He shook his head in disbelief. ‘Don’t tell me you’re taking her part, too? You don’t even know what happened.’
‘I don’t need to know what happened. I know you, and I know Beth. She thinks with her heart. You think with your brain.’
‘And I suppose you think her heart is as pure as the driven snow,’ he said icily.
‘I didn’t say that.’ She smiled beatifically. ‘So when are you going to prostrate yourself and beg her to take you back?’
He shook his head again. ‘That’s just great. You take her part and assume I’m the one who needs to apologise.’
‘Like I said, I know you both, but if I’m reading things wrong, then I apologise.’ She didn’t look sorry. Or sound sorry. ‘So why are you sat in your study drinking whisky on a Wednesday afternoon?’
‘I told you, I’m working from home.’
‘Have you tried sleeping at home, too? The bags under your eyes are bigger than Blanca’s handbag.’
‘Have you only come here to insult me and put me in a bad mood?’
‘I came to say goodbye, the insults are free, but if my presence puts you in a bad mood then I’ll consider it a bonus.’
‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ he demanded. Carlota had always been the more aggravating of his sisters, but this was a whole different level.
‘Wrong question, Xavi—the question you should be asking is what’s wrong withyou.’ Without any warning, she sat up and leaned forward, all playfulness wiped from her face. For a moment, he saw Blanca in her expression. ‘Why would you let her go again?’
Wrong-footed, he swore. ‘It isn’t as… Look, it’s none of your business.’
‘You’re my brother. That makes it my business,’ she neatly threw back at him. ‘You’re my brother, and I love you, and it is my duty as your sister to be honest with you.’
‘If I want honesty, I’ll ask for it.’
‘Like my insults, my honesty comes free.’ Dark eyes so like his own softened. ‘Xavi, you’re a great man, in so many ways, and a great brother, too. If it hadn’t been for you, I don’t think I’d be who I am today. You’re the one who got me through those months after Papi died and Mami got lost in herself. You’re the one who let me know it was okay to laugh and be happy again, but I don’t rememberyouever being happy after he died, not until Beth came into your life. Those months you were with her… Xavi, you were the happiest I’d ever seen you, and when you ended it, it was like a part of you died. Outwardly, you were normal, but you became insular and you slipped away from us, and I didn’t even realise it, not until you brought her back into your life, and it was like… Oh, Xav, you should have seen your face on your wedding day—you were wearing your heart on it. You love her, and she loves you, and whatever happened to drive you two apart, fix it, please.’
‘It isn’t that simple,’ he whispered hoarsely. His heart had swollen and filled his throat.
She knelt before him and cupped his cheeks, forcing him to meet her earnest stare. ‘Itis. Xavi, it is. I spend my life digging through the past, and when I’m working on ancient human remains, the one question I always ask myself of them iswho loved you? I’ll never know, but they would have known because we always know who loves us.
‘Do you remember how Papi was when he was ill? He didn’t spend his final days with the business. He spent them with those he loved and who loved him—us, his family. It wasushe wanted and needed. A business can never embrace you and it can never love you…’ Carlota’s voice trailed away as water flowed over the hands cupping her brother’s cheeks. ‘Xavi?’
But he couldn’t speak. Couldn’t breathe. All these days spent staring at the screen of his computer, veering wildly between despising Beth for her treachery and despising himself for despising her, drinking his conscience to sleep but unable to sleep himself, lying in the bed he’d bought with Beth in the subconscious of his mind and feeling like his heart had been ripped out.
Ithadbeen ripped out. He’d ripped it out.
He’d broken her again, broken her when she needed him most.
He’d broken them both.
He couldn’t contain it any longer. All the emotions he’d spent decades suppressing broke free.
Burying his face in his sister’s shoulder, Xavi wept for the first time since he was a little boy.
He wept for the father he’d worshipped and all the years fate had stolen from them, and he wept for Beth and the life she’d lost, the life they’d made together.
He should have been with her.
God help him, he should always have been with her.
Chapter Thirteen
‘ARE YOU SURE?’ Beth whispered. Her head was reeling.
