Page 82 of Legacy of Deception

Holding my belly, I slowly got out of the back seat with Marco’s assistance, my hand in his as I stepped out and onto the red carpet.

Everything after that happened relatively quickly, and I was more concerned with trying not to fall in my heels and the pain I was having in my back. Marco never left my side, one hand on me at all times. He wouldn’t let me fall, and that was the only thing keeping my mind off everything else.

I did this for Marco, just as I always would do things.

He shouldn’t have had to show up to this alone, but I knew he would have if he felt like he had to.

He also deserved to make a red-carpet appearance when I was looking my best on his arm, which was why I had refused to even let the idea of wearing slippers seep into my brain.

We had a bumpy start, and it certainly wasn’t a conventional one, but we had agreed to new terms. The arrangement had been better for it. Neither of us had let the other down, and that only showed me how much he cared. That he cared as much as I did, and I cared a lot. He’d worn me down, I guessed, chuckling to myself.

As the last of the photographers took their photos, and we made it to the end of the red carpet, Marco stopped right before the security guards.

Glaring up at him, I waited for him to explain his rationale. Why weren’t we going in? We should have been.

He lowered his head and whispered in my ear. “Come on, we’re leaving.”

“Now?” I nearly shrieked, excitement fluttering through me as I thought about how much closer I was to sitting if we were going right back to the limousine and not inside the venue to find seats. “Don’t you want to go inside and mingle?” He shouldn’t leave for me, so I needed to make sure. The last thing I would have wanted was for him to blame me or regret bringing me because he secretly left early because of me.

When he shook his head multiple times, I had my answer. “Not even a little bit.”

“What about the charity?” My soft curls brushed my arms as I turned.

Snaking an arm around my waist, he steered me away and guided us off the red carpet and back to the limousine. “When I learned I would be attending, I made an arrangement to make an anonymous purchase of whatever stock is left at the end of the evening.”

“Anonymous?” Why on earth would he have wanted to do that? He would have looked like a hero after they thanked him publicly. People would have adored him. More than they probably already did. Although, I wasn’t going to dwell on that one.

“I don’t need credit. It’s not about me. It’s about a cause that’s bigger than me.”

It was quite loud with the photographers shouting for guests to look here and look there, all so they could get their perfect shot, so I genuinely hoped I heard him correctly. I had a feeling I did, though. “How can’t you see it?”

“See what?” he asked as we patiently waited for the limousine to get back around the security perimeter.

“That you’re nothing like your father.” I blinked up at him.

He paused, his back arching as he grew rigid. “Rose-colored glasses give you the worst vision. Trust me.”

I did trust him. I also trusted that he needed two things—to stay away from events he was forced to attend and sleep.

Chapter 35

a ring on it

BROOKLYN

Standing, frozen, between the en suite bathroom and the bedroom, I observed, studying closely the sight of Marco Deluca, sleeping in our bed. The details that made him the man he was were difficult to make out in the dark room. Then there were the ones that were more difficult to see regardless of the time of day. The scars he had endured weren’t physical, they were emotional, but I saw every single one of them when I looked at him. He’d let me in even when he hadn’t known he had been doing it, and I’d accepted all of them. I’d accepted him.

It would have been a cruel thing if we hadn’t been pushed together.

If we had never had the experiences we’d had.

Because they all led us here.

To this moment.

I wished I could freeze it and preserve it somehow, so I could look back on it whenever I wanted to for the rest of my life. So I could feel the things I felt all over again. For the first time.

I believed we were made for each other, made to be broken so we could put each other back together.