43
Isa
Istrolled from the bedroom the next morning, finding Regina waiting in the kitchen with a fresh batch of lemonade waiting for me. I took a sip of the sour concoction, stepping into her waiting arms and the embrace she offered.
In the aftermath of arriving home late the night before, of discovering my sister was still alive and I didn’t need to deal with the conflicting thoughts about what Rafe might have done to her when he discovered her deception, I’d been too distracted to think about the woman I’d missed while we’d been gone.
“It’s so good to have you home safe,” she murmured, resting her hand atop my head and soothing the frayed edges of my own emotions. I wondered in a distant sort of way if there would ever come a day when I didn’t feel a twinge of guilt over the mother figure in my life. If I could ever just love Regina without missing my own mom.
“It’s good to be home again. I don’t know if I ever want to leave again,” I said, huffing a laugh at how much had changed in such a short time. My prison had become my sanctuary. The only place I ever felt truly safe.
Home was wherever Rafael was, but this place was special. It was a part of me I didn’t think I’d ever want to be rid of.
“That will change in time,” she said, stepping back with an odd look on her face.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, feeling it in my bones that there was something I was missing. First Rafe was gone from our bed before I woke up when I’d felt sure he would stay with me so that I could wake up in his arms. On our first morning home after everything that had happened, it seemed unusual that my husband wouldn’t cling to me for a time.
“You should eat something,” she said, grabbing a piece of homemade bread and popping it into the toaster. The lack of a gourmet breakfast waiting for me was the next sign that something was seriously wrong.
“Where’s Rafe?” I asked, turning to stride for his office.
“Isa!” she called, following after me as I barged toward the office door. I pushed it open, not bothering to knock and feeling shocked to find the three Cortes brothers in there along with Rafe and Alejandro. Rafe’s hand was on the back of his neck and he stood suddenly the moment I burst inside.
“What’s going on?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. After everything, the thought of being left in the dark was too much for me to bear.
Rafael sighed, the breath heaving out of his lungs suddenly as he stepped around to the front of his desk and leaned his ass against it. His hair was disheveled, only a pair of deep navy silk pajama pants hanging from his hips that he must have slipped on when he got out of bed this morning.
It was so rare to see him in anything other than his suit — because when we were in the privacy of our bedroom we rarely wore clothing. “Come here,mi reina,” he murmured, gripping the edge of the desk with white knuckles.
I closed the distance between us, choosing to trust him for a moment despite the dread consuming me. My father was at the front of my mind, wondering if he’d taken a turn for the worst.
If something had changed with his treatment.
When I stopped in front of him, he released his grip on the desk and touched a palm to each of my cheeks. Encompassing me in his gentle touch, he sighed one last time before delivering the harsh truth. Later, I would be grateful that he hadn’t tried to hide it.
“Odina won’t be going to Peru to stay with Cristiano,” he admitted, his voice sounding too soft for the fact that he’d chosen to go against my wishes. “She died last night.”
I jolted back from his grip, stepping away and glaring at him with all the hatred I felt. All the disbelief that he’d known what the betrayal would do to our relationship. It wasn’t so much that Odina didn’t deserve to be punished for what she’d done, but I hadn’t needed to suffer alongside her.
I didn’t need her death on my conscience and a stain on my marriage. “You promised me,” I protested, shaking my head from side to side. “How could you do this?”
“He didn’t,” Gabriel said, shocking me when he stepped forward and came closer to me than he normally would have risked with Rafael watching.
“How do you know?” I asked, furrowing my brow as I watched him stand tall in front of me.
“Because I did it,” Gabriel admitted, his face even and not a hint of regret or shame on it. I felt tears fill my eyes, the burn of my throat stinging as I swallowed around my nausea. “She didn’t suffer, and it was more kindness than she deserved.”
“Why?” I asked, shaking my head from side to side and turning to look at Hugo and Joaquin who seemed to stand behind their brother and the choice he’d made. “There was another solution! There was no reason to—”
“She was never going to stop,” Gabriel said, stepping forward and touching a palm to my cheek. He willed me to stop, silently staring down at me and imploring me to listen. “She was never going to let you ride into the sunset of your happily ever after, because she was determined to make you as miserable as she was.”
“She was going to be locked away! What could she have done from Peru?” I asked, gaping at him as if he’d lost all his sense of reason because of his hatred for Odina.
“Manipulated a guard. Escaped. Any number of things,mi reina,” Gabriel sighed, his face twisting in sympathy. “Even with everything you’ve survived, you still see the best in people. You still want the bestforpeople. But there was nothing good left in Odina, and I did the world a favor by getting rid of her. Now...you can be free.”
“How am I supposed to look at you and not feel that? Not see what you did to her? This is why I didn’t want her dead! This is why I wanted to lock her away where she couldn’t take anything else from me. Now she took you,” I protested, dropping my forehead forward until it rested on his chest. His arms raised, wrapping around me and squeezing me in a brotherly embrace.
Rafe’s growl sounded through the room, but he refrained from interfering in the moment. In what felt like a goodbye.