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She reaches out, but I step back.

“He loves you, and I know you love him. I’ve only tried to salvage your relationship because I don’t want you to regret it. You kept taking him back, and I knew you would again. That’s why I helped him.”

She did help him. All the time.

I look at her, and something dawns on me. Months ago, at the tearoom… She set me up.

“Marilyn, I don’t love Mateo. I don’t think I ever did. He was just someone who showed me affection like you never did. He wanted me around, unlike Walter, who had no use for me and walked away emotionally. Mateo fed my mommy and daddy issues. He followed the pattern of the people who were supposed to love me but hurt me instead. And I continued to let him do it while you enabled his behavior and kept giving him access to me. And I’m not blaming you alone. I had a lot of say in it but never took control. Toxicity was all I ever knew. That’s where I blame you.”

She flinches. “He can give you everything you want,” she insists.

“He can’t. I want love and security. I want to be able to trust the man I’m with. I want to know that I’m not something for a man to keep on a shelf, like a doll, and discard me when his interests go somewhere else. He can’t give me any of that.”

Her eyes fill with tears. “Come with me, Luciana. I want to talk.”

“No. I have nothing to say to you that I haven’t already said.”

“Please. I never meant to hurt you,” she begs.

I scoff. “But you did. You forever hurt all of us.”

Footsteps echo, and the attendant comes back with a long blazer and my keys.

I turn to look at my mother. “Goodbye, Marilyn.”

“Luciana, please.”

But I’m crossing the lobby to the door.

Oliver

I stare from the thick wooden door to the hulking man in front. The rain let up on the drive here. Yet, I’m still baffled. I expected us to drive to a park, not to a bar.

“This is where you want to fight?”

Chase’s face shows no emotion. “I’m not here to fight you, Coach. I want to talk.”

He turns and heads inside The Birthmark, not giving me the chance to tell him I don’t have time for this. The owner, Saona, is at the hostess booth tonight. She smiles at us, stretching the mark on her lip. “Welcome back. Your usual table is ready for you, Chase. Y Lauren?”

“She’s good.”

We head to the booth in the bar area where I had drinks with him a while ago. There’s already an ice bucket with beers in the middle. He must have called in ahead of time.

“I imagine we’re here to talk about Lux.” Coño. I wish her name didn’t feel like hot sand on my tongue.

“Have a beer, Ollie. Relax.”

I shake my head. “I need to go home to my kid. If you want to hit me, let’s get it over with, but the one thing I don’t want to do is make pleasantries or talk about your sister.”

He shrugs, unperturbed. “We don’t have to do either. I think you need a friend.”

“You can’t be my friend in this. I broke up with your sister.”

The slight flare of his nostrils is instant. “I know. I spoke to her already, and she tore me a shiny new asshole. She made a mistake. It wasn’t malicious. Lux doesn’t have an ounce of malice in her bones. That said, I’m not here to talk about it. It’s between the two of you. I’m here to see how you’re holding up with this Ayla thing…and to make sure you don’t do anything dumb.”

I don’t know what to make of that. I rub two fingers on my wet forehead and sigh. “I’m pissed off but fine. I have a good head on my shoulders and a kid to think about. I’m not going to do anything insane. Like always, I have too much to lose.”

Chase levels me with a look. “I know you’re a good guy who would never physically hurt a woman, let alone Ay’s mom. But…you just went to talk to that woman and her mother alone. The whole world knows you’re angry. Do you know what easy prey you could’ve been today?”