Page 159 of In Love and Revenge

‘You did all of that?’ I stare at him, impressed, and a little unnerved.

‘I’d have done anything to find you. You know that.’

‘Do I?’ I whisper.

His eyes dull as he exhales, and I see it. His misery. His heartbreak. It’s the same as mine. But he’s here, when I asked him to let me go. I need time, and he’s not respecting that.

‘I told you I was safe. Wasn’t that enough?’

‘Nothing that doesn’t involve you waking up in my arms every day and looking at me the way you used to will ever be enough,’ he rasps. ‘Please, Aurora. Can we talk?’

I search his eyes. I’m on the precipice of caving in and allowing him to sweep me into his arms again. To consume me the way he did. Whisk me off on a magical romance that made me feel like I was flying every time I looked at him.

But I can’t.

Him showing up here and having me fall into bed with him again will get us nowhere. It’ll only confirm to him that being calculating and ignoring my wishes gets him what he wants. Forgiving him would mean I’m enabling him to keep treating me this way. To keep calling the shots. To keep behaving like he has all of the control and power.

But that’s not a relationship. That’s ownership.

My words come out broken and hollow. ‘You lied to me from the beginning. You lied to me every single day.’

‘No. I lied to you about one thing. I kept it from you when I shouldn’t have.’

I sigh. ‘Raf—’

‘Please, Aurora.’ His eyes pinch. ‘You want to know the truth? Well, the truth is thatyes, it did start as a need for revenge, a way of finding out what I could about my money.’

I wince.

‘But that was before I knew the truth, that your father had nothing to do with any of it. And it stopped being that so goddamn fast, Aurora, I swear to you. The file I had on your father changed from looking for evidence against him, to anything I could find that could help him.’

‘You had a file on him?’

A muscle in his jaw clenches. ‘I did.’

‘What was in it?’

His lips purse. ‘Not much. You can’t find evidence where there’s no guilt.’

‘But you still looked.’

‘I lost two hundred and forty million, of course I looked.’

I wrap my arms around myself, unsure what to make of that piece of information.

‘You were trying to help him?’

‘I was. I started before you’d even unpacked your things in my room. I don’t expect you to believe me, but—’

‘I do believe you.’

His eyes widen and I swallow. I can see the genuine remorse and truth in his face, clear as day. It makes my stomach twist, because it wasn’t there before. There were flashes of truth, glimpses of the real Rafael Fairfax. But I think deep down I always knew he was hiding something from me.

Everything was too perfect.

He might have been the one to lie to me, but I enabled it by refusing to look deeper. Wanting to dream that what we had was real.Because I fell in love with him.After all the pain, I wanted to believe that something good was finally happening.

‘I swear to you, Aurora. Every minute of what we had is still true. I still love you as much as I always have. You’re still the only woman I’ve ever loved and will ever love. The only one I’ve ever wanted to let close. There can never be anyone else, even if you never forgive me.’