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“It will all work out,” Geno said, trying to be reassuring, but she was right, and there was nothing that he could do about it.
“When my marriage to Gustavo was falling apart and the beatings had begun, I used to think a lot about what I did to deserve to be treated that way.”
Geno propped a pillow behind him and sat up. “What did you come up with?”
“The answer was simple. All of the choices that I made in my life were based on money.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. A lot of people are like that. I do what I do, and I do it for money.”
“That’s different, Geno. I hurt people with the things that I do,” she said, and Geno just looked at her. You did just watch him beat a man bloody and then he shot him in the eye. “Okay, you hurt people, but I hurt the people close to me to get what I want.”
“My point is still the same,” he said, even though he acknowledged the difference. His own pain at her hands was a testament to it. And here you are anyway.
“Growing up, my parents did the best they could to see that me and my brothers had what we needed,” she paused. “What we wanted, what the other girls had,” Valencia shook her head. “That was a different matter. It was always, we can’t afford that, and you don’t know what those people are doing to live like that.”
“I heard a lot of that too and it was always followed by no,” Geno said, and put his arm around her.
“It drove me. I decided when I grew up, I would never have to say to myself you can’t afford that.”
“Me too,” Geno said, and thought about the day he and Carter decided that they were getting in the game.
“I committed myself to doing whatever it took for me to live the way I wanted to live. I worked hard, and I made it.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “Sure, there were some things that I’ve done that I’ve regretted.”
“Like what?” Geno asked, because he needed to know if she felt anything about leaving him the way she did.
Valencia exhaled. “I could have been more flexible with Sherwin and Darnel for one.”
“Who are they?”
“Sherwin Blake and Darnel Wilkes. When I started my first company and was developing the dating site, I was having major problems with the code for the dating profiles. I was getting nowhere with it and without it, there would be no site, so I hired Sherwin and Darnel to troubleshoot the issue. They found out what the source of the problem was, and they ended up basically rewriting all the code for the site. I paid them for what they did and that was that. Until they saw my face on that cover and then they wanted to sue me for two thirds of my company. Saying that there would be no company if it wasn’t for their code.”
“Were they right?”
“Yes. But in the eyes of the law, the work for hire contract that they signed said different. So when Becky said don’t worry, Becky Jacovitz, that’s my lawyer, an amazing woman, when she said don’t worry about them, she would take care of it, I didn’t. I just ignored them and went on with my life.”
“Anything else you wanna confess to?”
“Marrying Gustavo for money and sanctioning his murder would definitely fall in that category.”
“You think.”
“But what I regret most about that was that I hurt you. And I am so sorry for that. Like I said, it’s a bad decision that I’m paying for right now.”
Valencia looked at Geno sitting quietly and looking contemplative. She wanted to ask him why he never asked her to stay and not marry Gustavo, but at the moment she didn’t want to hear his answer.
“When I left Brazil, I committed myself to rebuilding my life and trying to make better choices. Choices that weren’t all based totally on money.”
“You were greedy.”
“So, it was time for me to share, you know, give something back. I hired a private investigator to find Sherwin and Darnel and tried to settle with them.”
“Tried?”
“I was able to settle with Sherwin. He had moved, was living in Paris, and doing well for himself. He said that he really didn’t need the money, but he appreciated the gesture. My investigator never did find Darnel, it was like he just dropped off the face of the earth. But I have his money in trust for him if he ever does resurface.”
“That’s good that you at least tried to make that right,” he said, and leaned closer to her. “Anything else?”
“I give money to any and every worthy cause that gets presented to me. And I started a non-profit organization that mentors t
