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“You knoould have welcomed you back all these years” Not even a hint of hesitation could be heard in his father’s voice “Why have you not returned to Palermo even once? Why have you stayed at a distance, Stefano?”

The unhidden ache in the question cah the shell he had built around himself

Had he known, somewhere, that his father, of all the people in the world, could sense how changed he was from the inside? Had he been afraid that his father could see that there was nothing good left in his son after what Serena had done?

“Was it to punish us for threatening to cut you off all those years ago? Have you become such a cruel man, then?”

“No,” the denial waved out of hi but truth For the first time in years, Stefan looked inward

“What kind of aher son in her arain?”

To hear that painful resignation in his father’s voice was Stefan’s undoing Words rushed out of hiuilt and shame and so much more that he had locked up for so many years “Serenashe took my very belief in er to myself I didn’t know myself and I could not face you as a failure Iwas not worthy of you and Ma such a woman over you How could I face you after I had so selfishly shattered all your dreams?”

Understanding dawned in his father’s gaze “And all these years? After you built your empire, after you proved to yourself that you could succeed?”

Stefan shook his head, a lump in his throat He had no answer for his father

“Has she taken everything that was good and kind about you, too?”

She hadn’t He’d given it all up willingly He hadn’t wanted anything that could havewith his naïveté, he had also given up his heart

After everything he had done to wipe her from his life, he had still let her win

The realization clawed in his gut He had held on to her rejection, had held on to the poison she had spewed into his life for so long

Had let her corrupt everything that had been good and pure in his life even though he had been deter

He had denied hi each other