Page 99 of Sweet Heart

“You are not thinking clearly, Katherina. You are following this girl into ruin and calling it love. But she is willing to let you lose it all. Your dreams, everything you worked for… How can you be so blind? Have you learned nothing? All this intelligence, and you—”

“Enough!”

My voice bellows from the pit of my stomach, and the single word fills the entire room. All heads snap toward me, staring at me in disbelief. I am shaking with anger and push myself slowly off the couch, walking on still-trembling legs to stand next to my girlfriend. My eyes are glued to Eduardo’s.

“You might be her father, but who the fuck do you think you are, talking to her like that?”

He frowns deeply at my words. They might be a bit crude, but he is two seconds away from hearing much worse.

“You do not approve of me,” I hiss. “I get it. You think I am willing to let her lose it all so that I can have her, and you probably believe I will toss her aside after she does.”

His nostrils flare, and his lips part, but this time, I raise my hand.

“I’m not done. You will listen to me now.”

He snaps his mouth shut and squints. I don’t know where I find the audacity to speak to this man in his own house like this, but I am not backing down.

“Cat has tried to stay away from me. I have tried to stay away from her. Everything felt wrong when we did, but when we—” I glance at her. “We just make sense.”

She smiles softly at me, her cheeks still heated from the debate, but her fingers find mine.

“I never want you to give up your dreams for me. I would never ask you that.”

“I know, amor.”

“I want you to be successful, to be happy, in whatever form that might take. If you want to build a clinic, build a clinic. Tell me what I can do to help, and I’ll do it. Even if you need me to st—”

“No!”

She pulls me against her with such speed that I slam into her rib cage. Her arms immediately snake around me, and she holds me tightly.

“Don’t you dare say that. That is the last thing I need.”

I cry into her shoulder. The tears, warm and thick, pour from me as I hold her tight. The fear leaking out of every pore.

“I don’t want to leave, but if it is what you need, I would. I really would,” I whisper hotly against her neck, and her fingers grasp me even tighter.

“Enough, amor. Enough. Don’t let his poison fill your pretty head.”

“Yes, enough, hija. You are right.”

Rosa’s voice carries something so unhinged that I momentarily lift my head to watch her move from the couch next to us. She glides like a mother lioness ready to protect her young, and her eyes are trained on her husband.

“Hija,” she says as she puts her hand on my arm. “You are not going anywhere. I’ve not seen my daughter this happy in years, maybe even her whole life.”

She glares at Eduardo.

“See, idiot? This girl is willing to sacrifice it all.”

She squeezes my arm before placing her hand on Cat’s shoulder.

“And you… You have broken our daughter’s trust. How could you be so stupid?”

“I… I just saw… After Alex…” he stammers, now undone by his wife’s sharp tone.

“Papá, I am forty-two years old. I am not the child I was back in med school. You have to trust me to make my own decisions.”

“They got you in trouble, hija.”