Temporarily His Princess - By Olivia Gates Page 0,63
any more. She had to get out of here, hide, disappear.
She escaped her mother’s imploring hands as she ran again. She never wanted to stop running.
She spilled out into the street, ran and ran.
But there was no outrunning the realizations.
Everything was far worse than her worst projections. But one thing was worse than anything else. One realization.
Vincenzo’s cruelty to her perceived betrayal hadn’t been cruel at all. Cruel would have been to have her arrested. Even that would have only been his right, what he should have done. But he hadn’t. That meant one thing.
He had loved her.
He’d loved her so much that even getting incontrovertible proof of her betrayal hadn’t made him retaliate. He’d only tried to protect himself, cutting her off. Then, when she wouldn’t let him, he’d pushed her away in a way he’d thought wouldn’t harm her, since he’d believed she’d felt nothing for him, had been manipulating him from day one.
And she’d always thought getting answers would resolve the misery that had consumed six years of her life. In truth, it had dealt her a fatal blow.
Despair and exertion hacked through her lungs as more details and realizations sank their shards into her heart…
“Glory.”
Vincenzo. His booming desperation shattered everything inside her into shrapnel of grief, of panic. It all burst out into a surge of manic speed.
She couldn’t stop. Couldn’t let him catch her.
Not now that she knew he’d always loved her. Now that she knew it could never be.
*
Vincenzo arrived at the Monaghans’ house just as Glory exited it. It was clear the confrontation with her mother had devastated her.
A man in his right mind would have caught up with her without alerting her. But the mass of desperation that he’d turned into had just bellowed her name the moment he’d seen her, sending her zooming faster, screeching for a cab.
But he could have overtaken a speeding car right now. A woman running in high heels looked stationary compared to his speed. He intercepted her as she opened the cab’s door.
His arms went around her, filling them with his every reason for living. “Glory, amore, please, let’s talk.”
She pushed weakly at him. “There’s nothing more to talk about, Vincenzo. Just forget I ever existed. In fact, when your situation allows, just prosecute me and my family.”
Before he could utter another word, she surprised him by ducking out of the circle of his arms and into the cab.
His first instinct was to haul her out, carry her back to their home and tell her he’d never let her go again.
The one thing that stopped him was knowing it would be pointless without performing another imperative step first. Another confrontation with her mother. He had to break whatever hold she had on Glory, once and for all.
After Glory’s cab disappeared, with his every cell rioting, he turned and walked back to the Monaghans’ house.
The woman who opened the door exhibited Glory’s same devastation. He wanted to blast her off the face of the earth for what she’d cost him and Glory, but he couldn’t. She looked so fragile, so desolate, so much like an older version of Glory, that he couldn’t hate her. He even felt a tug of unreasoning affection.
She grabbed at him with weak, shaking hands. “Glory wouldn’t listen to me, but please, Vincenzo, you have to.”
Suddenly, looking into those eyes that could be Glory’s, everything fell into place.
It had never been Glory. It had always been Glenda.
He staggered under the blow of realization. How had he never considered this?
“It was you. In the past, and again now.”
The woman’s tears ran thicker, her whole face working. “I—I did it to save Dermot and Daniel!”
Her sob tore through him, with its agony, its authenticity. So he’d been right, just about the wrong person. Glenda Monaghan had been the one who’d been forced to spy on him.
She was now weeping so hard he feared she might tear something vital inside her.
His arm went around her as she swayed, helping her to the nearest couch. He sat beside her, rubbing her shaking hands soothingly. “Mrs. Monaghan, please, calm down. I’m not angry this time, and I promise, I won’t hurt you or them. Just tell me why you did it, let me help.”
“No one can help,” she wailed.
He forced a tight smile. “You clearly don’t realize what kind of power your son-in-law has. I would turn the whole world upside down for Glory, and by extension for her family.”
“You’re a scientist and a prince. You can’t possibly