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‘He called me every name under the sun, then slapped me.’ She lifted a hand to her cheek, remembering the sting of that assault, aware of the way Graciano’s bigger body startled now at the admission. ‘Within an hour, he’d dropped me at the airport. We haven’t seen each other since.’
‘Bastardo.’
‘Yes. Apparently I made a mockery of all his teachings.’
‘He made a mockery of his teachings,’ Graciano corrected.
‘I came to live with my grandmother. She was...helpful,’ Alicia said with a frown. ‘Not loving, not even kind, really, but she did enable me to go back to school, and she helped with Annie when she was little.’
‘Did you try to contact me at any other point?’ he asked, again, focusing solely on the matter of Annie.
She bit down on her lower lip. ‘I have thought about it every day.’
His eyes bore into hers and she felt as though so much was riding on her next few statements. ‘When Annie took her first steps, I tried to contact you. I was overwhelmed with a need for you to know.’ She shook her head slowly. ‘Do you have any idea how hard you are to contact?’
He closed his eyes for a moment; his face was impossible to read.
‘I tried,’ she said softly. ‘But I gave up quickly.’ Only the truth would do. ‘I was still just a kid.’
‘Yes.’ It was an admission she hadn’t expected. ‘And since then?’
She lifted her fingers and ran them over the ends of her hair. ‘You’ve become even harder to contact,’ she said frankly. ‘Your success made you untouchable. I tried two more times. Around her fourth birthday, and again on her fifth.’ She swallowed. ‘She was growing so fast. Your assistants refused to put me through.’
Something moved on Graciano’s face, an emotion she couldn’t comprehend. Did he believe her?
‘It’s the truth,’ she said flatly, something like defiance strengthening her in that moment. ‘But don’t forget, Graciano, you had turned your back on me a long time ago. Not once did you check on me after that morning. Putting aside the question of pregnancy for a moment,’ she said firmly, ‘you knew my father was furious. You didn’t wonder how that anger might move from you to me? You didn’t wonder how he was treating me?’
His mask slipped completely, and she saw that she’d hit a nerve. His eyes swept her face and a muscle jerked at the base of his jaw. ‘I presumed with me out of the picture, your life would return to normal.’
‘You were wrong.’
‘His anger was completely directed at me. I disappeared so his anger would no longer have a target. I was the bad guy who’d taken advantage of his precious daughter...’
‘Until I told him the truth,’ she said. ‘Until I defended you, and then his anger moved to me.’
‘I had no idea you’d do that. I don’t knowwhyyou did. What did you stand to gain?’
‘How could I not? I didn’t want to live in a world where anyone, especially my father, thought those things of you. Ilovedyou, Graciano. I couldn’t betray you like that. All these years you’ve thought the worst of me, but you were wrong.’
‘Careful,querida.We are here discussing a nine-year-old child I knew nothing about. I don’t think you can claim the moral high ground just yet.’
‘Are you even listening to me?’ she asked, infuriated. ‘I’m trying to tell you what happened. I’m saying I tried to tell you.Youwere the one who made that impossible.’
‘You should have taken out a damned ad in the newspaper,’ he muttered. ‘I deserved to know about her.’
‘Yes,’ she agreed. ‘And she deserved to know you. But what if you hurt her? What if you rejected her like you did me? Like my father rejected me? All I have ever done is try to protect Annie, to pour all of my love into her so she had what I never did.’
‘You cannot have it both ways. Either you tried to tell me, or you didn’t. Which is it?’
‘How can you think I’d lie about something like that?’
He made a snorting noise. ‘Look at where we’re standing, what we’re discussing.’
‘Damn it, Graciano!’ Anger burst through Alicia. ‘I never wanted this!’ She sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. ‘Let me show you something,’ she said through gritted teeth, moving away from Graciano and into a narrow hallway, then up the stairs and into her room. She knew he was right behind her; she felt his presence.
She crouched down and pulled a plastic crate out from under her bed, then unclipped the lid. There were two folders inside. She thrust one at him, too angry to meet his eyes.
He took it, flipping over the cover with the same anger she felt, until he became very still, his eyes devouring the first page, inserted into a plastic slip. It was a newspaper article about him from nine and a half years ago—a small clipping about an award he’d won as a realtor.
