The Italian's proposal

Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty-eight

Melody

Melody was petrified, dumbfounded, when she realized that Timothy was in front of her. She couldn’t believe he was there, she arranged with Devina not to cross Timothy’s path, that was the deal, she didn’t understand why he was there, next to a man with dark hair and a mischievous look. One who looked like a cat who just ate a mouse. He seemed to be fulfilled.

“Why are you here?” she asked, although something told her, her instinct made her think that, she was a puppet in a play planned by the redhead who was next to her in the elevator.

She looked up guessing for a response from her eyes, a confirmation that her doubts were based and made sense.

“I felt that something needed a little push, if you don’t want to see Timothy again anyway, he’ll leave right now with Hamlet, continue with their plans and you’ll get your stuff out of here, you’ll never have to see his face again. Am I speaking clearly enough for you?”

Melody returned her gaze to Timothy, he was looking at her with his deep green eyes, he had a growing beard, which gave him a mysterious and more striking air than usual, a light green shirt and black pants, his dark circles under his eyes showed that he was having bad nights and maybe bad days, perhaps as bad or worse than hers, since he was bearing the brunt of it. After her departure from the chapel, he had to deal with the media, her parents, the wedding expenses, the money spent on decorations, dress, and suit. It had all been a disaster thanks to her, thanks to her not being able to keep her part of the bargain, only because she fell madly in love with him, and felt she betrayed her heart and her existence if she stayed by his side fulfilling her role as a fake wife.

It was not out of fear that she left the chapel, it was not out of fear that she spoke to him and told him she could not go through with the charade.

No.

Everything but that, she was gone, she regretted it, because she knew that if she stayed, she would hate Timothy, and the love she felt for him would be stained, because she thought he would never be able to correspond to her in the same way.

She was not damaged by having a baby in her womb, but she knew that there were men who walked away from women when they were expecting a child by a man who was not them.

“Melody, what are you doing here? Is it true you came to get your things?” Timothy approached her, both women had stepped out of the elevator. Melody was in a bubble and only had eyes for him, for the man of her dreams, the man of her nightmares, the man who occupied all her thoughts and ideas, the one who, just by glimpsing him in her mind, could create contractions in her lower abdomen and desires she never felt for anyone else.

“I... really... it’s just that I came...” the words wouldn’t come out, she stared at him and felt like crying, like throwing herself into his arms, and that he, as he did so many times throughout the time she was in his apartment, comforted her, hugged her and said that nothing bad would happen to her, that she would be fine, that she would be safe and that he would protect her, he would take care of her, and he would find a way for her to be completely happy.

The fullness with which she felt at his side, was more than enough token to her heart, for this one to further root the thought that she would never again love any other man as she had fallen in love with Timothy.

“Is it true that you came here to get your things and never return? Because if so, I’m not going to stop you. You’re welcome to take anything you want.”

Melody wanted to shout no, she wanted to tell him that she had gone there to surprise him, to prepare a romantic dinner, to decorate the house with scented candles, she carried all the things in a bag, she called Paula to leave the dinner made in the oven, because she knew that Timothy never entered the kitchen, unless Paula told her that she kept special food for him. She took all the trouble to coordinate every detail, thinking that she was in control of the situation, a crass mistake, as she now realized that Devina was always the one who was in charge of the situation.

“Guys, why don’t you come into the apartment and talk. You guys have a lot to talk about, I know you have a lot of things to clear up and that’s why I had to take the audacity to intercede for both of you, because there are a lot of things that have yet to be said and that, to move on with your lives, either together or separately, it’s best that you talk.”

Devina stepped between them, took the bag from Melody’s hand, and walked into the penthouse, leaving Timothy a little bewildered and Hamlet leaning against the wall next to the elevator, watching the scene in amusement.

She now realized that the dark-haired guy was Devina’s husband, who was supposed to help her, getting Timothy out of the apartment to fulfill her plan.

“Do you want to come in?” asked Timothy after a moment, when Devina was leaving the place. “If you want to come in and talk to me, I can listen to you, but I don’t know why I get the feeling that what you’re really interested in is taking the stuff I bought you.”

