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“I love your daughter, Dante. I would die for her. I would give her my lungs if she couldn’t breathe. I would give her my heart if hers stopped beating. You may not like me, but you know that I’m good for her.”
He continued his hostile stare.
“Despite our differences, I’m not interested in sabotaging your relationship the way you’re interested in sabotaging mine. I understand what you mean to her, and I would never undermine that. Let’s move forward and make this work.”
“I don’t understand your meaning, Axel.”
“I want your daughter—so name your price.”
His arms crossed over his chest, and he took several seconds to process my statement. “I can’t convince her to come back to you, Axel.”
“You can if you tell her the truth.”
The arrogance in his eyes suddenly faded, provoked by the scandalous suggestion.
“Name your price.”
“There is no price, Axel. I’ll take it to the grave.”
“I love your daughter, and she loves me?—”
“I’ve never heard her say such a thing?—”
“You don’t need to hear someone say it to know how they feel. It’s in her stare. It’s in the way she asks me to let her know that I’m okay. It’s in the way she grabs my hand under the table. It’s in everything she does. But she’s too afraid to say it because of the way I hurt her. The wayyoumade me hurt her.”
Dante kept his arms across his chest.
“All I want is her. Please.”
After a pause, he shook his head slightly. “No.”
“Tell her the truth, and I promise I’ll get her to forgive you. I will mend the relationship, and we can move forward.”
“Even if that’s true, it’ll never be the same?—”
“Our lives will never be the same if we aren’t together.” I spoke calmly, with a note of defeat, because I didn’t expect this to succeed. But I tried anyway. “I love her so damn much. She loves me. It’ll be a tragedy if we don’t end up together because you intervened. A fucking tragedy. How does that not bother you?”
“Because my daughter is smart and beautiful and can have any man she wants. She’ll be just fine without you.”
“But I’m the man she wants, Dante. And you aren’t letting her have what she wants.”
“I’m not doing anything. She’s the one who’s choosing to leave?—”
“Because of you. Make this right. If you love your daughter, you’ll make this right.”
“And if I could do that without compromising our relationship, I would. But that’s not possible. She’s the single most important thing to me. I would never jeopardize that.”
“But you did jeopardize it with your lies.”
“I was trying to protect her?—”
“From the best thing that ever happened to her?” I asked incredulously. “I treat her like a fucking goddess, Dante.”
“Did you treat your last wife like a goddess?” he asked coldly.
“I know you don’t believe that.”
“I believe in facts, Axel. And you went to prison for two years?—”
