Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
“Younger and more exciting?” Luca finished silkily. When she only nodded, he asked, “Do you want him because he’s younger and more exciting?”
Horrified, she turned to look back at him, gasping, “No!” She shook her head vehemently. “You know how I’ve always thought about him, and he’s the least exciting person I’ve ever met—-”
“Then I see no reason why we must bother about him at all,” Luca dismissed. “What is essential is how much Eula wants you to be there—-”
“But if Maria’s there—-”
“Basta.”
Vivian jumped in her seat at the billionaire’s suddenly savage tone and the way he sharply came to his feet.
Their eyes clashed, his light blue gaze seething with fury and frustration, and her green eyes filled with unconscious plea.
The billionaire breathed hard, willing himself to calm down. His wife looked terrified, and he didn’t like that. But there were a whole host of other things he didn’t like either, and although he had tried to give Vivian as much time as she needed to realize that she was wrong—-
They had come to the end of the line.
Vivian stiffened when her husband crouched in front of her.
“L-Luca?”
The billionaire reached for her hands, covering them with his.
He looked up at her, and her heart ached painfully at how beautiful he was.
“I’m sorry,” she said brokenly.
Luca inhaled deeply. “Do you even know what you’re apologizing for?”
His wife slowly shook her head. “But I made you angry, didn’t I?”
“Yes.” She flinched, but he still didn’t allow himself to lie. “You did. And that you don’t even know why I’m furious makes me even angrier.” Her eyes widened, and she started to speak, but he shook his head. “There is something I must say, cara.”
The finality in his voice terrified her.
“Luca?” When he only looked at her, Vivian’s terror grew and she realized that this was it. “Luca, please—-”
“Do you see me and Eula as your family, Vivi?”
“Yes,” she cried out passionately. “Luca, yes—-”
“And yet...you keep pushing us towards Maria. You keep holding yourself back from us. You keep hiding things to yourself and you keep acting based on what other people think while seemingly not caring about what Eula and I feel.”
Vivian was pale. She had never, never thought of looking at it from that perspective and now that she did—-
Desperation struck her, and she whispered, “Luca, I—-”
“You probably think you were being nice all this time, but the truth is...it only makes you seem like you do not care to fight for Eula and me.”
Luca released her hands.
No.
“If you are so bent on giving us away then I shall make it easy for you.”
And slowly, the billionaire slid to his feet.
No.
This couldn’t be happening.
This couldn’t be the end.
This couldn’t be.
“We’ll choose Maria then.”
A soundless cry broke out of her parted lips.
The billionaire’s jaw clenched. “That is what you were thinking we would eventually do, did you not, cara? Then so be it. We will choose her. We choose her.”
And he started walking away.
“Luca,” she whispered.
But the billionaire didn’t look back.
The door closed behind him, and she was alone.
She might always be alone, and the thought left her numb in shock.
For several minutes, Vivian remained frozen in her seat, unable to grasp the reality of having her husband walk out on her.
She had imagined this happening a painfully countless number of times ever since Maria had walked back into their lives. She had imagined how agonizing the pain would be of losing Luca and Eula and yet none of it compared to reality.
A sob escaped her, the rawness scratching her throat, the sound echoing in the empty room.
Luca was right.
All this time she had been too caught up at with what other people were going to think or say about her that she had forgotten to care for those who mattered most to her.
Luca.
Eula.
Her family.
All this time she had allowed herself to drown in self-pity, not realizing that her family was suffering because of her.
All this time she had allowed people like Maria to create a gap between her and her family, a gap that wasn’t there in the first place and should never have existed—-
Until she had allowed her own insecurities to get in the way.
Vivian scrambled to her feet.
It wasn’t too late, she told herself feverishly as she hurried up the stairs.
It couldn’t be too late.
Luca loved her, and because he did he had to forgive her for being stupid from time to time. He had to.
Because he loved her, and he and Eula were...family.
Chapter Ten
It was a warm sunny afternoon when parents started to arrive at the prestigious school that Eula’s kindergarten class was a part of. It was a parade of one expensive car after another rolling up the driveway, but the Italian billionaire was still the one to turn all heads when he finally stepped out of his limousine with his little girl in tow.