Page 90 of Forbidden Fate

No.

No, no, no.

Of all the cards in that stupid deck, there is absolutely no way they just drew that one for him.

“It just means a beginning,” Cruz says. “Luisa used to do this when I was little.”

Mercedes points at him. “I’m doing the reading. It means what I say it means.”

Esmeralda leans toward me, smiling. “Ace of Hearts predicts he will find the love of his life.”

Cruz looks down.

He’s blushing again.

I have to look away. I stare at the table. At my coffee cup. At a scratch in the wood. At literally anything except Cruz Moreno and his handsome, blushing face.

This is absurd.

A card means nothing. A random card from a regular deck pulled by two women who clearly enjoy making Cruz uncomfortable doesn’t mean fate has entered the kitchen.

Please.

I’m not the love of anyone’s life.

I’m a woman who followed a lead she shouldn’t have followed, got herself captured, mouthed off to dangerous people, and is currently hiding in a brothel wearing another woman’s clothes.

Not exactly destiny material.

Besides, Cruz and I have known each other for what? Days? Days full of fear, threats, locked doors, running, lies, and whatever the hell this feeling is between us.

Mercedes gathers the card back into the deck and looks at me. “Now you.”

I shake my head. “No.”

“Yes,” Esmeralda says.

“I don’t need a reading.”

“Everyone needs a reading.”

“I really don’t.”

Mercedes shuffles again. “The ones who say that need it most.”

Señora Valentina mutters something in Spanish under her breath that I don’t catch.

“Cut,” Mercedes says, setting the deck in front of me.

I stare at it.

I don’t believe in fortune-telling.

I don’t believe a deck of cards can see the future.

But my hand still feels strangely heavy when I reach for the deck.

Maybe because Cruz is watching.