“You think so? You think I came to take the things you bought me? You think I’m only interested in material things? Just like that stupid girl you were with before? The one who cheated on you? You think I’m just like her? Don’t you dare Timothy Giannato to judge me with the same criteria you use to judge all the others!”

Melody thought she was going to explode on the spot. Rage was beginning to rise from her feet, all the way up to the strands of her hair.

How could he be able to believe that she was interested in his things? In the material things he unselfishly bought her? She kept the credit card he had given her and had not even used it in those three days, for it had never been the money of that Italian, complex and afraid of being loved, that she sought.

“I didn’t mean to imply that you... it was never my intention for you to believe that...” she stood there looking at him with raised eyebrows, she folded her arms.

Devina interceded again, and Melody was almost thankful because she thought she was going to smack Timothy upside the head to get him to react.

“Guys, please come in and talk. Say what you have to say to each other, I’m starting to feel uncomfortable, other than that I’m hungry,” she stood next to her husband and looked at him lovingly. Melody envied that look, that look they both gave each other as if no one mattered around them. “Darling, let’s go out for a while. Let’s leave them alone. Thank you for helping me with this.”

“Did you know about this, Hamlet? Did you know they were coming to my house today? What the hell were you thinking when you let yourself be manipulated by Devina?”

“I can’t refuse to my wife, dear cousin. I do whatever it takes to make her happy, I recommend you start doing the same. See you later.”

Timothy crucified his cousin with his gaze, as he and Devina disappeared behind the elevator doors.

“Let’s go inside and get this over with,” he said without looking back, not caring if she walked, following in his footsteps.

Melody looked at the elevator wanting to disappear, just as the other two did. She sighed and let the air out again and again, exhaling all the urge she had to get the hell out of the apartment, out of the building, as far as possible from Timothy and never come back.

But she went there for a reason and she was going to stick to it, because she couldn’t live with the knowledge that she would never tell him how she felt about him. She would clear everything up that night, once and for all. Even if it cost her all her love for the Italian, even if she had to accept losing him, because you cannot force someone who doesn’t love you, if someone doesn’t love you, you simply have to disappear from their sight, and go on with your life, continue living, even if your heart always belongs to that person.

She walked into the penthouse, as her brain flashed back to the conversation with her father earlier that morning.

“What do you mean a sham Melody?! How could you get involved with a man you don’t even know? To live with him for six months! I think I taught you better than that.”

Her father was disappointed, and she knew it, she understood it. She understood that it wasn’t easy to comprehend why a young woman about to graduate college, soon to be a mother, would decide to play along with a man she barely knew. The truth was that she thought the same thing a million times, so it was not strange to her that the first person she confessed the root of her sudden escape from the chapel, looked at her as if she were out of her mind.

“You don’t understand dad, I was alone. I was alone and devastated without my mother and father. I met him and immediately wanted to be able to get my life together, I won’t deny that I was attracted to him. Don’t look at me with that face, dad. I’m not a girl, I’m not a teenager I’m a grown woman, who is about to become a mother and has no fucking clue how to do it, because the only mother she ever knew and had around, won’t talk to her, won’t seek her out, doesn’t care to know how her daughter is

doing, or how her future grandchild is doing,” she took a breath and continued, “because she preferred a stranger, rather than the daughter she gave birth to.”

“Mel, honey. I’m sure your mother regrets it. I’m sure your mother cries every day; I’ve seen her cry her eyes out when she thinks I don’t notice. She is sorry, she just doesn’t know how to fix it, she made a mistake, we all make mistakes in this life and we all deserve a second chance, and when it comes to your parents, we all deserve a second, a third and even a fourth chance. You can’t get tired and turn your back on those people who have led you to be where you are.”

“Precisely dad. I’m in this position because my mother didn’t love me enough.”

“Don’t say it like that, little girl. Don’t say that to me because it breaks my heart. Your mother has always gone out of her way for the two of you. You two are her greatest treasure, that she made a mistake? Tell me about it I’m still trying to forgive her, because I assure you, I swear Melody, it hasn’t been easy on our marriage after the way she behaved with you.”

Her father wiped away a silent tear that came from his eyes and looked at her with his heart in the eyes, trying to make her understand.

But the fact was that the heart her father had was so big she didn’t and as much as she wanted to forgive her mother, it wasn’t in her immediate intentions to do so.

