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“Your father wanted me to take you to New York. My bosses have allies there who have friends that could help you. A priest and a former man of the cloth.”
Isabella’s eyes narrow. “Where did my father want me to go?”
“He said convents are now illegal here, but he wanted Father Donahue to find a place for you in New York. There are the Sisters of Life there—you could have been a teacher. Made a better life for yourself, an independent one.” I let out another breath, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice. “That’s what you wanted all along, right?”
“That life wouldn’t be independent, just with a different set of rules,” Isabella says sharply. “Another type of sheltered, cloistered existence. I’m not interested in that.”
“It doesn’t matter now, anyway,” I tell her, with an equal edge to my voice. “You can’t go there, not if you intend to keep the baby. If going to the States changes that, and you would want to give the baby up—”
“I don’t,” Isabella says quickly. “I want to keep my—ourbaby. That hasn’t changed, and it won’t.”
“That’s your choice,” I say evenly. “Not that I was given a choice in whether we had a child at all.”
Isabella stiffens. “I’m—”
“Christ, Isabella, don’t apologize again. I understand you’re sorry. It takes more than hearing the words, aye?”
Her hands open on her lap, her eyes wide and sad. “How then?” she whispers. “How do I fix it?”
“I don’t know,” I tell her honestly. “I’ll let you know when I figure it out. For now, let’s talk about what we do know. You say you want to keep our baby, raise him or her?”
“Yes,” Isabella says, quickly and fervently. “There’s no question about that.”
“Then I’ll get you back to the States—Boston maybe, instead of New York, where I am. We’ll stop in New York first, and I’ll figure things out. I’ll get you set up safely and make sure you and the child are provided for. But first, you have to be protected from Diego until we get out of Mexico. There has to be no means by which he can steal you back.”
Isabella frowns. “How do we do that?”
I pause, holding her gaze for a moment before I say what I’ve been putting off telling her all night so far.
“I have to marry you.”
