It didn’t matter anymore, did it? Would it have made a difference if he had told her the last time they saw each other? Probably not.
Simon clenched his jaw. It was still hard to say it, even after all these years. “Alex Ruiz made it clear what it would mean for my father’s business if we kept seeing each other.” Simon tried to fend off the memory of the day it all ended between them. But it came crashing in. He’d been waiting in the study down the hall, and Alex Ruiz had come in and offered him money—real money that would make a difference for his family—if he stayed away from Marianna when she left for college a few weeks later. “I refused to go along with it at first but then I learned how serious he was. He threatened to ruin my dad’s reputation, tell people we cut corners and tried to cheat him, so that we’d never get clients anywhere in Miami again.” Simon averted his eyes, studying the view through the window. “And he said that if anyone found out I’d slept with his daughter, I’d be destroyed. Your father would make sure any potential client felt like their high-class daughters were at risk of being ruined if they hired my family.” Ruiz had connections, and he’d threatened to use them to spread hints of rape, of what would happen to other families if they hired the Rodriguezes, if anyone found out about his relationship with Mari. Was there any scenario where he would’ve stood up to her father? Would he have called Alex Ruiz’s bluff when he threatened to destroy Simon’s family and what he had with Marianna? But it was probably better the way it happened. And if he did it all again, he’d still rather not risk his family to follow his dick.
He glanced at Mari again. Her mouth had dropped open as he spoke, and she covered it with a shaky hand. She shook her head slowly.
What was going through her mind right now? That her father would never do something like that? Eighteen-year-old Marianna would have snapped back right away, but she was quiet, so, so quiet now.
“But I came on to you,” she finally said, like she was pleading with him.
“I remember,” he said dryly. “I don’t think your father would have cared even if you had told him that.”
Her eyes met his. “Is this what really happened, Simon?”
He nodded a little, trying not to look away, despite the tremor in her lips as she spoke. Despite how much it still hurt to see her pain, even after all this time.
“I was eighteen, Simon,” she said softly. “There was so much I didn’t know about yet.”
At that time, Simon was still a part of a family, one where the sum was greater than each part. Every decision wasn’t just for him. Everything affected the family’s future, good or bad. Did Marianna really understand what her father’s threat had meant for him? Did she know what it would mean for his family, for his father who had worked himself into an early grave to build something for his sons? His father would’ve been blacklisted, destroyed.
There were ways Simon’s life had been good, despite all the worry. He loved his family fiercely. Before his father died, both his father and his brother would have given up anything for Simon, just like Simon would have done for them. Correction: just like hehaddone for them.
In the end, his family didn’t hold together, even without Alex Ruiz’s intervention. Simon’s father was gone, and he rarely talked to his brother anymore.
But that was all so far in the past. He had purposely created a life that had nothing to do with his past. A good one. One that he wouldn’t let Marianna rattle, no matter how good it felt to touch her, to taste her again.
The town car turned up the street that hugged the south side of Bondi Beach and stopped in front of his house. Marianna looked up, a little startled, taking in her surroundings. She sized up the modern white structure that rose up the hill on one side, then turned to the beach that spread out below them.
“This is where you live?” she said, her face filled with open surprise.
“When I’m not following spoiled rich girls around,” he said, the corners of his mouth tugging up.
Marianna’s smile was filled with humor. And warmth.
He climbed out and walked around to open the door of the town car for her. “Come on,Princesa. I’ll give you a tour.”
