Page 207 of Modern Romance June 2025 1-4

‘Emilio.’ It was his lawyer.

His stomach sank. Not Jasmine.Shenever wanted to see him again. That fact hurt so badly, it robbed the breath from him.

He didn’t want to talk to his lawyer now, but some rational part of his brain told him stay on the line. It was late—too late for this to be anything but bad news.

‘What is it?’ he managed to say.

The lawyer paused. ‘Are you okay?’

No, he wasn’t. He’d just lost his wife because of his own stupidity. ‘Just spit it out.’

‘If it’s a bad time, I can call later or tomorrow.’

‘If you didn’t need me to know urgently, you wouldn’t have called at all. Just tell me what happened.’

‘It’s about the vineyards.’

Emilio could hear the hesitation in the man’s voice, and he tried to steel himself for whatever was coming next.

‘I’m afraid you have no claim on them.’

‘What?’ That made no sense. They were his mother’s and she had left them to him. It was simple. Those vineyards were his, and they would one day be his child’s. His child, who would not be in his life every single day. Whom he would see only when Jasmine allowed it. He would have to make up for his absences. He would have to be worthy of them somehow. At least with the vineyards, he could give them a legacy that would always take care of them. Show them how much they were loved.

‘Explain.’ His gruff demand held none of the authority it usually did.

‘They can’t be bequeathed to you, because they were never your mother’s to begin with. It turns out that thecontehad never actually transferred them to her and, upon his death, they passed to his successor.’

‘Enzo.’

‘I’m sorry, Emilio. I know how fond Valentina was of them. If there’s—’

Emilio cut the call. He couldn’t hear any more. He clutched the phone in his fist. Fury at how badly his mother had been betrayed fought for space alongside the anguish of losing Jasmine.

Jasmine left because you betrayed her. Who does that sound like to you?

It sounded like his father. Funny how life turned out. Emilio had spent his whole life fighting his father, and had been adamant he would be different for his family. But, when it came down to it, he had lied to his wife to hold onto what was important to him. Exactly as his father had done with the vineyards.

Emilio dropped his head against the wall, pulling his legs towards his body. His flesh crawled. How had he ended up just like the man he despised?

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Just get home…

Just get home…

Just get home…

Jasmine didn’t look back. She couldn’t. Not when she was hanging on by a thread. Any sight of Emilio would have her dissolving in a mess of tears—of agony, heartbreak and disappointment—and she couldn’t have that. She would not break here.

A water taxi took her to the airport, where she purchased a seat on the next flight out, boarding almost immediately. All the while she concentrated on the next step, and the next, to keep her mind focussed. It would only take one weak moment for her to crumble.

When she took her seat, she realised that her hell had only just begun. For the next ten hours she would have nothing but time to dwell on her shattered future with Emilio. On how much worse it hurt than any other betrayal in her life that Emilio had harboured this secret. On how wrong she had been to allow him her trust; how completely he had just shattered it.

Everyone had two sides to them, herself included. It just so happened that only one side of Emilio was worth her trust and respect.

For the first time, she understood how her mother could have fallen so deeply for her perfidious father. She understood her devastation when he’d left. Unlike her mother, at least Jasmine had been the one to walk away. She wasn’t sobbing on the floor at the front door. But shehurt. She felt torn apart by the loss of the good in Emilio.

And Emilio’s good side had been kind. Patient. Memories assaulted her—Emilio eating a cheap dinner at her table, her mother’s fond smile—and she had to cover her mouth to stifle her sob.

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