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“I—”
“Don’t lie,” he interrupts. “You were on the verge of crying, Noelle,” he remarks.
Flattening my lips into a thin line, I inhale deeply before I give him the truth.
“Mali. I was thinking about our son,” I whisper.
He tenses behind me, his breathing growing labored.
“It’s not your fault,” he suddenly says, shocking me.
I pivot to face him, my eyes searching his.
“It’s not your fault,” he repeats, giving me a nod before stepping past me and continuing into the woods.
Running after him to keep up, I can’t help but replay the words in a loop.
It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.
God, how I wish that were true…
This time, the tears fall silently down my cheeks, but I don’t let him see.
We quietly work together as we hunt and make a fire to cook the meat. We both take a seat next to the fire as we eat some of the pieces that have cooked. Although he’s right in front of me, Raf barely looks at me, seemingly focusing on anythingbutme.
I sigh as I slowly chew my food. The ball is in his court now. I’ve told him everything he needed to know to make his decision. Now it’s up to him whether he forgives me or not, whether he wants to work together to move past this.
But if he doesn’t…
God, I don’t know what I’m going to do if he leaves me.
My throat clogs up with pain as I picture a bleak future without him. If he leaves, there’s nothing left for me either—not when he’s the only thing that brings me joy in the world.
“Is that why you were angry with Lucero? Because she took Mali to Sergio?” Raf suddenly asks.
I raise my gaze to meet his. Swallowing my food, I nod.
“I never saw her after I woke up. I didn’t realize she’d managed to leave the hacienda until I saw her with Michele.”
“So the person I found with the necklace was just a servant.” He nods to himself.
“I’m sorry,” I say quietly.
“Huh?”
“That I didn’t protect it better. But at that time, it was the only thing of value that I could use for bartering.”
His brows shoot up in surprise.
“I got it back.” He shrugs. As I’d told him about that day at the hacienda, he’d also filled in the blanks on his side. After he’d arrived and seen the start of a fire, he’d run inside to search forLucero, and that’s when he’d found the necklace and the person he’d assumedwasLucero. That had all been before he’d tried to kill me.
I give him a feeble smile as I pluck some more meat from the bones, bringing it to my mouth.
A few more minutes pass before Raf speaks again.
“Why didn’t you tell me, Noelle? Why didn’t you tell me you remembered? If you had…”
“Would you have been any less upset?” I fire back. “I didn’t tell you for the obvious reason, Raf. I knew that you would hate me if you found out what happened.”
