Page 145 of Plunge into Obsession

“Just leave it on the desk,” I said dismissively.

Elena moved past me to set the food on the desk. I didn’t think I would eat anything, but I didn’t want to hurt Elena’s feelings.

I could feel her eyes on me.

I took in a small, inaudible inhale, hoping she would get the hint and leave.

No such luck.

“Yeah?” I asked, not turning around to look at her.

“I know things like marriage and relationships are completely foreign to you, but there is a time to give.”

“And you think I should give this time? Give her what she wants and tell her every one of my sins? Show her the monster?”

Elena walked up to me and cupped my cheek. I looked into her soft brown eyes.

“I know a lot of things about you, Gabriel. I’ve seen you grow from a serious young boy who took the weight of the world on his shoulders too early in his life to a man standing tall on his own two feet. I might not know everything that goes on in thisbusinessyou took from your father, but I know enough,mi hijo. I’m not running scared. And neither will Bianca.”

I pulled away from her. “You think that’s what this is about? You think I’m afraid she will try to run away from me?”

She didn’t answer, but her eyes told me enough.

I shook my head. “That’s not her choice.”

Her eyes turned sad. “But while you might be your father’s son, you are not your father. Your parents didn’t exactly show you a healthy relationship, but that doesn’t mean you have to follow in their footsteps. You can have something different with Bianca.”

I turned away, not saying anything.

She patted my arm before she walked out.

Elena had worked for my dad since I was a small boy.

The family I was born into wasn’t fucking normal. I always knew what a piece of shit my dad was, and the shell of a woman living in the same house whom I was supposed to call Mom.

Elena had been more like a mother to me than my own.

But she hadn’t worked there by choice.

She was fucking sold to work there when she was in her early twenties.

I was eighteen when I saw my father rape her for the first time. I didn’t know how many times there had been before that, but it had been the one and only time I’d seen it happen.

Once was fucking enough.

It was around that time that I’d decided to kill him.

But I couldn’t outright do it, not when he had men from all over the world backing him up.

So I poisoned him. It mimicked a heart attack.

I’d bribed and threatened, and soon I had an autopsy report that said the old bastard died from a bad heart.

A fucking bad heart was right.

But Luis had beaten me at the game and staged a coup with the old generals, who never believed the old man had died from natural causes.

It wasn’t until I had firmly established myself in New Mexico that I brought Elena here to live with me.

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