He blew out through his constricted airway and wiped away another tear. ‘Please, Beth. Please, find it in your heart to forgive me. I know I don’t deserve it, but I swear I will do everything I can to earn it.’
Another blow of air, and he dragged himself back to his knees.
She was still frozen, chin on her knees, eyes closed.
He pressed his mouth to the top of her head and breathed her in. ‘I love you,mi vida. Always. Call me whenever you need me.’
Beth heard Xavi’s footsteps disappear like a receding echo. When the last echo vanished, the tears came. Rolling into a ball on the floor, she sobbed her heart out, wishing harder than she’d ever wished for anything that she could believe him.
Sheachedto believe him, just as she’d ached to believe their marriage could be a real one.
When the tears had finally run dry, she sat herself up and hugged her chest, which felt so bruised. Coffee beans were scattered all over the floor, and the ache in her heart stupidly wrenched even harder to know he’d gone without having his coffee.
She could feel his breath in her hair.
She hugged herself, wishing so hard that he’d wrapped his arms around her so she could still feel his imprint on her.
She wished she didn’t love him so much. Her heart, heramor…
Amor.
Amore.
Miss Amore.
Her heart punched her again, this one landing like a slap, and suddenly she was filled with the memory of the moment her grandfather had introduced them. That very first look between them. The way Xavi’s eyes had widened. The way her heart and her breath had caught.
The memory fast-forwarded into a reel of their time together. Oh, how young and carefree they’d been. Howhappy, always smiling and laughing, always touching each other, drugged on nothing but love and desire…
The reel shifted, flying to their ending and Xavi’s words when he’d broken them:It doesn’t have to be forever… I’ll always care for you and will always be there for you.
Through the brutality of his other words, those words had faded into insignificance, but now, through the hot blood pulsing in her brain, Beth realised they’d been the most truthful words of all. Hehadalways cared for her, through all the years of their separation. He’d never stopped caring. Never stopped loving her, but she…
Foolish, heartbroken Beth, so recently wounded by the lies of her father about her mother’s family and the double life she suspected her grandfather of living, hadn’t believed it. Not once Ellen’s cruel pictures had pinged into her phone.
But the truth had always been there, as clear as the truth of her love for him that had always lived deep in her heart. She’d just been too frightened and heartsick to see it.
Xavi had never stopped loving her,
Still half-dazed, she scrambled to her feet and yanked her phone out of her back pocket.
Miss Amore.
Xavi had bought Miss Amore for her, so he could always be looking over her. Taking care of her. Loving her.
She scrolled the numbers as she ran to the door.
Miss Amore.
She pressed Xavi’s name and ran down the long drive. It went to voice mail as she reached the closed gate. He’d gone.
Ignoring the cameras suddenly flashing in her face as the waiting paparazzi realised their prey had come out to play, she pressed the code to open it and pressed his name on her phone again.
It went straight to voice mail.
Barging her way through the scrum of photographers, she started composing a message to him as she ran, and then her phone rang in her hand.
‘Mi vida?’
