Page 97 of Punishing His Runaway Bride
The instant Bianca's expression changed, I knew I'd guessed right.
The air went silent.
So silent I could almost hear my own blood moving.
"You want to be Juliet's new mother." I put weight on 'new mother,' voice light, like I was tasting something disgusting.
"Ezio, I was just—"
"You sat on my couch, spent an hour making my six-year-old daughter cry. Then you told her she needs a new mother."
I stepped closer.
"And you think that 'new mother' is you?"
Bianca's face went white in an instant. Then her tears came, rolling down her cheeks. She didn't wipe them, just let them fall, those blue eyes pooling with water, making her look fragile and innocent.
I'd seen it too many times.
It used to work.
"I just wanted to help you..." Her voice started shaking. "These five years, watching you hold everything together alone, watching you refuse to tell me anything, watching you move here rather than... I just wanted you to know someone's willing to..."
She lunged forward, arms around my neck, whole body pressing against me, lips near my ear. Her body trembled, but her movements were practiced, smooth like she'd rehearsed this a hundred times.
"Ezio... I know you're still angry... but look at me, okay? I'm theonly one who really cares about you... That woman took the money and ran. She never loved you..."
Her fingers started undoing my shirt buttons. One, two. Fingertips trailing across my chest with just the right amount of trembling.
"Let's be together, okay?" Her voice went soft and sticky, like melting sugar. "I'll be good to Juliet. Better than her real mother. I'll make her forget that woman who abandoned her. I'll—"
I caught her wrist. Pulled her hand away slowly.
"Bianca."
"...I've given you so much. I lost my baby. I just want—"
"Your baby," I said. "I remember. I have guilt about that. That won't change."
She heard the turn coming. Movements froze slightly.
"But that guilt," I looked at her, "isn't permission for you to do whatever you want to Juliet."
"Ezio—"
"These years you've lived at the manor, used my name to order the staff around, went over the butler's head running household affairs, punished servants on your own," I said. "I turned a blind eye. Your boundaries kept pushing outward, bit by bit. I told myself it was still tolerable."
I paused.
"But tonight isn't."
Bianca took a deep breath, stepped closer again, stopped half a step away. She tilted her head back, looked at me with those tear-bright blue eyes, hand resting gently on my chest, voice softening again with that precise, practiced curve she'd used for years.
"Ezio, calm down. Let's talk this through. After all these years between us, you can't just because of one little thing..."
I released her hand.
"Leave the Upper East Side tonight," I said. "I'll have someone arrange for you to go back to the Colonna family villa. I'll keep covering your expenses." I turned. "That's all I can give you."
