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“The bonfire...” Her voice caught as her head drifted down. “Do you remember the bonfire we went to the week before?”
“Yes.”
She’d wanted to go, to see her old school friends. The last thing he’d wanted had been to go to a party with a bunch of rich clowns. But it had meant something to her. She’d hardly had any close friends, so he’d said yes. Delivering a stinging put-down to the idiots who had eyeballed Alexandra like she was a piece of meat had made attending worthwhile. That and Alexandra asking if they could leave early because she wanted to spend time together just the two of them.
“Someone told their parents I was there with you, and they told my father.”
The pieces that had always swirled just out of reach started to fall into place with chilling clarity.
“He confronted me the Friday before I broke things off with you.” Her tone became flat, her eyes fixed on the flowers. “He told me if I didn’t break up with you, and if I told you that he had talked to me, he would make sure you and your mother were sent back to Fortaleza.” The tiniest shudder rippled through her. “When I told him you could die if you were sent back, he said that was the idea.”
The heat from the sun bore down on him, searing his skin through his shirt.
“What you said in the library...”
“He told me to say those things. He said I had to be as cruel as possible so that you would never want anything to do with me again.” A couple of petals drifted down from the bunch she clutched, and she released it as if it was on fire, crossing her arms over her stomach. “He said he could send you back anytime he wanted. That if I ever saw you again, he’d make sure you and your mother were on a plane back to Brazil within twenty-four hours.”
Guilt and fury clashed in his chest. He’d known what David was capable of, had seen plenty of evidence of how horrible the man could be. He should have known something was wrong when David had sat in on their breakup with that hideous smile on his lips.
But he’d been so focused on himself, on his own hurt, and thinking that his fears of being inadequate and unequal to someone like Alexandra had been right all along, that he’d missed everything going on behind the scenes.
“That’s why you suggested we run away. The night before.”
She closed her eyes and nodded. “I... I should have talked to you, Grant. I should have told you what was going on.” She opened her eyes and looked at him with such sorrow it nearly killed him. “I’m sorry.”
Words he had wanted to hear for nine years. Words that now felt hollow and empty as he realized Alexandra hadn’t been at fault, not truly. She’d been at the mercy of a wealthy, powerful man.
“That’s not all.”
She sucked in a deep, shuddering breath. The buzzing of the bees changed from pleasant to oppressive, the noise matching the roar building in his ears as a dozen scenarios rushed through his mind. What could possibly be worse than what her father had done?
“I...” She pulled her hat off and ran a shaky hand through her hair. “Finn and I weren’t close until that fall. Until he had to take me to the hospital.”
“The hospital?”
A tear slid down her cheek. “When I miscarried our child.”
He’d been punched in the stomach before. The sensation was the same, the world slowing down as all the air escaped his lungs and left him adrift.
“A child?”
Alexandra nodded.
“Three months along. I had no idea. I just assumed the nausea, the exhaustion, all of it was stress. My father was out of the country. I started bleeding and Finn... He took me to the hospital. He held my hand the whole night.” A feeble smile crossed her lips. “It was the one good thing that came out of that whole mess. Seeing me like that, hearing what my father did to us, changed Finn.”
He would eventually be grateful for the unexpected blessing granted to Alexandra. But right now all he could see was the loss. The loss of a future with the woman he’d loved. The loss of a child he’d never even known existed. More loss, more heartbreak.
Alexandra cleared her throat.
“I should have told you, Grant, and I should have stood up to my father.” Her voice cracked. “I’ve always been so weak—”
“Stop,” Grant barked, unable to hear any more. Unable to hear how much he’d let her down. “I...there’s a lot to think about.”
A shutter dropped over Alexandra’s face.
“Of course.” She put her hat back on. “I’ll just head to the gift shop.”
Before he could say another word, she slipped past him and headed back toward the farmhouse.
