His Paradise Wife (12 page)

“
How is this supposed to
work, Emily, when you won’t make an attempt to try.”

“
I
am
trying,” she shot back.

“
How? How are you trying
when every time I tell you to participate in group, you refuse to
take part in the program.”

“
I just need
time.”

“
Time?”

“
Yes. Time. I can’t do
everything on your timeframe, Dante. I know you want me to
magically forget about Melvin overnight—”

“
No. That’s not what I
want.”

“
Then what
do
you want?”

“
Why ask me what
I
want when your actions
have proven you don’t care?”

Emily shook her head. She’d already had a
headache and she hated feeling pressured like this by Dante.
“Dante, please. My life is already messed up enough to go back and
forth with you over a bunch of nonsense.”

“
Nonsense? Getting your life
together is nonsense?”

“
My life is just
fine.”

“
Yeah. Keep telling yourself
that. Maybe one day you’ll believe it.”

“
I already do believe it. I
certainly don’t need you telling me otherwise, like you know
me.”

“
I do know you!” he snapped.
“I spent three months of my life knowing you, Emily. I don’t know
every single detail of your life history, but what I
do
know is you’re living
in denial and until you make some changes, you’re going to continue
being miserable and lonely.”

“
I’m not mis—”

“
And don’t tell me you’re
not miserable because I see it every time I look into your eyes.
All I wanted you to do was give this trip your all, but you refuse
to participate, just like you refuse to wear the ring I hand picked
for you...it’s been on the nightstand since the ceremony last
Saturday. And just to think I used to pride myself on having the
acute ability to read people, but I failed with you because I
thought you had feelings for me, but I see now that I was horribly
mistaken. So you’re free to go. I’ll waive the breach of contract
penalty on your behalf. All you have to do is pack your bags and
run back home to your canned world of false hopes and dwindling
memories of a man who can’t love you anymore because he’s incapable
of doing such.”

Dante walked away from the door and soon
after, Emily heard him leave the suite.

Tears poured down her face at the
realization that she’d lost a good man in Melvin, but he was gone,
and now, she was on the verge of losing another good man, a living,
breathing, passionate one who’d just angrily dismissed himself from
her presence.

Chapter 21

Dante sat at a table out by the pool, trying
to cool off. He was on the phone with his brother Dimitrius; a pair
of Cartier sunglasses masking his worried eyes – worried that he
was about to lose the woman he’d waited so long for.

“
You told her to leave? The
woman you’ve been practically stalking for the last six months?”
Dimitrius asked. Dimitrius was the level-headed brother, the one
Dante could talk to about anything. The one who could offer some
good advice.

He drew in a breath and said, “Yeah, man. I
did. I told her to go.”

“
Why would you do something
like that?”

“
She just doesn’t get it.
She prefers to sulk in self pity and pretend she’s fine when I can
clearly see she’s not, so I did what was best for her and told her
to go.”

“
You sound like you’re
pretty bummed about it.”

“
I am. A part of me wants to
run back up there to the suite and stop her from packing her bags
because I know that’s what she’s doing, especially since I gave her
an out. Then another part of me wants her to go. I’ve never had to
chase a woman before. And after all I’ve done – joining the GHC
site just to get a chance to talk to her, visiting her store and
buying out inventory just to be able to talk to her for five
minutes, she’s still not giving me what I want.”

“
And what’s
that?”

“
I want her to acknowledge
the fact that we’re married and stop treating this like a joke. I
want her to let the therapists we have at this resort help her
overcome her grief...help her move on from Melvin so she can see me
for the man I am. But every time I try to get her to take a step
forward in the right direction, she takes three steps back and I
just can’t keep getting my hopes up, trying to convince myself
she’ll come around and she never does.”

“
That’s tough, bro, but I
have to say I think you’ve done the right thing here. You gave her
the option to leave. Now the ball is in her court, and I know you
would prefer to be an active participant in this process for her,
but it’s your turn to be a spectator. I know that’s difficult for
you, Mr. C.E.O., but you have to sit back, relax and let her make
the next move. Then you’ll know how to move forward.”

“
And what if she leaves?”
Dante said rubbing his hand across his head, frustrated. “I really
don’t want her to leave, even though I told her to go.”

“
Dang, bro. This girl really
got you going...sounds to me like you might’ve fallen in love with
Ms. Emily.”

Dimitrius was right. He had fallen in love
with Emily, and fallen hard.

“
Do you love her?” Dimitrius
asked.

“
Yes. I love her. I love
everything about her except for the unhealthy fixation she has with
her deceased husband.”

“
It
must
be love. I’ve never seen you so
intent on getting a woman.”

Dante sighed.

“
Unfortunately, though, you
may have to let her go,” Dimitrius advised.

Dante frowned. It wasn’t something he wanted
to hear, but he knew Dimitrius would tell you straight up whether
you wanted to hear it or not.

“
I understand that,” Dante
said, “Even though I can’t accept it. I won’t accept
it.”

“
Then you know what you have
to do, right? You have to tell her how you feel, Dante. Tell her
you love her, that you want this marriage to work and you’ll do
everything in your power to
make
it work.”

Dante nodded.

* * *

Dante had been nervous about going back up
to the suite. If her suitcase was missing, then he was certain she
was on her way back home.

When he arrived, he saw her suitcase on the
bed. Some clothes were in it, neatly folded. Another small pile of
clothes were lying on the bed next to the suitcase. She’d certainly
been packing, but she wasn’t there at the moment.

