Page 124 of Hexed
“I’m not leaving you,” I repeat.
Her gaze softens, and she stares up at me from underneath her long black lashes, her hand cupping my cheek. My eyes close and I press against her, my chest feeling like it’s physically cracking in half.
Fuck this.
“In a different life, right?” she whispers.
My lids snap open.
And then she rises, her hand wrapping around the nape of my neck and dragging me down, and she presses a soft, chaste kiss to my lips.
My heart stalls out, and I free-fall because it wasn’t supposed to be like this.
She lingers for a few moments before pulling back, a sad look in her eyes.
I swallow around the knot in my throat, hating myself for what I’m about to let her do. But at the end of the day, I need to control the narrative with my father before Trent gets ahold of him. And the only way to do that…is to walk away.
For now.
My nostrils flare with my inhale, and I grit my teeth so tightly, my jaw aches.
She takes a step backward, and she looks every bit the calm, collected woman I know.
In a different life…
But in this one?
I’m bound by the Mafia and a woman I’ll never love.
THIRTY-THREE
VENESA
The second Enzoleaves the room, I blow out a deep breath, ignoring the way my chest is aching. I’ll focus on that later. Right now, it’s time for my uncle and me to have a chat.
I didn’t want Enzo to leave; I would have done anything to let him stand next to me as a pillar of strength. The one he’s been for me since the moment we met. The one I don’t deserve for many reasons.
But I know that even more dangerous than the wrath of my uncle is Enzo’s situation. He’s tied to a life that has chains and rules I can’t even begin to understand. And I know him being the underboss, and his father’s son, only gets him so far.
If his father wants this marriage to Aria, then it will happen, whether or not Enzo agrees, so there’s no point in him taking hits for me that will only hurt him. And truthfully, no matter what just happened here, there’s no future for us.
It still doesn’t make it hurt any less for him to walk away.
He told me in a different life, he’d love me out loud.
Letting him walk away is my way of lovinghim. Because I know what would happen if he went against this marriage to Aria.
The marriage his father arranged.
The one that my uncle approved.
Nothing but death and destruction would await us, and at least right now, I can try to minimize the damage. Besides, there are things Enzo doesn’t know. Things he canneverknow.
Not really.
He thinks he’d love me out loud, but the truth is, he’d never be able to love me at all.
So his departure is a weight off my shoulders. A breath exhaled because I should be the only one bearing the burden of what just happened. After all, it was me who instigated it.
