Page 197 of Forbidden Fate

“Cruz,” he says. “why do you want to protect people who would never protect you if they knew the truth.”

I stare at the phone. “What truth?”

A pause.

Then, “Did you never wonder, Cruz?”

My skin goes cold. “Wonder what?”

“Why I chose you.”

The room stills. Robin looks at me, her eyes wide and confused.

Vega sighs. “Poor Esperanza. Beautiful girl. Too trusting, maybe, but beautiful. She never told you, did she?”

I tighten my grip on the receiver.

Do not react.

Do not give him the satisfaction.

But my pulse begins to roar. Because I already know what Vega is about to reveal. In a way, I’ve known it all along. I just never let myself think it.

“Tell me what?” I grit out.

“I took her one night.” Vega’s voice is smooth as snake oil. “Feisty little thing. She fought me, which made it all the better.”

Robin’s fingers go rigid around mine.

No one else moves.

“One night,” Vega continues. “But we all know that sometimes, once is all it takes.”

My mother.

My mother.

My mother.

“You’re lying,” I say, my veins turning to ice.

“Am I? I took you in after she died. Why would I do that? Because you were mine. My bastard. My blood.”

The receiver nearly slips from my hand. Robin catches my wrist.

“I’ve been training you all these years for a reason. Not because I enjoy charity. Not because Adriana found a pretty orphan and thought he might be useful.”

Adriana.

Did she know?

Of course she knew.

“You were my failsafe,” Vega says. “In the event something happened to my son.”

Diego Vega Junior.

The corpse in the barn.