* * *

“
And where’s Mr. Champion,
Emily?” the therapist asked. “We need both parties in our group
sessions.”

Emily had ventured down to the last group
therapy session of the evening. In the midst of packing her bags
and leaving, she got the urge to do what Dante had been pestering
her to do for days now – share her story. So instead of going home,
she headed downstairs to do just that.

Emily stood up and said, “I don’t know where
he is, but I’ve never participated in group and I want to this
evening. I need to.”

“
Okay, then. Go right
ahead.”

“
Um,” Emily began, her hands
balled into fists as she tried to ease her nervousness. Her eyes
filled with tears and her heart was being hammered with ferocious
beats. “Um...”

“
Just take your time, Emily.
We’re all friends here.”

“
Okay...um...I was married
to a wonderful man named Melvin Mitchell. He was the light of my
life...the love of my life and he died in a car accident two years
ago. I thought...” she said, and her voice cracked. “I thought that
if I ignored what I felt, the pain would go away but it hasn’t.”
Her lips trembled as she tried to get her thoughts
together.

“
Take your time, Emily,” the
therapist said, watching Emily struggle.

“
I...I remember getting the
phone call like the accident just happened yesterday. I was at home
and I sped to the hospital, trying to get there as
fast...as...I...could, but,” her lips trembled. “But I...” she
said, struggling to find her breath. “I didn’t...make it.” She
breathed in and out rapidly and suddenly the room was spinning and
then she fainted, hitting her head on a chair before she landed on
the floor.

Chapter 22

Dante headed down to the ground floor again,
hoping he’d find Emily and convince her to stay. When he arrived in
the lobby, however, he saw a crowd that had gathered. A few women
were crying and there was a fire truck parked in the emergency lane
in front of the hotel.

“
What’s going on?” he asked
the first person he came upon, one of the cleaning staff
members.

“
I think somebody passed out
or something,” the man said. “That’s what everybody else is
saying.”

Dante continued on through the crowd. This
was his resort and he needed to know what was going on right now.
He saw Dr. Stacey, one of the therapists, outside with her hands
crossed, so he pushed the glass door open and said, “What’s going
on here?”

“
Oh my gosh, Mr. Champion,”
Dr. Stacey said, her hands trembling. “She fainted.”

“
Who fainted?”

“
Emily.”

Dante frowned. “My Emily?”

“
Yes. She was trying to
share with the group and she just blacked out.”

For a moment, Dante felt
like
he
was going
to faint. Had he heard her correctly? Emily fainted? He gathered
himself enough to get his head on straight and had one of his
resort drivers escort him to the hospital as quickly as he
could.

Once he arrived, he rushed in the emergency
room entrance, and summoning the first nurse he saw, he asked,
“Where’s the woman that just came in? Emily Champion? Where is
she?”

“
Sir, she’s being checked
out by a doctor at the moment.”

“
I need to see her,” he said
desperately, feeling like his heart was about to jump out of his
chest.

“
Sir, if you would just calm
down a moment—”

“
No. I need to see my wife,
now! Where is she?” When the nurse hadn’t responded, he looked at
the double gray doors behind her and walking past the nurse,
ignoring her calls to come back and sit the waiting area, he
continued on, pushing the doors open and walking the emergency room
corridor, frantically looking for Emily. Straight ahead he saw her,
sitting on the edge of a bed with a few band-aids at her
temple.

Hearing nothing but the beats of his own
heart, he ran to her as fast as he could.

Emily didn’t realize he was there until the
seconds before he wrapped his arms around her, the side of her face
pressed against his chest. While he held her there, she could feel
his rapid, uncontrolled heartbeats against her face.

“
I’m sorry, baby. I’m so
sorry,” he said, taking full responsibility. He was the one who’d
pushed her to relay her story to the group, even when she told him
she wasn’t ready to do so.

“
I’m okay,
Dante.”

“
I’m sorry,” he said again,
his arms still wrapped around her.

“
I’m okay.”

He released her so he could see her face. He
held her head between his hands, pressed his lips against hers and
said, “Are you okay, baby? Please tell me you’re okay.”

“
I’m okay,” she said,
staring longingly into his worried eyes.

“
She had what we would call
an anxiety attack,” the doctor told him. “In addition to that,
she’s dehydrated. We’re going to give her a few IV drips overnight
while we observe her and she may be ready to be discharged early in
the A.M.”

“
Why does she have the
band-aids on her temple?”

“
From what I gather, when
she fell, she bumped her head. We’ve already given her a CT scan
and there’s no internal damage there...just the cut.”

Dante swallowed hard.

“
If you would step out in
the hallway for a moment, Sir, we can get her set up.”

“
No. I’m staying here. I’ll
move in a corner so I’m out of your way, but I’m staying here with
my wife.”

“
All right, Sir.”

And he did just what he said. Dante stood in
the corner, while the nurses prepped Emily in the hospital bed,
connecting an IV to her and making sure she was comfortable with
enough blankets to keep her warm in the cool environment.

When the nurses left the room, Dante sat in
the chair next to her bed, his eyes fixed on her so firmly, he
hadn’t blinked.

“
Dante.”

“
Yes, sweetie.”

“
I passed out, but I did it.
I got a good chunk of the story out before I fainted.”

“
You don’t have to talk
about that, Emily.”

“
No, I want to. I took your
advice, told my story and I feel better.”

“
Good,” Dante said, but it
didn’t seem that she was better. She was lying on a hospital bed,
courtesy of him.