Page 182 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 5-8

He was the one who had sent her away this time.

He’d projected every single childhood trauma onto her shoulders when the weight was not hers to bear. It washis.

Because he did have trauma, didn’t he? She’d pulled it from the places he’d hidden it. Exposed it.The cruelties that raised boys and broke men.

And he was broken. A shell of the man he knew he once was. Because he had hurt her on purpose. And he could not forgive himself for that. Even though it was the right thing to do. He’d broken his promise to keep her safe. To protect her. He could not protect her from him. From his fear of attachment. Of belonging to another and watching them leave.

And so he had left first.

Leftherbehind.

Abandoned her.

But he did not feel powerful.

He was not himself. The rules, the playbook, were obsolete, because none of it was working for him.

Had they ever worked? How had they served him? He’d lived an exhilarating life. But it had been a lonely life.

Until her.

And she’d let him into her garden. He’d seduced her, lulled her into the falsity that she was safe with him inside. He’d assured her it was safe. He would not crush the blooms. He would not crush her.

But he was a snake, and he had bitten her. A venomous bite. And no, their marriage was dead. Because he couldn’t accept that she had changed him. That he was—

In love?

She hadn’t contested the agreed settlement. She had not sought more than he’d already promised. She had not even demanded a divorce.

She was not his mother.

She’d only wanted tolovehim.

To be loved in return.

He was a fool. Achangedfool. Because what did he know of love? Only what she’d told him. Shown him. That she was his soulmate.

How could he let her in with these feelings? Big and scary, they haunted him. Her confession. Her love.

His stomach clenched.

All that was required was two signatures. And then it would be over. She would be gone. Forever.

He should not be hesitating. He should not be letting doubt in where it did not belong. She did not belong to him. He could not keep her safe. He could not meet her needs. He did not know this love. He did not know himself.

After today, after he signed the papers, he’d be able to breathe. They would finally be at an end. Divorced. He’d watch her sign the papers too, and only then would he be free of her. Only then would what it was that they shared die. And he would find himself again.

You’ll be alone.

As he always had been.

The plane landed without ceremony. Dante collected the papers and carried them in his too-tight grip. He descended the stairs and got into the waiting car.

Ten minutes and she would sign.

Emma was still afraid.

The first time she’d left Dante, she’d gone back to what she knew. Her life before him. Back to the estate, back to surviving, to start again. She’d worked any and every job the agency had offered her. She’d worked endlessly until exhaustion claimed all her senses. And she didn’t have to think orfeel. She didn’t have to remember what she’d left behind. Or what was coming. Any second now.