AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Where’s Rory?”
“You mean theflacuchowho was here before I arrived?”
I nod.
“He left.”
My eyes widen with horror. No. “Please don’t tell me he thinks you really are my husband?”
Chema studies me until the smallest corner of his mouth extends into a hint of a smile. “Seriously, Valentina? A gringo? And a lanky one at that? I have more muscles in onenalgathan he has in his entire body.
“Not true,” I say. “He is deceivingly fit,” I proclaim, and just like that, I’m in Chema’s mind-game.
He grins. “You’ve seen these muscles?” he asks and raises an eyebrow.
I huff. “No. He’s a runner. That’s why I say that.”
When my first text goes unanswered, and he sends me to voice mail on the first ring, I decide I have to go find Rory. I start shuffling blankets off me and trying to get to my feet when Chema pushes me back into bed with one finger to my shoulder.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asks.
“I have to find him, Chema. He thinks I’m married. I have to explain.”
“Don’t worry. He’ll be back.”
“How are you so sure?”
“He told me.”
“What?”
“Yeah, he said he was getting a few things from your apartment, and he’d be back to drop off the key.”
I sink back into the bed as my heart plummets low in my chest. “You shouldn’t have told him—”
“Let’s not start begrudging who should have told who what,” Chema hisses.
Great, the two most important men in my life are mad at me at the same time. That thought jars me. When did I start thinking of Rory as equally as important to me as Chema? Chema, who is family at this point.
Rory is coming back, so I try to calm down in the meantime and shift the conversation away from him.
“How did you find out?” I ask, finally.
“Pilar called me.”
“Pilar? How doessheknow?” A fresh wave of panic hits me. Do my parents know too?
“What did you think was going to happen, Valentina? Huh? You leave your family and your dreams for a half-baked plan to train away from home. Of course, she was going to get suspicious. If you signed on with an agent, why would you need the kind of money she gave you?”
The extensive web of lies I cast is starting to ensnare me. “Chema,” I croak, unable to voice the question I am dreading. “Do my parents know?”
He nods. “They are on a flight as we speak.”
I shut my eyes. No. The last people on earth I want to be seeing right now are my parents. “You had to tell them?”
“They had to know. But it wasn’t up to me. Pilar made that call.”
“Is she coming too?”
