Page 101 of Stronger Than Fate

“Dalina, tell me where you are. Let me talk to you in person.”

“What do you feel for me, Henry?”

That was the million-dollar question, but I received only silence in response.

“You’re not going to answer,” I stated.

“I don’t want to lose you,” he finally said.

“That’s not the answer to my question.”

He didn’t say anything to my last comment either.

“It’s for the best, Henry. Right now I feel lost, I need to think, think about what I want and what I need. I think you need that too.”

“I don’t need it, I don’t want us to be apart. Let me come see you,” he pleaded.

“That’s not the best thing. I’m going to stay here for a few days and when I come back, if we still want to, we’ll have a conversation.”

“What about the love you feel for me? Before all this happened, you were willing to love me, you didn’t need time to think.”

“I already told you that all this made me realize I was accepting things I didn’t like, and no matter how much I love you, I won’t settle for crumbs, I want the whole cake.”

“What is it that you want?” he asked, defeated.

“You already know that. I don’t want to settle for something that isn’t mutual.”

I felt him sigh with weariness, evidently understanding that he couldn’t give me what I was asking for.

“Is there anything I can do to change your mind?” he asked, defeated.

“No, Henry.”

“If that’s what you want, you leave me no choice but to accept it, but keep in mind that I don’t want to be away from you.”

“I hope everything gets cleared up and they can find that woman,” I said, without commenting on the last thing he had said, there was no point in continuing to insist on the same thing.

“Dalina, I’m going to keep calling you and I ask that you answer.”

“And you need to understand that there may be times when I don’t feel like talking, and I ask you to respect that.”

“Take care.”

“You too. Goodbye, Henry,” I said farewell, and ended the call.

When I hung up, the music started playing again and at that moment “What About Us”by Pinkbegan. The lump in my throat grew and grew, and that beautiful romantic song didn’t help to ease it. I was overwhelmed by absolute sadness, sadness in recognizing that we had been vilely deceived, sadness for having ended my relationship with Henry, because even though what happened had been clarified, I knew we weren’t going to stay together, he didn’t love me and I no longer wanted to continue like this. He had told me he was confused and needed time to know what he felt, but it seemed that confusion would be eternal and I no longer wanted to wait. I no longer wanted to be close, that would surely confuse him even more and might even make him feel obligated to reciprocate my feelings. Although it hurt, the best thing was for us to distance ourselves.

Chapter 15

"The hardest part of unrequited love is accepting it; the hardest part of heartbreak is surviving it"

—George Pellicer

It had been more than a week since my arrival in Paris. When Sean was free, we dedicated ourselves to exploring the city and tourist attractions. When he was at the university, which was most of the time, I would go out for walks, do some sport, or simply sit in a Parisian café to enjoy a moment of relaxation.

Henry had called me once more to tell me that the police had found the woman who drugged and robbed him. She was a prostitute, and it was confirmed that she hadn’t been the mastermind behind the whole setup, but unfortunately, the woman had no information because she had never seen who hired her. The phone number they used to communicate was the same one from which the photos had been sent to me and, besides being encrypted, it was no longer in use, so there were no leads.

We had talked little about our lives. He had only asked me how I was doing and when I was returning to Uruguay, to which I had replied that I still didn’t know. Although I was planning to travel the following week because I didn’t want to continue neglecting the hotel’s affairs, I had chosen not to tell him.