Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
He searches the room, nods once. “Just a minute.” He takes his phone out, texts something. I assume he’s telling Santos or asking permission or whatever. I don’t really care. I just want to go. A moment later, he has a response. “All right,” he says, and gestures for me to go ahead.
I glance back once more because I guess I hoped Santos would come but I don’t see him, so I walk out alone with Val at my back and another soldier waiting for me at the front entrance, so used to them now that I barely notice.
31
SANTOS
“Your wife looks good,” my mother says when I reach her. Her gaze is on Madelena, who is on her way out with Val. I wonder what is going on in her head. “Pregnancy becomes her.”
I shift my gaze to my mom, take her elbow, and lead her to a quiet corner.
“This isn’t the time, Santos.” She smiles at someone over my shoulder and tries to walk past me. I don’t let her go.
“It’s the perfect time.”
She looks down at where I’m holding her then back up at me. “You’re more like the Commander every day, you know that?”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means you already left bruises on my neck. Are you going to give me fresh ones on my arm?” I loosen my hold on her, noticing the shadows hidden by makeup on her neck.
I meet her hard eyes. I don’t apologize. “Help me understand something, Mother.” I need to talk to her to try to make sense of why she’d do this, what there is to gain. Because I’m missing a piece of the puzzle.
“What don’t you understand, Santos? What part of your father’s plan have you forgotten?”
“Yeah, that’s the thing. We’ve accomplished what we set out to do. We own Avarice. Look at the people around you. They’ll take any crumb from your table just so long as you toss one in their direction. Marnix De Léon? We have him. We have control of the company. It’s all ours. Everything is ours.”
She raises her chin a little, smiling victoriously as her eyes turn to slits to study those crumb-seekers who make up the room of guests.
“What I don’t understand though, is the pregnancy. It doesn’t add any value.”
“You don’t value a child?”
I snort. “You’re not doing this to become a grandmother. I know you, Mom. What is it? What am I missing?”
“If your little wife decided to divorce you, what happens then?”
“What?”
“With a child, she’s locked in. We have her. We have the De Léon name.”
“We no longer need it. That’s my point.”
“And what about your father’s sister and what those men did to her?”
“You’re talking about revenge for my aunt? For a woman you have no connection to. A woman who died before I was born.”
“She’s your blood.”
“That’s the point. She’s not your blood. I can understand Dad wanting to take it further. But I can’t wrap my brain around why you would. It doesn’t fit.”
She studies me, and it’s almost like this is news to her, like she hasn’t thought about this part. It tells me something. This isn’t her motivation. It’s something else.
“Don’t you want a child after what happened to Alexia? To your baby?” she asks.
I stop. Blink. Because I’m not expecting this. This is too far, even for her. But I’m caught off guard, and she misreads my silence.
“Don’t you?” she pushes. “Maybe you should be thanking me.”
But then I realize something. “How did you know about that?” The only person I’d told about the pregnancy was Caius.
She shakes her head, then looks down into her nearly empty glass. “Caius told me after everything. He asked me not to tell you that I knew.”
“Caius told you?”
“He was worried about you. We all were. The way you found her, the word whore spelled out on her stomach, she didn’t deserve that. And for you to have seen her like that, seen what her father did to her, knowing she was pregnant with your child.” She shakes her head. “I could better understand the violence that followed.”
My brain rattles inside my skull at this very vivid forced memory.
“Caius blamed himself for not being there with you. And then not protecting you against the Commander. He acted like a coward, at least in his own mind. We all love you very much, Santos. I think sometimes you forget that.”
“I don’t forget it,” I say the words and I’m looking at her, but I almost can’t see her. I’m seeing other things. Remembering other things.
“Your brother isn’t doing well since the night you fought. He’s drinking. A lot. And he’s back in that Ana’s bed. She’s no good for him.”
I scan the room for him but don’t see him.
“He didn’t have anything to do with Fairweather,” she says. “That was my plan. Only mine. Don’t punish him for what I did.”