VITTORIO'S RUNAWAY BRIDE (The Vittorio Series) Read Online Free PDF

She was still gazing up at him when something in Logan’s expression suddenly shifted and Shelby hastily looked away.   She’d forgotten how easily he read her emotions.
    “You shouldn’t have come,” Shelby said, hating how feeble her voice sounded.
    “So I could spend the rest of my life wondering why my wife left me?   No, carissima , you and I have great deal to discuss.”
    A familiar searing pain settled deep in her chest, the one that had started the day she witnessed Logan escorting his lover from the hotel.   Along with the pain came the bitterness and jealousy, and the memory of the all the tears she’d cried.  It hurt to remember the endless nights when she’d ached for him knowing he had probably wasted no time finding solace in the arms of someone else.   Holding fast to those memories, she looked up at him, her eyes as cold as her heart.
    “What difference could it possibly make now?   It’s over, Logan.   We’re divorced and…”
    “There was no divorce, Shelby.”
    “Wh-what?   What do you mean there was no divorce?   I signed the papers and forfeited my rights to everything.  There wasn’t any reason for it not to be granted.”
    “You did not fulfill your part of the decree so I did not sign it.”
    “That’s not true and you know it.   I didn’t take anything when I left so how can you say I didn’t fulfill my part?”
    “You took the car,” Logan said, bracing himself for the angry words that were sure to come.
    Shelby gave him a blank stare.   “You can’t be serious.”
    “Believe me, cara mia , I am very serious.”
    “But you gave it to me as a wedding gift!   I can’t believe you’re being so petty, Logan.   I’m just surprised you didn’t ask me to return my wedding ring.  After all, you gave that to me too.”   Shelby instantly regretted mentioning the ring when Logan glanced at her hand then turned his gaze back to her.
    “You still wear it?”
    Logan’s heart soared.   If she was still wearing his ring it had to mean she’d never stopped loving him, didn’t it?   Keeping the car was understandable since it was the only one she had and he owned four others, but there was no reason to keep the ring unless it meant something to her.   The fact that she’d not only kept it but was still wearing it even after she thought the divorce had gone through was highly significant.   Whatever Shelby’s reasons for leaving, it wasn’t because she’d fallen out of love with him.  
    Logan cupped her face in his hands so she couldn’t look away from him.   “You never took it off, did you?”
    Shelby desperately searched her mind for a reasonable excuse, but nothing came to her.   She couldn’t tell him the truth; that it would be like twisting the knife in an open wound.  But there was no plausible lie she could think of, and with his eyes locked to hers, Logan would see right through it anyway.   Stuck between a rock and hard spot, she gave the simplest answer she could.
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    Shelby would have done anything at that moment to get away from Logan so she wouldn’t have to answer his questions, but she’d seen that look of determination on his face before and knew he wasn’t going anywhere until he got what he wanted.   The problem was, she didn’t know what he wanted.   Had he broken it off with his lover and decided reconciliation with his wife was in order?   Or had he simply folded under the pressure he must be getting from his family?  
    His traditional Italian parents would have frowned on a divorce and counseled him to work it out.   The sad part was, they would never understand why she’d walked away because no matter how much she was suffering for it, Shelby loved Logan’s family and would never break their hearts by letting them know what he’d done.   Besides, she carried just as much of the shame as Logan did.   If she had been the wife he needed, he wouldn’t have gone looking for another woman,