Page 103 of Nemesis

Our gazes collided, hers full of regret as she confessed. “My husband died from a heart attack when my youngest son Santi was born. I was a mess. I barely could care for myself, let alone two kids and a newborn.”

She paused, her eyes filling with tears. “Theo took over, taking care of us and helping me through my grief.”

She wiped at her gleaming cheeks. “I wasn’t myself and would lash out very easily. He shouldn’t have had to shoulder the responsibility so young, and I regret my actions every day because it pushed my son to retreat within himself.”

She paused again and I wrapped my hands around her, hoping it would bring an ounce of comfort. “My beautiful Theo hasn’t felt love very often in his life and feels undeserving of it. I try to write my wrongs every day, reminding him how much he’s loved. But when you spend years feeling unloved, it starts to sink in deep and embed itself in your heart.”

And me leaving him and lying only reinforced that notion.Fuck.

I hugged Eleonora one last time before heading to my car. Once inside, I plugged my phone into the system and dialed Valentina’s number. On the third ring, she finally answered.

“I’m busy,” she said, her sigh bleeding through the line, her typing loud in the background.

I huffed at her response, adjusting the heat in the car. “I need you to find an address for me.”

Valentina’s typing stopped, and I heard her taking me off speaker, connecting me to what I assumed was her earpiece. “Can’t find it on your own?”

Silence filled the line, and she chuckled, amused by my discomfort. “Let me guess, you’re looking for your bodyguard.”

My insides tensed, not liking that she automatically knew who this was about. “Myex-bodyguard. He stopped working for me two weeks ago,” I murmured.

“So what do you need me for?” she asked, and I could feel her smirking.

Swallowing, I confessed. “I don’t have my equipment, so I need you to look into the bureau’s database and find any properties owned by a Theodore Alvarez. Or anything linked to his family.”

“Let me see what I can do,” she replied and before I could say anything else, she ended the call.

A few minutes later, my burner pinged with two addresses, one of them being his place, which I’d already visited earlier.

I gripped the steering and closed my eyes, blowing out a slow breath before peeling my eyes open and ignoring the anxiety surfacing.

I entered the address in my GPS and pulled out of the driveway.

We’d waited seven years to be us and I wouldn’t waste another second. I knew he probably didn’t trust me anymore, but I would make him listen to me.

It’s time for him to hear the full story.

CHAPTER39

SOFIA

Afew hours in, I pulled off the highway near Azilah, stopping quickly for gas before jumping back onto the road. Since the gray skies made it hard to tell how much time had passed, I peered at the display, noticing I was almost there.

I drove another hour on wooded two-lane roads before I slowed the SUV, merging into a single-lane road. I kept driving up the narrow entry until I found the small hill he’d driven up the last time we were here.

The rain had finally let up, only drops from the overhanging pines splashing on the windshield as I navigated deeper into the forest, the tires catching deep grooves every once in a while.

It wasn’t until a few minutes later that the trees finally thinned, revealing the small clearing where the cabin stood.

As I drove closer, I noticed that someone was here, grabbing bags from their trunk.

My heart soared at the sight of him. My Theo.

He quickly dropped the bags back into the trunk, retrieving his gun from the holster at his side and aiming it right at my car pulling into the small driveway.

I slowed my car down to a stop behind his truck. Turning the keys up, I cut the engine off and got out of the car, hands held high. His gun was still drawn up when his eyes crashed against mine.

My chest ached with a warmth so intense, it seared through me from the inside out.