Page 51 of Forbidden Property
“I meant what I said. I love you, Geralynn. I can’t take back the past and I can’t undo the hurt I’ve caused overnight. I can set you free right now.”
Renzo rakes his hands nervously through his hair. His face scrunches momentarily before returning to his smooth, placid calm.
“I sign this and we’re over?”
My hand trembles and my heart races. I don’t know why it makes me feel so nervous. I should feel happy that Renzo is setting me free. I’m going to sign the contract. How could I avoid signing it? I get more money than anything Nicki ever offered me. I get everything I ever wanted including support throughout law school and financial help with this baby Nicki forced me to carry.
“Yes,” Renzo says calmly. “You sign the document and we have nothing to do with each other. From this point forward, we will be strangers in this house until you leave. No more insults. No more conversations. No more positioning you nude on the dining table.”
That last part seems to hit Renzo hardest if I had to judge by the look on his face. Maybe it’s just because each sentence brings us closer to the end point. Light pours in through the window of the library and spotlights on the page, seemingly allowing every other detail in the house and around us to fade into nothing.
“You might get lonely,” I tell him. “What’s to stop you from ripping this up just like the last one if I sign it?”
Renzo smirks and I can tell from the expression on his face that my question doesn’t surprise me. We both have the misfortune of knowing each other far too well. I understand his moves and he understands mine. The only person in the world who could pull one over on both of us is Nicki. Renzo has a point with this contract – it’s the one way we can both take our power back.
And he’s setting me free because… I guess the game is over.
“I give you my word that I value making my own choices far more than I value causing you pain.”
Sadness lingers in the back of Renzo’s gaze. I don’t want to entertain his sadness or let his emotions pierce through my resolve to sign this new contract and earn my freedom. I wouldn’t have any attachment to Nicki or Renzo.
“So what then? We have to stay here until the end of Nicki’s contract for this to kick in?”
When do I get to move out? I ignore the strange tug in my chest when I realize that moving out means never waking up next to Renzo again. I ascribe that feeling toreliefbecause all I wanted from the first instant I woke up was freedom from Renzo.
“Only a couple weeks longer,” Renzo says. “That will give the agent and designer time to close on your dream home. I need your signature first.”
I don’t want to feel so in tune with the shifts in Renzo’s tone, but reading his moods has become second nature over the course of my pregnancy. It’s second nature to wonder how he feels and I can’t help but notice the lingering sadness that he’s trying so hard to suppress. If this makes him so sad… why is he giving me my freedom?
It doesn’t matter. I would be crazy to question this opportunity when it’s the right thing to do. I can’t spend the rest of my life knowing I had the chance at freedom but broughtmy kid into the world trapped in a contract with a family of mobsters who wanted to control my every move.
“Okay. I’ll sign it.”
“Perfect.” His voice is tight. But when he rests his palm on my shoulder, Renzo is strangely gentle. I half expect him to lash out and call me ‘mop girl’ last time, to unload every horrible burden he’s felt living with me throughout the pregnancy his sister forced onto both of us.
“I’ll get you a pen.”
He returns with the pen quicker than I expect and the tension between us feels strange and crackly as he hands it to me. It’s my last chance to throw it to the ground. To tell him that I don’t want to leave him or move out in two weeks. That I love him.
But I can’t admit to myself or to Renzo that I fell in love with a man who degraded me and mocked me for years. I can’t admit to myself that getting closer to him has made me feel more like myself. I can’t admit that for the first time, I don’t feel like a rich kid’s sidekick. I don’t think Nicki ever consciously wanted me to feel that way, but Renzo doesn’t even leave room for that much self-pity.
Renzo. The father of my child. The demon haunting my dreams with his long, perfect tongue. The man who put a wine bottle up my butt on the same day he told me that he loved me.
I’ll never be with anyone like him again.
I sign my name and we both release a breath we didn’t know we were holding. It hurts to sign my name, but not signing it would hurt even more. I can’t be with Renzo forever. He’s made that clear with the way he’s treated me and my friendship with Nicki for as long as I’ve known him.
Once the dust settles with the baby… we’ll both be happy. And I’ll have my little one to distract me from petty concerns like my immediate happiness. Chosen or not, this baby will give me purpose.
“You’re free,” Renzo says once I’m done. “Nicki lost. We won. Once the money hits your account, I hope you celebrate your newfound freedom.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Renzo
Ihave to learn to live without her. I slide my half-naked body beneath my ice cold sheets during my first night alone and crave her closeness. I enjoyed spending the night near her as her body changed. I spent hours watching her snore, move around in her sleep and twist her body until she found a comfortable position to sleep in. Tonight, there’s nothing – no motion on my mattress, the absence of Geralynn’s warmth and the scent of her hair.
Why do I feel so lonely without her? I pull out my phone and open social media to stare at the options I have now that she’s signed the document. How could I have been so stupid as to think she would have ripped it up in front of me and chosen to stay?
