Page 26

“He threw me out,” Nyra burst out. “Humiliated me in front of the whole family. Didn’t even ask me if—”
“So you take petty revenge? You think that’s what marriage is,” said Maria. “Or maybe you think that is what you deserve, to be thrown out like yesterday’s garbage.”
The words struck her hard enough that Nyra fell back against her chair. Her eyes filled with tears, and she blinked them back furiously. “You think Adriano is not culpable at all?”
“Adriano is proud, arrogant, and does not make it easy to understand him. But he also has no idea what a healthy relationship, much less a marriage should be. What his parents engaged in was…a destructive show. He despises lies and half-truths and petty games.”
“I…” Nyra had no response.
“Do you know how many women his mother found for him from the moment he turned thirty—princesses and daughters of cabinet ministers, heiresses…” She let her expansive gestures say the rest. “Adriano would meet each and every one, but there is no…spark. No interest. He tells me marriage is not for him, especially not the kind his society takes part in. And then he goes to Vegas, and brings you home. As a wife, breaking all his own rules. Despite what everyone said, I saw something in you, Nyra.”
“What? What did you see in me?” Nyra said, desperate to know.
Maria sighed. “I thought that you could see Adriano. Not the powerful banker who holds so many lives in his hand and who is constantly fixing things for people. I thought you saw the…loneliness in him.”
Nyra swallowed and looked away. Shehadsensed the same loneliness in him as she’d felt most of her adult life.
“Or maybe I’m nothing but an old fool and what everyone says about you is true. That all you wanted was a comfortable life for as long as it lasted.”
“That’s unfair.”
“No? Then why let him send you away without a fight? Why hide yourself like a dirty secret in his life for nine months? Why would you not be a proper wife to him? This is not a woman committed to her relationship. This is a woman scared of living the life she has been gifted.”
Nothing Maria said was untrue. It was like watching her reflection in the mirror and disliking everything about it. “Why do you say I’m ruining his life?” Nyra asked, a glutton for punishment.
“Because if you leave forever, he could move on,si? He could forget about you, forget about his one mistake and move on. Maybe marry some accomplished, pretty socialite, someone from his own world, and have a decent life. A woman who shares everything with him. My Adriano deserves that after everything he has done for others.”
Maria left the room as quickly and fiercely as she had. A storm shaking the hollow foundations of Nyra’s delusions.
Like yesterday’s garbage…The words haunted her for a long while after.
Was that how she saw herself? Had she been waiting for Adriano to come to his senses and dump her this whole time? With her sister reaching out to her, had she known that moment was close? Had she made it true by spinning lies and selling his silver, literally?
Nyra knew she couldn’t go on like this. Once, loneliness, loss and sheer powerlessness had been thrust on her. But they didn’t have to dictate her life anymore. Neither would those be the gifts she passed onto her children.
This marriage didn’t have to be about love, but neither did it have to be a barren, miserable existence. All she had to do was adjust her expectations and they could have a decent life together. Adriano, she knew, would be a good father, and together they would do their best.
They might even flourish without the sticky expectations that came with loving him.
* * *
Adriano felt as if there was a hot skewer pounding behind his left eye. He had been up for eighteen hours, and even before that, he hadn’t been sleeping well for weeks. His penthouse in Milan was every bit as luxurious as his family home, but he couldn’t sleep because his bed was empty.
Because Nyra wasn’t there with him, pressing her soft body against his. Tucking those ever-cold feet against his.
He popped a couple of painkillers and made his way toward the boardroom.
Christo, he missed her. And not seeing her, not reassuring himself that she and the babies were okay was a particularly cruel way to punish himself, even after his return from Tokyo.
Pride, it seemed, was a prickly, demanding thing. He’d been resolved to make her miss him, as much as he missed her. At least, physically, if nothing else. Although, in just two weeks, he was ready to crack like an egg.
But now there was this…media shitstorm to deal with, because someone had leaked Nyra’s background. It was as bad as she’d feared it would be.
That Adriano Cavalieri, the most preeminent banker in all of Italy, chairman of the prestigious Bancaria Cavalieri—an institution that had been standing for three centuries and represented loyalty and stability—was married to the daughter of a man who had embezzled millions from innocent, hardworking people across Europe.
Adriano had worked at the bank in some capacity for sixteen years, and yet his integrity, his decision-making, his stability, and evenhis sanityapparently, were in question because of who Nyra’s father had been.
While he had released a statement to mollify the general public, to inform them that his wife was also an innocent in the financial scandal her father had perpetrated, hell would freeze over before he offered any kind of explanation to his board.