Chapter 72
‘Shall I make it easy for you?’ he said quietly. ‘How about if I were to tell you that I love you? Would that
make it easier for you to say the words?’
N?velDrama.Org: owner of this content.
Her chest hitched as she gave a sharp nod, still not speaking.
‘I love you.’
One solitary tear did break free, trickling down her cheek. He wiped it with his thumb.
‘I’ve spent many hours these past couple of weeks looking at those photos you took of me. You see
something in me no one else can. The thing I never wanted you or anyone to see.’
‘What thing?’ she whispered.
‘The man inside. The gutter rat who grew up feeling dirty and unworthy and unlovable.’
‘You’re not...’
He ced a finger to her lips, though the sound of her outrage warmed the coldness inside him. ‘I’ve
been fighting to stop you getting too close since before our wedding night because I knew you were so
near to seeing what’s inside me. I thought it would repel you as it does my mother. I knew when you
spoke of love in our apartment what you were trying to tell me, but I refused to listen. I didn’t think I
deserved your love. I was scared that to fall in love with you would be to destroy you—and you,
Alessandra Mondelli, whom I so wish would be Alessandra Markos, are the most precious person in
the world to me. Without you, I am nothing. I ept that I’m not good enough for you...’
‘Will you stop saying that?’ She dug her nails into his skin. ‘You are not a gutter rat. You
are...everything. Everything you’ve achieved with your life, everything you’ve done... If anyone’s
undeserving, it’s me.’
‘To me, you are a princess. You deserve all the richness this world can bring, agapi mou, and I will do
everything in my power to give it to you—if you’ll let me. I love you and I don’t want to live another day
without you.’
Alessandra felt a whoosh of air leave her body. He loved her?
He loved her?
He loved her!
He ced her hands to his chest. She could feel his heartbeat thrumming wildly beneath his shirt. ‘I
thought I couldpartmentalise our marriage in the same way Ipartmentalise my rtionship
with my mother. She lives in a corner of my life, safely hidden away from everyone so she cannot hurt
me or anyone else. I told myself I would marry you to be a father and not a husband but I was
wrong—I wanted you as much as the baby and was desperate to make you mine. I tried to
compartmentalise you, not because I was scared of hurting you, but because deep down I knew you
had the power to hurt me.’
‘I have the power to hurt you?’ she whispered, gazing at the man she loved so much.
‘More than you could ever know. Throughout my childhood I wanted nothing more than to make my
mother proud and for her to love me. The power she had over me, the power to hurt me... I swore no
one else would ever have that power. But then you came into my life and nestled straight into my heart
and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I used to fear that falling in love with someone would curse
them, make them turn into her. But you could never be like her. She took her heartbreak and bitterness
out on me. You would never do that to our child. There hasn’t been anyone else since that first night we
had and I know there never will be. Only you.’
He brushed a thumb over her lips. ‘I was desperate for you to sell your apartment, not because I
thought it made sense in any way but because I felt excluded from it.’ He allowed himself a crooked
smile. ‘I was jealous of an apartment.’
She leaned forward and rubbed the tip of her nose to his, unable to believe this was really happening.
From feeling as if she would never feel the sun on her face again she could feel its beams spread
through her.
He loved her!
‘I was also afraid that if you had a bolt hole to escape to you would be more tempted to use it,’ he
continued. ‘I should have guessed you would use this ce as your bolt hole.’
‘I couldn’t face being in the apartment without you,’ she confessed. ‘So I turned up at Ro’s door
iming asylum.’