as helpless as she was when he was that close to her. She’d noticed the way his nostrils flared and his head tilted closer to her the longer he was pressed into her.
“Fine.” She didn’t want to, it was the very last fucking thing she wanted to do, but if he was determined to tear her world apart, she might as well let him get it over with. Because she knew, she just knew, that further explanation would only make what he’d already said even worse. He didn’t have to say another word, and she already knew that.
“It’s a little confusing, but it’s like this. My parents let my aunt adopt me when I was seven. She’d lost her husband, your father, to a car accident, and she needed someone to devote her attention to. She chose me, and they agreed. My parents aren’t poor, but she had money beyond even their kind of dreams.” He paused, swiped a hand over his face, took a sip of his drink, then continued. “So, no, we’re not related. It just so happens that your father was married to my aunt when he died. Your mother isn’t my aunt, she’s just, well, the woman my aunt’s husband had an affair with.”
She was back to only being able to stare at him. This was his secret? That he was here for… what exactly? “What does she want? Why did she send you here?”
Instinct alone told her that it had to be her father’s wife, his aunt, that had sent him down here.
“Well,” he paused to wince before he spoke with sad eyes. “How are your finances, Marie?”
“Pardon? You know what they’re like. Non-existent, especially now, without my mother’s money coming in, or the check I got for taking care of her. What’s that got to do with anything? Matteo? Please, just get to the point.”
He looked pained as if he didn’t want to carry on but something was forcing him to. “Your mother owed Nick $100,000 at the time of his death. She still owes it to his estate. With interest, that’s about half a million now.”
Cold waves crashed over Marie as she looked at him and knew the hammer had well and truly fallen. “Your aunt wants it back, I suppose?”
The words came out cold and calm as if she didn’t care either way.
“She does. And sent me to collect it. But I didn’t know your mother was ill then, or that you’d be so very wonderful, Marie, you have to believe me.”
“I have to believe you?” She pulled her top lip in between her teeth, her mind blank, except for one thing. “Is there more?”
He looked at her as if to plead for mercy from her. From her? When he’d just told her this whole thing had been a lie, little more than a ruse to get half a million dollars out of her mother, half a million that she didn’t have. Marie didn’t have it either. Did this mean his aunt would have her killed?
Fear replaced the coldness and she blinked up at him, terror now the only thing she felt. Her heart thudded in her chest until he spoke again.
“I have a plan. It might not make sense, but in my world it does. It will buy you time, at the very least.” He took a deep breath and stared straight into her eyes. “I know you’re brave, Marie. You’re smart and wonderful, but before you get incredibly pissed off and hurt and all of that flies out the window, I want you to remember one thing. I want to marry you. The debt will be voided if you marry me.” He added an “I hope”, under his breath, but she caught it.
“You’ve lied to me,” she started. “You came here to make a fool of me, of my mother, you used me.”
Marie refused to let him see the tears that stung her eyes as hurt and humiliation flooded throughout her body, flushed her skin to an angry red that only made her more self-conscious. “And now, you want me to marry you, Matteo? Are you insane?”
“Marie, no, please. Hear me out, darling. I can fix this if you’ll just let me. Please. I didn’t know you then, I didn’t know how much I’d… want you.” He’d stumbled over his words but caught himself. She didn’t care.
“No. I’m finished with this. My mother warned me that men would only break my heart, and well, she learned from your uncle. So