My Online Lover Was the Mafia Boss Who Fired Me Chapter 08
I didn’t look back.
My footsteps got faster and faster.
“Ivy.
“Don’t go.”
A hand wrapped around my wrist from behind.
His grip was so tight I stumbled backward, my shoulder slamming into the wall.
Elio instantly reached out to cradle my back.
“I’m sorry.
“Did I hurt you?”
The motion–activated light in the hallway flickered on.
It was the first time I’d seen him this close in person.
Elio had lost weight.
Stubbly blue shadow dotted his jawline.
His eye sockets looked sunken, the whites crisscrossed with bloodshot veins.
He was nothing like the always perfectly groomed family boss no one dared look directly at.
But I wouldn’t soften my heart just because he looked wrecked.
“Let go of me.”
“Ivy, give me five minutes.”
“We have nothing to talk about.”
“We do.”
He didn’t loosen his grip.
“Why did you block me?
“Why didn’t you answer my calls?
“Why never told me you worked for the Valtieri Group?”
I stared at him.
“You never told me you were Elio Valtieri either.”
His face drained of color.
“You’ve known Nox was me this whole time?”
“After you sent me that second photo.”
Elio’s breath caught for a beat.
“So that’s why you blocked me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
The question almost made me laugh out of anger.
“Because Nox would never stand in front of everyone and say I made him sick.”
Elio’s fingers went rigid.
“I didn’t know Wren was you.
“If I had known-”
“What if Wren wasn’t me?”
I cut him off.
“What if she was just another regular girl set up and
humiliated by her coworkers? Did she deserve to get crushed under your boot?”
He didn’t answer.
Silence gave me the answer anyway.
I started prying his fingers off one by one.
“How did you find me?”
Elio finally let go.
He pulled a phone out of his pocket.
The screen displayed a security camera clip.
It showed me huddled in the stairwell of the Valtieri building, my face buried in my knees.
My shoulders shook nonstop.
The side of me I never wanted anyone to see was captured completely on camera.
“After you left, I found your resignation letter,”
Elio’s voice was low.
“Your handwriting is exactly the same as it was on the
Valentine’s Day card.
“I had my people pull your employee file.
“The eyes in the file photo match the ones Wren sent me.”
So that was how he finally recognized me.
After he’d humiliated me in public and kicked me out of the company.
“You sent me champagne roses this Valentine’s Day,”
Elio lowered his gaze.
“I remember every single word on that card.
“I kept it in the top drawer of my office desk.
“No one has sent me flowers in three years.
“Only you.”
He lifted his hand.
His hovered less than an inch from my cheek.
In the end, he didn’t touch me.
“Ivy, I was wrong.
“Give me a chance.”
I stared at him.
“You’re not sorry.
“You just finally figured out that the woman you like and the woman you crushed under your boot are the
same person.”
Elio’s face went completely pale.