Chapter 114 BEYOND REPAIR.
\~~~RAINA.
I stared at him, my heart slamming against my ribs. Stunned didn't even cover it. My mind reeled, trying to process what he'd just said.
Luciano Moretti, the man who'd made my life a cage of fear and secrets, was looking at me with eyes full of something raw. Vulnerability? Love?
No, it couldn't be.
For a second, I thought I had misheard him. For a second, I hoped I had.
I shook my head slowly and took a step back.
“What?” The word slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.
He stepped closer. “God, Raina, I lo…”
“Wait!” I cut him off sharply, my hand shooting up like a barrier. He froze, astonishment flashing across his face. His mouth hung open, words dying there.
“Raina,” he said softly, like my name was a plea.
“I won't have this conversation with you. Leave.” I pointed to the door, my finger trembling.
My voice came out steadier than I felt, but inside, everything churned. How dare he say that now? After everything?
“You can't force me away. We need to talk about things and…”
“And what exactly, Luciano? What?!” I snapped, my frustration boiling over. The anger I'd buried for months surged up, hot and fierce.
He exhaled and rubbed his forehead like he was trying to keep himself together. “Raina…”
“Don't you get it?” I asked bitterly.
“Get what?”
“You, Luciano, are not capable of love. You don't have what it takes to love a person genuinely or even feel an iota of attraction toward them!”
“What do you mean?” His brows furrowed, hurt flickering in his gaze.
I stepped forward, the words tumbling out like poison I'd held too long. “You are an egoistic person who only cares about himself. All you have in your head is a twisted obsession. Everyone and everything either belongs to you, or they are beneath you.”
“Raina.”
“You don't consider anyone your equal,” I said, my voice trembling now.
“You don't see anyone as normal! If they are not beneath you, they are not worth your time or respect. They are just invisible or disposable.” The completion of that thought hit me hard, but I pushed on. It was true. He had treated me like a possession, not a partner.
“You don't mean this,” he said, voice low, almost desperate.
“I do,” I said firmly. “For six months, I lived in fear.”
He stiffened.
“Fear of what you would do to me,” I continued. “Fear that one day, you would wake up tired of me and kill me.”
“That’s not…”
“You didn’t even bother to deny it,” I cut in. “You threatened me at every given opportunity. You showed me how brutal you could be. Over and over again.”
“I wanted you to tell me the truth!” he retorted, his tone sharpening.
“How could I have told you the truth under such pressure?!” I shouted, my voice echoing in the small room. Every threat replayed in my mind, the noose tightening around my neck just by being near him.
He took a step back, as if the sound had hit him physically.
“Is that supposed to be on me!?” He shot back. “You lied to me! You deceived me, and yet, I am the bigger one here.”
“Then, don't be the bigger one! Don't be the bigger person. I don't ask that of you,” My words were a challenge, laced with the pain he'd caused.
“You are…” He swallowed hard, breathing heavily, his hands clenching at his sides.
“God, Raina,” he muttered, running a hand through his hair again. Frustration etched lines on his face, but I didn't soften. I couldn't.
“You don’t beat a child and expect them not to cry,” I said, my voice breaking. “You don’t traumatize someone and then demand honesty from them.”
“You lied to me,” he said harshly. “And you joined hands with my enemy to sabotage me.”
My brows knitted together. “What? You think the world revolves around you? Of course, I got the offer. But you think I'd do that to you?”
“I saw the texts, Raina.”
My brows drew together, and I scoffed. “What?”
“I saw the texts. You agreed to help them and ruin me.”
“What?! Me?!” My heart dropped, disbelief washing over me. How could he think that?
He folded his arms, his expression dark. “So, I am twisted and egoistic, right?”
“Luciano, I swear to you,” I said desperately. “I never did that.”
He didn’t respond.
“I turned them down,” I rushed on. “They asked for my cooperation. I said no.”
His eyes searched my face, but I couldn’t tell what he was seeing.
“They blackmailed me,” I continued, my voice shaking. “They knew I was Raina. They threatened to tell you everything if I didn’t do what they wanted.”
His lips parted slightly.
“I swear,” I panted. “I swear to you, Luciano. I told them I would rather have you kill me than hurt you like that. Please, believe me.”
“Believe you?” He chuckled bitterly and took a step back, the distance between us growing like a chasm.
“Luciano…” I whispered, my voice breaking.
“If I am egoistic and obsessive,” he started coldly, “then what are you?”
My throat closed.
“At least I would never lie so confidently even if it could destroy another person,” he continued. “I would never sabotage you, no matter how much I might have hated you.”
His eyes burned into mine.
“You are twisted too, Raina. We both are. The difference is, you refuse to see your flaws.”
With that, he turned on his heel and walked out of the room, the door clicking shut behind him. I stood there, mouth agape, the silence crashing over me like a wave. My knees buckled, and I sank into the nearest chair, the fight draining out of me.
How did it come to this? One moment, he was going to confess his love, and the next, we were tearing each other apart.
His accusations stung, burrowing deep. Sabotage? Me? The texts… he must have seen something twisted, maybe forged or out of context.
But the hurt in his eyes… it mirrored my own. We'd both been lied to, manipulated by forces bigger than us. My family, his enemies, the whole mess of secrets that started with Talia.
I wrapped my arms around myself, the space blurring through tears.
Six months of marriage, built on deception. I'd pretended to be someone else to survive, to protect my family. But in the end, it destroyed us.
His obsession wasn't just control, it was fear, fear of losing what he thought was his.
And me? I'd lied, yes, but out of terror.
The door was still closed, and his footsteps long gone. Part of me wanted to chase him, to scream the full truth until he listened. But another part, the weary one, knew it was too late. We'd signed the papers. We were done. Or were we? His words echoed in my head, stirring something I didn't want to name.
But, honestly, I wasn’t sure which of us had just broken the other beyond repair.