Diogo rose to his feet.
Protecting his family was his job.
Love hadn't made Diogo vulnerable. It gave him the power and strength of steel. He would die to protect his family.
And the baby-selling lawyer would not live to see another dawn.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“I DID IT,” ELLIE said quietly in the dark room. “I told him I wanted a divorce because I was in love with you. Now uphold your end of the deal. Let her go.”
Timothy smiled at her. His same cheerful, thin smile that he'd had for years. But everything else about him had changed. He'd once been tidy, slender and pale in wire-rimmed glasses. But he hadn't shaved for months. His clothes were dirty and baggy.
He was nearly unrecognizable, and not just in appearance. Ellie had never imagined he would hold a six-year-old girl as hostage for revenge. Looking at Catia's wide-eyed, tearstained face as the scared child clung to her teddy bear, Ellie could hardly believe that she'd once felt desperately sorry for the way she'd treated Timothy Wright.
“Nice work,” he said with a satisfied nod. “I knew you just needed the right motivation to get rid of him.”
Ellie looked at him with narrowed eyes. “So let the girl go.”
“Sure. Fine. I never much liked kids anyway.” He pushed Catia toward Pedro, who was waiting by the door. “Take her home. Or as close as you can get without being caught.” Timothy turned back to Ellie with a bright, benign smile. “See? I'm not a bad person, Ellie. You've just forced me to do bad things.”
Catia gave a little sob. Ellie fell to her knees in front of the girl, hugging her tight. “It's all right,” she whispered, holding her close one last time. “You'll be safe. He's going to take you home.” She turned fiercely to Pedro. “If you hurt her—”
“I won't. I'm just in this for the money.” The man's eyes flickered at her, then Timothy. “Besides, I'm not the one you should be worried about, senhora. Tchau.”
As they left, Ellie closed her eyes, praying for the little girl's safety. Diogo would find her. He would surely have realized by now that Ellie would never divorce him. Not when she'd told him she would love him forever…
“Alone at last,” Timothy said with a sickly sweet smile.
Looking around the old concrete house with ragged curtains, tucked deeply inside the maze of the favela, Ellie felt her belly tense into another hard contraction. She'd been feeling contractions all morning. She'd felt the first one right after Diogo told her he didn't love her, and they'd only increased since Pedro had given her Timothy's note.
Now, she looked at the man she'd nearly married on that lovely spring day so long ago.
“Why did you do this?” she asked. “Why did you have me say those horrible things to Diogo?”
“I wanted him to know how it feels to lose what you love most,” Timothy said, baring his teeth. “To have his heart ripped out.”
“But he won't feel anything like that. He doesn't love me!”
“I've been watching you both for months. He hasn't been with another woman in all that time. Doesn't even look. He comes home every night at five sharp. You claim he's not in love? Nice try.”
The thought went through her like lightning. Was it actually possible that Diogo might love her? Oh please, she thought, briefly closing her eyes. Please come for me.
Timothy gave a little cackle. “Diogo Serrador thinks he's so powerful. He's got the good looks, the charm, the billions. But I've still beaten him. I've won you.”
She felt another contraction. A hard, long contraction that was different from the others, that made her feel weak and broke a sheen of sweat all over her body. No, she told the babies desperately. Not yet. She couldn't go into labor here!
She had to give Diogo time.
“Oh, Ellie.” Sitting down on the old ragged blanket that covered the bed, Timothy looked up at her with a hangdog expression. “I love you so much, can't you see that? I would do anything for you. Ever since that day I saw you at the Dairy Burger with your blond hair glowing like an angel, I knew you were different from all the others. You never laughed at me. You respected me. Admired me. And I knew you would be mine. But you were always so worried about money. I knew I'd have to be rich for you. ”
“You really did it, didn't you?” she breathed as pain went through her. “Sold babies for profit.”
He shrugged. “Childless couples. Female CEOs who spent too long on their careers. All so rich—and all so desperate for babies of their very own. While poor women give birth all the time to children they can't support. Or protect.” He gave a sly grin. “I was simply providing a service. I did it for you, Ellie. Always for you.”