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Trust Pia to drill down to the matter

There was never judgment in Pia’s tone He wrapped his arainst him He knew hi new

Not always good things, but things he hadn’t known

Jaw tight, Raphael pored over her question Had he loved Allegra?

Not that he’d had eyes for anyone but his stunning ex He had been thinking with so other than his head

Drunk on his success with Vito Automobiles, puffed up with power, he’d decided she was the perfect candidate long before she had set her sights upon him He had pulled his family fro was the perfect society wife to complete his ascent

“No, I didn’t love her And in hindsight, I wreaked even e on her than her lect I should have never married her She needed someone softer, kinder and I…all I wanted from her was a trophy wife”

He laid his head back against the headboard Christo, of all the times to realize his faults He couldn’t soften toward his ex now

“Isn’t it good for Alyssa that her ram?” came Pia’s tentative voice

He shrugged “It doesn’t ave her when she had affairs behind ave her when she lied to me about—”

A hard glea to see beneath that hardness Beginning to understand that Raphael felt things deeply More than even he understood That he was just good at burying it all

She pressed her face into his chest, feeling an overwhel tenderness for him And waited

“I found her high at the house once with Alyssa barely a month old Gio and her mother, even mine, they all pled her case They said that addiction is like a sickness, that she didn’t know any better But she’s an adult who’s responsible for her actions I won’t forgive that She’s not getting her hands on hter in this lifetime”

“That sounds so final,” Pia said, before she could stop “Are you protecting Alyssa? Or punishing Allegra? Is it even about Allegra, or is it about your father?”

He looked so furious then that Pia braced herself for a cutting reply She’d gone too far Worse, they both knew she’d unwittingly struck on the truth