My Runaway Groom Came Back I Became His Aunt! novel Chapter 43

Chapter 10

I was in the garden downstairs, pruning the roses.

Liam appeared silently behind me. “Seems like things are going your way.”

I turned and settled into a white wicker chair, taking a sip of the black tea Vito had specially flown in from New York.

“As you can see.” I said calmly. “I’m very happy.”

He moved closer, his voice tight. “Vivian never married into my family. The day you left, everything fell apart.”

I lifted my gaze. “And? What’s that got to do with me?”

He took a deep breath before speaking through clenched teeth.

*Isabella, I’ve been having a strange dream lately.”

His eyes locked onto mine, heavy with longing and pain.

“In the dream, you never went to Italy. Instead, you married me. But we were miserable.”

“I thought Vivian was your real sister. I thought you set her up.”

“I thought she died in Italy. So I held onto that resentment and I made your life hell.”

“But the truth is, Vivian lied about everything. She never had asthma. She isn’t your sister-she’s an illegitimate

daughter. And she never died.”

He’d dreamed about our past life.

But so what? The past was already gone.

‘Liam, I cut him off, impatient.

“You don’t really think a random dream can excuse you, do you?”

“Who kept protecting her? Who broke the promise we made back then? Who pushed me toward that marriage?””

“Now everything turned out exactly as you wanted. What’s the point of saying all this?”

He was getting worked up. “Because I want you to know I’ve always loved you!”

I only ever saw her as a sister. In my heart, you were always the one. Can you give me another chance? I swear this time

I’ll-”

“I won’t.” I met his eyes, leaving no room for doubt.

“Your love came too late, and it means nothing now. I didn’t want it before I left. Now? It just disgusts me.”

Liam staggered back a step, his face stricken with pain.

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“My dear.”

At that moment, Vito walked out of the house and draped a shawl over my shoulders.

He wore a perfectly tailored dark suit. The wind ruffled his soft brown curls, but he still looked like a prince from a

Renaissance painting.

Those emerald eyes swept over Liam once. Then, as if staking a claim, he placed a hand on my shoulder.

“It’s windy out,” he said softly. The doctor said you shouldn’t catch a cold.”

Liam’s gaze fixed on that hand.

*Family means more to me than my own life.” I took Vito’s hand and spoke calmly to Liam.

“I will only have children with the man I truly love. That is the vow I hold most sacred in marriage.”

I had said those exact words to him once, a lifetime ago.

He knew that when I said those words, I had truly given him my heart.

But years together couldn’t survive all the misunderstandings, pride, and fear.

By then, we had already lost each other.

Liam’s lips trembled. “You’re really… not coming back?”

I raised my head, my voice steady and clear.

“You should go. We won’t see each other again.”

Love or hate, he was out of my life for good.

After he left, I turned and pinched Vito’s cheek, leaning closer to those sly emerald eyes.

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