Page 87 of Stronger Than Fate

“Dali, your boyfriend is right. We don’t want you going to her place anymore, promise us.”

“Are you really forbidding me from going to Sol’s place?” I asked, completely surprised.

“This is not a joke,” Henry said.

“I’m not joking either, and I won’t accept your exaggerated demands.”

“Dalina…”

“Henry, we’ll discuss this another time.”

He looked at my brothers seeking support and obviously found it.

“We’re doing this for your own good. Until we understand what she’s trying to accomplish with all this, it’s better if you stay away,” Bastián affirmed.

“Let’s drop this subject for now. I think we should go,” I suggested, as the lunch was clearly over.

“Lunch is my treat,” Henry said, seeing that my brother Bastián was taking out his wallet.

“That’s not necessary,” Bastián said.

“It’s my pleasure.”

“Well, thank you for the invitation.”

“I hope we can meet again another day. I’d like to introduce you to my sister, unless you already know her.”

“I don’t think we know her,” Lolo said.

“I haven’t introduced her because you’ve never met,” I said.

“Then for our next gathering, we’ll ask her to join us,” he remarked with great naturalness.

Hearing him make these family plans gave me a warmth in my heart that I didn’t want to acknowledge, but all of this made me harbor hopes that our relationship had a promising future.

Be careful, Dalina!, I told myself, I needed to learn to be more cautious.

We said goodbye to my brothers and returned to the hotel. On the way, Henry was much less talkative.

“I’m sorry about everything my brothers said to you,” I said, thinking that was what had him so pensive.

“What?” he asked, and it was obvious his mind was elsewhere and he hadn’t even understood what I’d said.

“I was saying that I’m sorry my brothers gave you a hard time.”

“I didn’t have a hard time. If I had been in their place, I would have asked many more questions than they did,” he said naturally.

“What’s wrong? You’re very quiet and thoughtful.”

“Worried, actually,” he replied.

“May I know why?”

“I’m concerned about your friend’s attitude, or ex-friend, because you can’t consider that girl a friend anymore. It’s obvious she’s plotting something and it bothers me not knowing what it is. Promise me you won’t meet with her.”

“Henry...”

“No, Dalina, I won’t budge on this. I don’t want you taking risks. Do it for me,” he pleaded, and those words, accompanied by his face lined with worry, landed straight in my heart.