Page 59 of The Strength Of A Woman

“What did he gain from that?”

I shrug.

“I don’t know. He just helped your grandfather. Maybe he owed him a favor.”

“That’s it?”

“I’m sure that’s more to that,” I say mysteriously, not going into details.

“How old is he?”

“He’s your grandfather’s age.”

Her face turns gray and then pale. Life vanishes from her eyes, and tears pool in them.

She looks at me as if she just received a life sentence.

I’ve never seen Leilani more vulnerable, more real. All that acting is now gone.

The spoiled princess is nowhere to be found.

“Why does he want me?”

“I’m not so sure he wants you,” I say, witnessing the shift in her expression.

Her tears collide into each other and then break, a few rolling down her cheeks.

“He wants my family’s money.”

I slide back into my seat and ponder a response.

“He wants everything, but for sure he wants the money, too.”

She scrubs the back of her hand over her cheeks, wiping away most of her tears, and then a different expression slides over her face.

“He won’t have me.”

“What?”

“Stefano Varela won’t have me.”

“What do you plan to do?” I ask, curious about what she has in mind, knowing that it wouldn’t be her call, anyway.

It would be mine.

“He won’t touch me. I can’t sleep with a man my grandfather’s age. That’s all I can say.”

I shift in my seat, resting an elbow on the table.

Her eyes speak to me, showing me her desperation and resoluteness at the same time.

“You plan to kill that old fool,” I murmur, darkly amused.

She nods, and I’m convinced that she’s convinced that she can do it.

“Do you have the slightest idea who he is?”

She finally runs a hand over her skirt and her fingers under her eyes and comes closer to me.