Page 178 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4

The noise she made was one of such outrage he was surprised it wasn’t followed by a blow.

“You are young. You are…inexperienced. And you do not know me.”

“Not…knowyou? I have handled every ounce of your business while you’ve hidden away fortwo years. I was raised by the man who tried to instill every good virtue into you because he saw something in you.Isee something in you, Diego. Why do you refuse to see it in yourself?”

He hated her question, the way it created storms in his chest, the way it made it hard to breathe. All the ways emotion upended. All the ways thinking too deeply about who he was, who he could be,hurt.

So he did not answer her question. He focused on the statements. On the facts. On things that were not at all complicated, but straightforward and sure.

“You are right. I did hide. These past two years I have been hiding. These few weeks have been…informative. But it does not change the basic fact that I deserve this punishment. Now I simply have a better understanding of thehows andwhys of it. I will return to my cabin with a clearer picture of exactly what I deserve. Less about hiding. More about…accepting.”

She shook her head. Her eyes were a bright quicksilver, shiny with moisture, but no tears fell. He assumed the color high on her cheeks was temper, because she seemed far more angry than hurt, though he knew she was both.

“I thought you…” She sucked in a breath, seemed to reconsider whatever she’d been about to say. “Do you really think you’re unique?”

This question didn’t create storms, because it made no sense. “I beg your pardon?”

“You don’t think I could look at that day and pick apart a million things I could have done differently that would have kept them from getting on that plane?”

It never failed to amaze him how totally she could silence him. The question was a sharp, burning lance, even when he didn’t understand it. Like his heart could absorb her words, but his mind could not.

“Aurora begged me to lie to your parents and tell them she was sick. She thought ifIlied to them, they might actually believe it. Might actually let her stay behind. She didn’t want to go off to Spain for the new year. She wanted to stay here. I could have tried to help her, and she would be alive.”

“Amelia…” The thought of Aurora alive because of something Amelia had chosen was…insanity. She couldn’t possibly…

“Do you think I’m making it up?” she demanded, enough high-pitched near hysteria tinging her tone that he knew better than to sayyes.

“Let’s take my father, then, shall we? They would be gone over his birthday, and I was irritated that he had not tried to take the day off. That he worked remotely with you all the time, so why did he need to go to Spain with you on his birthday?Iwanted to spend the day with him. I didn’t tell him that, though, because I was hurt he did not want to spend the day with me. I could have told him, asked him to stay. He would have. He would have done anything for you, Diego, but I trumped you. If I asked. Instead, I gave him a chilly goodbye and let him go.”

These were not the same. She couldn’t make them into the same thing. He had chosen what he’d chosen out of selfishness, and a need to punish his parents for things even to this day he could not fully articulate.

She had simply been herself.

But she kepttalking.

“You think I didn’t go over those events those first few weeks? Pick apart every instance, every instinct that might have changed the outcome of that plane ride? You think that these feelings, these questions, these horrible things, are unique toyou?”

“It is not the same as—”

“It isexactlythe same as. Do you think the world revolves around you? That you control all its outcomes? Still? We have no control over the damn world around us, Diego. It will do what it wants. No matter what choices you make. Guilt is just a phase of grief, a misguided belief we have some control, but we havenocontrol. Not about the end.”

He did not disagree with her. The world was mean and cruel, but so had he been. Self-absorbed and uninterested in anyone else’s feelings. Maybe sometimes he’d listened to Bartolo; maybe sometimes there’d been a glimmer of thinking he could be a better man.

The kind who handled his own life and problems. Who didn’t let the tides of temper and rejection sway him into deeper holes he dug himself into.

Who loved.

He stared at Amelia now. One tear had fallen, and it trailed down her perfect cheek. Maybe if she wasn’t so perfect, he could believe in this.

But he could never be good enough for her.

If he stayed, he would be tempted to listen, to absorb. She would absolve him, and he’d always known that couldn’t happen. He couldn’tletthat happen.

He didn’t deserve it.

So he did the only thing he could think of.

He turned on his heel and left. He ran away. Not just from the room. He went to the back part of the house that led out to where the cars were parked, took Amelia’s keys and drove away.