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With a hazy start, she realized the noise was coming from Gio.
He was standing over her, locked in the same pose he’d been in since she’d begun to speak. But his eyes were now fixated on the far window, his jaw clenched so hard that she could almost hear it grinding harshly.
At the movement in his hand, she noticed in horror that his phone had cracked. The glass screen was starting to break away, caving under the brute force of his grip. And from his hand, spots of blood dripped out.
She gasped.
Small shards had lodged in his palm.
Her arm shot out to help him, but he stepped away tensely, running a bloody hand through his mussed curls. His chest inflated and deflated so rapidly that she feared he was about to explode.
“Gio…”
With a rough turn, he flung the phone across the plush, white bed. Sending glass flying everywhere.
Ana cupped her mouth.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Gio demanded hoarsely. The raw note in his voice tore through her. She couldn’t see his face from here, but his back was hunched and shaking all over. “Why?”
“I–” Her throat closed, choking on emotion. “I-I don’t know.” She stared at the shards strewn across the bedsheets as her thoughts spun wildly together. “I didn’t want to be a burden to you. You’d just lost your parents and become Don…and I thought I was just being s-sensitive when he first came around. By the time I complained about him, it was too late,” she whispered brokenly. “I just wanted to move on after that...I didn’t want it to stain me.”
After several sharp breaths, Gio said nothing. He remained stiff, staring at the bed.
When he faced her again, his eyes looked haunted.
“Burden?” he echoed, his eyes narrowing in disbelief. “You think being Don is such a priority? That it’s some golden crown I crave–when its cost was everyone I loved?” Gio laughed bitterly.
His jaw worked as he glanced away, grief radiating through him. “If I had the tiniest hint back then that something was about to happen to my parents, to Gabi, I would have done anything–” His bloody hand sliced across the air. “Taken on any burden to prevent it. Even now, I am tortured with regret, wondering what I missed, what I could’ve done so that they’d be here now. Alive.”
A low sound followed, full of aching lament.
Its weight choked the air.
Gio’s lips curled before he regarded her fiercely. “So why do you think that if I had the opportunity to sacrifice it all and save someone else I love–that I wouldn’t grab it with all my might?”
Ana’s lips parted.
A tear rolled down her cheek.
Gio's black eyes seared her with their dark intensity. He reached down to carefully cup her face, looking devastated. “How can you say you were a burden? A stain?”
Curling her hand over his, Ana bit her lip. “I…I told you before.” Her voice hitched raggedly. “I’m not suited to be a Don’s wife.”
Her wet brown eyes were forlorn, imploring him to understand. The pressures of her position–meeting everyone’s expectations, including her own–had gotten to her, warping her confidence. It had often felt inevitable that he would realize her imperfections too.
But his gaze was only tender and steady as he thumbed away her tears.
“I never wanted you to be a Don’s wife. Just mine.”
The simple truth was easy to see.
With a choked breath, Ana covered her face as Gio dropped down to his knees in front of her, his strong arms dragging her into his embrace until he shielded her from all sides. “I’m s-sorry…sorry. I was so scared.” She should have told him long before.
“Shh.”
They sank onto the floor, intertwined so closely together that it felt like nothing, not even a sliver of air, could separate them. Everywhere, all around her, was the scent of him. Warming her from the inside out.
It felt like a deep exorcism. As if he could bleed the past right out of her bones.
