Her hands trembled as she deleted the messages without listening to them.
She would deal with it when she was back home. Or maybe she wouldn’t. All she knew was that she couldn’t cope with it now.
She heard voices in the sitting room. Agusto and Sofia had returned, and from the snatches of conversation she concluded they had decided to have an after-dinner digestif.
She was just about to join them when she remembered that she’d forgotten to switch on the volume on her phone.
Stopping outside the door to the beautiful living room, she reached into her pocket just as she heard Sofia say quietly, ‘I showed your father Cristina’s photos—he thought they were wonderful. Did you look at them, Luis?
Body stilling, Cristina held her breath. She knew she should alert them to her presence—eavesdropping was wrong in so many ways—but her legs wouldn’t move.
‘Yes, Mamá, you know I did.’
Despite her nervousness, she couldn’t help smiling. She liked the way Luis spoke to his mother. He was so gentle with her.
‘I must have forgotten—’
‘Well, I did.’ She heard Luis sigh. ‘And I know you don’t want to hear it, but I haven’t changed my mind. I think she’s inexperienced and that shows in her work—which is competent but unremarkable.’
Cristina flinched, and then as the full impact of his words hit her the phone slipped from her hand. She watched it fall, her heart tumbling after it in her chest.
It wasn’t just that he found her work lacking, it was that he had looked at her photos—personal photos that it had hurt her to take—and dismissed them as ‘unremarkable’.
‘But, Luis—’ Sofia’s voice.
‘Mamá, we already discussed this, and I told you if having Cristina makes you happy then I’m happy to overlook her limitations.’
Her phone smashed onto the tiles.
Crouching down, she picked it up.
‘Cristina?’
There was nowhere to hide. Standing up, she met Luis’s gaze. It had been painful enough hearing her life, her talent, her hopes damned with such brutal precision, but watching Luis’s face as he realised that she’d heard what he’d said was worse—for her humiliation was no longer just hers.
‘I think I’m going to go to bed now—please say goodnight to your parents for me.’
And, turning, she walked blindly in the direction of her room.
But it didn’t matter where she went, she realised as the tears began to roll down her cheeks. There was nowhere to hide from the truth.
She was a disappointment. A let-down. Easily dismissed and effortlessly forgotten.
CHAPTER FIVE
IT SEEMED TO take for ever to get back to her bedroom.
Her legs wouldn’t stop wobbling and she couldn’t shake off the fear that Luis was going to come after her.
Not that there was any reason for him to do so, she thought dully as finally she reached the sanctuary of her room. He didn’t like her. And now it appeared that he’d didn’t respect her either.
Her stomach swayed.
Just like her father.
And she was so pathetic that she’d still let her head fill with fantasies of recreating that night they’d spent together. Still allowed herself to believe that there was something between them.
Her cheeks burned and, yanking open her wardrobe, she swiped at the tears filling the corners of her eyes. Well, now she knew the truth, she thought savagely, pulling out her suitcase.