all rose as one. Dismay was the one thing she saw in their eyes. Something made her seek Rafael’s last. Dread that she’d find confirmation in them. And that was exactly what she found.
“You want to destroy my father?” The voice that croaked out of her didn’t sound like hers anymore. “You ‘landed’ me to bring down my father? That’s why you’ve been milking me for information? Why you’re marrying me?”
“Eliana, no...” He stopped, swung toward the others. “What are you waiting for? Get the hell out.”
Raiden and Numair looked at him as if he’d gone mad. Then, with no trace of their earlier dismay, they regarded her stonily as they passed her on their way out. It was only Graves who looked almost as apologetic as he did.
Once alone, Rafael neared with the caution he’d use to approach a frightened gazelle. “I’m sorry you heard that.”
Numbness spread. “That’s all you have to say?”
His lips thinned, his jaw hardened more. “I would have given anything for you to never know that. Especially now.”
“Now? That’s your only problem? That I heard it before your plans come to fruition? That’s the only reason you’re upset? Because now that I’ve heard them, they won’t?”
“I didn’t want to upset you.”
“You want to send my father to prison, but you don’t want to upset me?”
His eyes, the eyes of the man she’d loved with every fiber of her being till minutes ago, sparked with danger. “Your father deserves whatever I will do to him. But I wanted to spare you as much as I could.”
And it registered at last. The blow of realization. What rewrote the past ten weeks, explained them far better than what had seemed too good to be true. Because it was.
This was the truth.
The ice that encased her started cracking. “Everything we’ve had...from the first moment...it was all a plot. A lie.”
“No.” He hauled her to him. “That first night was all true. I didn’t realize who you were until I saw you with him.”
She tore out of his embrace. Unable to go far, she slumped to the ground by the couch where they’d shared their first intimacy.
Swearing harshly, Rafael swooped over her, swept her up into his arms and sat down on the couch with her on his lap. Unable to push away again, she lay limply against him, tremors racking her body.
“That’s why you walked away,” she choked. “Then you realized you could use me...and came back as soon as you had another plan in place. Everything ever since...a lie. Everything.”
His arms convulsed around her. “No, Eliana. Everything between us was real. Is real.”
Her head rolled weakly over his shoulder, her eyes refusing to meet his, tears beginning to fall. “I can see it all now. Everything that didn’t register at the time. I always sensed something in you—a calculation—but I couldn’t find any reason you’d be playing me. I would have never been paranoid enough to imagine it was never me you wanted, but just a weapon to use against my father.”
“It was always you I wanted.” Gripping her head, he tried to make her look at him. She finally did and tears flowed thicker. He looked exactly like the man she loved. That man who didn’t exist. “I never intended to use you against him. And the only calculation you felt targeted your father.”
“Now it all makes sense. The...viciousness I felt from you toward him. And I kept rationalizing it so I could be with you. And I ended up giving you everything you needed...to destroy my father.” The first sob tore out of her. “All an act...”
He squeezed her tighter. “I never acted with you.”
“I don’t believe...anything you say...anymore.”
“You have to. Eu te amo, Eliana—I love you and that’s the only truth. And when you remember everything we had...”
“I do...remember.” Her every word now got hacked in two, the pain unbearable. “Every touch...and word...and look. And they’re all tainted with...what I now know.”
His hands roamed her face and body, as if he’d wipe away what she now knew. “That’s shock talking. You’re just angry.”
Sobs caught in her lungs, almost tore them apart. “I’m not...angry...I’m...destroyed. You...destroyed me...Rafael.”
“No... Deus, Eliana, don’t say that. I would never hurt you. I only care about you, about us.”
“There is...no...us.”
“There is nothing but us. My plans for your father have nothing to do with us. Nothing. And after our wedding...”
It finally hurt enough. It made her lurch out of his arms, tumble onto the couch, pushing against him as if he burned her. “You...think I’ll go ahead with the wedding...as if nothing happened? As if you’re still the man I loved?”
He burst to his feet, his frustration pummeling her. “If this had happened a month after the wedding, I would have already secured you, us.”
This made tears and sobs stop abruptly. “If we’d been married ten years, it would have still ended things between us.”
Stabbing his fingers through his hair, he exhaled heavily. “I can see I’m not talking you down but just making it all worse. But I swear to you, Eliana, we have nothing to do with anything I ever planned for your father. I never lied to you about my feelings, and I never wanted to hurt you.”
“Then prove it. Don’t hurt him.”
The fire went out in his eyes, that terrible, terrifying ice impaling her. “Your father has to pay.”
And she wailed, “Pay for what?”
His face became an opaque mask. “It’s nothing to do with us, Eliana. Nothing to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me. He’s the most important person in my world.”
His eyes flared again. “I thought that was me.”
“I don’t even know who you are anymore. But I know who he is. He’s the man who’s been there for me every single hour since I was born. He’s my father.”
She pulled at her finger in a frenzy, almost pulling it out of its socket. By the time she yanked his ring off, she was panting, weeping, shaking all over.
“Put my ring back on your finger, Eliana. Now.”
Holding his volcanic gaze, she let the ring drop to the pristinely polished hardwood floor.
For one last moment, she looked up at him—the most incredible dream of her life, who’d turned out to be its most devastating nightmare. And said goodbye.