“Dad you don’t understand, with Timothy I saw a way out. With Timothy I saw what I needed at that moment, and more than anything he needed me,” she sat next to her father on the couch. He had gone to see her at Lucy’s house, after she called him to see her, to know where she lived, because she did not yet have the strength to go to her father’s house, the house that saw her grow up, and see her mother face to face.

A month and three days that she hasn’t heard from her and Lydia has moved on with her life, without Melody in it.

“Somehow, I was happy to be needed in someone else’s life,” she continued. “At that time, neither you, nor Mom, nor Allegra, didn’t want me, not unless I aborted my child, and that was never, ever going to happen.”

“That was my mistake, that was a mistake that I will regret for the rest of my life, but you must let it go,” he told her, saddened and full of remorse. “You must let it go, because I am extremely happy that this baby is going to be born, that you are well. I’m happy that you’re here, that you’re talking to me, that you’re calling me, that you sought me out, that you decided to give me the opportunity to join you on the most special day of your life.”

“Even if it was a sham?” she asked him sorrowfully.

“I’m sure I was at your wedding. I’ll still be, even now knowing it was a sham.”

“Even though I was really going to marry a man who didn’t love me?”

“That he didn’t love you, girl!? How can you say such a thing? How can you even think it! What do you mean? Your wedding may have been a total charade in the eyes of the camera, in the eyes of the priest, even between the eyes of his parents. But I saw that young man in my house, I saw how that young man stood up for you with teeth and nails, how he stood up to your mother and how he stood up to your sister.” Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Melody couldn’t say anything, she had a lump in her throat, one that she felt was going to explode at any moment.

“That man doesn’t love you; he adores you,” her father continued.

“If he loved me, he wouldn’t let me go. If he really loved me, he stops the limousine and doesn’t let me go. He didn’t. He let me go and let me go even though I was breaking inside.”

“Sometimes people love and don’t know what they are doing. It takes stumbling and then realizing the reality. Sometimes it can hurt, we can suffer along the way. When love is true, your heart notices, even if your brain tries to obviate the fact.”

As she walked in and followed Timothy’s footsteps, she kept thinking about her father and the things he made her realize.

Timothy looked into her eyes, then took a tour from head to toe. Every detail, she felt somewhat self- conscious, but she squared her shoulders and put her hands on her hips: it was now or never.

“You’re going to listen to me Timothy Giannato, you’re going to listen to everything I have to tell you, and then from there, you can do what you want and go on with your normal life, if you prefer.”

“I don’t understand how you could leave me three days ago, when we had a plan, when we had an agreement, everything was going in your favor! Now you come here with your clean face, to tell me... to demand that I listen to you. You had your chance. You had your chance to talk straight to me. To tell me what was wrong, I was there, Melody. I was there and you didn’t tell me anything.”

“You don’t understand! You don’t understand anything! You don’t know what it’s like...”

“No, I know what it is like, Melody,” he interrupted her, walking toward her. He grabbed her shoulders, the warmth of his hands piercing her skin and reaching into her heart. She closed her eyes for a second and enjoyed feeling him close, because she missed him like she could never imagine. “Don’t tell me I don’t understand you, don’t tell me I don’t know, because I thought you and I were communicating, I thought that even though our wedding was going to be a sham, I gave you, or at least I thought I did, I gave you the confidence to tell me if something was wrong, but you didn’t. You made me look stupid, and now I have too much on my plate for you to come in here and try to make it more complicated for me.”

Melody felt her world crumbling at her feet, the chance of a lifetime slipping through her fingers, her breath leaving her.

Realizing that Timothy didn’t love her, he didn’t love her, because she hurt and embarrassed him.

The sparks of anger and despair began to rise inside her. She planned everything too well. She calculated every detail she would say to him, every apology, every word she was going to say, looking for a way to get him to love her back, and if he didn’t, she wanted her heart to be at peace, knowing that she tried.

She would not leave it, not until she told him how she felt about him.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’m sorry I broke my promise, I’m sorry I left you. But it’s just...” she felt her voice break from a sob trying to come from inside her. “I fell in love with you. I fell in love with you, and it hurts. You don’t know how much it hurts to know that you didn’t feel the same way and to walk into that chapel to say my vows looking into your eyes, knowing that I will say a real yes to you, being true for me. And that you, you were going to say it just to collect your inheritance.”

