“But you didn’t,” I whispered.
“No, because my father knew. He had eyes on me. He always did. His men watched me, and when they reported seeing you with a wedding dress, he gave me an ultimatum.” He knocked his head against the glass. “I’ve regretted answering his call since that day. Leaving you was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I pulled my car over a hundred times ready to turn around and go back to you.” His voice cracked, and the swell of tears returned, leaking down my cheeks.
“What was the ultimatum?” My voice shook with emotion.
“He knew who you were. I hadn’t lied about your parents’ hotel. My mother loved it there, and my father promised her he would never buy it to build one of his resorts in its place.” Pinching the bridge of his nose, he continued, “He knew about your mother’s remission.”
I stepped back, hating that he had brought my mother and her battle into this. It was an underhanded move that fortified my view of Gabe’s father.
“They were in debt, underwater from the medical bills, and he had a chance to buy them out.”
“No, I did their financials for them. They were in good shape.”
“The company was, but personally they were struggling. Your father took out a second mortgage on the house, and the debt was building. It was the kind of weak spot my father looked for. He would have made them an offer they couldn’t refuse and bulldozed the resort to build one of his in its place.” Pausing, he tucked his hands back in his pockets. “He threatened to doit if I didn’t leave you and return home. I couldn’t let him do that to your parents or to you. And to seal my compliance, he threatened to have you blocked from every firm. To destroy your career before you could even get started. He had the power, and he would have left you suffering in entry-level positions for the remains of your career.”
My head was spinning, but within the cluster of information was the realization that Gabe had been protecting me and my family. That all the years I had hated him, thinking he had left me willingly and for another woman, he had been doing what he thought was necessary.
“I started packing the next day.” Memories of the fevered times he’d taken me repeatedly like he was getting his fill, like he would never touch me again, returned. "I slipped a sleeping pill into your wine that night to ensure you wouldn't wake while I packed my stuff in my car." Emotion laced his words. “I’ve never been in so much pain. Knowing you would wake up confused and hurt, knowing you would think I left you because I didn’t love you, that I was running from you. It crushed me, and I’ve lived with that every day since.”
Tears were spilling down my cheeks as the grounds I’d built my hate for him on collapsed.
“You left me to protect me?” Syllables broken in fractured pieces.
He gazed over his shoulder, and I saw the broken man there, the one who had left me that night, severing both our hearts because circumstance had left him with no choice.
“Me, my family, your sister. God, Gabe, how long have you been carrying this?”
“Five years, ten months, and four days.”
Air rushed into my lungs. He’d counted the days since he’d left me, and that truth hurt me as much as his leaving had. He turned to me, pulling his wallet out.
“I told you, Tori. There has only ever been you. I’ve never even looked at another woman because you will always own me.”
“The tattoo?” I asked, remembering the half-moon on his shoulder blade.
“To remind me of you and all I gave up. A piece of you to carry with me.” He opened his wallet. My inhale was a violent shudder when I saw the weathered and flattened paper flower I’d made him. I brought my hand to my mouth, trying to stifle my sob. “I’ve always loved you, and I always will.”
Amber eyes lifted to mine, and a rush of warmth flushed through me, waking my heart and repairing it. I had no words, my center of gravity thrown off, all I’d convinced myself of since that day now a scramble of nothing more than incorrect guesses. And the possibility that I could have my happy ending surfaced before I could squash it.
I swallowed back another sob and brushed the tears from my cheek. He stepped closer to me, and I didn’t stop him as he reached over and cleared my other cheek.
“Don’t cry, luna mia.” And another fracture repaired. “That was not my intention. I never want to hurt you again, and if you still want to leave, I won’t stop you.” But I saw the anguish there, shadowing his attempt to shield me from more hurt.
“I wanted to hate you, and for a time I did, but I could never stop myself from loving you,” I told him. “It remained, and in time, I gave up fighting it, knowing I would always love you. That there would never be anyone who could take your place because you still owned too much of me, and I couldn’t break your hold on me.”
He cupped my cheek, and I closed my eyes to his touch, having missed it for so long.
“What do we do now?” I asked him. “Start over?”
Forehead scrunching, he said, “No. I could never start over.” I tried to step away from him, my defenses going up, but hetightened his hold on me. “I know you too well. Every curve, every freckle, every sigh, and I’ve envisioned them for too many years to pretend I don’t know them.”
I relaxed, my chest growing tight. “You hurt me, Gabe. So badly that it took me days to even leave my bed, months to stop crying, years to temper the ache, and never to fill the hollow space you left.”
Anguish slashed across his face, a reflection of the guilt he’d harbored all this time. “I know, and there hasn’t been a day that’s passed when I haven’t regretted the pain I caused. Regretted leaving you. Wished I could go back to that day and make another choice, fight my father like the man I am now.”
I sniffed, seeing the predicament he was in for the first time and realizing that both of us had suffered. “But then you would have hurt your sister.”
His head dropped, and I moved closer, resting my head against his. Understanding what we’d both lost and all he’d given up for me and his sister.
