Chapter 219 - A Mad Man

"Where is Ali?" Salvatore demanded to see his wife as soon as reached the hospital. "How is she? I need to see her." 

Only he knew how he spent seven hours in a flight without taking the reign of the jet from the pilots. 

Emma, who had been sitting on the same chair since the beginning outside Alicia's room, glanced up to find an apprehensive and trembling Salvatore Marino. 

For years, she had wondered what even made Salvatore Marino tick. 

What could change the look of annoyance and indifference on his face into a real emotion? 

An emotion that was real, not something he wanted people to believe. 

And today, when she finally found the answer, but right now she didn't know what to do with it. 

She understood today that this man she had once dreamed of spending the rest of her life with was a liar and a cheat. A manipulative bastard who would play with everyone's emotions for his own goals. 

Salvatore's eyes met Emma's empty eyes and he paused in his moment. His worried gaze shifted to that of angry ones. His anger suddenly knew no bounds. 

"What did you say to her? Salvatore growled at her, inches away from tearing her apart. "What the fuck you even said, Emma? Why is she lying in the hospital bed?"

It wasn't the first time this woman had tried to hit his wife. But he thought she learnt her lesson. However, he was wrong. His wife was once again lying on the hospital bed. 

Emma answered him by connecting her palm against his cheek. 

The sound of a slap stunned Santiago who was coming carrying medicines that he had purchased from the pharmacy. He was astonished to see Emma grabbing Salvatore's collar. 

Instead of going ahead, he stood there. He knew that he shouldn't say anything between them. One must reap what he sowed. And Salvatore had to shoulder the consequences of his actions. 

"Salvatore Marino! Don't you feel ashamed? A bit of regret? Or perhaps even some self-consciousness?" Emma growled at him. Her brown eyes were flaring with anger she had suppressed until this very day. It wasn't only Marinos who could show anyone their anger, she could do too. And she was doing better than Salvatore Marino. "You are pointing your finger at me for being the cause why Alicia is lying on the hospital bed but have you ever wondered if you had any part in it?"

How dare he say that she was the reason behind her heart attack? She might have told Alicia about Salvatore's betrayal but she wasn't the cause behind her heart attack. It was him. He did it all to her heart. 

"You played her, Salvatore," Emma shouted at him. She was so damn angry at this man that she couldn't explain in words. "Played with her heart and life. She loved you with all of her heart and look, what you did to her. What did you even give her in return for immeasurable love and the beautiful daughter she had given you?"

Alicia gave him her all and in return received a heart attack. 

"For years on end, I blamed her for something she had no hands in. What had I not done to her in jealousy?" Emma cried in agony?" She was the girl who came out of nowhere to destroy my life and relationship when in reality we both had no idea that we were getting played by a man who apparently was too cowardly to even decide what he wanted in life." 

She broke down into tears remembering all the things she had done for a man who never deserved it. "I didn't know she had no idea that we used to be engaged. She had no idea either that you were about to marry me and are now married to Isabelle." She looked at her in agony. "What have I done? And what have you done?"

She hadn't regretted today more than any day meeting Salvatore Marino. 

What if they really had gotten married that day? 

She would have snatched a husband from Alicia and a father from the girl she had grown to love a lot? 

"The doctor may have saved her this time but what about the next time?" Emma questioned him. "From the moment she opened her eyes, she hadn't said a word to anyone." She laughed at herself as she added," Made me swear to not say a word to Killian. Haven't asked if her daughter was doing good without her. You broke her soul, Salvatore. You broke her." 

"You don't know what I am going through, Emma," Salvatore said instead. This was the best he could say in reply. She didn't expect such a low blow from him. "You don't even know what I and Alicia had been through. I never wished to hide anything from her. But she has been delicate since the beginning and I can't afford to make her sick again." He looked at her in impatience and added, "I couldn't say things even if I wanted to." 

"It's still not the excuse you can use to get over with after cheating on her," Emma shouted at him. 

"Emma!" Salvatore yelled at her. His pupils moved in a strange manner as his nose flared and he clenched his fists to stop himself from launching into attacking. 

"I never cheated on her." He made himself clear. He could not hear anyone accusing him of cheating on the only woman that mattered in her life. "I get it that we were engaged for almost a decade. But so what? I made sure several times that it wasn't what I wanted." 

He said in a tone that implied as if he was talking with a brat who couldn't understand basic things. 

"But it was expected from us," Emma told him. "We were told to get married because it was the right thing to do according to our families." 

And he never said in clear words that he didn't want this wedding. 

"See that's why you see us in a relationship when it was only you invested in a relationship," Salvatore made her believe for a second that he was right and she was wrong. "Never me. I want no part of it." Emma looked at him in disbelief. This was the excuse he was using after cheating on her. "I married Belle because she was a threat to Alicia. I needed to put her in place and so I arranged the whole faux marriage." He shrugged as if it was the most common thing to do. " She knew about it too. I had something against her and so she couldn't escape easily." 

"You are ruthless, Salvatore," Emma said in utter astonishment. "This is not you! This cruel man! This is not you!"

Salvatore scoffed hearing her words. "You don't know me well enough to recognize what I actually am. You never read through me, Emma. You can't!"

"Will Alicia forgive you, Sal?" Emma asked him. "After all you have done to her? Even if she does, Killian never will!!"

She was even afraid to tell Killian that the man his sister talked about to him with utter adoration was him. Salvatore Marino. He would Kill Salvatore for breaking his sister's heart. He wasn't going to forgive him for betraying Alicia and Emy. 

"She is mine, Emma," said Salvatore callously as his green eyes bore through hers. "Get it through your empty head." He repeated once again as he burst into a peal of dark laughter making her shudder. "Mine since the moment I laid my eyes on her. I had loved her the moment I saw her in your house." 

He had a dreamy look in his eyes as he talked about her despite the fact that his aura was giving off sinister vibes. 

"Remember the time when you brought me to your house for the first time?" He asked her with a wicked smile and soft eyes. "She was there with her father. I knew then that she was mine. And so I found her again. Not her brother or anyone. But I found her in Nevada away from New York." 

He pointed at himself as he further said, "I have been protecting and loving her when she had no one. You can't take her away from her. Remember my words. She is mine. Get it in your head. And even if she doesn't forgive me, she will be mine." 

With this said Salvatore turned to enter Alicia's room, leaving behind a wide-eyed Emma. 

Emma collapsed on the chair when she felt someone sighing next to her. She knew it was Santiago as she had seen him standing behind Salvatore all this while. She didn't knew if he noticed anything wrong with Salvatore but she did. She didn't recognize the man anymore. 

"He is not normal, Santiago," Emma said. " He is a mad man. A psychopath.. I don't knew know that person at all."