The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife (Blair and Grayson) novel Chapter 303

Chapter 303

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Chapter 303

~MARCO~

I stayed rooted to the driveway, her words still echoing in my head as I waited for an explanation.

Her hand stayed on the open door of her car, the keys dangling, and for a moment I thought she would simply get in and leave the rest unsaid.

Then she shut the door again and walked back toward me, slower this time, the anger still in her posture but something settling over it.

“Caterina’s mother got sick,” she said. The words came out flat. “It was sudden. The doctors said she needed surgery and treatment that the family could not afford. Not even close. Caterina came to me. She was desperate. She did not know where else to go. She did not want to burden you and at the time you wouldn’t have had the money to help.”

I stared at her. “What are you saying?”

“I told her I would help.” My mother’s voice tightened. “I told her the money would be there. The hospital bills. The specialists. Whatever it took to keep her mother alive. But only if she left you. Completely. No more relationship. No more contact. She had to end it in a way that you would never come looking for her again.”

The ground under my feet seemed to shift I took a step back without meaning to.” You did what?”

11

“She agreed.” My mother lifted her chin, though her eyes did not quite meet mine. “She wrote the messages. She said the things that would make you hate her. She let you believe she had found someone else, that she had been unfaithful, that everything between you had been a waste. She did it because I made that the price. And then I paid. Her mother lived. Caterina disappeared from your life exactly the way I wanted.”

I could not speak. The interpretation of the past I had carried for years cracked open and rearranged itself in front of me. Caterina’s cold eyes the night she ended it. The short, cutting texts. All of it had been a performance. All of it had been forced.

“Why?” The word was forced out of me. “Why would you ever do something that cruel?”

“Because I wanted the best for you.” Her voice rose, defensive. “At the time I did not think she was good enough. She was not from the right family. She did not have the background, the connections, the future I saw for you. I watched you talk about her like she was the center of everything and I decided she would hold you back. I told myself I was protecting you. I told myself you would thank me later, even if you never knew the reason.”

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“You forced her to choose between her mother’s life and me.” My hands had curled

Chapter 303

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into fists at my sides. I kept them there. “You made her destroy us so you could write the check. And you let me hate her for it. For years. You let me believe the story she gave me. I don’t even know how to look at you anymore!”

“I know.” The admission came more quietly. Her shoulders rigid. “I know now that I made a terrible mistake. Thave carried it for years, that guilt. When her mother recovered and Caterina still stayed away, I told myself it was for the best. Then I watched you change. You stopped trusting people. You stopped talking about a future with anyone. And when you married that Bellandi girl without telling any of us, I realized how far you had gone to keep everyone at a distance. I realized what I had done to you.”

She took a step closer. I did not move.

“That is why I have been trying to bring Caterina back into your life,” she said. “Not because I enjoy watching her hurt you. Because I finally understood what I took from you. I thought if you saw her again, if the truth came out, you might still have a chance at what you actually wanted. I have been desperate because I knew the clock was running. And now you have posted that video and claimed another woman in front of everyone, and I am standing here watching you make another decision based on half the truth.”

My throat felt tight. “Caterina didn’t cheat on me.”

“No.”

“She didn’t wake up one day and decide I was not worth it.” The words tasted strange. She looked me in the face and said things that tore me apart because you told her that was the only way her mother would survive.”

11

“Yes.”

I turned my head, staring at the house behind me, at the door I had blocked only minutes ago.

Loretta was inside. I wasn’t sure if she was listening or not. Ldidn’t know what to do with this new information. Now I felt guilty for hating Caterina all these years, for being

so mean to her.

“She suffered for years,” my mother said. “I made her suffer. And then I watched you suffer and told myself it was necessary. I am telling you the truth today because I cannot watch you build an entire life on the lie I created. If you still want Caterina after this, then at least you will know what she gave up. If you do not, then at least you will stop hating a woman who never wanted to leave you.”

I looked back at her. “You are telling me this so I will walk away from Loretta.”

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