She breathed hard, her arms crossing over her chest. “You promised me…”
I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. “Well, you fell in love with me first.”
“What are you talking about?”
“When you called me and warned me about Damien. That was the moment I knew.”
She shut her mouth tightly, and this time, she averted her gaze, like she couldn’t confront reality. It was too traumatic. “You promised me, Heath.”
“Don’t expect me to feel bad about it. Because I don’t.” I stared at her twelve feet away from me, devastatingly beautiful with those tears making her eyes wet and her cheeks red. Women never looked attractive like that, but she was irresistible.
She put her fingers under her eyes and wiped up her makeup, even though that wouldn’t make much of a difference because the damage had been done.
“I will do anything to make this work. I’ll apologize to Damien. I’ll apologize to your father. Anything you want.”
She turned back to me, her eyes cold. “You think an apology is going to fix everything? You literally tried to kill my father. He would be dead right now if Damien hadn’t protected him. I would have no parents right now—because of you.” She pointed her finger at me. “And you think an apology is going to make that go away?”
I already knew I’d lost her—and it fucking hurt.
“In case you haven’t noticed, my father is my best fucking friend.”
“Yeah…I noticed.” Another reason I’d kept my mouth shut.
“So, no, Heath. An apology doesn’t change anything. I will never look at you the same…”
“Love is much stronger than hate, Catalina.” I stepped closer to her.
She shook her head, her eyes furious. “It was never love, Heath. You can’t fall in love with someone you don’t know.”
“You do know me.” My hand moved over my chest. “Everything between us, it was all real.”
“I hate you,” she snapped. “I hate you…” She continued to say the phrase, backing away from me, staring at me like she meant it. “I thought I was crazy, told myself it was a stupid superstitious belief, but it was the truth. I should have taken it seriously. I should have listened…and that’s my biggest regret.”
I vaguely remembered her mentioning this when we first got together, when she made me promise not to fall in love with her. She never elaborated and never mentioned it again. “Take what seriously?”
She backed up farther, staring at me with ferocity. “Hades and Damien went to Marrakech a long time ago. A gypsy read their fortune, said they would fall in love, but it would be painful. Neither one of them believed it, until everything she said came true. So, I visited the same gypsy with Damien a while ago, when he asked her for help with Anna. She told me my fortune.”
Did she really believe that bullshit?
“She said I would only fall in love once, and he would be an enemy to my family.” She looked into my eyes as if she identified me as that man. “That was why I told you not to fall in love with me, because I was afraid it was true. And it was. That’s why I’ve never tried to fall in love, never stayed with a man long enough for it to happen because I knew it wasn’t possible. And when I did find a man to marry, it would be based on friendship, trust, and compatibility. Now…I know it’s true. That’s why I turned you down so many times, until you wore me down. The prophecy was true…”
“Catalina, don’t let some stranger dictate your life. You’re smarter than that—”
“It happened to both Damien and Hades. You think that’s a coincidence?”
“Yes.”
“And the fact that everything she said about me is true?”
I considered my answer for a long time. “What does it matter if it’s true? If she says I’m the only man you’re going to love, then you should try to make this work with me. You should fight for me.”
She stepped away, moving to a different side of the kitchen island. “No. She said it would never work—and it won’t work.”
I didn’t want to lose her. I couldn’t picture my life without her. I couldn’t imagine going back to the whores I used to pay to bed me. I didn’t want to go back to that numb existence. I couldn’t do it. “Please.” I’d never begged for anything in my life.
“I despise you.” She said it without skipping a beat. “I don’t trust you. I don’t respect you. And I’ll always hate you for what you did to my innocent father.”
“He’s still alive—”
“Because of Damien. Not you.” She kept the knives in front of her, as if she would actually draw one on me. “I hate you.”
“You don’t hate me. You love me.”
She refused to acknowledge those feelings ever existed. “No.” She stared at me with a hard expression, ice-cold. “You mean nothing to me, Heath. I know where my allegiance lies…and it’s not with you.”
I kept the same expression, but I was falling apart inside, knowing this woman was already gone even though she was still in my home. That all I had of her was a memory, not the real thing.
“I don’t care about the way you make money. Damien and Hades aren’t upstanding citizens. But they don’t hurt innocent people like you. You’re my enemy as far as I’m concerned. What we had…it’s in the past. It’s like it never happened at all. Because I see you for what you really are. I just wish you were man enough to be honest with me, so I didn’t have to learn this lesson the hard way.”
“Baby—”
“Call me that again, and I’ll stab you.” She spoke calmly, like it was a matter of fact rather than an emotional outburst.
My breathing started to speed up because I knew she was about to walk away from me forever—and there was nothing I could do to make her stay.
“Don’t come to my apartment. Don’t fucking use your key to come and go as you please. Don’t call me. Don’t text me. Don’t show up at my performances and confront me backstage, because I will make a scene. You’re my enemy now, and I won’t make the mistakes I made before. I won’t stop Damien from killing you. I’ll even help him if I can. So, it’s in your best interest to disappear from my life.” She turned her back to me and headed for the stairs.
I was paralyzed on the spot, my chest caving in with agony. I’d never felt pain like this, not from a stab wound, not from a bullet, not from any physical injury in my life. It was indescribable…like my entire purpose for being alive was walking away. “Catalina.”
She stopped at the top of the stairs and turned to look at me. With one hand on the rail, she held her position, staring at me with icy coldness. The spontaneous and passionate woman I used to know was gone, dead the instant she knew what I did. She didn’t look at me the way she used to, like she was so deeply in love that it completely consumed her. Her fire was out, the fire that used to keep me warm.
“I love you.” I only got to say it to her a few times, and I’d thought if I ever did, it would happen much differently, with her in my arms and then underneath me, making love all night as she whispered it back to me. But I’d never gotten to hear the words echo back at me…and now I never would. “And I always will.”