Page 103 of My Husband’s New Fiancée

“How many people are handling your security?”

“Hugo put together a team. Stephen is part of it.”

He nods slowly, as though reaching a decision.

“Fine. From now on, I’m hiring them and paying them.”

“Dante—”

He cuts me off.

“No discussion. You’re my wife. It’s my job to protect you.”

“I survived two years without you.”

His jaw tightens.

“Don’t remind me of that. But that was before.”

I roll my eyes.

“Stop with your obsession with controlling everything. They won’t report directly to you—it’s my team, not yours.”

I pause.

“And I’ll pay them myself as soon as I recover access to a bank account in my own name.”

He exhales—that short, frustrated breath I know far too well. The breath of a man who isn’t used to being challenged and still doesn’t know whether it irritates him or excites him.

Andrea and Stephen are visibly struggling not to laugh. All they’re missing is popcorn.

I see the exact moment Dante realizes he isn’t going to change my mind.

“Why aren’t you using the joint account?” he asks.

“What?”

I stare at him, thrown off balance.

He looks away briefly, almost uncomfortable.

“I never removed your name from the account.”

My heart skips a beat.

Valeria Ivanov.

It wasn’t an oversight.

“I could never bring myself to sign the paperwork.”

“Why?”

“Because part of me kept hoping you’d walk through that door one day. Because even though the authorities had declared you dead, even though our marriage had been dissolved, even though, on paper, you no longer existed... I couldn’t bring myself to erase the last traces of you.”

I don’t know what to say.

Part of me had always believed Dante had eventually forgotten me. That after two years, nothing remained of the woman I had once been to him.