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The elevator sounded and she abruptly pulled back, then ran her suddenly clammy hands down her hips. They moved to greet her parents as they came out.
“Mom. Dad.” Eve hugged each of them, feeling their stiffness as she did. “Have you two ever actually met Dom?”
“No.” Her father stared coldly at her husband while he ignored the hand that Dom started to offer. “Nico said this was your choice. Is that true?” her father asked her bluntly.
“Romeo,” her mother murmured.
“Yes,” Eve answered firmly. “Come in. Let’s talk.” She waved toward the lounge.
Her father didn’t move. He flicked his gaze around and shook his head. “This isn’t right.”
“Dad. Dom isn’t his father. I know you had—”
“You don’t know,” he near shouted, making her jump.
“Let’s keep this civil.” Dom touched Eve’s elbow and stepped forward so she was shielded half a step behind him.
“We’re still out of sorts from travel,” Ginny excused, earning a glare from Romeo.
“My mother would tan my hide for this.” Her father’s eyes dampened. “She refused to marry a Blackwood and I cannot believe Nico made you do it instead. We have options, Lina. I don’t blame Nico for the mistakes he made. No one has a crystal ball, but he never should have pressured you to fix the problems he created. We’ll restructure. You don’t have to do this.”
“Dad.” She felt Dom’s hand tighten on her arm. “It’s done. We’re married. Happily.” Mostly.
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not. I—” She looked up at her husband, not having expected to tell him like this, but she let the words spill past her lips. “I love Dom. I have since the first time we met.”
His expression only stiffened further, which put a coil of tension into her belly. His cheek ticked.
Oh, no. He didn’t welcome her feelings. A chill entered her chest, one that warned her she’d made a horrible mistake.
“And you?” Romeo challenged Dom. “Do you love my daughter? Is that why you married her?”
Dom took his time answering, jaw working as though he was looking for the right words.
“If you’re asking me if I married her as an act of revenge, the answer is no. The feud no longer exists. Not in this house. If you’re still carrying it, you should take it elsewhere.”
She gasped, as did her mother, but Dom wasn’t finished.
“Eve can come to you anytime she likes,” he continued. “I told her I wouldn’t ask her to choose between us and I meant it, but I won’t fight you for her. I won’t fight you. Not anymore.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” her father pressed.
“Romeo.” Ginny touched his arm.
“You’re really going to stay here?” her father demanded of Eve, eyes wet with outrage and disappointment. “Married to a man who doesn’t love you?”
You don’t love Mom, she bit back saying.
She was trying to keep this from devolving into something that none of them could come back from. Trying to keep from dissolving into tears when she was being forced to face that her husband didn’t return her love.
She was hurt enough that she easily could have gone home with her parents and crawled into her old bed and cried for a week, but that’s what an immature version of herself would do. She was a woman who had made a decision for herself that had far-reaching consequences, but she was willing to live with them.
“It’s a good match, Dad.” That felt like such a weak thing to say in the face of what he wanted for her. She was both shaken and touched that he did want more for her, but, “This is good for both families. You know it is. I can’t walk away from it now.”
“That’s what I keep telling him,” her mother murmured. “It’s done and we need to accept it.”
“You don’t deserve her,” her father said in quiet thunder at Dom before he turned to press the button for the elevator. It was still there so the doors opened immediately.