Page 18 of Entangled

Homewrecker. Whore. Mistress. Slut. Goomah.

Gian could keep going, too. He’d heard them all be slung at the woman his grandfather had loved for decades, a woman Corrado barely spoke about to anyone. How could those same people justify shaming someone, when they didn’t even know her or why she made her choices?

Why would Gian knowingly do that to Cara?

He loved her, so why hurt her more?

Gian stepped closer to Cara, and she didn’t move away. Instead, she watched him carefully, with a stone-still body, painted red lips, and eyes that cut him to the core. He reached up, the side of his hand brushing along her cheek to push back the stray curl, before his thumb swept under her eye to wipe away the tear stain.

She was still so beautiful.

Like fucking life in his hands.

“I didn’t mean to do this,” he told her.

Cara nodded. “Yeah, I know, but you still did, Gian.”

“And what I said, before you walked out on me that day, remains the same.”

“You tried to say a lot.”

“I have only ever loved you,” Gian murmured as he leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to Cara’s forehead. His thumb stroked her cheek, and she didn’t move away, but he felt the wetness of her tears slip down to his skin away. “And I’m sorry that it hurts you, Cara. I’m sorry that I hurt you. I’m sorry that I love you.”

“Me, too.”

Gian reached behind Cara and pushed the emergency switch on the elevator. It took a couple of seconds for the machine to respond, for the red light to go off, and for the elevator to move again. Cara turned away from him, then, pressing the second-floor button.

At his floor, Gian expected the people and security waiting there as the door opened to let him out. He shrugged off their questions, giving no answer as to what happened to stop the elevator.

Behind him, he heard Cara whisper as he walked out, “I miss you, too.”

For them, he had been sure it was far too late. He had done that, not her.

But was it?

“Drive,” Gian demanded the second he shut the car door.

Chris glanced at his boss through the rearview mirror. “Shit, that bad?”

“Drive.”

Quickly, the car pulled off onto the road, but the enforcer was still keeping one eye on Gian. It made him feel like a bug under a microscope. He couldn’t hide the fact he was emotionally unsettled—sad, haunted, and angry all at once.

He couldn’t hide shit when it came to Cara.

“You know I was just joking about the whole losing your license thing, right?”

“I didn’t lose my license. I paid the fucking fines. Take me home.”

“Boss—”

“Shut up and drive,” Gian snapped.

“You got it, boss.”

Chris didn’t ask or say another thing. The man made no jokes as he navigated city traffic, and headed in the direction of Gian’s penthouse. Gian, on the other hand, stewed in his fucking mess of emotions the entire way, alternating between glaring out the window, and hiding his clenched hands in his pockets.

He had paid his fines, and then gotten the hell out of the courthouse as fast as he possibly could. He feared that if he ran into Cara again, he wouldn’t have as much control the second time around. He thought it was very possible that he might just grab her, make her listen, and have her talk to him more than what she already had.