[Cat's POV]
A few miserable hours later, I find Enzo walking along the empty shore on the sand. I know he hears me coming because he slows down his steps, but he doesn't turn around or speak.
"I should have told you myself," I admit to him as I catch up to his side.
I watch as his jaw twitches, his hooded eyes focused forward.
"It was the night you left in the middle of the night, wasn't it?" He asks, still not looking at me. He continues before I can answer, but I don't think I needed to anyways. "Saturday. I woke up with you. You had every chance. Why wouldn't you tell me you found him?"
I sigh and accept the truth even within myself.
"I didn't want to be stopped."
He stops walking suddenly and turns toward me, so I stop too.
"I am not your keeper, Caterina," he says.
I reach up to his face but he steps back. "I know-"
"-No." He shakes his head. "I am your husband, not your master or controller. But, I will not support you jeopardizing our safety. You don't know everything you think you know. I know things that you do not about the way these people work. I have been around them for longer. Tony will not accept this. He will not claim it. Even if he did, he knows the truth. You made it crystal clear."
My teeth are clenched so tight, I'm surprised my voice is audible. "It could have been anyone, Enzo."
He looks at me point blank. "Then you should have shot him up, dumped him in the river, and prayed to god that he was never found. Instead, you chose for Tony to find the body. You teased him. Your signature was written across it without you even meaning to."
He starts stomping across the sand again and I try to fall into step with him.
"Enzo-"
He spins and grabs my forearms so suddenly, I almost yelp.
"You don't understand how many people want you dead, Caterina!" He is almost shouting, the vein popping out in his forehead as he clings to my arms. "They know about your knives. They know what you have done. What you are now. Please, for the love of god, wake up!"
I can see his panic. It is very clear. I know logically it is out of his love for me and Stef. He isn't saying anything that isn't probably true.
Yet, still, I glare at him. "Let go of me," I command.
His chest is rising and falling with every breath through his nose. He looks down at his hands, still on my arms, and his lips part slightly. His hands drop to his side quickly.
"He won't strike right away," I say, half meaning it, half trying to change the topic as he stares at the red on my skin where his fingers were.
It won't bruise. It's just red from the pressure. But I know my husband. And I also love him. And no matter how much he angers me, I still don't want him to beat himself up over potentially hurting me. He still apologizes for my cheek years later... to have done it again will break him.
He slowly draws his eyes up to my face. "You don't know that," he says, calmer, more humbled than before. "But I do know that you started a war."
He looks over my head at our rental house behind me. Then huffs. "We need to go home."
- - -
I don't fight him on leaving. There is no point anyway. I don't want to be here and in an argument. We can be home for that. Our vacation is ruined either way now.
When all the bags are packed, Enzo brings them to the door.
"I didn't mean to," I tell him quietly as he sets the last one down.
He slowly turns and sighs, looking over my face. "I know." He runs his hand over his face. "The jet will be ready in an hour."
I watch silently as he walks around me and goes in the back to sit on the deck steps. I want to give him his space. I want to...
...but I'm already at his side.
"Are you still angry with me?" I ask as I sit down beside him.
He half chuckles to himself before looking over to me, his face now completely serious. Tired, but serious.
"I just want the Cat from our first few months back."
I try not to let his words sting, but it's hard not to.
"That's not fair."
He shrugs like he doesn't see the hurt in my eyes. "I would beg to differ," he says plainly.
I look out to the ocean and gulp down the lump in my throat.
"So you don't love me anymore?"
"Caterina, if it's even possible, I love you more each day." He sighs and I feel his hand move to my thigh. "I just don't particularly like the recent developments," he adds.
"Since I took over my father's business."
I look to my side and he meets my eyes.
"Since you started lying and keeping things from me."
"I don't-" I start, but he cuts me off.
"Don't." He says with a look I wish I had never seen on my husband. His hand leaves my leg. "Don't, or I will ask what else you hide from me... and I don't think either of us wants the answer."
I wish that hurt me more than it does. I wish it shocked me more than it does. But I have felt this growing from him for months. Maybe even years at this point. He doesn't trust my life outside him... and that is a fact.
I straighten my shoulders.
"You met me as a stripper who fucked men for information, Enzo," I say plainly and he flinches, almost as if to the memory of me there, "so I don't know who exactly you thought you married."
His eyes are wide, his lips part but nothing comes out. I stand up and walk inside.
Nothing else needs to be said.
Or rather, nothing else should be said.
- - -
We haven't spoken in hours. I'm staring out the window of the private jet from my seat when I hear footsteps approaching. Undoubtedly, they are Enzo's. I guess he grew tired of sitting at the other end of the plane alone... but really, whose fault was that?
I speak as I hear him slide into the seat across from me, my eyes still focused on the cloud outside.
"I don't know how to be the way you want me to be. Too much has happened. I have done too much to go back to that."
He sighs. "You don't have to," he says, surprising me enough for me to look at him. His earlier anger is gone. Now his eyes match my own. "I was angry... I didn't mean that. I just want to be a team."
"We are," I tell him, confused.
"No, you have a team and I have a team... and we dance around the fact that our own doesn't exist. We just float past each other each day."
My head tilts to the side. "I don't understand."
"You never kept things from me before. What changed?"
Is he serious?
"Enzo, I kept the biggest secret of all from you - my name. Two, if you count Stef. Three, if you count figuring out Danny was the mole."
He looks down. Part of me wishes I didn't just prove him wrong. The guilt building in my chest from my past mistakes wasn't worth it. His face wasn't worth it.
I clear my throat and try again. "My point is, that was years ago. We have grown a lot since then. Together and individually."
"Maybe you have. I have not."
I stare at his perfect face frowning towards the floor. I move across to sit in the empty seat beside him, grabbing his hand to intertwine our fingers.
"Yes, you have," I tell him and he looks at me. "You are an amazing father, Enzo. You run the most successful enterprise in our state. You are a good husband, even when I don't like your accusations."
His eyes search mine, but for what I don't know. Then he sighs.
"I don't want the old you or some other version... I just want my wife."
"I should have told you before I did it. I'm sorry," I tell him sincerely and he nods, grazing his thumb over my cheekbone. I place my hand overtop of his. "But you're wrong. We are a team. You, me, and Stef."
- - -
[Anthony's POV]
Stefano moves his toy train across the plastic railroad on the ground, smiling as he plays. His left hand rests on my shoe sticking out from my crossed feet. He holds my shoe like it's a hand - like if he lets go I'll walk away. I don't find the heart to tell him to move it.
Daria walks in to Stef's playroom and glances down at my shoe. She smiles to me briefly before looking away.
She has been avoiding eye contact with me since our conversation in the living room... I don't know why... but it eats at me not to know, which surprises me in itself.
"Stef," she says lightly and he looks up.
"Hi, Daria," he says in his little voice that makes everyone smile for no apparent reason... even myself.
"Hi, sweetheart," she says softly. "Good news! Your parents will be home soon."
"Today?" He asks, his eyes wide.
"Yes, soon!"
He looks to me for confirmation and I nod slightly. He grins a huge smile ear to ear.
"Come wash for dinner and after we eat they will be home." She holds out her hand and he scrambles to his feet to take it. I find myself looking down at my shoe.
She leads him out of the room toward his bedroom to his in-suite bathroom. I stand up and brush my clothes off.
As I take a step to leave, I hear a floorboard creak below me.
But it doesn't come from my shoes.
Author's Note:
Sorry for the delay in this chapter!! Had no inspiration but now we are back!!
Thanks for reading!! Please vote and comment!!
Also huge shoutout to all my new readers who got MFTM to 100K!!! Thank you so much!!