Page 66 of Chris

“I’m a trophy. Something he won. Nothing else.”

“Shame, that.”

Valeria let out a hard exhale and put her attention on the scene outside. “He told me earlier that if I didn’t behave, Maria wouldn’t be there when I returned home.”

Abril made a dismissive noise. “He wouldn’t bother. That’s too much energy to spend for a girl, Val. And that’s all she is to him, a girl. What he wants more is a boy, and so if he can keep you in your place long enough to get what he wants from you, then that’s what he’ll do. Even if it means using her, and your fears about her, to get it.”

She swallowed hard.

Abril didn’t miss it.

“What?”

“He will not get that boy,” Valeria muttered.

“That’s not how sex works, is it?”

“IUD, two years ago. A just in case. I have another four years before it must be replaced.”

Abril whistled low. “Do not let him find out about that.”

Yeah.

Valeria got it.

“But for her—Maria—he doesn’t care,” Abril said, “and if you were a smart woman, you would use that to your advantage more than you do.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Because you’re not like me, right?”

Valeria gave her a glance.

Abril cocked her brow. “Not a lie.”

“Not a lie,” she echoed. “What do you mean, though?”

“If he’s willing to use her to manipulate you into behaving, then use her as a way to make him believe you’re willing to behave.”

Valeria blinked. “Do you mean—”

“He’s a man, Val, and not a complex one to begin with. Should he think letting you have her and do what you want with her will make you react and behave better than his way, which do you think he’ll use?”

Huh.

At the dawning realization in Valeria’s eyes, Abril smirked.

“Keep it in mind.” With that said, Abril turned to leave, but not before saying, “It’s rude to spy. Or hasn’t anyone told you that, yet?”

Valeria’s head snapped sideways at Abril’s chiding only to find the reason for it leaning in the sitting room’s doorway room like he didn’t have a care in the world. Chris shrugged when Abril strolled on past him, but his attention turned on her once Abril left.

Sadness.

That’s what she found in his gaze.

How long had he been listening?

What did it matter?