Her head rolled weakly over his shoulder, her eyes refusing to meet his, tears beginning to fall. “I can see it all now. Everything that didn’t register at the time. I always sensed something in you—a calculation—but I couldn’t find any reason you’d be playing me. I would have never been paranoid enough to imagine it was never me you wanted, but just a weapon to use against my father.”
“It was always you I wanted.” Gripping her head, he tried to make her look at him. She finally did and tears flowed thicker. He looked exactly like the man she loved. That man who didn’t exist. “I never intended to use you against him. And the only calculation you felt targeted your father.”
“Now it all makes sense. The...viciousness I felt from you toward him. And I kept rationalizing it so I could be with you. And I ended up giving you everything you needed...to destroy my father.” The first sob tore out of her. “All an act...”
He squeezed her tighter. “I never acted with you.”
“I don’t believe...anything you say...anymore.”
“You have to. Eu te amo, Eliana—I love you and that’s the only truth. And when you remember everything we had...”
“I do...remember.” Her every word now got hacked in two, the pain unbearable. “Every touch...and word...and look. And they’re all tainted with...what I now know.”
His hands roamed her face and body, as if he’d wipe away what she now knew. “That’s shock talking. You’re just angry.”
Sobs caught in her lungs, almost tore them apart. “I’m not...angry...I’m...destroyed. You...destroyed me...Rafael.”
“No... Deus, Eliana, don’t say that. I would never hurt you. I only care about you, about us.”
“There is...no...us.”
“There is nothing but us. My plans for your father have nothing to do with us. Nothing. And after our wedding...”
It finally hurt enough. It made her lurch out of his arms, tumble onto the couch, pushing against him as if he burned her. “You...think I’ll go ahead with the wedding...as if nothing happened? As if you’re still the man I loved?”
He burst to his feet, his frustration pummeling her. “If this had happened a month after the wedding, I would have already secured you, us.”
This made tears and sobs stop abruptly. “If we’d been married ten years, it would have still ended things between us.”
Stabbing his fingers through his hair, he exhaled heavily. “I can see I’m not talking you down but just making it all worse. But I swear to you, Eliana, we have nothing to do with anything I ever planned for your father. I never lied to you about my feelings, and I never wanted to hurt you.”
“Then prove it. Don’t hurt him.”
The fire went out in his eyes, that terrible, terrifying ice impaling her. “Your father has to pay.”
And she wailed, “Pay for what?”
His face became an opaque mask. “It’s nothing to do with us, Eliana. Nothing to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me. He’s the most important person in my world.”
His eyes flared again. “I thought that was me.”
“I don’t even know who you are anymore. But I know who he is. He’s the man who’s been there for me every single hour since I was born. He’s my father.”
She pulled at her finger in a frenzy, almost pulling it out of its socket. By the time she yanked his ring off, she was panting, weeping, shaking all over.
“Put my ring back on your finger, Eliana. Now.”
Holding his volcanic gaze, she let the ring drop to the pristinely polished hardwood floor.
For one last moment, she looked up at him—the most incredible dream of her life, who’d turned out to be its most devastating nightmare. And said goodbye.
“If you’re my father’s enemy, you’re my enemy, too.”
Staggering around, she stumbled out of the room. Out of his mansion. Out of his life.
Where she’d never truly been.