Page 108 of Rio

I look at him then, and see past the polished suit and the cool façade.He’s unraveling, too.We’ve all started to see it, ever since Jett stood up to him at the dinner, with Cari by his side.Then Dex followed suit, in his own way.It feels like the old man is scared of losing control, and he can’t take it.

“How?”I snap.

“Bringing you both down a peg or three.Giving you enough rope to let your girlfriend hang herself with it.”

“You fucking bastard.”My fists almost fly out of my pockets, but I somehow manage to keep them there.“Raquel had nothing to do with AO Eletronica.”

“But you did, and your brothers, and Dex.”

What the fuck?

What the actual fuck is wrong with this man?Raquel’s world has imploded and he’s happy about her downfall.I still don’t understand.“What the fuck has Raquel got to do with AO Eletronica?”

“She was instrumental in getting to you.”He smooths his hand over his tie.

Bile rises in my throat, thick, bitter, and burning.“You thought we were an item?”

He pauses, searching my face.“Aren’t you?”

I go cold.

He knows.

“You brought her down to get to me?”

I feel sick to my stomach that he knows so much.I had no clue about any of this.No point looking even more stupid than I already feel.No point in pretending she doesn’t mean anything to me.

“How?”My stomach prepares to drop.I feel like I’m at the top of a rollercoaster, about to dive to my death.

“You’re the one who handed her the folder,” he says, low and quiet.“Not me.I never even met the girl, to talk to.I know she was there, at the wedding in São Paulo.I know you, Dex and Daniela met her in Miami.”

The sly fox.“Did you have private investigators follow us?”Because it starts to make sense.

“Didn’t need to.The wedding and the golden couple, your half-brother and his fake wife—”

“They recently got engaged, recently, for real this time.They’re in love.”

“Love,” he snarls, like the word is poison.“Those two seem to cause a stir wherever they go.The media did the rest.Photos of you and Raquel in Miami surfaced.I didn’t have to do a thing.”

“And yet, somehow you did, and you seem so fucking unbelievably proud of yourself.”

“As far as the eco resort goes, yes.With no injunction, construction resumes immediately.The bulldozers roll at sunrise.”

“But this isn’t about the eco resort, is it?”This is personal.This is about breaking the woman I love and punishing me.“You knew I cared about her.”

The old man sighs.“Of course I did.That’s why it worked.”

An ugly silence stretches between us, heavy and final.

“How...how did you ensure she got the case?”I always was suspicious of Raquel and I being in Belize at the same time, but I wanted to believe in fate.

The old man huffs out a sigh, likes he’s bored with having to explain to me.“When you’ve been around as long as I have, you have eyes and ears on the ground.People do what you tell them.It’s easy.”

The sonofabitch.

“I called an old golfing friend,” he continues.“One of the people who founded the law firm in Miami.William Roth, a founding partner, long since retired.But very much aware of the skeletons in Pierce Tovey’s closet.Sexual misconduct.Women leaving left and right.Interns.Associates.”

A memory slams into me.