Master of El Corazon

‘Get what over with?’ she asked slowly.

He didn’t answer. Instead, he walked to the centre of the room and looked around. She knew he was taking in the shabby surroundings, the suitcase left on a chair and never unpacked because there was no closet, the window that looked out on a narrow alley.

‘What a comedown for you, sweetheart,’ he said softly.

Arden stiffened. ‘Is that why you came? To insult me?’

He swung towards her, his eyes a dangerous shade of green. ‘Felix is dead.’

She stared at him. ‘What?’

‘It happened three days ago, in his sleep.’

Arden swallowed. ‘Conor, I’m so sorry. I—’

‘Yeah.’ The muscle in his cheek knotted and unknotted. ‘I’ll bet.’

She took a handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed at her eyes. ‘He said he was tired. We—we talked about it before I left the ranch...’

‘Did you,’ Conor said, his voice flat. ‘What else did you talk about, Arden?’

‘I don’t know—I don’t remember.’

Conor put his hands on his hips. ‘Try.’

She looked at him. There was such anger in his eyes. No, it was more than anger. It was—it was rage.

‘Did he talk about a new beginning?’

Arden frowned and tried to remember. ‘Yes. Something like that.’

He strode to where she stood and clasped her shoulders roughly. ‘And what did you say to that?’

‘I said—I said, I hoped he was right, that I believed in new beginnings, too, and he—’

‘You bitch!’ Conor’s fingers dug into her flesh as he shook her. ‘I’m just surprised you left the change in his will to chance, that you didn’t go round up Inez and Thomas that very minute instead of trusting Felix to do it on his own.’

‘Damn you, let me go!’ Arden wrenched free and glared at him. ‘What do the cook and the gardener have to do with this? What are you accusing me of?’

‘They witnessed the hand-written codicil Felix drafted to his will an hour after you left El Corazon.’

‘What’s that got to do with me?’

Conor laughed unpleasantly. ‘Ah. Now she’s going to try and play dumb!’

‘Listen, Conor, either get to the point or get out!’

‘The codicil is short and sweet. “To Arden Miller,” Felix wrote, “I leave my beloved finca, so that we may all have a new beginning.”’

Arden reached out and clasped the back of the chair. ‘I don’t believe you!’

Conor’s smile was terrible in its coldness. ‘He left you El Corazon. The whole thing, sweetheart. The house. The land. The crops and the cattle. All of it, right down to the pots in the kitchen.’

Her throat worked. ‘No,’ she whispered, ‘he couldn’t have.’

‘You mean, he shouldn’t have. But he did. And if you think, for one minute, I’m going to permit you to—’

‘I’m not,’ she said in a rush, ‘I mean, I don’t expect—’