8 Chapter 8
His face was a mask of disbelief.
“There’s nothing left between us but hatred.”
Until Salvatore appeared.
“Tell me the truth. This time, I’ll believe you.”
Rocco stood bolt upright, letting Carmela slide from his arms to the floor.
But what truly drove me to despair was learning Rocco had orchestrated it all.
I knew he was angry.
Isla, who had been hiding, looked at her friend with suspicion.
I looked at him. His brow was furrowed.
He ruined my father’s business, forcing my parents into a situation that ended with their
deaths in an “explosion.”
I looked at the broken man before me, guessed what was running through his mind, and felt nothing but ice in my veins.
Perhaps angry that I had kept secrets, or perhaps angry that I had stopped him from
acting sooner.
“You can’t go. You need to explain this.”
“Please, just tell me. I swear I’ll believe you this time.”
What was Salvatore doing?
He couldn’t believe I would be with anyone else.
Salvatore didn’t even spare him a glance.,
His words were a resounding slap in the face to every person present.
That night, the double blow of losing my child and my parents nearly destroyed me.
He had been recovering in a hospital bed, helpless.
It wasn’t that Rocco didn’t understand.
He gave me back my life.
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With that, Salvatore took my hand and started to leave.
When Carmela met Rocco’s and Salvatore’s eyes, she immediately looked away.
“If you want to know something, find out yourself.”
“Uncle, what did you just say?”
But Rocco moved first, blocking our path.
“I don’t need to explain myself to anyone.”
And on that very same day, our engagement anniversary, he brought Carmela home and forced me, pregnant with our child, to dance for them.
From then on, in the long, dark nights, I fed on my hatred for Rocco Corleone, just to
survive.
Rocco reached for me, but Salvatore shot him a look that could kill.
“No, I didn’t… there isn’t only hatred between us.’
”
But at the time, he’d been shattered by the photos someone had sent him–pictures of
me with other men.
She tried to grab his trousers, but no one was looking at her. All eyes were on me and
Salvatore.
Why was he being so intimate with me?
“I have nothing more to say to you.”
He couldn’t believe I was with Salvatore.
“There has been no love between us for a long time. Not since the day you killed my
parents.”
My words struck Rocco like a physical blow. The word “hatred” echoed in his mind.
That’s why on the day he was discharged, he had prepared a special “gift” for me.
But he wasn’t angry that I had hit someone.
Salvatore walked to my side.
Under the shocked gazes of everyone in the room, he gently pulled my robe closed, covering the scars.
Then, in front of them all, he leaned down and gave me a deep, possessive kiss.
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8 Chapter 8
“There are people who know what you don’t.”
He assumed that because he was crippled, with no future, I had betrayed him.
How could I fall in love with someone else in the blink of an eye?
He had sensed something was wrong four years ago.
“If you say we did, then we did. Whatever you say.”
He had thought our war over the past four years would only bind us closer together.
“You didn’t believe me four years ago, and you don’t believe me now. So don’t bother
asking.”
Salvatore’s fierce gaze fell on Carmela, still crumpled on the floor.
Rocco’s parents exchanged a confused look, not understanding what the Don meant.
He led me out of the darkness and into the light I had longed for.
So he had thrown himself into rehabilitation with a single–minded fury, all so he could
have his revenge.
Rocco’s head slowly turned toward her.
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