Page 59 of Fairy Tale Marriage

She refused to take all the blame for this. “If you’d bothered to take a look at the improvements I’ve been making, you’d have seen it, too. Ididn’t hide anything I was doing.”

He erupted from the bed. “Are you trying to tell me you planned this from the beginning?”

“I’m not trying to tell you anything. I am telling you.”

Why was it that every time she got him naked, he left the bed angry? She cupped her chin in her hand. She must be doing something terribly wrong. Maybe if they didn’t use a bed next time, these arguments would turn out different. His chest distracted her, rising and falling in a way she found entirely too provocative. No doubt he did it deliberately.

“Let me get this straight,” he said. “You remodeled one of my bedrooms specifically for Doña Isabella?”

“Yes.”

“So she’d...” He closed his eyes. “I can hardly bring myself to say this. So she’d stay?”

“Yes and yes.”

“Why?”

Finally. Aquestion she could answer. “Because Sarita needs her.”

“Sarita will have us.”

“It’s not the same, Chaz. Believe me, Iknow.” Before he could follow up her statement with any unwanted questions, she continued. “Doña Isabella is someone your daughter’s known since birth and the only family left on her mother’s side. At least, the only family who’ll accept her. Isabella hasn’t said anything, but I suspect the reason she didn’t want to take Sarita back to Mexico with her was because of the reception your daughter would have received from the rest of Madalena’s family.”

Damn it! He hated when Shayne was right. “I hadn’t thought of that,” Chaz admitted, adding stubbornly, “but that shouldn’t keep Isabella from going.”

“Have you any idea what it’s like to be three years old and torn from the only family you’ve ever known?”

There was an odd quality to her voice, something that captured his attention as nothing else would have. “Of course not.” He deliberately paused a beat. “Do you?”

She moistened her lips, her nervousness a dead giveaway. “Yes.” She rushed into speech. “Granted, Sarita will be with people who love her. But it’s not the same as being with the woman who’s raised her from birth.”

“This has something to do with your aunt, doesn’t it? The one Rafe rescued you from.”

Shayne nodded, her delicate features lined with dread. “I never talk about that time. Not even with my brother. But for Sarita...” She closed her eyes. “I will for Sarita's sake.”

Aw, hell. “No, honey—”

“Rafe and I have different mothers. Did you know that?”

“You don’t have to say another word,” he tried again.

But she didn’t listen. Her focus had turned inward. Even her body seemed gathered in on itself, balled tight to offer up as little surface space as possible. Ahorrifying thought occurred to him. It was almost as though she’d curled herself into as small a target as possible. Is that how she’d learned to protect herself as a child?

“Our father and my mother were killed in a boating accident when I was three. Rafe had just turned sixteen. Despite being so young, he tried to keep us together. He worked the coffee fields, ran the household, cared for me. He did everything possible to keep his family intact.”

“I had no idea,” he said gently. He sat next to her and drew her close, massaging the rigidness from taut muscles and offering what little comfort she’d allow.

“He lost it all, Chaz. Our home. Our money. By the end, he was desperate. He couldn’t even put food on our plates.”

“What did he do?”

“Right before Christmas, he used his last penny to call my mother’s sister, Jackie, and ask if she’d take me in. Jackie had never approved of my parents’ marriage, but she did her duty. She flew to Costa Rica and took me back to Florida with her.”

“What about Rafe?”

Shayne’s mouth twisted. “She left him behind. He wasn’t her responsibility. According to her, he was some filthy peasant child from Costa Rica, related only through an accident of marriage. For years, she wouldn’t even say his name. Just that disgusting description.”

Chaz found it difficult to reconcile the man he knew with the boy Rafe must have been. “She abandoned him?”

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