11
Rafael
She nodded her head, the only sign she'd even heard me as she snapped right before my eyes.
I'd wanted her broken.
But not like this.
She turned on her heel as I released my grip on her arm, moving toward the house while I followed. The others trailed at my heels, the concern etched into the lines of their faces echoing the splintering I felt in my soul. Objectively, I knew this moment had always been inevitable. I'd known it the moment I sent Hugo to insert himself into her life, and it had only been confirmed with every day that I spent watching her.
Watching her grow closer to Hugo. Watching her trust the three of them, but particularly Hugo, in a way she never should have trusted anyone but her husband.
Anyone but me, even if trusting me was foolish in reality.
I'd thought there would be a fleeting moment of happiness when I ripped away the last of her bonds with a male rival, but instead there was only a deep, cavernous self-loathing.
When she reached the pool area, she crawled up onto the daybed where I'd fucked her the night before. Sitting in the middle, she hugged her knees to her chest and stared out at the water.
Her body went still, as if she'd shrunk back inside that place she went when nobody watched her in her bedroom at night.
The place where she ceased to exist.
I stepped toward her, determined to draw her out of the shell she'd crawled inside of. While I'd known she'd hurt when the truth of my deception was revealed, I never could have expected her to fade away before my eyes.
"Leave her be,mi hijo," Regina said as she stepped out of the kitchen. Her face was set with determination, despite the fact that she'd fled my wrath only moments before. "She needs some time."
"You don't know her," I said, shaking my head as I watched her. I'd never seen her in her bedroom when she went silent because of my refusal to put cameras in her room when she was underage, but when I thought of what a person must do to be so quiet? This was the exact image that came to mind. Her sitting on her bed, trapped in her head and overthinking everything.
It should have been simple to understand. I saw her. I wanted her. Itookher. I wanted to be the one to bring her back to life. To remind her what it was to be mine and to welcome my possession.
"I know what it is to be a woman grieving the loss of a friend," Regina said. "She'll come around,mi hijo. But the greatest kindness you can give her now is the freedom to process in her own way."
I nodded my head as I watched Isa. Joaquin stepped up at my side. "I'll watch over her," he said.
"She doesn't leave your sight. I have a feeling she'll come out swinging when she gets out of her head." I sighed, turning to the house and forcing myself to try to get some work done.
I'd have a long wait while Isa worked through her grief.
Joaquin stood guard over her like a sentry, determined to keep her safe from anything that might harm her while she cried silently. Night came before she ever moved, her eyes glued to the horizon as the sun set and she didn't stop to appreciate the vivid colors. I sipped my scotch as I stepped outside, staring at her back and the unnatural stillness in her body.
"She's still grieving," Regina said sadly. "She wouldn't eat."
"She's grieved enough," I said, handing her the empty tumbler as I turned a glare to her.
"Be gentle with her, Rafael. With her like this, you'll never know the damage you cause until it's too late."
"Is that how it was when my father murdered your brother on your wedding day?" I asked, turning a cold stare her way. "Were you grieving the first time he raped you?" Even I recognized that I was overly harsh, but I blamed her for the way Isa had retreated.
She shouldn’t have learned the truth yet.
"You are not your father," she said, but she turned her eyes away and swallowed. "He was a brutal man, and I knew what was coming the day he killed your mother. He'd never been secretive about his intentions for me to replace her. I only wish that my brother hadn't tried to intervene and been hurt in the process. What you did with Hugo was cruel, but the intention was to protect her and not to hurt her. Eventually, she will come to see that." She patted my back reassuringly and disappeared around the corner of the house. Making her way to her own home to hide out for the rest of the night.
Watching Isa process what I'd done before we met made me feel closer to my father than ever despite her words. I felt like more of a monster in those moments than I had with any of the people I'd killed in cold blood.
Regret wasn't something I knew how to feel, but if anyone came close to bringing those emotions to the surface in me, it was Isa.
She was my only weakness and the only person I cared for. The one thing that my enemies could use to hurt me. She was my vulnerability and my distraction.