Page 133 of My Heart's Doctor

With all the calm I could muster and with an anguish pressing on my chest as if it were being crushed by an elephant, I raisedmy gaze to fix it on his eyes, which at that moment were looking at me with indescribable fury.

“How could he know about the necklace you were going to give me? I don’t understand it, William,” I said, shaking my head. “Can you explain it to me?”

“Of course I can explain it. Though let me tell you that I don’t like at all that you doubted me, especially because of what that piece of garbage told you.”

“Put yourself in my place. As much as I try to understand it, I can’t. How is it possible that Lino knew about the necklace? I swear I can’t find an explanation.”

William was pacing back and forth across the room like a caged lion. He was furious, but I didn’t know if it was because of what Lino had said or because he had been caught.

Chapter 23

"If you want to know how many reasons I have to love you, you'll have to count my heartbeats."

—Ron Israel

William

The image of Devon and Aurora in the pool stirred an indescribable emotion in me, and my heart beat with happiness. They played and laughed joyfully, and I could only thank life for that. I had a beautiful family and, above all, we were happy and loved each other. I stood watching them for a few minutes in silence. The sight of Devon in such harmony with Aurora moved me deeply. I felt the need to pull her out of there and hug her, kiss her, and lose myself in her, to let her know that I was her love, her man, her everything, and that she was mine, she was my love, and she had completed my world.

“How are my loves doing?” I asked, surprising them.

Both turned to look at me. Devon with a sweet smile and Aurora with a mischievous grin as she took advantage of having a small ball and threw it at me as hard as she could. I let it pass as if I couldn’t catch it, and my daughter laughed heartily.

“Daddy, come play.”

“Give me a minute to change and I’ll join you. ‘Sweet,’ today we should go shopping for the things we still need to buy,” I reminded her, because Christmas was in two days and we still needed to buy Aurora’s gifts.

“You can play with Aurora for a while and then we’ll go,” she commented, which didn’t surprise me because she always tried to make sure I spent time with my daughter.

“I don’t want to leave too late because we won’t have enough time to shop around.”

“All right, when you come back I’ll get changed.”

I nodded and went into the house to change from my suit into casual clothes. When I entered the bedroom, the first thing I did was put what I had bought at the jewelry store for Devon in the drawer of my nightstand. I had thought of giving her the necklace before Christmas so she could wear it that day, and leave the wedding rings under the tree.

I took a quick shower and put on black jeans and a white shirt. When I got to the pool, they had already gotten out, and Devon was wrapping Aurora in a towel while tickling her, making her laugh happily. I must confess that I never imagined my daughter could love someone the way she loved Devon. It never crossed my mind that she would refer to a woman asmom, but it was evident that Devon had earned it because she truly was a mother to Aurora. There might not be a blood connection between them, but there was one of love, and that was more important. My heart was certain that Aurora would always be able to count on Devon and that my daughter would be by her side all her life. I realized that I had never felt as comfortable in my home as I did lately. I realized that at last I felt I was in the place meant for me, with those two people whom I loved with all the love one can feel. It wasn’t until my vision blurred that I understood I had been moved to tears. I wiped them away discreetly and looked at them again, amazed by that vision of pure love. As I watched them and reflected, I didn’t notice that Devon was looking at me with a smile.

“What were you thinking about?”

“About how wonderful you are and how happy I see Aurora,” I stated with conviction.

“She’s clearly a happy child,” she said, looking at her with adoration. “Stay and play with her while I go get dressed so we can go shopping.”

I approached them and took Aurora in my arms.

“I won’t be long,” she said, walking away.

“Now you have to tell me what you asked Santa Claus for,” I said, sitting on one of the lounge chairs around the pool and keeping Aurora on my lap.

“I wrote a letter and left it on the Christmas tree,” she said with a big smile.

“And how did you write the letter?”

“Mom helped me,” she said happily, and I was moved again hearing her call Devon that, “and I made some drawings.”

I stroked her soft hair and gave her a kiss on the tip of her nose. She smiled and put her hand to her nose.

“Daddy, you tickled me,” she said, laughing and rubbing her nose.