AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And she knew there was no limit to what she’d do to save her mother. Tears sparkled on her lashes but they were tears of resentment and defiance. “I’ll do anything,” she heard herself admit. “Does that make you happy? To know that I’m so desperate I’ll agree to anything you propose? Do you enjoy seeing me demeaned like this?” She dashed away her tears and stood, side-stepping him with care.
“Yes.” The answer was like a crack of lightning, slashing through the air. “I enjoy seeing you get a hint of what I think you deserve. Perhaps you have never had to face the consequences of your actions, but that is going to change immediately.”
Her heart was thumping in her chest and angry defiance zipped through her. “You make it sound as though I hatched a plan to steal the crown jewels of England!” His eyes narrowed. “I never meant to deceive you. What happened with us was an accident, Guy. You have to believe I had no intention of meeting anyone like you that night. I was doing this thing, with my cousin, I was…” Trying to forget. The words clogged in her throat. She blinked her eyes shut. “I was just having fun. I never planned to lie to you.”
“But you did lie to me, again and again and again. I do not forgive liars, querida. And I will never forgive you.”
Ice ran through her veins. “You hate me.”
“I don’t feel enough for you to hate you,” he said with a careless shrug. “I hate what you did. I hate the kind of woman you are. But I would say, instead, that I pity you and your lifestyle choices.”
“God, Guy, don’t!” She lifted her hands to his chest, suddenly needing him to understand, needing him to see her for who she really was. “Think about what we were. Think about all the time we spent together. Laughing, talking, walking, sleeping… everything. How could I have lied to you that whole ti
me? You knew me. Not my name, not my address, but come on! Everything that mattered, you knew!”
He stared at her for so long that she thought he might have been listening to sense. That perhaps he was going to realise how foolish he was being. “I will not enter into a deal with you, of any kind, if you continue to discuss the past. So far as I’m concerned, it is of no interest. There is no sense discussing what we were, for we will never be that again.”
Addie’s stomach churned with misery and shock. “Guy…”
“No.” He spoke harshly, interrupting her. “It is non-negotiable, Ava. I do not want to listen to any more of your pathetic lies.”
“It isn’t a lie!” She cried, stomping her foot in frustration. “Please, just let me explain about that night. About why…”
But his Spanish temper was soaring. Addie could feel it and it stirred an answering wave of heat inside of her. She hadn’t told him anything about her family. About her father and brother and The Accident. She hadn’t wanted him to look at her like everyone else did. But maybe if he knew the truth, he would start to see that it was so much more complex than he appreciated.
“Enough! There will be no more talk of it. Understood?”
Her caramel eyes clashed with his, and electricity arced around the room, sizzling and powerful. Tension pulled between them until finally, it was almost at breaking point.
“What do you want from me?” Addie asked out of desperation.
“Something you will find easy to accommodate,” he murmured. “I want you to lie for me.”
Addie stared at him as though he’d started to speak Swahili.
She opened her mouth to defend herself but he lifted his hand, his palm facing her, imploring her to be silent.
“If you so much as try to defend yourself, I will terminate this negotiation. I told you, I do not want to discuss the past. I do not care to hear your excuses. I do not mean that you should lie to me.”
Pain scored her body, a sharp, aching pain. “Who then?” She whispered, not sure if she had any intention of doing what he suggested, but needing to know for some macabre reason.
“At the end of the month, it is my grandfather’s birthday.” Guy moved away from Addie, and she was glad. Glad for the breathing space and the sanity his absence gave her. “He will be eighty-five.”
Addie nodded, but she had no idea where Guy was going with this conversation.
“Santiago is a proud man. We are very close, and always have been. As a child, I spent summers with him on Acantilados – his island. In short, he means the world to me.”
Addie stared at Guy, a man she’d once loved, and felt the weight of the world on his broad shoulders. She felt the tension that was inside of him and wished now that she could alleviate that. She’d been so focused on her own troubles, she hadn’t comprehended that he had his own to wrangle.
“My father was never interested in the business. When I was a boy, Santiago was training me. Teaching me. Showing me the ropes.” He turned then, pinpointing Addie with his intense stare. “We started in shipping. That was our first business. And Santiago would take me out to see the boats at the wharf, to talk to the men; that’s the kind of man he is. Not too proud to speak to the wharfies and labourers.”
Addie nodded, though she was still struggling to see what connection Guy’s grandfather could have to her.
“I have no siblings. The family business is mine, and mine alone. Santiago is anxious for me to settle down and start a family, to see his legacy in safe hands.”
Addie blanched visibly, once more reaching for a chair for support. This time though, she stayed standing, simply digging her fingers into the fabric back, using it to stay upright. “You aren’t actually suggesting I have a baby with you for fifty thousand pounds?”
“Cristo, no. You are the last woman I would want to raise a child with. How can you think I would ever want your deceitful, manipulative DNA in my child?”
