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“Please,” she whispered. “Please help me.”
* * *
Rodrigo felt nothing as he drove away. He felt numb, from the inside out.
As he drove up the coast, his phone rang repeatedly. Sure that it was Lola, he ignored it. Let her find her own way home. She had a phone. She had credit cards. Let her get a taxi. Or, hell, he’d abandoned her in front of a car dealership—let her buy herself one and drive herself home.
He wouldn’t be at the beach house when she got there.
A woman had cheated on him. Again. And not just a fiancée this time.
He’d been betrayed by his wife. His partner. The mother of his child. The woman he—
Rodrigo’s stomach twisted. He glanced out at the sweep of moonlight against the black ocean. He should have known better than to trust her. He should have known better than to care.
Stopping at a traffic light, he cursed loudly, punching the dashboard. As he clawed back his hair, he saw the people in the next car staring at him in alarm. As soon as the light turned green, they drove away in a terrified puff of smoke.
No wonder they were afraid. He probably looked like a madman. But the truth was worse.
He was cursed. Cursed from childhood.
His own mother hadn’t loved him, his biological father hadn’t claimed him, and the man who’d given him the Cabrera name had despised him. Rodrigo had been desperate from childhood to find someone to love.
But he hadn’t.
And he wouldn’t.
He would never love anyone. Or be loved in return.
A chill went through him, like the sudden frigid calm that came over someone sinking into icy waters for the last time.
Whatever. He set his jaw. He didn’t need it. He didn’t need Lola, either. He’d forget her, just like all the rest.
Except she wasn’t like the rest.
Their relationship hadn’t begun with flowers and fancy televised awards shows, or amid the fantasy of a big screen dream, but quietly, slowly over time. He and Lola had been partners first, then friends, and finally lovers.
He knew her. He trusted her.
Or at least he had.
That was what made her betrayal the worst of all.
Swallowing against the lump in his throat, he tightened his grip on the steering wheel. He’d make her regret it. He’d fight for custody of Jett. Whatever the prenuptial agreement had promised, Lola didn’t deserve custody of their son. She was corrupt, deceitful, a horrible excuse for a human being. She was no fit mother—
Memories of all her hours caring for their baby, so lovingly and so well, ripped through him. All her time and care had gone to their son, while his own hours had often been spent building his business empire.
Would he really hurt Jett, by taking him from the care of a loving mother, to leave him instead with paid nannies, as Rodrigo had once been? Could he be so determined to punish his wife that he’d hurt his son as collateral damage?
Furiously, he set his jaw. Fine. He’d let Lola keep custody. But he’d take everything else. The prenuptial agreement was watertight. If she cheated, she ended up with nothing. She should enjoy buying that car from the dealership tonight. She wouldn’t have it long.
When he finally pulled past the gate into the courtyard of his beach house, he parked haphazardly. He had to take a deep breath before he picked up his phone. But to his shock, he saw it hadn’t been Lola calling, but Marnie. She’d left several messages.
She was probably worried, after he’d abandoned his own party without an explanation. But Marnie had seen what happened on the terrace. She didn’t need one.
Rodrigo stared up blankly at his beach house.
How could Lola have betrayed him? How?
