had been sitting, reclined, in a chair by the window, but he jack-knifed out of it as Salvatore burst through the doors, staring the other man down as Leandro strode towards him.

“I’m not here for round two,” Salvatore said, holding up his hands towards Leandro.

“Then what the hell are you doing here?” Max was now striding towards him, repeating his question with more outrage. “Haven’t we made it clear? You’re not welcome.”

“Oh, you’ve made it patently clear,” Salvatore said, dropping his hands and putting them on his hips, holding their gazes as though his blood wasn’t boiling with anger. He didn’t give a shit that these men hated him. It was mutual. But the fact they could so easily cut Emilia out of their lives, as though she meant nothing, made him question their sanity, intelligence and loyalty. It made him want to turn around and storm the hell out of there. But he’d come for Emilia, and he’d see it through. He’d do whatever it took, if there was even the slightest chance that he could make this better. Even just a little.

Because as certain as he was that he loved her, he knew that their happiness would never be complete like this. His first instinct had been right.

While they loved each other, and he didn’t doubt it, he couldn’t keep doing this to her. He wouldn’t be the reason she lost her family.

“I came to talk,” he said, his voice deep and gruff. “I came to talk about the woman we all love—who you’re destroying with this stupid estrangement.”

Max flinched and Leandro had the decency to look close to ashamed.

“Don’t you dare,” Leandro recovered quickly though. “Don’t you dare come here and act as though you have any right to even speak her name. What gives you the goddamn right?”

“I love her,” he growled. “Don’t you get that? I love her, and she loves me. We’re in love. She is everything I’ve ever wanted in my life.”

“You are the one destroying her, not us,” Max said.

“How do you figure?”

“Youknew,” Leandro spat. “I told you what would happen. I knew how they’d react. Family means the world to us, and you are destroying that. Do you have any idea what this is doing to our parents?”

“So help me fix it,” Salvatore said.

“There is no fixing it. Not for as long as you are in her life.”

“Jesus,” Salvatore groaned. “Do you hear yourselves? You are pushing away your sister, allowing your parents to do the same to their daughter, over a vendetta from generations ago. Yes, things happened in the past. Yes, our families have always hated one another. But we can change that. We have to.”

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