Chapter 22
They had hoped to retrieve him when he was older.
But Matteo’s influence grew.
The years passed.
Then Sofia became ill.
By the time she could have told Nico everything, she no longer trusted her own health enough to believe she would survive the confrontation.
“She left the room and the ledger for you,” Celia said to Norah.
“She knew the truth would eventually find you.”
“Why me?”
“Because she believed you were the only person Nico would trust after learning it.”
Norah looked at him.
The words should have comforted her.
Instead, they filled her with a painful awareness of how much responsibility had been placed upon her without her knowledge.
She had loved Nico without knowing she was tied to the oldest secret of his family.
She had become his refuge without understanding that he had been searching for home since childhood.
“You should have told me,” Norah said.
Nico did not argue.
“Yes.”
“Before I walked away.”
“Yes.”
“Before you decided I only needed comfort and money.”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
She looked down at the ledger.
“Did you ever love me because of this?”
He stared at her.
“No.”
The answer came without hesitation.
“Then why did you love me?”
Nico looked toward the photograph of the two boys.
“I don’t know how to explain it without making it sound like another secret.”
“Try.”
“When I met you, I felt something familiar.”
Norah’s chest tightened.
“I thought it was because you reminded me of my mother.”
“I never met her.”
“You did not need to remember her consciously.”
He shook his head.
“That isn’t enough.”
“No,” he agreed.
He took a careful breath.
“I loved you because you challenged every part of me that had learned to survive by becoming hard.”
Norah remained silent.
“You saw the man beneath the name,” he continued.
“You saw when I was afraid, even when I pretended I wasn’t.”
“You knew when I needed food, sleep, or silence.”
“You made the penthouse feel like a home before I understood that I had never had one.”
His voice lowered.
“I loved you because you were you.”
The words were simple.
They did not erase the night before.
They did not return the years she had spent uncertain of her place in his life.
But they reached the part of her that had always feared his love was conditional.
Norah looked at him.