“Eliana is why everything was put right,” he said gruffly. “Her love pulled me back from the path of destruction and into a life I never thought I’d have. But I need you to think. Anything you can remember around that time would help. It had to be someone who was close to you. Think, Ferreira.”
The man blinked numbly. Then he said, “You used to call me Tio Teo.”
“I used to love you almost as much as I loved my father.” He tried to smile through the pain stabbing in his chest. “But I don’t think I can call you that now.”
Eliana kissed his shoulder. “How about only Teo?”
Looking down at her, his heart in his eyes, he pledged, “Whatever you wish, minha alma.”
Suddenly, Teo grabbed his arm. “There’s something. When I first met Ellie’s mother, she had a stalker. I hired a security specialist to deal with the situation until that stalker was caught. I can’t think of anyone else in my whole life who had the kind of skills and underground connections needed to do something like...like...”
Ferreira fell silent, eyes feverish as he chased new realizations, connected seemingly unconnected events.
Then he focused back on Rafael. “He must have realized through me that you were just what that organization was looking for, and he’d had all the access to me he needed to doctor evidence to incriminate me.”
“Give me his name.”
After Ferreira did so, Rafael rose to his feet and bent to kiss Eliana. “I’ll initiate a targeted investigation at once.”
“Thank you, meu amor,” she whispered against his lips.
“Anything and everything for you, minha vida. Always.”
* * *
In an hour, Rafael walked back into his father-in-law’s suite. He stopped at the door, savoring the sight of the love of his life curled into her father, with his arm around her and their heads nestled against each other.
Overpowering emotions swept him. And not only for Eliana. But for her father, too. He was again the uncle he’d loved, but now far more, the man whose adoration for his wife had given him Eliana, a being made of total love.
Blinking back the burn behind his eyes, he walked in. And, oh...the welcome, the warmth, he saw on both their faces! He felt any lingering pain and bitterness and rage just drain away.
He came down on his haunches before them, delighting in how Eliana surged forward and took him in her arms, pressing his head to her heart.
“Thank you for believing Daddy, meu amor. Even if you can’t find proof, it’s enough you want to.”
“Found anything?” Teo asked anxiously.
Rafael pulled back from her embrace to look at him. “Once I had a name and a connection to you, everything fell...or rather crashed into place. I traced the man’s every move and contact and bank account transaction since the day I was abducted. And there’s no doubt. It was him.”
Eliana’s choking cry shook his heartstrings as she pulled them both to her, buried her face in their chests in turn and soaked them in her tears of relief.
His own relief was even fiercer, and all for her, that she didn’t have to live with something this horrible standing between the two people she loved most, that she wouldn’t feel guilty about his ordeals anymore.
After they both kissed and soothed her, he reached for Teo’s hand, squeezed it. “I beg your forgiveness, Teo, for believing in your guilt once my investigations led to you. I didn’t want it to be you, but when I dug again and again to make sure, I kept finding the same trails.”
Teo squeezed his hand back. “It was impossible for you to realize that man’s involvement. Anita was so scared of the whole thing, I couldn’t tell anyone, even your father.” He sighed in regret. “Ironically, it was the massive expenses of hiring that man, and which I couldn’t account for, that led to your father dissolving our partnership. And then I lost her, then your father...and that man disappeared from my memory.”
His viciousness now targeted the man who’d cost him so much, and who’d almost made him destroy innocent lives. “You don’t need to ever think of him again. He’s already...being taken care of.”
Teo’s eyes widened. “You mean you...?”
Eliana clutched her father’s arm, cold fire arcing from her eyes. “Rafael will make sure he never hurts anyone else. And that he gets what he deserves.”
Teo’s surprise at the blade in Eliana’s tone was nothing compared to Rafael’s. Delight soared as he pulled her closer.
“So my made-for-and-from-love flower can be deadly when defending and avenging the innocent.”
The flames in her eyes licked his every nerve. “You bet.”