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My eyes burn as I squeeze them shut. Vicenta’s arms wrap around me, her chest shaking with her own tears.
“Oh, Alvaro, I’m so sorry.” She kisses my temple, holding me while I fight back the emotions that burn to be released into the safety of her neck.
“Marío said she couldn’t live with a son who had disgraced the family name, whoashamedanddisgustedher.”
Vicenta slowly pulls my face to hers, her eyes soft yet hard at the same time. “You are not something to be ashamed of, Alvaro. Not then and not now. I don’t believe a word your pathetic sperm donor says and neither should you. I don’t believe your mother ever felt shame when she looked at her beautiful boy, and I sure as shit don’t believe she killed herself because you loved a man.”
I shake my head, remembering how I found her on the floor of her favorite bedroom in the mansion.
“Romero said the same thing when he gave me the letter. He said I would know the truth when I read it, but I can't do it.”
She kisses my temple once more before pulling back and holding the letter in front of her. “Would you like me to read it to you?”
Do I want her to? No. But I know I need to hear my mom one more time.
I let out a shaky breath and nod.
TWENTY-EIGHT
VICENTA
“Lie To Me” by Tate McRae & Ali Gatie
As I open the letter with trembling fingers, my heart throbs in my chest for the cruel life Alvaro and Romero were dealt.
“Dear Romero,
As I write this letter, I am overcome with grief. I have tried to speak these words to my son, but Marío will not allow my presence. How my heart breaks!
I can’t tell my son this, so I’ve taken a pen to paper, praying this letter reaches you before anything happens to me. Marío has grown cold and cruel since speaking to your father, his heavy hands have touched me just as they have my boy. But I’ll take a thousand broken bones so long as you and Alvaro never stop loving one another.
Your mother and I knew very early on how close you and Alvaro were. You both have loved one another for so long that it was easy for her and I to see the moment that love changed to passion.
We loved seeing you, our boys, provide each other with the same purity your mother and I shared together.”
My eyebrows shoot up, my face mirroring Alvaro’s. Their mothers loved one another too?
“Do–I mean, would you like me to continue, or do you want to—”
Alvaro shakes his head, “No, please continue.”
I swallow and look back down.
“I know that may come as a shock to you, but just as you and my son have found a place with each other, Olivia and I found the same long before your fathers came into the picture. I have many regrets in life, Romero, but the one your mother and I share is that we allowed this cruel world to keep us apart. My son, your first love, fights everyday to get back to you. I see it, I pray for it. When he does, please don’t let him slip through your fingers. You know Alvaro and how loyal he is to his father; don’t let it be his downfall.
I will do all I can to get him and you back together, even if it means I steal you both away with your mother.
I love you, Romero.
-Tía Natalia.”
I refold the letter, my heart full that his mother’s love for him was unconditional, yet broken that she was murdered for it.
“How could Romero lie to me this way!?” Alvaro explodes, standing with his fists clenched tightly, his eyes burning. “How could he keep this from me?!”
He punches the wall once, his voice breaking as he howls in heartache. I sit staring at his rage, too fearful to get close as he repeatedly punches the stone wall. When his blood marks the white paint, he drops to the floor, his shoulders shaking as he screams through his tears.
I rush to him, wrapping my arms around him, wishing with every fiber that I could take all his pain away.
