Since my stomach is rocking with impotent anger, I let Sal lead me out of the study without another word. I want to yell at Meg, but mostly I want to yell at Mateo. I don’t for a second believe Meg’s completely unaware of Mia’s feelings, but even if she doesn’t know the real history, Mateo does. What the hell is he thinking?
Once we’re out of the study, my beloved future husband gets to receive my anger.
“Can you believe that?”
“That Mateo just stands there while you and his fiancée sharpen your claws? Kinda.”
“That the maid asked Mia to be her maid of honor. She literally asked Mia to stand beside her and watch Mateo marry her. She is evil. She’s pure evil.”
“Have you considered that maybe the woman who is pregnant by and engaged to Mateo just doesn’t know that’s an inappropriate ask? You said Mia lied for him, so she doesn’t know the truth, and since, again, Meg is engaged to and pregnant by Mateo, she probably thinks Mia is over whatever she actually thinks happened between them.”
“I’m so angry I want to cry,” I inform him. “He’s making the biggest mistake of his life.”
“It’s his mistake to make,” Sal points out, giving my shoulder a supportive rub, even if he thinks I’m being crazy and unreasonable. He’s going to be such a good husband.
“Who’s going to look out for him if I’m not living here anymore?”
“Adrian?”
I roll my eyes. “Please. Adrian’s no better. He could’ve told Elise he liked her years ago, but he kept quiet and let Mateo torture him. We’re all fucked up, but at least Adrian and I have managed to pull it together and find love. Mateo is just making bigger and bigger messes.”
“I would argue that since he’s engaged, he probably managed to find love, too.”
“Fake love. Imposter love. Surface love.”
“She didn’t even seem scared off last night when it looked like Mateo might lose all this. She offered to be a waitress. If she’s so awful, don’t you think Mateo losing his fortune would make her cut and run?”
My head falls back dramatically and I sigh. “Why do you have to defend the maid?”
“You know me; I’m all about people not being cheating assbags.”
“I don’t want him to cheat; I want him to leave the dumb maid and be with the one who will love him even when he’s impossible to love.”
“The dumb, pregnant maid. You’re so mean,” he says lightly.
“I swear, I’m just going to wash my hands of his love life and let him deal with all his own messes.”
Sal nods, eyebrows rising. “Good idea. I bet he’d like that.”
“Easy for you to say. You weren’t around when Beth happened. It’s hell on all of us. Mateo needs someone who will never leave him so that never happens again, not someone like Meg.”
“Meg seems pretty fond of him from what I’ve seen. Maybe she won’t leave him.”
“Then he should just be honest with her. If he’s honest with her about Mia and she stays, I’ll eat my hat. But she won’t, because I’m not wrong. Meg is not that kind of woman. She’s not soft. Her love is not unconditional. I’m not saying that’s bad in general, but it makes her completely wrong for Mateo. The real Mateo—not the edited version, but the brutal, dark, bad-day Mateo. If she can’t handle him at his worst, she shouldn’t be the one who gets his best.”
Sal doesn’t immediately respond. I don’t really expect him to, since he’s not nearly as invested in Mateo’s future happiness as I am, but eventually he speaks. “You know what, maybe this is an exception. Honesty is important, obviously, and actually knowing who the person you love is, but… sometimes people do things they regret, and maybe he doesn’t want one mistake to ruin a good relationship. Maybe lying to her about it was the right thing to do. Maybe he’s protecting her from a truth he knows she can’t accept, and maybe that’s okay, because it’s a really bad truth.”
I scowl, shaking my head. “No. It’s simple; don’t be a shitty person, then you won’t have horrible secrets that would make people stop loving you. If you want to be a shitty person, then be with someone who knows that about you and can accept it. Don’t lie about it.”
“It’s not that simple.”
I stop walking, planting a hand on my hip and turning to face him. “How is it not that simple? You’re suddenly okay with what he did to Mia now?”
“No, of course I’m not okay with that. Of course not. But he can’t take it back, can he? He can try to make amends, but he can’t undo it. If he wouldn’t do it again… I can see why he wouldn’t want to tell Meg he did it in the first place. This is as close to taking it back as he can get.”