Page 71 of Seduced By the Enemy

He was quiet for so long, she presumed he’d dropped it. “I know a fair bit about second chances,” he said, after a while. “About pushing people who love you away, because that’s easier than accepting how complicated and messy love can be.”

“Love?” she closed her eyes on a familiar shard of pain. “What they did wasn’t love.”

“Wasn’t it?” he asked, but with sympathy in his tones. “You don’t think they were protecting you from a future they thought was wrong? Isn’t that a parents’ natural instinct?”

She shook her head. “They closed me out. They pushed us away.”

“Yes. According to Andie, that’s something they have come to regret. They’re desperate to fix this, Emilia.”

“Did she ask you to talk to me?”

“Yes.”

Emilia sighed. She wasn’t surprised. Her sister-in-law was incredibly proactive with whatever she wanted in life.

“I don’t need to remind you what she lost. She is seeing your mother suffer, while knowing she would do and give anything for more time with her own mother.”

Emilia made a sound. “That’s a low blow.”

“I’m just the messenger.”

Emilia bit into her lower lip, returning her gaze to the view.

“You’re in Italy for the next week, right?”

She sighed softly. Dante knew she was—it was the launch of the charity she and Salvatore had created. This time, no onewould remove her from the work she loved. She was embedded into the foundation, and always would be. “Yes.”

“You could go see them.”

She closed her eyes on a wave of yearning. To walk in the front door of her home and hug her parents, like she always had. To be home. But home with Salvatore at her side…it was the only way she’d ever consider going.

“I wouldn’t do that. Not without my husband.”

“So take him,” Dante pushed. “And see what happens.”

She’d already done that, though, and their reaction had broken her. “I’ll think about it,” she lied.

She’d thought the conversation was over, but evidently, he’d had the same exchange with Salvatore, because two days later, after much arm twisting, they were pulling up outside her family home. Emilia’s insides were a jittery mess, but all it took was one touch from Salvatore, a glance at his face, and his reassuring words, “Whatever happens, we’ve got this,” as he lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss there.

Butterflies overtook the tension in her stomach and she nodded, finding her smile natural. “You’re all that I want.”

“Then think of this as the cherry on top. Ready?”

She wasn’t. She hated the thought that they might be rude to him, or reject him outright. There was only one way to know for sure, though.

This time, her parents, thankfully, did surprise her. From the moment they opened the door, it was clear that their estrangement from Emilia had completely changed their thoughts about the situation. Her mother’s apology was the first words she spoke—and she repeated it often, tearfully, throughout the afternoon. Her father was like his usual self, talking to Salvatore as though he was any man off the street, rather than a Santoro. Starting fresh. Giving him a chance, just as Emilia had begged them to.

“Darling,” her mother found Emilia in the garden to the side of the house, after lunch.

Emilia startled, then turned slowly. “I was just remembering how much I used to love sitting out here, on a sunny morning.”

“Always picking flowers and making them into chains,” her mother said, a tear sliding down one of her creased cheeks. She came to stand directly in front of Emilia, her lips moving as though she was trying to speak, and not able to.

Emilia waited, her heart hurting for her mother, for their past, for what both the Santoros and Valentinos had put them through.

“When you are a mother, you’ll see,” she said. “It’s not easy. Parenting is a constant chain reaction of decisions. We’ve tried. We’ve always tried. With Leo…not telling him he was adopted…it came from here,” she pressed her fingers to her chest. “Because we loved him, and we just wanted him to be happy. With you…you are my daughter. You have been my best friend from as soon as you could talk. You have followed me around, my little shadow, and I have always been so proud of you.”

Emilia closed her eyes against what was coming. The disappointment her mother had felt, when she’d fallen for a Santoro.

---