for whatever reason.”
After a long moment, he said, “Do you believe in your heart your father didn’t do it—or at least was forced to do it somehow?”
She nodded. “But I can’t even begin to think how this could have happened.”
“Then that’s it. I’m now ready to disbelieve anything but the verdict of your heart. It’s never wrong. That heart saw through the hatred cloaking mine, blew away my bitterness and anger, made me experience what I never thought I was capable of—a love without bounds. I trust your heart, and only your heart.”
She gaped at him, unable to take that much love.
He had more to give. “I’ll do anything to find new evidence in your father’s favor. To that end, if you permit, I want to face him. He’s the only one who might provide missing information needed to paint a truer picture.”
It terrified her that a confrontation might provide definitive proof that her father’s reasons hadn’t been overwhelming enough. But knowing this must be resolved, she consented. But on one condition.
“If it turns out my father did what you think he did and had no acceptable reason for his actions, I want you to deal with him as you see fit, to make no more allowances for his being my father. You have to have justice...and closure.”
Not intending to ever fulfill that condition, Rafael escorted Eliana to her father’s suite.
The man, who’d already gone to bed, seemed to think he wasn’t quite awake when Rafael told him who he really was.
His expression changed from blank, to flabbergasted—then he shot up and pounced on Rafael.
He pulled back, tears in his eyes. “Deus, could it really be you? Oh, meu caro...your disappearance hit me almost as hard as it hit your parents. The indescribable loss brought me back to your father’s side after we had our stupid falling out and I was idiotically sulking. He clung to my support during the search for you, but then your case was closed. We turned the world upside down looking for you on our own, but once your father became certain you were lost to him, he pulled away from everyone.” Deep sorrow creased his face. “It was why he and your mother divorced. They dealt with their grief in different ways and couldn’t find their way back to one another. I tried to keep in touch with him, but he couldn’t bear knowing anyone from the life that had you in it.”
From Ferreira’s reaction, Rafael no longer doubted he’d had anything to do with his abduction. Which left only one explanation. The real culprit had left the threads of evidence that would lead to Ferreira, clues that had been so ingenious, the police had missed all of them, and only he with his abilities and reach had found them twenty-four years later.
Eliana told her father Rafael had thought he was the one who’d orchestrated his abduction, and Ferreira’s dumbfounded reaction solidified his belief in the man’s innocence.
Looking relieved beyond measure, she sought his confirmation, and he rushed to give it to her. “It wasn’t him, meu amor. As always, your heart is my compass.”
After a clinging, tearful kiss, she turned to her father. “Do you have any idea who could have framed you, Daddy?”
Ferreira looked dazedly from his daughter to Rafael, obviously struggling to readjust to everything he thought he knew of the past months since Rafael had entered their lives.
Then Ferreira burst out in belated affront, “You’re telling me all this time you thought it was me? You came here to punish me? That’s why you went after Ellie?”
“I wasn’t part of his plan, Daddy.”
Relief and pride spread though Rafael. Her faith in him had been healed, and was back to the purity he now depended on.
“Eliana is why everything was put right,” he said gruffly. “Her love pulled me back from the path of destruction and into a life I never thought I’d have. But I need you to think. Anything you can remember around that time would help. It had to be someone who was close to you. Think, Ferreira.”
The man blinked numbly. Then he said, “You used to call me Tio Teo.”
“I used to love you almost as much as I loved my father.” He tried to smile through the pain stabbing in his chest. “But I don’t think I can call you that now.”
Eliana kissed his shoulder. “How about only Teo?”
Looking down at her, his heart in his eyes, he pledged, “Whatever you wish, minha alma.”
Suddenly, Teo grabbed his arm. “There’s something. When I first met Ellie’s mother, she had a stalker. I hired a security specialist to deal with the situation until that stalker was caught. I can’t think of anyone else in my whole life who had the kind of skills and underground connections needed to do something like...like...”
Ferreira fell silent, eyes feverish as he chased new realizations, connected seemingly unconnected events.
Then he focused back on Rafael. “He must have realized through me that you were just what that organization was looking for, and he’d had all the access to me he needed to doctor evidence to incriminate me.”
“Give me his name.”
After Ferreira did so, Rafael rose to his feet and bent to kiss Eliana. “I’ll initiate a targeted investigation at once.”
“Thank you, meu amor,” she whispered against his lips.
“Anything and everything for you, minha vida. Always.”
* * *
In an hour, Rafael walked back into his father-in-law’s suite. He stopped at the door, savoring the sight of the love of his life curled into her father, with his arm around her and their heads nestled against each other.
Overpowering emotions swept him. And not only for Eliana. But for her father, too. He was again the uncle he’d loved, but now far more, the man whose adoration for his wife had given him Eliana, a being made of total love.
Blinking back the burn behind his eyes, he walked in. And, oh...the welcome, the warmth, he saw on both their faces! He felt any lingering pain and bitterness and rage just drain away.
He came down on his haunches before them, delighting in how Eliana surged forward and took him in her arms, pressing his head to her heart.
“Thank you for believing Daddy, meu amor. Even if you can’t find proof, it’s enough you want to.”
“Found anything?” Teo asked anxiously.
Rafael pulled back from her embrace to look at him. “Once I had a name and a connection to you, everything fell...or rather crashed into place. I traced the man’s every move and contact and bank account transaction since the day I was abducted. And there’s no doubt. It was him.”
Eliana’s choking cry shook his heartstrings as she pulled them both to her, buried her face in their chests in turn and soaked them in her tears of relief.
His own relief was even fiercer, and all for her, that she didn’t have to live with something this horrible
