Page 144 of My Heart's Doctor

How could I have been with such an imbecile? He wasn't like this before. Or was he and I didn't notice?

“I doubt it,” he said, with a terrifying smile.“You're an obedient girl and you'll do everything I tell you, plus your mother will be proud of you.”

“Why are you mentioning my mother?” I asked, because the way he said it made me sense something worse.

“Your mother is aware of everything and supports me. She agrees that we should get married again. She provided me with your phone number and right now she's not very happy with you because you didn't tell her you were planning your wedding with that imbecile. Nevertheless, she's calm because I assured her that wedding would never happen. The only wedding that will take place is ours,” he stated, with a haughty tone.

“My mother is aware of this madness?” I asked, increasingly astonished, though I don't know why I was surprised, my mother was capable of anything to hurt me.

“Not only is she aware, she's helping me so this gets resolved as soon as possible.”

“Helping?” I repeated, I didn't understand anything and with each passing minute I felt more lost and nervous.

I would see it differently if it were me he was threatening, but not them. They were my family and nobody messed with my loved ones, I would protect them even with my life. I didn't realize my whole body was trembling until I saw my hands that wouldn't stop shaking.

“You'll find out soon enough. Now go back to Cavaller's house and tell him that after our encounter at the beach we started meeting and realized we made a mistake by separating because we're still in love. Tell him you love me madly, that you never forgot me and that we're going to get married for the second time,” he instructed, as if what he was saying was something simple and natural.

“You think he'll believe that madness? He already knows about your invention with the necklace to separate us. If it were as you say, you wouldn't have had to make up that nonsense. Your plans are garbage!”

“No, my queen. I have everything under control and I took that into account too. If you had separated at that moment, we wouldn't have had to come to this, but you preferred to believe that imbecile.”

“Because you made it all up! You're the imbecile, the hypocrite, and the fraud!”

“You're going to tell him that you made all that up so you wouldn't have to tell him the truth and could separate without so much drama, you're smart and you can figure out how to make him believe you. You know, either you succeed or you face the consequences.”

“I can do what you order even if it makes me the most unhappy woman and I hate you for the rest of my life, but at some point they'll discover you, I assure you,” I stated, knowingthat William was listening to the entire conversation we were having.

“Ah, and now that you mention it, it goes without saying that you must also convince those nosy friends of yours about this,” he warned, seriously.

“They won't believe a single word because they know I despise you.”

“That's exactly why we're going to leave the country. Everything is already arranged. We're going to get married as soon as possible and then we'll travel to the U.S. because I'm going to work for a company there.”

“You’re completely insane if you think I’m leaving the country!” I shouted, knowing that everything he was saying wouldn’t happen, but I had to make him believe it would.

“My queen, stop resisting and quit shouting, you’re giving me a headache. You have no choice but to do what I say. Don’t worry about your job because it’s garbage anyway. I always told you that job wasn’t for a girl like you. In the U.S., we’ll find something better or you can just devote yourself to... me. You know I have enough money for both of us.”

“Are you talking about the money you stole from me when we got divorced?” I said ironically, though I don’t know where I found the strength to keep shouting.

“We were married, it was only fair that I received part of what we had.”

“And what we had was all mine.”

“Why bring that up again? We’ll be a happy married couple again and everything that’s mine will be yours,” he said mockingly. “Now that everything’s clear, you can go and do what I ordered. I’m watching you. I’m giving you one hour to talk to him and leave his house or the situation will get more tense.”

Everything happened so quickly that I didn’t even have time to react. The car door opened and William grabbed Lino by the neck, pulling him out. The next thing I saw was Lino on the ground with a furious William on top of him, delivering punch after punch.

“I’m going to kill you, you son of a bitch. This is for touching my woman,” he said, landing a punch, “and this is for threatening to harm my daughter,” he said, delivering another punch.

I couldn’t move and just watched the scene completely frozen. The door on my side opened and Xavier took me by the arm to get me out of the car.

“Devon, are you okay?”

“Help William, please,” I begged.

“William doesn’t need help, I can assure you. Let him give that guy what he deserves. If there’s anything left of that guy, I’ll take care of the rest,” he assured me with a smile, and I looked at him amazed by his calmness in this situation.

“Please, do something,” I pleaded again.