Timothy clenched his hands and Melody had a spark of hope, seeing a glint mark his green eyes, so she continued, pulled out everything she had, exposing herself.

“I thought about it. I was still there, and it hurt so bad. I didn’t have the strength to be able to continue. When you walked up to the limo and looked me in the eyes, I thought you knew. I thought you knew, and you were going to ask me to stay and said you loved me too.”

“Melody...”

“No,” he wanted to wipe away her tears, but she didn’t let him.

She couldn’t stop once she unleashed the sea of emotions she felt in her heart. Everything she wanted to tell him began to flow and she could no longer stop herself.

“No. I need to know. I need to know if you really have feelings for me, because I don’t know what would happen to me right now if you don’t want anything real with me. If the only thing you’re interested in is collecting your grandfather’s inheritance and keeping you as the CEO of your family’s company, because in the end of everything I’d like you to be happy, even if I’m not with you. I know it’s too much to ask, I know I’m pregnant, I know it’s not your child...”

Melody’s voice trailed off, as she watched Timothy go speechless.

Would that have been too much?

“Please say something,” she begged him after a few seconds.

She felt her heart about to burst out of her chest.

“Tell me anything...”

“Can you...” he cleared his throat and she pushed out of his arms and walked away.

She couldn’t believe she’d come all this way for nothing, only to have the same result in the end, to be left alone, without Timothy.

She’d always known it was too much to ask, but she’d never imagined he wouldn’t even have the words to reject her.

Rejected.

That’s how she felt.

She felt the tears roll down her cheeks and turned away quickly, so he couldn’t see them.

“I’m sorry I came. I hope you’ll be happy.”

She walked toward the exit, her hands shaking and her legs on the verge of collapse.

She reached the elevator and at that point, her heart was completely broken.

Then she heard him.

“Stay! Stay with me and let me love you!”

Melody turned slowly, hugged herself, to control the trembling that suddenly invaded when she heard Timothy.

“What...?”

“Stay,” he repeated, stepping closer, not taking his eyes off her. “Stay with me.”

“But you don’t... You don’t love me, you don’t...”

“Don’t talk nonsense, cara mia. I’ve never been so sure of loving anyone. I’ve never felt for anyone the way I feel for you.”

“But you let me go...”

“I did, I was a fool,” she dropped her hands and began to cry.

“Do you love me? Do you really?”

“I love you, mio tesoro. I love you and I didn’t know it, but my heart always tried to tell me. I’ve been the dumbest man in the world. I didn’t want to see what was right under my nose. Unconsciously, I thought

you were going to stay with me after the wedding,” he reached for her hands and placed them between his own, on his chest, Melody felt his pulse quicken and was moved. “That’s why I was so uncomfortable when you left.”

“I thought you didn’t want me,” she whispered as her lower lip trembled and her eyes collapsed all tears.

Only this time she was crying out of relief and happiness.

“We both missed what was before our eyes,” he caressed her face and looked at her full of tenderness. “I don’t see a life without you. Without your blunt way of speaking, without your bad jokes, which I laugh at without understanding the reason. The house has been so empty without you, my life has been.”

“These three days have been the hardest. Not even when I left my parents’ house, I cry and suffer this much.”

“Forgive me for not realizing it sooner. Tell me you’ll stay with me,” he whispered as he moved to her mouth to kiss her. “Tell me you will stay by my side and we will be a family, you, the baby and me.”

“You love my son?” she asked in disbelief.

“I love his mother. I love her and I will love him too. We’ll give him little brothers and together we can stand against anything that comes our way,” he gave her a chaste kiss on the lips. She repeated the gesture once, twice, and a third time. “Please tell me you’ll stay. Because you’ve already got my hopes up, I can’t see my life without you anymore. Now that I know how I feel, I can no longer let you leave again.”

She kissed him again, this time showing him, telling him with her lips that she loved him, and she wasn’t willing to walk away again.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she whispered as she pulled away just a little bit and looking into his eyes, she said; “I’ll be for you until my last breath is gone.”