Chapter 6
“What?” The word tumbled from my lips as I staggered back, breaking our connection. My head spun with the weight of his proposal. “How can you just… ask me that?”
Lorenzo’s face remained calm, patient. His hand stayed extended toward me, an offering I wasn’t sure I deserved.
“This isn’t some impulsive decision,” I shook my head, wrapping my arms around myself. “And I’m still legally married to Dominic. Have you forgotten that small detail?”
“Technicalities can be handled.” His voice carried the quiet confidence of someone used to making impossible things happen. “What matters is what you want.”
A bitter laugh escaped me. “What I want? I wanted a lot of things, Lorenzo. I wanted my parents alive. I wanted the man I married to love me. I wanted…” My voice cracked. “I wanted to have been brave enough to stay with you six years ago.”
“Then be brave now.” He stepped closer, but didn’t touch me. “You ask how I can still love you? Love isn’t something that follows logic, piccola. It just is.”
“But I left you.” The words tasted like ash in my mouth. “I walked away when you offered me everything. How can you possibly think I deserve another chance?”
“Deserve?” Lorenzo’s expression softened. “You deserve the world, Valentina. You deserve someone who will move heaven and earth to protect you. Someone who sees your worth, your strength.” He paused, his green eyes intense. “Someone who’s loved you every day for the past six years, even when you weren’t there.”
My chest tightened. “Lorenzo…”
”
“I’m not asking for an answer right now.” He reached out, brushing away a tear I hadn’t realized had fallen. “I’m just letting you know where I stand. Where I’ve always stood.”
“This is…” I stepped back, my hands trembling. “This is all too much for me to process right now.” The weight of everything crashed over me – Lorenzo’s proposal, my past mistakes, the crushing reality of my present.
“I’m going through so much.” My voice cracked. “Dominic, he…” The words
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caught in my throat. Speaking his name felt like swallowing glass. “He cheated on me. He killed my parents. I can barely get through each day without falling apart. How can I possibly answer your question?”
Lorenzo moved toward me with the fluid grace of a predator. My breath hitched as he closed the distance between us until our lips were mere inches apart. The familiar scent of his cologne wrapped around me, bringing back memories of safer times.
“Do you want revenge?” His voice dropped to a whisper, the words sliding across my skin like silk–wrapped steel.
I froze. The question hit me like a physical blow, unlocking something dark and hungry that I’d tried to keep buried. The rage I’d suppressed, the pain I’d hidden, the helpless fury at what Dominic and Camilla had stolen from me – it all surged to the surface.
Lorenzo watched me with those piercing green eyes, waiting. He’d laid a match at my feet, offering to light the fire that would burn my old life to ashes. The question wasn’t just about revenge – it was about power, about taking back
control.
My heart pounded against my ribs as I stared up at him, caught between fear and something that felt dangerously like hope.
“What if I did?” The words slipped out before I could stop them, barely a whisper against his lips. “Can you help me?”
Lorenzo’s mouth curved into a smile that sent shivers down my spine – not from fear, but from the dark promise it held. His thumb traced my jawline, the touch feather–light yet claiming.
“Getting back at people who deserve it?” His voice dropped lower, rougher. “That happens to be one of my specialties, piccola.”
My breath caught as he leaned in closer, his words caressing my ear. “I would take great pleasure in watching them suffer. Dominic, Camilla – they deserve to experience true hell for what they did to you.” His fingers slid into my hair, cradling the back of my head. “Say the word, and I’ll make it happen. I’ll tear their perfect little world apart piece by piece until there’s nothing left but ruins.”
–
The intensity in his eyes should have frightened me. Instead, it made me feel safer than I had in years. This was the real Lorenzo – not the polished businessman, but the predator beneath. And for the first time, I wanted to embrace that darkness rather than run from it.
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“They took everything from me,” I whispered, my hands fisting in his shirt.
“Then let’s take everything from them.” His smile turned deadly.
“Together.”
“Will you really help me take revenge?” I searched his face for any sign of hesitation. The weight of my request hung in the air between us.
Lorenzo’s smile grew darker, more dangerous. “I’ve waited six years to prove myself to you, piccola. Whatever you want – it’s yours.”
I let his words sink in, feeling the shift in the air around us. The mansion’s quiet pressed against my skin as I considered the magnitude of what he offered. After a long moment, I lifted my chin.
“Then I want revenge.”
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Chapter 7
