The silence between us stretched for roughly thirty seconds, and I thought she wouldn’t say anything until she finally looked in the eye.
"Why are you only telling this now?" she whispered. "After all these weeks, I believed you’d betrayed ? After I’d been working so hard to move on with my life, to learn how to exist without you?"
"I know the timing is-"
"The timing is shit, Tony!" She turned her face away from and pulled her hands through her tangled hair. "Let think you’d used . Let hate you. Let cry myself to sleep every night, wondering how I could have been stupid enough to fall for soone who didn’t feel the sa way."
"I do love you. I’ve always loved you-"
"Do you have any clue what you put through?" She turned her face away, her tears flowing. "I lost everything because of you. My job, my reputation, my identity. And then I tried to rebuild. I finally began to feel like maybe I might survive this when you appear out of nowhere and tell it was all a lie?"
"Katherine-"
"Do you think I’d fall into your arms? Do you expect to thank you for giving your life for while I suffered?" She shook with anger and pain. "That’s a decision you made without . Without even asking what I wanted. You’re no different than all the other n who have sought to control my life.
"I was trying to protect you-"
"I didn’t need protection. I needed a partner!" she cried. "I needed soone who trusted enough to tell the truth and let make my own decisions. But instead, you played God with my life, and now you expect to forgive you?"
Before I could answer, before I could tell her about the death threats and the hitn and the fact that I was still trying to protect her, the apartnt door opened.
Luca Torrino swaggered in with takeout bags as if he owned the place.
"Forgot the egg rolls-" He trailed off, realizing I was there. "Marvin. Didn’t realize we had company."
He put the food down on the counter with a familiar air, then turned to Katherine’s side. Protéctive. Possessive.
"Is everything all right, Bella?"
Bella. Italian for beautiful. An endearnt that spoke of intimacy, of a relationship that had progressed beyond professional courtesy.
"He has a key."
The words ca out flat, dead. "You gave Luca Torrino a key to your apartnt.
"That’s none of your business." Katherine’s face turned red.
"The hell it’s not!" The anger I’d been containing burst forth. "Letting him into your ho, into your life, giving him access to you like - ".
"Like what? Like he has any claim on ?" Katherine moved towards , her own anger matching mine. "You’re going to be married, Tony. You’ll be standing at an altar in three weeks, promising yourself to another woman. So, yes, I did give Luca a key. Unlike you, he’s been honest with . He’s been there when I needed him, and he’s not asking to wait for him while he marries another woman!"
"She’s right, Marvin." Luca’s voice was calm, nearly empathetic. "You made your choice. Let Katherine make hers."
Sothing in snapped. "Stay out of this, Torrino. This is between and-"
"And ." Katherine squeezed between us. "I’m not a prize you two can fight over. I’m a person who has made a decision. And Tony?" She turned to , her eyes full of pity. "You’re too late."
The words hit like bullets.
I was too late. After all I’d given up, all I’d suffered through, the agonized days of watching her with another, I’d torn myself apart in trying to protect her - all for nothing.
"Katherine, there are things you don’t know. Threats against you, real ones-"
"Stop," she held up her hand. "Just stop. I can’t do this anymore. Whatever threats exist, whatever noble reasons you have, it doesn’t change the fact that you’re engaged to Victoria. And it doesn’t change the fact that I’m moving on."
"With him." I looked at Luca, at how he was standing too close to Katherine, his body language screaming quiet familiarity. "You’re choosing him?"
"I’m choosing myself."
Katherine’s voice remained calm despite the tears in her eyes. "And right now, that ans asking you to leave."
I should have left. I should have just walked out with what little dignity I had left. But I couldn’t stop looking at her apartnt - the takeout boxes Luca had delivered, the crumpled invitation to her wedding she had tossed on the floor, and her position between us, like she was sheltering him from .
"I love you," I spoke with rough words. "I know I fucked everything up. I know I made choices that have ruined your faith in , but I have loved you ever since you told to go to hell in my club. Each day in this hellhole has been committed to keeping you alive. If it ans you have to choose between and Luca Torrino, then I will be grateful if you can live with this choice."
Luca’s expression shifted - surprise, or maybe recognition.
Katherine simply shook her head. "Love is not enough without trust. And I can’t trust you, Tony. Not now, after everything."
"Well, then I guess we’re done." I stepped towards the door, past Luca, past Katherine, past any hope of fixing this. "For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. About everything."
I reached the corridor before Katherine’s voice called out to stop .
"Tony, wait."
I turned, hope flaring stupidly in my chest.
But she just looked at with heartbreak across her face. "The threats against . Are they real?"
"Yes"
"And the engagent to Victoria protects ?"
"According to my father."
She nodded slowly, processing. "Then don’t break it. Stay engaged to her. Keep safe." Her voice cracked. "But don’t co here again. Don’t tell you love while you’re planning a wedding to soone else. Just... let go."
The corridor tilted. She was weighing her options: safety over us - survival over love. Choosing just what I’d been picking all along.
"Okay. I’ll let you go." I left her there in the doorway with Luca Torrino standing behind her and her takeout dinner going cold on her counter, and I felt another part of my soul shatter. She’d made her choice.
And it wasn’t .
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