“Maybe…” He trailed off into a sigh. “Maybe some good did come from that night. But I act impulsively all the time and most of the time it turns out badly.”
Jerking her head up at his confession, she stared at him in disbelief. “Vico. You rarely act with anything other than complete confidence and complete understanding.”
“No, I—”
“Look at what you’ve done for this company.” She waved her hand around the office. “You came in with a brilliant plan and you executed it flawlessly.”
His mouth quirked in wry amusement, even though his gaze stayed dull with defeat. “Much to your regret.”
“Yes.” A smile was something, something to build on. “And that says another thing you need to remember. I can behave impulsively, stupidly, too. I jumped to all the wrong conclusions about you and your plans. That wasn’t smart.”
“It isn’t the same thing.”
“It’s exactly the same thing. Everyone acts impulsively, sometimes.”
“Not like me.” The smile turned into a grimace. “I do far worse.”
The way he looked at her told her this wasn’t just about their first night. There was something ugly still buried inside him, something that flared in his eyes like blasting volcanos of pain and regret.
She straightened in his arms, bracing herself. “Tell me. Tell me the worst thing you’ve ever done.”
“No.” He yanked out of her grasp and paced to the window. The storm swirled outside, sheets of rain slashing down.
“You can tell me anything.” She kept her place, determination running through her. They were not going to leave this office until everything was said, every secret revealed. She wouldn’t let him or herself off the hook. “I love you. Tell me.”
He swung back to scowl at her. “Can’t you leave me with some dignity, Princesse? Some piece of pride?”
“I’m not leaving you, period.”
With a grunt of rejection, he lurched back to stare out the window. His shoulders were tense as if he waited for her to crack her whip at him. And if she needed to, she would. Her instincts told her this confession needed to be said by him. He needed to pull this painful stiletto of a memory out of him and make peace with it before she’d have a chance to heal him and love him like he deserved.
“No matter what you’ve done, I will always love you.” Lise stated the words with precision and with her whole heart. “You will always be the most honorable man I know.”
A brilliant crack of lightning split the sky, brightening the room. With it came a deep boom of thunder that shook the windowpane. It lit a rage inside her husband. She could tell because he swung around, his body tight with anger, his hands fisted, his face filled with contorted fury. “Was it honorable to lure a kid into a gang? Was it honorable to get him killed? Is that what you call honorable?”
The old story.
The tale none of his family touched.
The crime he never talked about.
“Tell me what happened.” She braved his temper and walked right up to him. Lifting her hand, she brushed the sudden tears off his cheeks.
“It was my fault.” Agony stretched his skin taut over the slash of his cheekbones. “He was my friend. He was only a kid.”
“Vico.” Drawing closer, her hand smoothed along his spine, feeling the hard breath moving in and out of his lungs.
“I was stupid. Ran around with the wrong crowd. Thought I was some kind of hero because I had my own gang. Guys who followed me.” The words tumbled from him in rapid fire, as he if he were trying to pull them out of his soul like painful blades of cutting memories.
“And then?”
“Then I had this asinine idea. A fight with a rival gang. A win we could crow about.”
Her hand kept moving, soothing.
“He was shot.” His tone went husky with anguish.
“Oh, Vico.”
“Someone had brought a gun. I never figured out if it was one of my gang or the other.”
Silence. Only the low rumble of the thunderstorm filtered in.
“He died in my arms.”
His whispered confession broke her heart and made her love him even more. Somehow, her love would heal him. Somehow, she’d find a way to lead him to forgive himself.
“This is why.” His voice turned harsh and hard. “This is why it’s best we divorce.”
“No.”
“You have got to believe me.” His arms dropped from her shoulders in utter determination and rejection. “I get way ahead of myself. I do things before thinking it all through. I set things in motion and then people get hurt. At some point, I’ll screw it up and hurt you and our son.”