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“Beto…” Valeria’s voice trembles. “Maybe you should wait at home.”
“I have a right to be here.”
“Don’t talk to me about rights. You refused to call off Mateo, even when she asked you to.”
He doesn’t deny it because he can’t. I’m on him now, and he steps back. Sofia whimpers from behind me, and Lourdes interjects.
“Can’t we put this behind us for now? Focus on Carmie?”
“I want you out of here.” My breath is a rasp. “My days of making peace are over.”
Beto’s back hits the wall, but he doesn’t back down.
His white teeth clench behind his tight snarl. “I didn’t come for peace. I came for my family.”
“She’s not your family anymore. She’s mine.” I grab his shirt in both fists, slamming him against the wall. “If I see you touch her again, I’ll put a bullet between your eyes.”
Sofia cries more, but I don’t care. All I see is my beautiful love lying in my arms, struggling for breath. All I see is a tiny baby I never knew slipping away from me.
All I see is red.
He sniffs, trying to twist out of my grasp. “I’d expect nothing less of a Dring.”
“You should have expected more. I wanted more.” I give him another slam against the wall, and a glass falls from the shelf. Lourdes makes a frightened noise. “But you tried to take everything from me.” I breathe down his nose.
“All right, then, who could use some news?” A cheery male voice bounces in from behind us, but it changes quickly. “Oh… Oh, no! What’s happening here? Security!”
Surprisingly fast, we’re surrounded by two guards who pull us apart.
“Get him out of here.” I snarl. “He doesn’t belong in this room.”
The guard grips Beto’s arm tighter. “Let’s go, pal.”
Beto doesn’t even try to struggle. He only glares at me as the guard escorts him out, leaving me bitter and broken, sitting on the couch with my hands in my hair.
The pleasure of telling him off, of almost hitting him is overshadowed by my pain. This is never how I wanted our story to end.
The melee is cleared, and the perky male nurse returns to where we’re sitting.
“Well, that was exciting.” He puts his hand on his chest, tilting his head to the side. “Now who’s ready for an update? I’ve got a little good news, and a little bad news.
31
Deacon
Winnie sits across from me behind the massive mahogany desk. “So you see, the property wasn’t exactly stolen—”
“But it was taken by force.”
My grandmother’s diary contains the full account. After my grandfather found out about the affair and the lost baby, he went on a warpath with one goal in mind: Destroying Manuel Treviño—and he had the connections to do it. He had Manuel convicted of embezzlement, he had him thrown in jail, and he had all his lands confiscated and redistributed to the county.
“They were immediately plunged into poverty.”
“That’s the oil business, Deacon.” Winnie is dismissive. “It’s always ups and downs. One day you’re on top of the world, the next you have nothing. Remember what happened to the Wells?”
“What happened to them was political, flooding the market, things they couldn’t control. What happened to Angel’s grandfather was straight up revenge.”
“Potato, potahto. He should have been saving for a rainy day.”
