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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“MILA, IS THAT YOU?”My mom comes walking around the corner seconds after I step inside the front door. Her steps falter when she catches sight of my red, puffy eyes and tear stained face. “What happened?” She rushes toward me.
The instant she’s in front of me, I dissolve into her arms, quiet sobs causing my entire body to tremble.
Somehow I was able to hold it together until Mateo left, but since then I’ve been an absolute mess. Poor Skyla didn’t even know what to do to console me and I don’t think that’s ever happened in the history of our friendship.
If it’s possible, I feel more heartbroken now than I did the night I watched my father die. Maybe because it was easier when there was nothing I could do about any of it. But this time? This time he gave me the power and instead of embracing him the way I want to, I stubbornly pushed him away. Telling myself it was for the best. Telling myself that I don’t want the past to repeat itself. That I don’t want to look back two years from now and wish I had made a different choice, the way my mother had.
“Mila. Talk to me,” she presses, running a smooth hand down the back of my hair.
“He was here,” I croak, sniffing as I pull back. “Mateo. He showed up at the restaurant I was at with Skyla. He was here for me. I told him I couldn’t be with him. That too much has happened. And I know it was the right thing to do. I know it was. How could I leave you and everything I know behind for a man like that? You saw what it did to my mother. How could I knowingly and willingly follow the same path she took? The path that led to her murder.”
“Mila.” My mom gives me a soft smile. “Do you love this man?”
“You know I do.” I nod, fresh tears rolling down my cheeks.
“You’re following your head instead of your heart.”
“That’s what logical people do.”
“That’s what people do when they’re afraid.”
“Of course I’m afraid. I told you everything that happened. How he killed people in front of me. How I found a man with his throat slit.Everything. I would be crazy not to be terrified!” I throw my hands up.
“But are you afraid of him?”
I think about that for a long moment, deciding that while I know he has darkness in him, I can honestly say he’s not what I fear.
“No.”
“Then what’s the harm in giving him a chance? If he means that much to you.”
My eyes go wide as shock registers through my expression. She can’t be serious.
“Mom, are you forgetting that this is the same man that abducted me and held me captive for over a month?”
“No, I know what he’s done.” The way she’s talking... I can’t explain it. Something feels off. “But sometimes people do bad things for the right reasons.”
“Do you hear yourself right now? What happened to, men like that are all the same and we don’t belong in their world? Where is that woman?”
“She’s standing right in front of you. But Mila, I’ve never seen you like this before. I’ve never even seen you cry over a boy. But look at you. You’re a mess. You’ve been a mess since the day I picked you up. I can see that you’re trying. I know you are. But honey, at what point are you going to stop fighting your heart and accept that you want to be with him?”
“Have you not heard anything I’ve said?”
“I heard every word. But honey, you are not Grace. And he is not Esteban.”
“You can’t know that. You don’t know him.”
“I know enough.” Her cryptic response gives me pause, but I brush right past it.
“So then why am I so scared that we’re going to end up like they did?”
“Because that’s what you do. You worry. You always have. But Mila, at some point you have to put your hands up and let your heart lead the way.”
“It doesn’t matter now anyway. He’s gone. I told him to leave and never come back. I’ll probably never see him again.” The words lodge in my throat.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” A small smile plays on her lips as she points up the stairs.
