He Broke Every Rule for Her, Except When It Came to Me Chapter 10

He Broke Every Rule for Her, Except When It Came to Me Chapter 10

His throat worked.

Every trace of the arrogance he used to wear was gone, replaced by something I’d never once seen on him— humility, edged with shame

“About your grandparents… I’m sorry. know everything now. I was wrong about them…”

The regret in his eyes, the way he seemed almost afraid to move-I’d never seen this version of him before,

not once in all our years together.

The man who used to sit above everyone, finally willing to bow his head:

I kept my face still. “And?”

“I know it was Bianca. All of it. I already had her arrested.”

His voice was urgent, insistent. “I’m sorry, Elena.”

I looked at him and didn’t want any part of this anymore.

“Go home. Don’t come here again.”

If he hadn’t spent years shielding her, pressing his weight down on me instead-my grandparents would

still be alive.

I turned to leave. He reached for my arm again.

“Don’t touch me!” My voice came out sharp.

He flinched, frozen, humiliation and shame written plainly across his face.

I looked straight at him.

“Damiano, we’re done. Stop chasing me.”

“I know I was wrong.”

His voice cracked, pleading in a way I never thought I’d hear from him.

“Is there any way… any chance… I could make this right?”

I laughed, cold.

“You think one apology erases everything that’s happened? Does ‘I’m sorry’ bring my grandparents back?”

“I’m sorry, I really didn’t think it would go this far-”

He kept fumbling for words.

I cut him off with a bitter laugh, staring straight into him.

“Did you really not know? Or did you just never want to know? Ask yourself-in all those years, were you ever actually fair to me?”

“You lived your whole life quoting the Code at me. Fine-I followed every rule. And you?”

“I ate one cracker off-hours once because my stomach hurt, and you had me whipped twenty times for it.”

“And Bianca? You let her eat that gumbo in your study whenever she wanted. Knowing full well I’m allergic to lavender pollen, and still, you planted an entire garden of it, just for her.”

“The day I flinched from pain during Morning Audience, you stood by and let me be punished. Her cat knocked over sacred relics in the Undercroft, and you defended her before anyone even finished speaking.”

“My own family needed a week of clearance just to visit. She could bring an entire party through the gates

without a single question asked.”

“You turned me-your own wife-into a joke everyone in this world could laugh at!”

“Bianca framed my grandfather for theft. He had a heart attack in custody. I wanted to see him and you quoted curfew at me. But how many rules did you break for her, exactly?”

I stared him down, my voice thick with contempt.

“Damiano, where exactly do you find the nerve to ask for my forgiveness?”

Every word drained more color from his face.

He staggered back a step, then another, opening his mouth to argue and finding nothing to say.

“I’m sorry… I only ever made exceptions for her because her father saved my father’s life once. My father made me promise never to forget that debt. That’s the only reason I let it go so far.”

“I never imagined it would end like this…”

A debt? Repayment?

I almost laughed out loud.

Was this how he chose to repay it-by sacrificing his own wife to spare someone else a moment of

discomfort?

I pushed up my sleeve, exposing the raised, twisted scars crossing my arm.

“Every one of these-you gave me.’

“Damiano. If there’s one thing I’ll regret for the rest of my life, it’s meeting you. Loving you. Marrying you!”

I didn’t wait to see his stricken, guilt-wrecked face.

I turned and walked into the house.