He picked up Noah. “We are never coming back to Buenos Aires. My son—” he looked down at the happy, smiling baby “—will never remember he has a grandmother. He will never even know you exist. You will die as my father died,” he said harshly. “Alone.”
His mother looked as if she might faint.
“Rafael—you cannot do this,” Louisa gasped, pushing herself to her feet. “I won’t let you do this!”
“It’s your choice,” he said evenly. He gave her a hard look. “Choose my mother, a stranger to you—or choose your husband and child.”
Still holding the baby in his arms, he left the room.
Louisa started to run after them, then abruptly stopped. She looked down at Agustina, who was still sitting at the table, alone and forlorn.
“I’m sorry,” Louisa choked out. “I will try to talk to him!”
The older woman looked at her, then sadly and steadily shook her head. “It will do no good, my dear,” she said softly. She gave a trembling smile. “It was lovely to meet you. Take good care of my boys—both of them. Adios. Go with God…”
Tearfully Louisa rushed out the door. The elevator was gone so she ran down six flights of stairs. She barely made it outside the building, pushing open the door with a bang, before she saw the limousine pulling away from the curb with her husband and child inside it.
“Wait!” she screamed. The car stopped.
“Cutting it close,” Rafael observed coolly, as she wrenched open the door.
Panting, she scrambled into the back beside the baby seat. She kissed Noah tearfully on his downy head then, as the car pulled away from the curb, she turned on Rafael.
“How could you do that to your own mother? She loves you! How could you be so cruel?”
“Now you know what I do to people who betray me,” he said evenly. “It’s taken almost twenty years, but I finally got justice for what she did to me. And to the father I never knew,” he said coldly. He leaned forward. “To the airport.”
“You are more heartless than I ever imagined,” she whispered, suddenly frightened.
“I am not heartless.” Abruptly Rafael leaned toward her in the backseat. He cupped her face with one hand. “For I am willing to forgive you, mi vida, for one mistake. One.” He caressed her cheek. “But never cross me again.”
“What do you mean?” she whispered, trembling beneath his touch.
“Never lie to me again. And I will allow you to remain my wife and raise our son. You will be honored and respected forever as my wife. But if you ever betray me again…”
Their eyes locked.
“If I do?” she whispered.
He abruptly pulled his hand away. He picked up the newspaper in his lap and unfolded it, creating a wall of newsprint between them. “Then you will lose everything.”
Chapter Ten
YOU will lose everything.
A few weeks later in Paris, Louisa couldn’t stop shivering in the cool spring morning as she sat outside at a riverside café overlooking Notre Dame across the Seine. Baby Noah was sleeping, tucked snugly into blankets in the baby stroller beside her. Louisa took another sip of coffee so hot and strong it scalded her tongue, but still she continued to shiver. Even in a black cashmere sweater, dark skinny jeans and knee-high boots, she felt cold down to her toes.
Closing her eyes, she turned her face toward the sun.
If Rafael ever learned what she’d just done…
I had no choice, she told herself fiercely. She couldn’t allow him to so callously, cruelly hurt his mother, not when his desire for revenge would hurt everyone—grandmother, grandson, and most of all: Rafael himself!
Just a few moments ago, Agustina had been here at this café, sitting beside her. She’d been so happy to see her grandson again. A lump filled her throat. And Louisa had finally learned the truth about Rafael’s past. She understood at last why his mother had protected him all these years.
Rafael thought his mother was cold-blooded and controlling. He was wrong. But Louisa could not tell Rafael abo
ut his father, any more than Agustina could. It would hurt him too much. Louisa couldn’t rip his heart out with the truth. No matter how badly he lashed out.