Page 60 of Seduced By the Enemy

“You’re sorry?” she repeated, furious and disgusted all at once. And now, those emotions put fire in her belly and strength in her veins, so she pushed up to standing, looking around with a sort of wild eyed fury. “You’resorry? I tore my whole life apart for this—for you—and you’resorry?”

He stared at her blankly.

“Sorry is what you say when you swipe someone’s car or accidentally close the door in someone’s face. It isnotenough to say when you ruin a person’s life.”

He flinched, but she barely noticed.

“Well, I’m sorry, too,” she said, finally locating her handbag and stalking to it, pulling it over one shoulder. “I’m so goddamn sorry I ever met you. I’m so sorry I ever believed—anything yousaid. I’m sorry I believed in you—and us. God, Salvatore, you are such a bastard.”

She was almost at the door when his voice forestalled her. “Emilia, wait.”

She almost didn’t turn to face him.

“Will you go back to your family?”

She flinched, the question so horrible to contemplate. “That’s none of your business.”

“I need to know,” he muttered. “I need to know you’ll be okay.”

And she understood that, because she loved him, and knew him. She knew his deepest fear was that she’d be like his ex, that she’d spiral and blame him. And for a brief second, she wanted to twist that knife, because she was so devastated. But her love for him wouldn’t allow it, so she nodded bleakly. “Of course I’ll be okay. Goodbye, Salvatore.”

She wokeup the next morning with the strangest sense of confusion. She remembered their fight but almost in that way that it might be a nightmare—a terrible dream she was now free from. But as she sleepily glanced around their room, she realised it was actually her room, in her apartment, and that she was alone.

Grogginess evaporated, to be replaced by screeching adrenaline. She reached for her phone, pressing a button and checking for messages. Nothing. No call from Salvatore, no text to say he’d made a mistake and could he come and see her.

Nothing.

Nothing that whole day, or the next. Nothing for the next week. Emilia existed in the strangest void, absent from everyone she knew and loved. Until, seven days after Salvatore had calmlytold her he didn’t actually love her, Skye messaged, asking if she was free for dinner with them that night.

The last thing Emilia wanted to do was see them. Her family, who’d caused her so much grief. Who’d betrayed her. Who’d ignored her wishes and cut her from their life. How could she possibly go and see them? It didn’t matter that she adored Skye and Harper, nor that family had always been her guiding light, she didn’t feel she had the wherewithal to make it through a night with them. Not now. Not after everything she’d been through.

Worst of all would be to see their gloating faces. To see their smugness, at having been right. At knowing that Salvatore was just like they’d accused him of being. To hear her brother say, “I told you so.”

Emilia made up an excuse and went back to wallowing in her shockwaves of grief, determined to push everyone away, for now at least.

It was a strategy that lasted all of three days. Skye was nothing if not determined, and having got the bit between her teeth, she finally convinced Emilia to come over, using the most powerful tool at her disposal: her daughter Harper. Though Harper had been a toddler when Skye and Leandro had met, the entire Valentino family had wrapped Skye into their world, adoring her as though she’d been born to them, as though loving her was part of their reason for living. A simple text from Skye, saying how much Harper was ‘missing her auntie Emme’ had Emilia pulling herself out of bed and showering for the first time in heavens knew how long, finding something halfway decent to wear, and dragging a brush through her hair.

The whole way there, she was numb, but as her driver pulled up at the base of the apartment building in which they lived, her nerves went into overdrive. She’d been perfectly prepared to walk away from her family. That had been their choice, but alife with Salvatore had made it worth it. Or rather, it had been better than the alternative—leaving him, and keeping her family. Because Salvatore would never make her choose. Salvatore had tried to make it work, to have both her and their families in their lives. At least, he had in the beginning. What a waste of everyone’s time and energy, given how easily he fell back out of love with her.

Was she surprised?

She thought back to the man she’d first met, with all those preconceptions. The man who slept around like it was a world champion sport, as though women were interchangeable and disposable. After their first night together, she’d known how meaningless the sex had been, and she’d been okay with it. That was who he was. It was her own stupid fault for seeing more to him than was there. For hoping against hope that he was actually a decent guy, who could be with a woman, love her, and even spend the rest of his life with her.

She’d seen what she desperately wanted to see. More fool her. Now she had to live with the consequences. Out of nowhere, tears flooded her eyes and she blinked quickly, with a guttural sound of frustration. She’d dressed like herself, because she wanted the world to see that. Why couldn’t she hold it together, for even an hour?

She wiped beneath her eyes quickly and chewed the inside of her cheek. A moment later, the doors to the elevator swooshed open, right into the foyer of Leandro and Skye’s apartment. She barely had three seconds before Harper was hurtling herself across the floor to wrap her arms around Emilia’s legs. “Emmeeeeeee!” She cried, then, still hugging her, “Auntie Emme’s here!”

Emme crouched down and wrapped the little girl against her body, burying her face in the curve of her neck, and her sweetsmelling hair, no longer trying to fight the tears. God, but she’d missed this. Family. Her darling niece.

“Emme,” Skye approached them, a dazzling smile on her face, and tears sparkling on her own eyes. Emilia carefully detached herself from Harper before sticking her hand down for the little girl to hold. “I’ve missed you. We both have,” she added, with no clarity about whether she referred to Leo or Harper.

Emilia’s smile was slightly more reserved, but when Skye wrapped her in another huge hug, the tears were real. “I’ve missed you, too,” she admitted.

“I’m so sorry about everything,” Skye said, gently. “Believe me, Andie and I tried to talk some sense into your brothers, but you know what they can be like.”

Emilia didn’t get a chance to respond, because a moment later, Leandro strode into the room, wearing jeans and a sweater and looking considerably less bruised in the face than the last time she’d seen him. A bubble of affection formed in her chest, but it was held tightly in place by the hurt of his rejection. It took seeing him, in that moment, to understand that his betrayal was not something she could easily forgive. For the sake of her sister in law and niece she’d try, but Leandro had crossed a line she wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to walk back.

“Emme.” As if sensing her ambivalence, he hovered a little way away from them. “How are you?”

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