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He flinched, and a darkness settled in his eyes. She wasn’t sure who it was meant for; her for calling him out on his lie or himself for not being able to commit?
Screw this.
She walked up to him. “You said I was yours. How did that change overnight? Tell me.”
When he tried to leave, she grabbed his arm. Heavy muscles were spasming under a layer of flannel.
“No. You don’t just get to leave like that. Look me in the eye!”
He looked up, his eyes burning a green fire. For half a second, it was all there for her to see. A million battling emotions swirling inside them, with a hint of despair. Then he shut it off. If it hadn’t been for that window into his soul, she would have missed it. Whatever it was that had Hector kick her out, it wasn’t his lack of feelings toward her.
She let go of his arm. Tears fell from the corners of her eyes, but she didn’t wipe them away. She let them fall freely, and with the tears her soul cleansed in a sense. For she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that this man loved her. For a moment, it had been there for the world to see, in the depths of his eyes, in all its naked glory.
Hector went for the door. “Achilles will take you to Jazzy’s. I’ll have your stuff sent after you.”
“What about Zoe?” There it was again, the slight hunch of his shoulders, as if the name of their girl was physically hurting him. “Are you just going to abandon her as well?”
“I’ll talk to her and explain. You need to leave, now.” With those parting words, he left.
Sometimes the depths of male stupidity baffled her. He really believed he could just stash her away at Jazzy’s and be done with it. Little did he know, she intended to keep him. She had fought to become a permanent fixture in his life, and that was exactly what she planned to stay. There was no way she was playing into his hand by hiding behind the walls of the Detta mansion. She had a feeling, the second she did, that would be the last she would see of him for a long time. No, she had to make a different move. A bold move. Something that would bring Hector Diaz to his heels. A move that would make him think twice before he ever tried to rip her heart out again.
***
The next morning, Mary suppressed a sigh as she watched her brother-in-law scrutinize her from across the dining room table. Like, from the complete opposite end of the table.
So, maybe her entrance last night had been a bit dramatic. Instead of greeting Kristoff with a proper “hello,” she’d sobbed that Hector was divorcing her and had ended up crying all over him. Still, she was proud of herself for keeping the tears at bay until she had put Zoe to sleep. The little girl had no idea what was going on, and Mary had sold their homelessness as a sleepover. The girl was ecstatic.
“You don’t have to keep a distance like I have the plague,” she grumbled. “I’m not going to cry again.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m not certain of anything anymore, so I’m going to go with, I’m pretty certain.”
Judging by Kristoff’s scowl, he didn’t seem too happy with that answer. Apparently, the man who had no problem with massacring a crowd couldn’t handle a woman in tears. She filed that info away for later use.
“Does he know about the bun in your oven?”
She almost choked on her tea. “You know?”
“My housekeeper heard you puking your guts out this morning.”
“There’s no privacy in this place,” she muttered. They had only been here for one night and her ‘big secret’ was already out. She was glad Zoe was off to school. At least that way, she didn’t run the risk of her telling Hector.
“Answer my question.”
“No, I’m not going to tell him. And neither are you,” she hastily added.
His gaze told her that was up for debate. “One of the things I deal in is information. I use it whenever I deem fit.”
“Please don’t,” she whispered.
“And why is that?”
Now she had to tell him of her shame. She hoped he wouldn’t hold it against her.
“I can’t tell him because then he will come back to me, and I don’t want me being pregnant to be the reason. I can’t... trap him like that again.”
“Again?”