Page 131 of Enthrall Shadows
“I became too scared to face everyone.”
My shoulders slumped in frustration. “You met your husband there?”
She nodded. “Julian. We married a few months after meeting.”
“You began a new life—and forgot us.”
That truth stung worse than it should after so many years.
“I never forgot you,” she whispered.
“Did your husband hear about your origin?”
She shook her head. “Not at first.”
“A marriage based on lies?” I said bitterly.
“You have every right to be angry.”
“I just can’t wrap my head around why.”
“You may never forgive me. But at least you can see I’ve dedicated my life to important work, continued to sacrifice everything for important causes.”
“You could still have done all of that, Reese. I would never have stood in your way.”
“My father would have.” She shuddered. “He would never have let me stay in Chile. He wanted me to run the restaurant. I would never been allowed to follow my dreams.”
“You could have told him no and refused to work there.”
“He would have forced me, guilted me into it. I watched what that place did to my mom. She worked tirelessly to keep our restaurant going, dedicated her life to my dad’s dream. In the end, it killed her. She worked herself to death. She died in her forties. I never forgave him for that.”
“Her death was hard on you. I get that.”
“Your family would never have let me marry you,” she reasoned. “I was the girl from the wrong end of town. You’re American royalty. It would have been impossible.”
“I fought for you.”
“Your family didn’t approve.”
And in the end they were right about her. This womanhaddestroyed me but in an entirely different way.
She moved closer. “You’ve accomplished great things.”
What she didn’t seem to grasp was that experience had sent me spiraling on a totally different trajectory.
“How did you like the Navy? Was it everything you wanted? Did you change your mind about becoming a pilot?”
She’d read up on me, unsurprisingly.
I shrugged, because that was all she deserved as an answer.
She’d already stolen so much.
“Why now?” I bit out.
“I needed you to see how beautiful this location is. See it up close. The wildlife. The setting. The ecology.”
“Well, now I’ve seen it.”
