Page 63 of It Takes Three To Tango

He puts down his fork and catches my hand.

“I said, you could have a better family than the one who manipulates and uses you.”

“Could I?” Hope blossoms in my chest and I hold my breath. I look into those golden eyes that hold all the sun in my life.

“You can have me,” he says. “If you want, of course, because I want?—”

I shut him up with a kiss, the force of which nearly knocks him off his chair, but I don’t care. I cling to him and his words, his lifeline in a stormy sea.

I’m waiting for my sister in her room when she returns from visiting Señor Bernat.

“Did you find out what you wanted?” I already know from her face that she didn’t.

“It doesn’t matter, anyway,” she says furiously. “It’ll all go to our father.”

“Will it?” I ask casually. “If he was so sure of that, then why did he send us halfway across the world to make sure?”

She stops packing and faces me. I’m not usually the one getting involved in secrets and subterfuge, but I’m still aDelgado. I think about the information Julio sent me, that I confirmed.

“I can’t think what you mean,” she says.

“Oh, come on Martina. I might not have a head for business like you, but I’m not stupid. I know there has to be a reason this is so important to him.”

“It just is.” She returns to her packing.

“Has this anything to do with the Caerus project?”

She falters but keeps packing. “How do you know about that?”

“I have my ways. I admit I bought our father’s line at first, but then, when the inheritance laws were explained. . . I know that as next of kin, our father would receive at least a third of our aunt’s estate. I can’t believe he wouldn’t have known that. So why does he need confirmation to make sure he’s going to get everything?”

Martina sighs and sits down on the bed next to me.

“He’s in debt.”

It’s the most honest she’s been with me since she arrived, and she looks a little more like the sister I used to get along with.

“How much?” I ask.

“Enough to need Aunt Estrella’s money.”

It’s a shock to hear it confirmed rather than looking at numbers on a spreadsheet. But at least I was prepared for it.

“Then why invest in a casino?” It doesn’t sound like good business sense to me.

“He thinks it will make his money back. And it will... in time. But that’s in the future. He had to secure the funds against all the properties. If he doesn’t get Estrella’s money, then he’ll have to sell most of them.”

He has the family home and a holiday cabin, but all the other properties are business blocks where he makes money in rent. It must be bad if he had to offer them up. He wasalways a good businessman, or so he said. I might have to rethink that belief.

“But he won’t be destitute, will he? It’s not like he’ll lose everything?”

“No.” My sister’s derision irks me. “We might have to sell the lake house and downsize the family home, but we won’t be homeless.”

“Well, it’s likely he’ll get everything, anyway. I haven’t heard her mention any other causes she might choose to give part of it to.” I keep very quiet about the collection she gifted me.

“So you’ll come home?” she asks. “Father will be pleased to see you.”

“No, he won’t. You’re a bad liar, Martina.” Her small smile confirms that I’m right; he just wants me within arm’s reach.

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