Page 121 of Forbidden Fate

She looks so small suddenly. She didn’t look small in the kitchen. She looked glamorous. Warm. A woman who knew how to fill a room with laughter and sensuality and the kind of comfort that made even danger feel, for a few seconds, like it could wait outside.

“I don’t know what I’ll do,” she says. “I don’t know how to be anything else.”

“Yes, you do.” I take her hands. “You’re charming. You’re kind. You’re smart. You know how to read people, how to make them comfortable, how to survive. Do you have any idea how valuable that is?”

Her mouth trembles.

“And you’re beautiful,” I add. “Which isn’t everything, but let’s not pretend it hurts.”

A wet laugh breaks through her tears.

“You can find work in any line,” I say. “Hospitality. Sales. Beauty. Clothes. Anything that involves people, you can do.”

“I’m too old to start over.”

“You’re not.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know enough.” I take her hand. “Once I’m back in America, I’ll wire you more money.”

Her brows draw together. “What?”

“As thanks for your kindness. Yours, Mercedes’s, everyone’s. Enough to give you time. Enough to help you figure out what comes next.”

Cruz turns his head toward me.

I feel his gaze, but I don’t look at him.

“I mean it,” I say.

Esmeralda shakes her head. “You don’t have to⁠—”

“I know I don’t.”

“You barely know us.”

“You hid in an armoire with me. Señora Valentina opened her home to me. You fed me. You made me laugh for five seconds when I didn’t think that was possible anymore.” My throat tightens. “I’m so sorry for what happened. I can’t undo it. But I can try to make something right.”

Esmeralda’s face crumples again, and this time she steps into me.

I hug her.

And it feels right.

I don’t know this woman.

Not really.

But we’ve been through trauma together, and I’ll never forget her.

Esmeralda pulls back and wipes her face with both hands. “Thank you,” she whispers.

“Get everyone,” Cruz says.

She nods.

Then she turns and rushes down the hall, calling Mercedes’s name first and then others.